Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} The Black Box by K.V. Johansen The Black Box by K.V. Johansen. March's Life Skill is GENEROSITY. Here are some books in our online catalog, Alexandria (Alex, for short), about generosity : Boxes for Katje by Candace Fleming. Historical Fiction. Summary: After a young Dutch girl writes to her new American friend in thanks for the care package sent after World War II, she begins to receive increasingly larger boxes. The Quiltmaker's Gift by Jeff Brumbeau. Fiction. Summary: When a generous quiltmaker finally agrees to make a quilt for a greedy king but only under certain conditions, she causes him to undergo a change of heart. Under the Lemon Moon by Edith Hope Fine. Summary: The theft of all the lemons from her lemon tree leads Rosalinda to an encounter with la Anciana, the Old One, who walks the Mexican countryside helping things grow, and an understanding of generosity and forgiveness. The Black Box by K.V. Johansen. The poet Douglas Lochhead died this week. He was a friend, and a gentleman, and he’ll be greatly mourned and missed by all who knew him. I first met Douglas when I was an undergraduate. The head of the English department, another poet, Michael Thorpe, snagged me in the hall one day and told me I should go see the university’s writer-in-residence. I was a bit wary, as I had enrolled in a creative writing course the year before, and then withdrawn after about six weeks, having been told by the instructor, disdainfully, “You don’t need character development in science fiction.” I wasn’t much interested in university writing instruction after that. But I dutifully went along to see Professor Lochhead, who was actually head of the Canadian Studies department, during his Writer-in-Residence office hours. Somewhat to my surprise, this charming, white-haired professor was delighted to see me and eager to take home and read whatever I wanted to show him. I gave him what I had on hand, which was a science fiction short story that I think I’d written for some contest or other. (Come to think of it, that won something called the Graham Atlantic Creative Writing Award at the university, and then was accepted for publication by a small sf magazine in the US, which, of course, proceeded to go out of business before publication. Too bad, as it was about a race of alien shapeshifters, one of whom was a sort of sleeper agent on earth, her past forgotten. The title was “Changeling” and this was some years before Deep Space Nine was on the air.) Anyhow, the next day I got a note, written in red ink on a sheet torn from one of those soft, canary-yellow scratch-pads, saying, “Congratulations, I have just read a professional short story …” That was the start of a long relationship, which turned into friendship along the way (during which time I learned to appreciate some contemporary poetry, too). Professor Lochhead supervised a summer project for which I’d received a grant; the project was to complete a fantasy novel I’d been working on fairly steadily since grade eleven, when time allowed. My father had just died and the other man who was to have such an influence on my self-confidence as a writer, the biologist Dr. Allen Keast, didn’t at that time know I wrote fiction. (However, he had had me — it’s now safe to tell this — editing and revising a paper or two submitted for a multi-author work on forest bird-communities; I was a mere child of twenty, officially a research assistant doing scientific illustration, and it was felt that the publishers, and possibly the authors of the papers, would not approve if this hatchet job by an undergrad became known.) I would have persevered in writing stories even without Professor Lochhead’s encouragement, but it was so, so important, at that point in my life, to have someone else outside my own head confirming to me that I could write, and write well. He patiently read drafts of this novel (full of shapeshifters, demons, politics, and war — and no, it wasn’t the ur-Blackdog) as it developed, telling me what seemed muddled and confusing, what could be tightened, and, very importantly, what was done well and why . I went off to U of T the next year, but we kept in touch, and eventually, when I ended up back in Sackville, our friendship was renewed. We exchanged books and had the occasional glass of wine together, and talked about writing and gardens. I was living in the heart of his landscape, the marshes he wrote about in so many of his collections, and his words helped me to see this flat, sometimes barren and bleak, little part of the world in both finer detail