A Pleasurable Headace - 17th May 2020
Nowt but the links this week.
Links
Cory Doctorow on 'Rules For Writing' Link
Doctorow discusses some rules for writers, mostly via the prism of the Turkey City Lexicon. He comes to the conclusion that such rules are not a list of things not do do, but things that are hard to do well.
Indycar's Virtual Race Crashes Sparked Real-World Controversy Among Drivers Link
Rob Zacny of Waypoint discusses the recent controversies in the virtual Indy Car races (being performed by drivers from the real sport) and how the events being in simulated space are changing risks and behaviour.
Star Wars: Dave Filoni Explains Why "Duel of the Fates" Is the Most Important Moment in the Franchise Link
A bit of a random link, but I love Filoni's take on the best scene from The Phantom Menace and its ramifications for the saga.
Grinding The Gears – Half Life’s Adrian Shephard Link
Emily short at Re:bind on the other protagonist from the Half-Life franchise, Adrian Shephard.
"Through and through, Adrian is positioned as a sort of underdog, a normal dude trying to do a normal job in extraordinary circumstances. It was an archetype quickly latched onto by young fans lacking their own sense of personal identity with apprehension of adulthood being foisted upon them in the distant horizon. With neither a face nor a voice, Adrian quickly turned into an unsung hero for those who had no idea who they were or why they were being dragged into any of this."
TOWARDS THE STARS Link
A piece from Deep Hell on the Mass Effect trilogy on the contradictions present in the games sense of exploration as it butts heads with aspects of exploitation and colonialism. It'd be interesting to see a similar analysis put against the much derided fourth entry, Andromeda.
Trying to Juggle Writing AND Parenting? Authors Share Advice Link
Not relevant to me right now, but a good reminder that writing is often about carving out slivers of time. Mackenzie Kiera (of the excellent Ladies Of The Fright podcast) recently wrote a piece on the same subject.
Writing Through Link
More writing advice, this time from Philip Fracassi on writing through bouts of depression.
"First, shut off emotions. Leave them dead and forgotten on the floor. Second, shut off the outside world. Get off social media and the internet. Third, don’t think about your career, or your goals, or your other work. Focus only on the story you are writing RIGHT NOW. That story is EVERYTHING. It’s your fucking WORLD."
We Remember World War II Wrong Link
Adam Tooze at Foreign Policy on the ways we choose to remember WW2 in the here and now, including the things we choose to forget (the end of empire for one thing).
The Forever War Link
Yussef Cole at Bullet Points Monthly on Doom Eternal and Joe Halderman's Forever War:
"Earth was never a real place, not to the Doomguy or to the player. Eternal takes the warped myopia of the soldier to an extreme, and it doesn’t leave space for a humanity that serves as anything other than a symbolic prize to be wrested from the hands of evil, regardless of the damage done in the confrontation."
Speculative Journalism Can Help Us Prepare for What’s to Come. Could It Also Promote Misinformation? Link
Nieman Reports on the recent attempts at speculative journalism, including the podcasts Science Vs. and Flash Forward, the NY Times' Op-Eds From the Future and more.
Horror Has A Leadership Problem Link
On Joe Bob Briggs/John Bloom and the (unfortunately par for the course) tyranny of gatekeepers in niche media.
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PS Shout out to Ryan K Lindsay for a reference to Opening Contract in his last newsletter. You can buy the eBook here. OC is a collection of a column I used to write about the opening panels of comic books along with a smattering of creator Q&As too.
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I'm off to remember the concept of productivity. See you in two!