"My advice is this. For Christ's sake, don't write a book that is suitable for a kid of 12 years old, because the kids who read who are 12 years old are reading books for adults. I read all of the James Bond books when I was about 11, which was approximately the right time to read James Bond books."
Terry Pratchett interview
I agree. I read them in my young teens I guess, and the Tarzan books about the same time. I remember the promotion for those said that they fulfilled the two premises for being great boys' books: they were written for adults, and in America. Of course Bond was written in England, but in Denmark in the sixties that probably felt closer to America than to Denmark.
By the way, last year I heard Stephen Fry give his warmest recommendation of the Ian Fleming books, so I thought I'd re-read a couple and bought them as audiobooks. But they don't really seem to hold my attention these days. Admittedly very little indeed does.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
More on Leibovitz
Mike has an interesting follow-up on that Annie Leibovitz photo. It's like I guessed: it's pretty much assistants doing the work.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Not Another Teen Movie
There has been many parody movies in the past decade, and Not Another Teen Movie is one of my favorites. It's so far out. This scene is a parody of the scene in American Pie where the guy gets caught "wearing one sock". They made the character a girl instead, which I think is genius, and stretched everything to the breaking point.
Simple tools
Do not wait; the time will never be "just right'. Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as
you go along.
--Napoleon Hill
One could argue against this for many situations, sure. And I was about to, but then I remembered when I started Domai. I started it with only the knowledge of web design I could get from two or three magazine articles. And just had fun with it.
And then traffic started coming, which really encouraged me. (I clearly remembered the day I was told I had 5,000 visitors a day.) (Over ten years ago.)
And later when I made it a commercial site (it was never meant to be), I also did it with primitive tools. But early sales then encouraged me to go on, and to make it better.
If I had tried get everything up to a top pro standard before launch, I would never have had the energy to keep going.
you go along.
--Napoleon Hill
One could argue against this for many situations, sure. And I was about to, but then I remembered when I started Domai. I started it with only the knowledge of web design I could get from two or three magazine articles. And just had fun with it.
And then traffic started coming, which really encouraged me. (I clearly remembered the day I was told I had 5,000 visitors a day.) (Over ten years ago.)
And later when I made it a commercial site (it was never meant to be), I also did it with primitive tools. But early sales then encouraged me to go on, and to make it better.
If I had tried get everything up to a top pro standard before launch, I would never have had the energy to keep going.
Hasselblad 500C
In the seventies, this was the Great Dream for the teenaged Eolake, to own one of these, and now I finally do.
Unbelievably, in the meantime, I've never even held one!
This is forty years old, amazingly, but it still feels like the high quality kit it is.
Of course Hasselblad was, and is, like Leica, very expensive because it's hand-built in Europe by European workers for European salaries.
It'll be interesting to see what happens to prices if and when the planet ever gets to the point where there are no more Third World countries where we can get our shit built for bottom prices. If that whole world is a First World country, what then? People don't often think about how Wall-Mart keeps those amazing prices.
Unbelievably, in the meantime, I've never even held one!
This is forty years old, amazingly, but it still feels like the high quality kit it is.
Of course Hasselblad was, and is, like Leica, very expensive because it's hand-built in Europe by European workers for European salaries.
It'll be interesting to see what happens to prices if and when the planet ever gets to the point where there are no more Third World countries where we can get our shit built for bottom prices. If that whole world is a First World country, what then? People don't often think about how Wall-Mart keeps those amazing prices.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Shakira
I don't normally understand "world music" *, but I guess her hips spoke to me.
I like her obvious delight at performing, she does not seem jaded like many big pop stars are.
*I put it in quotes, because like "ethnic" it's a typically anglo-centric term. Isn't all music from the world?
I like her obvious delight at performing, she does not seem jaded like many big pop stars are.
*I put it in quotes, because like "ethnic" it's a typically anglo-centric term. Isn't all music from the world?
Hyper-linked fiction (updated) (several times)
SF author James C. Harwood commented on my SF post:
"I've been experimenting with layered story ebooks and the use of internal hyperlinks, trying to break new ground. For example, a reader can click on the name of a character and be taken to the Glossarium support blog website to get more information about that character."
To which I said:
Yes. I've long (since the nineties) been interested in hyper-linked fiction as a new creative medium. You could create a whole little universe which people could explore. If it was good, I think people could get quite hooked. I think the curiosity factor could be stronger that it is with strictly linear fiction.
To expand here: one could do it in a myriad of ways, of course. Character profiles. One could have overlapping stories for many characters. One could link to... well, recipes from a cafe in the story, for god's sake. The possibilities are endless.
One might make certain parts of the site subscription-based and get an income.
(Putting artistic integrity issues aside for the moment, imagine J. K. Rowling making such a site for Harry Potter, maybe getting some help from selected writers. That could be a gold mine.) (Not that she needs the money.)
Has anybody had thoughts about such a thing? Or heard of anybody actually doing it, (besides Harwood)?
Update: when it gets big and complex enough, some may ask: what's the difference between this and, well, a web site? Or even the web? The answer is wholeness. The whole thing has to be created with the Whole in mind, so it's collectedly one piece of art.