and impressionistic sweep of colour beneath the sky. Earlier this morning I had an email from a friend in Ontario talking about her visit down here, saying, “the landscape was enriched for us, … by the way Prof. Lochhead had described it in his writing — we think of the marsh as his marsh.” I think Douglas has done that, made the Tantramar his marsh, and it will remain so. No-one, having read his poetry, will be able to enter this landscape without having his spare word-painting, bold outline and fine miniature, an added layer of sight enriching their own vision. If you’re not familiar with Douglas’s poetry, you can hear a reading recorded at the launch of his last book of poetry, Looking Into Trees . Douglas’s health kept him home on that occasion, but various of his friends (including myself) read for him. It was recorded for CHMA and is available through his publisher’s website here. There is also an interview with Douglas about his life and work, here. David Johansen. For two decades, the musical career of singer/songwriter David Johansen has been shaped by his considerable versatility. In the early 1970s he was the flamboyant lead singer for the New York Dolls, a rock and roll band heralded as America ’ s answer to the British group the Rolling Stones. With its male members sporting teased bouffants, outrageous makeup, and women ’ s clothing, the New York Dolls became a prototype for the punk rock groups that emerged later in the decade. Since the mid-1970s Johansen has also performed as a solo act — without makeup or costumes — and has recorded both original compositions and old favorites in a variety of genres, including rock, rhythm and blues, and reggae. While never a commercial smash, Johansen was consistently praised by critics and developed a fiercely loyal following; in a High Fidelity critique of his album Live It Up, Mitchell Cohen declared, “ David Johansen simply has terrific taste in music, a belief in its capacity to merge passion and craft, and a gregarious ringmaster personality. ” In the mid-1980s Johansen adopted the persona of Buster Poindexter, a Las Vegas-style lounge singer, and performed a time-tested repertoire of saloon standards, including ballads, Latin songs, and blues. While seedy and slick, the tuxedoed, pompadoured Buster is more than a caricature; Rolling Stone writer Deborah Frost called Poindexter ’ s act “ timeless, ” adding, “ wherever there ’ s a piano bar, he ’ ll have a home. ” “ Buster can have this great life in the public eye and take the rap for everything, and then David can go home, ” Johansen told Margot Dougherty in People, “ It ’ s the most brilliant thing I ’ ve ever done. ” Formed the New York Dolls. Growing up in a large family on New York ’ s Staten Island, Johansen took to music early, singing the rock and roll favorites of his older siblings. As an adolescent he would often sneak off to Greenwich Village and Times Square to hang out with other teens interested in the music scene; during high school he sang and played the guitar for such local bands as Fast Eddie and the Electric Japs and the Vagabond Missionaries. By late 1971 Johansen had joined musicians Johnny Thunders, Rick Rivets, Arthur Kane, and Billy Murcia — with the later addition of Sylvain Sylvain and Jerry Nolan — to form the New York Dolls, playing regularly at the Mercer Arts Center in lower Manhattan. A local cult following developed around the group, attracted to its outrageous look, offstage decadence, and searing rock songs about adolescent confusion and revolt. The Dolls ’ s music showed the influence of such groups as the Velvet Underground, the Stooges, and the Rolling. For the Record … Born January 9, 1950, in Staten Island, NY; son of an insurance salesman and a librarian; married Kate Simon (a portrait photographer). Education: Graduated from Port Richmond High School. Singer and songwriter, mid-1960s — ; performed in local bands, including Fast Eddie and the Electric Japs and Vagabond Missionaries, while in high school; lead vocalist for the New York Dolls, 1971-75; solo performer, 1975 — ; assumed persona of lounge singer Buster Poindexter and performed with backup band Banshees of Blue, mid-1980s — . Member of avant-garde acting troupe Ridiculous Theatrical Company following high school; actor appearing in motion pictures, including Candy Mountain, Married to the Mob, and Scrooged; guest on television programs, including The Tonight Show and Saturday Night Live; has appeared in television commercials. Awards: Recipient of New York Music Award for best cabaret singer (as Poindexter). Addresses: Record company — RCA