Last night was fun. It’s not often you get to visit a Soviet KGB themed-bar with a bellydance troupe performing downstairs. For those outside of NYC, the KGB bar does a lot of author readings, poetry performances and other theatrical venues to highlight both local and touring artists. This was my first time going to a reading, for every month they do one Wednesday night focused on Fantastic Fiction (aka, science fiction and fantasy authors). Last night featured the 2006 science fiction star David Louis Edelman, author of Infoquake, along with Carol Emshwiller, author and winner of the Nebula, Philip K. Dick and World Fantasy Awards.
The reading took place in the cozy second-floor bar where everything was red walls, red flag, and cherry oak wood. David read first, introducing his piece as having “no characters, no dialogue, no plot.” Interesting, to say the least. Mathralon (the title of his piece) is narrated from the perspective of a colony of space miners who are wondering at the meaning of their existence as a tiny cog in the vast mechanical network of a galactic empire. Do they actually have a purpose, or are they just grinding out their minerals for dead worlds that are run by automatons? Very cool. Afterwards he handed out signed hardcopies of the text, one of which I now have vacuum-sealed back at my apartment.
Then Carol Emshwiller read her piece about a runaway girl and her dealings with the Great God Clown, who makes life oh-so-difficult but also gives you a way to fix your own problems in the end. I loved the humor in this piece, subtle though it was.
Great readings on both ends. The whole time they were reading, I could hear the music from downstairs changing from Arabic wails to rock-and-roll thumps and techno speaker-chewouts. It added an interesting tone to the whole thing. I look forward to going back to KGB, though I’m not sure who is next in the lineup. Guess we’ll have to wait and see.
I see that smile.