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Hasson, Guy

Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.

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(1971-    ) Israeli author, playwright and film-maker who began his career with Hebrew-language plays, but writes science fiction almost exclusively in English. Perhaps confusingly, much of his output appeared first in Hebrew translations. Hasson began publishing with "Earth Calling Johnny" in Anotherealm (see Online Magazines) for 1998. He published short fiction in online Amateur Magazines such as Aphelion in the early 2000s, and two early ebooks. In The Beginning (2001 ebook), republished in an early Hebrew web-serial under the new title Hatzel Shel Elohim ["God's Shadow"] (2003 Bli-Panika), already shows many of Hasson's preoccupations, detailing an experiment in Hypnotism that takes its hero further and further back in time and through to Biblical eras. Hope For Utopia (2002 ebook) is also of interest.

It was around this time that Hasson had discovered the nascent sf scene taking form in Israel and began publishing much of his work in the local magazines, beginning with "She'yihiye Be'mazal" ["Good Fortune"] in Chalomot Be'aspamia #2, November-December 2002. Much of his short fiction exhibits a measured, consciously transparent prose, in which Genre SF topoi are used as a means for exploring various Novums through a psychological (see Psychology) lens. An early collection was Hatzad Ha'afel ["The Dark Side"] (coll 2003). "Ani(TM)" [trans from "All-Of-Me(TM)" in English manuscript] (January-February 2003 Chalomot Be'aspamia #3), won the Geffen Prize for Best Original Short Story the same year.

Metziut: Hamischak ["Life: The Game"] (2005), a Young Adult novel, follows a bullied boy who fantasizes being a hero in a Genre SF setting, fighting hostile Aliens, only for the fantasy to become true. A second Geffen Prize followed in the same year for his story "Hana'ara Ha'mushlemet" [trans from "The Perfect Girl" in English manuscript] (July-August 2004 Chalomot Be'asmpamia #12), about a young girl in an unspecified American location (where the majority of Hasson's fiction is set) who turns out to be a telepath (see Telepathy); it became the basis for a collection of three linked novellas, Secret Thoughts (coll of linked stories 2011). A further English-language collection, The Emoticon Generation (coll 2012) followed. The novel «Tickling Butterflies», utilizing the conventions of fairy tales, was serialized on Hasson's website pending Hebrew publication.

Hasson's Cinema work is heavily influenced by his background in Theatre, utilizing minimal set designs in the pursuit of its central novum. The feature-length, Hebrew-language Lev Shel Even ["Heart of Stone"] (2008) follows a man who begins to experience Alien emotions. The Indestructibles (2013), released as a web-serial, is about Superheroes.

Hasson's fiction, similarly, often takes place in sparsely-furnished settings, in which characters sometimes seem more comfortable discussing their emotions than directly experiencing them. It is an often effective distancing mechanism. He is perhaps the Israeli author closest to core sf: much of his work comprises well-wrought Thought Experiments within frames familiar to sf readers. However, in his refusal to compromise on commercial principles, and in his ongoing experimentation with various forms of media, it has become clear that he is following an intensely personal vision; one to which his commitment is whole. [LTi]

Guy Hasson

born Tel Aviv, Israel: 15 October 1971

works

collections

  • Hatzad Ha'afel ["The Dark Side"] (Tel Aviv, Israel: Bitan, 2003) [coll: pb/Tzvi Feldman]
  • Secret Thoughts (Lexington, Kentucky: Apex Publications, 2011) [coll of linked stories: pb/]
  • The Emoticon Generation (no place given: Infinity Plus, 2012) [coll: ebook: na/Keith Brooke]

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