Records, 1133 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10036. Stones, with lead singer Johansen exhibiting some of the characteristics of the Stones ’ s Mick Jagger. Obtaining a recording contract with Mercury Records, the group debuted with the album New York Dolls in 1973, followed by Too Much Too Soon a year later. Despite the band ’ s stage popularity with young audiences, its recordings were largely unsuccessful; Jay Cocks suggested in Time that “ sardonic anthems like ‘ Personality Crisis ’ and ‘ Vietnamese Baby ’ did not sit easy on a pop establishment that was still recovering from flower power [a 1960s movement advocating love, beauty, and peace] and cuddling up to the peaceful, easy feeling of the California sound. ” In addition, the group ’ s unsettling appearance and trouble[d] reputation — Murcia died of a drug overdose while the Dolls were on tour — put off major club owners and led to its demise in 1975. Displayed Talent as a Solo Performer. For the next few years Johansen continued to perform, writing many of his own songs and searching for another recording contract. Blue Sky eventually released his 1978 album David Johansen; a reflection of his Dolls past, the album faltered commercially, but critics recognized in cult figure Johansen an accomplished songwriter and vocalist. The more successful In Style appeared in 1979 and delivered a soul-influenced rock. New Rolling Stone Record Guide contributor Wayne King noted, “ From the opening Four Tops tribute, ‘ Melody, ’ through the beautifully rolling rhythms of ‘ Swaheto Woman, ’ Johansen sings with a passion and commitment unmatched by anything else in his career. ” And Cocks observed in Time that Johansen “ sings as if he has a gun pressed to his temple. ” Here Comes the Night, a collaborative effort with former Beach Boy bandsman Blondie Chaplin, preceded Live It Up, Johansen ’ s most successful solo album. Capitalizing on the energy of Johansen ’ s stage performances, Live It Up was recorded at Boston ’ s Paradise Theater and featured a mix of Dolls material, solo originals, and pop/rock classics. His rollicking medley of such sixties Animals hits as “ We Gotta Get Out of This Place, ” “ It ’ s My Life, ” and “ Don ’ t Bring Me Down ” as well as a rendition of the Foundations ’ s “ Fill Me Up Buttercup ” put the album on the charts in 1982. Poindexter: “ Hot, Hot, Hot ” Lounge Singer. According to Frost, Johansen ’ s solo career suffered with the release of his I984 album Sweet Revenge, a “ jungle of lame synths, limp rap and conventional ambitions. ” The mid-1980s rise of Buster Poindexter “ helped [Johansen] remember who he is, ” continued the Rolling Stone critic, who called him a singer of “ exuberance and wit. ” “ It ’ s me, really, ” Johansen confirmed in People. “ Sometimes I ’ ve found that by getting into a certain drag, or a certain feeling, you can cast off your mortal coil and really do something. ” In his personal collection of 1,500 albums, Johansen possesses a number of cabaret favorites not suited for his rock shows. Singing these songs at a neighborhood bar with a couple of backup musicians, he developed the Poindexter persona, using his showman ’ s instincts to perfect the campy look and delivery. With the 1987 album Buster Poindexter and its hit single “ Hot, Hot, Hot, ” Johansen and his alter ego enjoyed widespread recognition, and Rolling Stone named the LP “ party record of the year. ” Becoming a regular on national television and in print ads and continuing his live performances, the Poindexter persona has paved the way for chameleon Johansen to pursue a second career as a motion picture actor: he has made appearances in the films Candy Mountain, Married to the Mob, and Scrooged. Though the performer ’ s rock and roll days with the New York Dolls are part of music history, the innovative group ’ s impact on the punk rock movement will not soon be forgotten. Selected compositions. Has written and co-written numerous songs, including “ Frenchette, ” “ Flamingo Road, ” “ Swaheto Woman, ” and “ Here Comes the Night ” ; collaborators include former New York Doll Sylvain Sylvain and former Beach Boy Blondie Chaplin. Selected discography. With the New York Dolls. New York Dolls, Mercury, 1973. Too Much Too Soon, Mercury, 1974. Lipstick Killers (1972 studio demos), ROIR, 1981. Night of the Living Dolls: Best of the New York Dolls, Mercury, 1985. Solo Albums. David Johansen, Blue Sky, 1978. In Style, Blue Sky, 1979. Here Comes the Night, Blue Sky, 1981. Live It Up, Blue Sky, 1982. Sweet Revenge, 1984. As Buster Poindexter. Buster Poindexter, RCA, 1987. Buster Goes Berserk, RCA, 1989. Sources. Books. New Rolling Stone Record Guide, edited by Dave Marsh and John Swenson, Random House, 1983. Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock and Roll, edited by Jon Pareles and Patricia Romanowski, Summit Books, 1983. Stambler, Irwin, Encyclopedia of Pop, Rock and Soul, revised edition, St. Martin ’ s, 1989. Periodicals. High Fidelity, September 1982. Los Angeles Magazine, July 1990. People, January 25, 1988; May 21, 1990. Rolling Stone, August 27, 1987, November 19, 1987; July 13, 1989. Time, August 20, 1979. Variety, March 7, 1990. Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. MLA Chicago APA. Citation styles. Encyclopedia.com gives you the ability to cite reference entries and articles according to common styles from the Modern Language Association (MLA), The Chicago Manual of Style, and the American Psychological Association (APA). Within the “Cite this article” tool, pick a style to see how all available information looks when formatted according to that style. Then, copy and paste the text into your bibliography or works cited list. REVIEW: Blackdog by K. V. Johansen. It is tough to write an epic fantasy that adheres to the sub-genre’s conventions while still offering something new and innovative. Different authors use different techniques: Sanderson’s Mistborn subverts the idea that the hero always wins, Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen series expands the scope of epic fantasy ( see my earlier review ), and N.K. Jemisin’s Inheritance trilogy undermines the trope of the perfect hero ( see my earlier review ). In her US adult debut Blackdog , K.V. Johansen builds a sense of narrow-focused hyper-locality embedded within a larger epic structure. By going small, Johansen is able to make her perspective characters, their struggles with madness and redemption, and the world they populate particularly compelling. Blackdog opens from the perspective of Otakas, the protector of a remote mountain goddess named Attalissa. Otokas is an aging warrior, possessed by the mad spirit of the Blackdog. The Blackdog is crazy – utterly and implacably obsessed with protecting its goddess. It has gone centuries possessing one warrior after another, willing or not. From the opening pages we get the sense that Otokas and his predecessors walk a thin line between sanity and madness, constantly struggling against the Blackdog’s violent obsession. Right away, we are given an interesting, compelling character whose perspective establishes the basics of Johansen’s world. In this world, gods are fundamentally tied to a particular place. Attalissa is not an all-powerful ( or even moderately-powerful ) goddess. While she may be the most powerful deity in her neighborhood, that neighborhood is still a backwater. Far away, there are empires and grand cities…but neither Otokas nor his goddess are interested in those places. They have one small corner of Johansen’s world, and the rest can go hang. Otokas’ mild irreverence and his dry, cynical sense of humor are put to good effect establishing this attitude. It immediately tells us that Blackdog is concerned with local matters, not the fate of the world. But while Attalissa and Otokas may be uninterested in the wider world, within the first chapter that world decides that it is interested in them. A warlord appears ( literally ) with an army on their doorstep, and Attalissa – an immortal goddess incarnated as a mortal child – and Otokas must flee to keep the goddess from being devoured. Otokas is able to get Attalissa out of her temple, but he is badly wounded. When he dies, the spirit of the Blackdog possesses Holla-Sayan, a foreign warrior traveling through Attalissa’s domain. That first chapter is quite an action-packed opener, as within the first couple of pages we meet a compelling protagonist ( Otokas ), and right away find ourselves under siege. Despite the hard-hitting action, Johansen does an excellent job of keeping her world-building accessible, sliding it in between the arrows and sword fights. By adhering closely to her perspective character’s perception of the world, she gradually lays her world- building blocks. She manages this so subtly that the devices she utilizes are almost transparent: I had to look for them to find them hidden in the text. My first time through the book, I just got caught up in the adventure. By the time we meet Holla-Sayan ( and having read the back cover copy ), I pretty much thought I knew what to expect from the plot: Holla- Sayan would be the hero, keep the goddess safe, wait for her to mature into her full