Comments for Tom Pollock

Comment on On readers by Tac Anderson

Tac Anderson — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 04:35:15 +0000

No thanks is needed. Our payment is the stories you write. You start and frame that conversation we get to have. So thank you.

Comment on The City’s Son by Tom Pollock Finalist in Kitschies | The T Party

Tom Pollock Finalist in Kitschies | The T Party — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 22:13:21 +0000

[...] and entertaining works of genre literature published in the UK”. Tom Pollock‘s novel, The City’s Son, was a finalist for the Golden Tentacle award for Best Debut. Huge [...]

Comment on The Power! The Power! by Cary Watson

Cary Watson — Wed, 29 May 2013 15:53:31 +0000

A Face Like Glass can't be praised enough. Any synopsis of it sounds totally mad, but Hardinge pulls it off brilliantly. One novel I'd add to the list (although it came out in 2009) is Dog Boy by Eva Hornung. It's a modern, dystopian version of The Jungle Book. It won Australia's top literary prize, but I don't think it's got a lot of attention elsewhere. My review.

Comment on Glengarry Glen Dove by Heather

Heather — Tue, 21 May 2013 13:39:52 +0000

One of my flatmates at uni who was doing a MA in public health told me about a piece of research he’d read about how ambulance drivers were more likely to try harder to resuscitate people who were good looking. I think looks can influence your life as much as race, gender, age, etc. Oh to be Vulcan; they probably don’t have adds.

Comment on Glengarry Glen Dove by Meredith

Meredith — Sat, 11 May 2013 01:23:10 +0000

I really respect this post. It’s hard in today’s world to remember that looks aren’t everything. It harder still to remember that we are not solely our looks.

Everyone wants to be perfect. I sometimes think that the only “perfect” animal out there is the platypus. I mean it can do everything but fly, and who doesn’t want to be able to do everything? Yet, the platypus is definitely not the most beautiful animal in the kingdom. Adorable, yes. But it has nothing on the gazelle, tiger, or polar bear.

Anyway, I just wanted to thank you for this post. I read it a few days back and it has stuck with me. It makes be think of this poetry slam by Katie Makkai: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6wJl37N9C0.

The video also makes me think of Pen.

Comment on Glengarry Glen Dove by Tom

Tom — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 21:54:55 +0000

Hi Michael, thanks for stopping by.

I agree that there’s a positive message in there somewhere, but there’s also a rather less positive one, and I feel like the ‘you’re more beautiful than you think’ one is a fig leaf for the ‘the only thing that matters is how you look, and by that we mean how thin and white you are’ one.

I wasn’t having a go at it for selling dove, I was having a go at it for selling dove *by* reinforcing, in fairly pernicious terms, the message that the world only cares about women for their looks while trying to look all ‘positive body image’

Totally take your point about there being a positive message that you can take from it, but I’m not wholly convinced that’s the message that Dive care about pushing.

Comment on Glengarry Glen Dove by Michael

Michael — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 17:31:07 +0000

I fully understand and agree with your point. It’s very much an advertisement by and for Dove.

However, much as you mentioned that branding can be art, I also feel that marketing can also be a vehicle for delivering good social messages.

This commercial shows that a lot of people have much more negative opinions of their physical beauty than others. It delivers it in a fairly powerful way. These women see themselves as more awkward, fatter, and less beautiful than others perceive. This self-esteem problem is highlighted very strongly. The message sent is that you are more beautiful than you think. It’s a good message, really.

Is it a win for Dove (and parent P&G)? Yes. There is nothing like positive marketing for a brand, and a lot of people will buy from “socially positive” companies. The message also fits great with Dove’s brand positioning. If it didn’t, it wouldn’t have ever been made.

Does the fact that it’s a way to sell Dove diminish this message? I think only a very little bit. I could be cynical and decry it as a ploy to do nothing more than encourage women to use Dove. Will I do that? No. As long as it is understood that it is ultimately an advertisement, I don’t think that we should ignore a positive message.

Comment on Djinn & Tronic – An aside to the Clarke Award Shortlist Debate by The awards debate that won’t die | Cora Buhlert

The awards debate that won’t die | Cora Buhlert — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 04:48:29 +0000

[...] post also led me to writer Tom Pollock and his delightfully named blog Djinn & Tronic. Tom Pollock makes a similar point, namely that genres can coexist with each other and that it’…, an idea which will horrify genre purists [...]

Comment on Djinn & Tronic – An aside to the Clarke Award Shortlist Debate by Niall

Niall — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 09:53:20 +0000

I don’t disagree with any of that; the process of defining and answering those sorts of questions is what awards judging is all about. And certainly I agree that different generic elements can interact or overlap in very interesting ways. One of the books shortlisted in my first year, for instance, was Oh Pure and Radiant Heart, which some people certainly felt was in the end a fantasy — but which is also a time travel story about scientists understanding and coming to terms with the impact of their research on the world. Or Geoff Ryman’s Air, a science fiction novel which moves towards fantasy in its closing pages to make a point (I would argue) about how we perceive the future. Even on this year’s shortlist, actually — I’ve just read Nod, and the insomnia apocalypse is never explained or rationalised; it is a purely fantastical event, and arguably Nod is only read as science fiction because it can fit within an existing tradition of science fiction horror apocalypses.

And yes, let me know when you’re done with Alif!

Comment on Djinn & Tronic – An aside to the Clarke Award Shortlist Debate by Liz Williams

Liz Williams — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 18:25:55 +0000

I don’t want to get into the minutiae of the judging process on individual books, and I think Tom would prefer it if we did not, but if I can take off my judge’s hat for a moment, I would highly recommend that everyone goes out and reads ‘Alif’.