Ian's Curated Musings

In her article " Fantasy, Reading, and Escapism ," author and Tor.com contributor Jo Walton writes, "If your life is bounded and restricted, seeing that more options exist helps, even if they’re all theoretical and imaginary. Escaping doesn’t mean avoiding reality, escaping means finding an escape route to a better place." This defense of Fantasy (and we might add Science Fiction) is one that many of us first encounter in print through J.R.R. Tolkien's On Fairy Stories , but it is also something that many readers and writers of Science Fiction and Fantasy know intrinsically. There is value in getting away, in witnessing another world's epic struggles of good against evil and putting our own problems aside, if for a moment, so that we might recharge. It's something I've felt, too, but when I sat down to create the world for my latest Work in Progress, I thought: Fantasy can be more than that.  It can be equipment for living. It can be an exploration o...

With Bong Joon-ho's  Parasite (2019) winning the Oscar for Best Picture, and what seems to be a steady stream of films from directors like Jordan Peele ( Get Out, 2017; Us, 2019), Ari Aster ( Hereditary, 2018; Midsommar, 2019), and Robert Eggers ( The Witch, 2015; The Lighthouse, 2019); it seems we've entered into a golden age of arthouse horror films that use the genre to tackle social issues, explore the human condition, and study characters. Natalie Erika James's debut  Relic , released July 3rd by IFC Films, seems to be the latest in this vein; and like those other movies, it succeeds. Relic transcends the genre: it's the kind of horror movie I would tell people who don't typically like horror movies to watch. It's not because of the acting (though I loved the performances, and Robyn Nevin's facial expressions alone make it worth the watch). It's not because of the imagery (though I wondered at the surreal dimensions of the house, particularly in the...