power, try and organize some sort of resistance, come back and kick the warlord’s butt. And while in the loosest possible sense the book does follow this framework, the way in which Johansen executes it is particularly interesting. This is not a standard “savior returns” fantasy: our “hero” is concerned first with keeping his own sanity, and only secondly with a warlord who did him personally little harm. Instead of focusing on the warrior/mentor/hero dynamic, Johansen builds a believable assemblage of secondary perspective characters who all act under their own agency. Since it will take years for the goddess to mature into her powers, she will need some sort of nascent resistance organization in place. But with Holla-Sayan too busy struggling with the Blackdog, this task is told from the perspective of one of Attalissa’s warrior priestesses. Holla-Sayan and the goddess actually spend most of the book completely ignorant of the goddesses’ supporters back home. Each of the book’s six or seven perspective characters – including the warlord Tamghat and the goddess Attalissa – has a dark history that they are ( in one way or another ) trying to get through. Holla-Sayan is the only relative innocent among the lot of them, though his innocence is pointedly juxtaposed against the Blackdog’s animal savagery. While dealing with the superficial objective of defeating Tamghat or capturing Attalissa, each of the book’s key characters has to come to terms with themselves and their past choices. Johansen handles this emotionally fraught territory skillfully, offering a distinct flavor and different resolution to each of their stories. Where the resolutions do not satisfy, it is solely because some true conclusions are by their very natures unsatisfying: that is their point. If there were a cheap “How to Write Epic Fantasy” book out there ( and I’m sure there is somewhere ) I suspect it would have at least one chapter on the value of epigraphs for world-building. Epic fantasy titles routinely get mocked for starting each chapter with a fragment of epic poetry, or a legend, or a piece of a history book, etc. from the book’s universe. As a reader, I’m always a little leery of epigraphs. Sometimes, I find them useful and insightful, but mostly I find they just take up space and add little to either the world-building or the story. I admit, after reading the first or second epigraph in a book, I’ll usually just skip the rest until after I’ve read through the text at least once. K.V. Johansen, however, eschewed epigraphs in Blackdog . Instead, she concluded certain chapters ( particularly the early chapters ) with a brief paragraph from an old- fashioned storyteller’s tale. At first glance, one might be tempted to ask who cares? But by placing her epigraphs at the end of her chapters, Johansen is able to more effectively manage her pacing and the reader’s insight into the plot. The early chapters of Blackdog were particularly fast-paced and action- packed, and the epigraph at the end of the chapter gave much needed breathing room, an opportunity to pause and absorb the preceding events before diving into the next frenetic chapter. Furthermore, the epigraphs adequately serve the function Diana Wynne-Jones lampooned with her “Legends” entry in the The Tough Guide to Fantasyland : they take us out of the perspective character’s head, and provide the reader with a brief glimpse into omniscient perspective. By carefully controlling what information is disclosed, we can put a number of facts together before our perspective characters do, which makes it that much more satisfying when our heroes catch up to us and figure it out. It’s a tried-and-true device frequently found in epic fantasy, and executing it deftly requires a careful balancing act: too much information, and the book yields no surprises. Too little, and the epigraphs offer no value. Johansen’s epigraphs – which only appear at the start of the book – manage this tightrope very effectively. Johansen also uses creative dialogue markers to support her storytelling. Many of the perspective characters wrestle with madness and possession, which means that they have a lot of conversations with themselves. For those characters who are deeper in the throes of madness, or when the lines between their personalities grow more blurry, internal dialogue shifts from conventional form to more of a European fashion: Roman ( straight, non-italicized ) text, preceded by em-dashes, and lacking any “he said / she said” markers. This is particularly effective in the latter half of the book, where it amplifies the blurred and swirling