And the reader will delight in finding all kinds of connections... this character once met that character, though they were not aware of it... both of these characters are trainspotters... this character and that character are both interested in the same girl...
I think it might be a good idea to have the links under each page, rather than within the text. Otherwise the reader ends up with unfinished pages all the time.
----
Update: Nancy from the yahoo Tim Powers group gives me our first example: 253. (He's very funny.)
Update: Dragonlady says:
> Reading this made me think, I'd say that video games, role-playing-games in
> particular, are in part just that. You can interact with the story and
> there are side quests etc.
Well, you *could* certainly do that with hyperlinked fiction. The reader could choose what the character should do, etc. But that's not what I was thinking about, more like traditional fiction at its heart, but just not arranged linearly. It's all fixed by the author, but the reader decides the sequence of reading, and even what bits to read or not.
And I guess it would be most natural for it to be looser than most novels, so the reader does not have to find and read *all* of it for it to make sense. The individual bits and sections should be satisfying on their own, but should support each other.
Actually this will be an important difference from pre-web storytelling. When you start a traditional story, you know you're stuck with all of it, or miss the point. With a hyperlink story, you can read as few or as many pages as you want, and if it's a well done one, it should give you something. So there's less "investment" in starting to read.
One page is about Lizzie's morning. She gets a phone call from Pam. There's a link to a page containing how Pam's morning went, and how the phone call affected her. Pam leaves home and meets Bob on the stairs. There's a link to how Bob's day goes. There should be some meaningful relation of some kind between the characters, of course.
There can also be links to non-storytelling parts. And there can be bigger stories interwoven with the small bits, like a murder mystery or whatever.
I think this ties in with a development I've noticed in modern fiction, not the least in quality TV shows like _The Sopranos_ and _Weeds_. Until recent times, if a character in a story lied to another character, you could bet your bottom dollar that later it would be found out and there would be consequences. But these days it's as likely that nothing happens at all as a consequence. Life/story just goes on and other things happen. And so it's less predictable.
I think it's a busting loose from the old rigidity of storytelling principles.
Hypertext fiction just feels like it may be the right way for me to write. I always had the greatest struggle fitting my creative writing into traditional story format (three acts, problem-solution, etc), it totally kills the creativity for me. But I'm very good at writing "organically", people always think I'm writing about real events even when they are pretty fantastic.
Update: Stephen found this interesting resource.
"I've been experimenting with layered story ebooks and the use of internal hyperlinks, trying to break new ground. For example, a reader can click on the name of a character and be taken to the Glossarium support blog website to get more information about that character."
To which I said:
Yes. I've long (since the nineties) been interested in hyper-linked fiction as a new creative medium. You could create a whole little universe which people could explore. If it was good, I think people could get quite hooked. I think the curiosity factor could be stronger that it is with strictly linear fiction.
To expand here: one could do it in a myriad of ways, of course. Character profiles. One could have overlapping stories for many characters. One could link to... well, recipes from a cafe in the story, for god's sake. The possibilities are endless.
One might make certain parts of the site subscription-based and get an income.
(Putting artistic integrity issues aside for the moment, imagine J. K. Rowling making such a site for Harry Potter, maybe getting some help from selected writers. That could be a gold mine.) (Not that she needs the money.)
Has anybody had thoughts about such a thing? Or heard of anybody actually doing it, (besides Harwood)?
Update: when it gets big and complex enough, some may ask: what's the difference between this and, well, a web site? Or even the web? The answer is wholeness. The whole thing has to be created with the Whole in mind, so it's collectedly one piece of art.
And the reader will delight in finding all kinds of connections... this character once met that character, though they were not aware of it... both of these characters are trainspotters... this character and that character are both interested in the same girl...
I think it might be a good idea to have the links under each page, rather than within the text. Otherwise the reader ends up with unfinished pages all the time.
----
Update: Nancy from the yahoo Tim Powers group gives me our first example: 253. (He's very funny.)
Update: Dragonlady says:
> Reading this made me think, I'd say that video games, role-playing-games in
> particular, are in part just that. You can interact with the story and
> there are side quests etc.
Well, you *could* certainly do that with hyperlinked fiction. The reader could choose what the character should do, etc. But that's not what I was thinking about, more like traditional fiction at its heart, but just not arranged linearly. It's all fixed by the author, but the reader decides the sequence of reading, and even what bits to read or not.
And I guess it would be most natural for it to be looser than most novels, so the reader does not have to find and read *all* of it for it to make sense. The individual bits and sections should be satisfying on their own, but should support each other.
Actually this will be an important difference from pre-web storytelling. When you start a traditional story, you know you're stuck with all of it, or miss the point. With a hyperlink story, you can read as few or as many pages as you want, and if it's a well done one, it should give you something. So there's less "investment" in starting to read.
One page is about Lizzie's morning. She gets a phone call from Pam. There's a link to a page containing how Pam's morning went, and how the phone call affected her. Pam leaves home and meets Bob on the stairs. There's a link to how Bob's day goes. There should be some meaningful relation of some kind between the characters, of course.
There can also be links to non-storytelling parts. And there can be bigger stories interwoven with the small bits, like a murder mystery or whatever.
