The End
Time to pack this thing in, I think.
February 1st, 2010
That’s one childhood dream down …
As a teenager I was inordinately envious of those rare people who got to have their sci-fi stories illustrated by pro artists.
Well check. It. Out.
I’m definitely more excited than I have a right to be. In general, I give way too much love to fantasy illustrators. Seems fitting, though, that my first story anointed by their brushes should be a revision of something I originally wrote in high school.
7 comments November 4th, 2009
Future of Novels
I like this editorial. Also, the list of recommended books is really good.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203706604574377163804387216.html
Update: A thought that came to me … part of the trouble with the modernist/postmodern emphasis on formal experimentation is simply that it’s gotten old. It’s become obligatory rather than revolutionary; hence, it’s no longer interesting. Editorials like this might change the zeitgeist; plot will become a rallying cry; to write a literary plot-based books will be the new vogue. Then that will get old in turn and experimentation will come back in some form; people will turn away from plot once more. And the wheel will keep turning …
September 1st, 2009
Many Messages
At first sight this review of the Kindle DX by Farhad Manjoo seems to contradict a common digital-reading stereotype. Because of the Kindle’s clumsy navigation, he writes, “instead of skimming, you find yourself reading the newspaper as you would a book—when you find a story, you stick with it until the end. You trade breadth for depth: In 30 minutes of reading the Kindle, you get further into a lot fewer stories.”
But wait–I thought reading on a screen was suppose to lead to just the opposite, a trade of depth for breadth. Isn’t this what the Luddites believe: that devices like the Kindle will discourage concentration in favor of skimming?
Manjoo’s review emphasizes a different–and, I think, more significant–consequence of the switch from old to new media: the abandonment of old ways of organizing information. The chief complaint in his review is that the Kindle, when used as a newspaper reader, doesn’t give you any guidance about which stories are most important: there’s no front page, no graphic design, just a list of headlines. You can’t even tell how long an article is at a glance. You have to decide based on the headlines alone which stories might be worth reading.
The fact that he considers this a problem challenges a key belief of the Web utopians: the long-tailish idea that users can always track down for themselves the content they find most meaningful. Turns out no one wants to read the whole newspaper and decide which stories are relevant; we want an editor to give us a nudge. Nor do we necessarily want to sift the heaps of amateur books, music, movies, etc. online. One trouble with abandoning traditional media is that we lose the conventions that used to guide our exploration of the cultural landscape. Sure, the old system was clunky and unfair, but it served a function. Just as someone’s got to haul away trash even in the most sublime utopia, someone’s got to decide which movies aren’t worth watching.
Some of the Web’s answers to the challenge of sorting content–like Web page design, professional reviews, and online archives and catalogs–are basically the same as the old system’s. Some of its solutions–like user reviews and algorithmically determined recommendations–are genuinely new and useful. Some of its selective criteria–like hit and view counters–are questionable, and some–like its ubiquitous five star rating systems–edge toward absurdity.
Can these gleaning methods take the place of old ones? In some ways yes, in some ways no. Ultimately one has the sense that “reading on a screen” will neither addle us irremediably nor cure us of our respect for elite opinions. McLuhanesque media theory will only take you so far. In some ways a tool is just a tool, not a destiny. Which is to say that the effect of new technologies on society is so diverse it can’t be reduced to prophetic sociological formulas. The medium is many messages.
August 31st, 2009
Current Reading
Cult of the Amateur, by Andrew Keen, after chatting with a friend about it.
There are many things to say about this book, and many people have said them. My main beef with it is that I think Keen fails to discriminate sufficiently between the cultish aspects of Web 2.0 and its many practical hazards. (more…)
August 21st, 2009
Current Reading
Stranger Things Happen, by Kelly Link. Wow, these stories are amazing.
I keep hearing about Kelly Link (also, she and Gavin Grant published one of my stories in their zine) but I never read her stuff before. My friend says her stories feel like dreams. The trouble is, whenever I hear that stories (or movies, or whatever) are like dreams, it turns out they’re actually like a lot of boring random stuff that makes no sense. So saying that reading a story feels like dreaming doesn’t mean what it ought to.
I would say the stories feel like childhood. Not childhood as in “a state of blissful innocence when we all had lots of time on our hands,” but childhood the way it really was, creepy and portentous. Yes, portentous is the word–when I was a child I always felt that something marvelous or dreadful was about to happen to me, and all details of the present became portents of that imminent event. That’s the mood of these stories, too.
I always say that I don’t like short stories, I never read short stories, etc. I recently realized that’s no longer true. I’ve been reading a lot of short fiction this year.
July 23rd, 2009
Current Reading
“The Consciousness Problem,” by Mary Robinette Kowal, in the August 2009 Asimov’s. I like it when you’re reading an author who’s totally new to you, and you get that feeling like “Yeah, I can trust this person.” The story makes some nice twists and turns, but I suppose it’s the cleanness of the narration that really endeared me to it. I always seem to go for style over plot.
Very Special Agents by James Moore. An insider’s history of ATF. Definitely pulls no punches when discussing the NRA, government bureaucracy, and other forces affecting ATF’s mission. In fact, at times it reads more like an indictment of ATF’s enemies than an account of ATF’s activities. Very saucily written. Not for the ardent libertarian, but I’m enjoying its gutsy style.
Drama City by George Pelecanos. Actually I just finished this. Yeah, I’m one of those people who’s reading books by all the writers who worked on the Wire. In fact, twenty pages into this I came to a passage with strong similarities to a Wire scene. The writing’s a bit minimalist for my tastes (I keep thinking “Dick and Jane go down to the corner”) but better spare writing than purple prose, in this kind of book. The story’s solid, but most of the appeal comes from the local color for which Pelecanos is famed. Ever wonder what life is like for a Humane Society enforcer on the D.C. streets? Neither did I, but it’s interesting.
July 22nd, 2009
Check out …
… my friend’s site. It looks really cool. I’ve got e-envy.
Also he’s got a book coming out. That counts for something, too, I suppose.
July 21st, 2009