wash of personalities within some characters’ heads. The overall effect is one that allows the reader to enjoy the whirlwind of madness and identity while still keeping characters and their diverging personalities straight. Of the book’s perspective characters, only Attalissa did not appeal to me: this is the book’s primary weakness, and the reason why I’m giving it three stars. The goddess is one of the book’s most central characters, yet she has the least agency of them all. At the beginning of the book, when she is a little child, this is understandable and acceptable. But as she grows up, she continues to be passive and let events happen to her rather than take charge of them. This is understandable, given the character’s psychological make-up and history, yet nonetheless, it noticeably slows the pacing significantly in the chapters told from her perspective. It is not until the book’s climax that she becomes an active force, at which point her chapters accelerate to match the rest of the book. Barring this one weakness, I quite enjoyed Blackdog . I felt that all of the characters were competently executed, even if Attalissa’s passivity throughout the book’s middle third bothered me. The world-building and the textual devices employed particularly stood out as interesting and of noticeable quality in the story. I would recommend Blackdog to people who have been exposed to epic fantasy before: this is not as accessible as ( for example ) David & Leigh Eddings’ work for new epic fantasy readers, but it is much more accessible than a lot of the hardcore epic fantasy out there. I believe fans of Brandon Sanderson or Brent Weeks in particular will enjoy this book. The Black Box by K.V. Johansen. Sybertooth Inc is a publisher of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and plays. If you should have any question about our publications, please click here to contact us. Translation Rights Foreign publishers or agents interested in licencing any Sybertooth titles for translation are invited to contact us regarding translation rights at the address above. Please include details of your company, the title of interest, the language and country of translation, and anticipated print run. The Black Box A Cassandra Virus novel by K.V. Johansen ISBN: 9780986497407 Published February 2011 215pp • US$13.00 • CA$13.99 • UK£8.00 Something is cutting off Spohrville's communication with the outside world. The phones don't work. There's no radio, no TV -- no internet. Are eco-terrorists trying to shut down the Mars Relay satellite? That's what the government says, but Jordan and Helen and the sentient virtual supercomputer Cassandra don't believe a word of it. The town is overrun with "birdwatchers" who can't tell a hawk from a heron. Jordan's old enemy, Harvey Number Two of the spy agency Bureau 6, is sneaking around pretending to be a cop on holiday. And archaeologist Uncle William has dug up a very strange black rock while excavating an Acadian settlement. With no land-lines to the site of the dig and wireless communication impossible, Jordan and Helen have no back-up from Cassandra. They've taken on corrupt government agents and industrial spies before, but they've always had Cassandra behind them. It's the twenty-first century. The bad guys have night-vision goggles and interference triangulators. How did Jordan and Helen get stuck with a bunch of musket-toting War of 1812 historical re-enactors as their only allies? Reviews of The Black Box. ". The scene in which the Spohrville Fencibles, in their authentic uniforms and singing songs from the War of 1812, manage to head off the team of Americans with excavators and trucks who are trying to steal the Black Box is quite brilliantly done. The descriptions of archaeologists at work are informative and interesting. Better-written than most best-selling kid-spy books, The Black Box will appeal to fans of adventure stories and to anyone who would love to have a benign sentient supercomputer at their beck and call." - CM Magazine. "There is something about K.V. Johansen's writing that grips me and pulls me in. . I found myself thinking of the story and characters for days afterwards. Johansen has again constructed a cleverly woven tale, with no loose ends or inconsistencies. Her characters are interesting and true to life." - Resource Links Magazine. About the Author. K.V. Johansen is the author of numerous books for children, adults, and young adults. For more see the author's website at www.pippin.ca. Distributed in North America by Ingram, and Baker & Taylor, and in Europe by Gardners, Coutts, and Bertram.