I think this ties in with a development I've noticed in modern fiction, not the least in quality TV shows like _The Sopranos_ and _Weeds_. Until recent times, if a character in a story lied to another character, you could bet your bottom dollar that later it would be found out and there would be consequences. But these days it's as likely that nothing happens at all as a consequence. Life/story just goes on and other things happen. And so it's less predictable.
I think it's a busting loose from the old rigidity of storytelling principles.
Hypertext fiction just feels like it may be the right way for me to write. I always had the greatest struggle fitting my creative writing into traditional story format (three acts, problem-solution, etc), it totally kills the creativity for me. But I'm very good at writing "organically", people always think I'm writing about real events even when they are pretty fantastic.
Update: Stephen found this interesting resource.
Sculpting dead birds
[Thanks to TTL] I thought I was a bit obsessive, but I'm clearly an amateur. Here's Adam Savage telling the story (video) about how he sculpted a Dodo skeleton, and a Maltese Falcon.
Joe said...
Goes to show that if you have a strong Obsession for some thing and are willing to put forth the effort you can obtain it.
You can buy, steal or make it.
TTL said...
It does, doesn't it. There are no limits.
The funnest moment was when he wrapped the bronze Maltese Falcon in the 1941 Chinese San Francisco Newspaper he had obtained from eBay, held a short pause, and said: "I know."
I immediately had to go check out The Replica Forum which he mentions in the talk. Wow! I had no idea. With a mouseclick you can buy an accurate replica of the outfit Deckard wore on Blade Runner or pretty much any movie related prop or thing that springs in to your mind. Amazing. Crazy, but amazing.
MythBusters rule!
Back to me:
A thought that sometimes strike me is that watching hollywood making-of documentaries, it's clear that if you have the money, you can get anything built if you can imagine. Small or big.
Like, even the huge interior of the hotel in the shining... it was a set! Built for the purpose.
Joe said...
Goes to show that if you have a strong Obsession for some thing and are willing to put forth the effort you can obtain it.
You can buy, steal or make it.
TTL said...
It does, doesn't it. There are no limits.
The funnest moment was when he wrapped the bronze Maltese Falcon in the 1941 Chinese San Francisco Newspaper he had obtained from eBay, held a short pause, and said: "I know."
I immediately had to go check out The Replica Forum which he mentions in the talk. Wow! I had no idea. With a mouseclick you can buy an accurate replica of the outfit Deckard wore on Blade Runner or pretty much any movie related prop or thing that springs in to your mind. Amazing. Crazy, but amazing.
MythBusters rule!
Back to me:
A thought that sometimes strike me is that watching hollywood making-of documentaries, it's clear that if you have the money, you can get anything built if you can imagine. Small or big.
Like, even the huge interior of the hotel in the shining... it was a set! Built for the purpose.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Science Fiction going away?
"Despite an avidly reading public, some types of fiction have become less popular and less profitable. As a result, many imprints that once published Science Fiction have disappeared from view."
- Great Authors Online
I've been suspecting this for a while. Even myself... I still consider myself a science fiction fan at heart, but apart from a couple of vaguely disappointing recent Ian M. Banks books, how many SF books have I really read in the past decade? Hardly any. And I'm not sure why.
Even outstanding authors who used to write SF, like William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, and Neal Stephenson, don't do it anymore, they write contemporary fiction, science fact, or historical fiction.
It's not the least puzzling part that fantasy is more popular than ever. (With a certain scarred teenage boy dominating half the market, but still.) I tend to prefer SF. While I do like some of the more off-beat fantasy, I never really took to the princesses-and-dragons stuff which seems to dominate the genre.
Why is this? Is is a change in the public consciousness? Why and how and what?
- Great Authors Online
I've been suspecting this for a while. Even myself... I still consider myself a science fiction fan at heart, but apart from a couple of vaguely disappointing recent Ian M. Banks books, how many SF books have I really read in the past decade? Hardly any. And I'm not sure why.
Even outstanding authors who used to write SF, like William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, and Neal Stephenson, don't do it anymore, they write contemporary fiction, science fact, or historical fiction.
It's not the least puzzling part that fantasy is more popular than ever. (With a certain scarred teenage boy dominating half the market, but still.) I tend to prefer SF. While I do like some of the more off-beat fantasy, I never really took to the princesses-and-dragons stuff which seems to dominate the genre.
Why is this? Is is a change in the public consciousness? Why and how and what?
Lauren Ambrose
Lauren Ambrose, the latest in the long line of actresses I pine after.
(Six Feet Under, Can't Hardly Wait (which I really like).)
A beautiful redhead. And unlike Lindsay Lohan, she is not ashamed of it.
Okay, I don't know that ms Lohan is ashamed of it, but I have a hard time forgiving her for bleaching her gorgeous red hair. What a crime, such a rare color.
(Six Feet Under, Can't Hardly Wait (which I really like).)
A beautiful redhead. And unlike Lindsay Lohan, she is not ashamed of it.
Okay, I don't know that ms Lohan is ashamed of it, but I have a hard time forgiving her for bleaching her gorgeous red hair. What a crime, such a rare color.
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