Anyone familiar with some of Isaac Asimov’s classic robot stories knows they are full of intriguing “what if?” scenarios. Well, now we’re at the cusp of these “what if?” scenarios being “so, when this happens next week…” scenarios. What will we do then? Ryan Calo explores this in an article from last month. Short story ideas are a-brewing.
This is the 11th entry in a surprisingly long series of posts about Star Trek’s future and its fandom called Crisis of Infinite Star Treks. Yes, we have gone to 11. Asher Elbein’s excellent piece in The Atlantic is worth reading just to consider the nature of pop culture –our modern mythology– and our ownership thereto. I’ve included it in the Crisis of Infinite Star Treks series because reading it helped distill two issues: If a ‘Star…
Reading a recent piece reflecting on the demise of video stores, specifically independent video stores, made me reflect on the demise of Video Vault, an indie film mainstay in Alexandria that supplied film fans for a generation. Mike Musgrove’s article in the Washington Post about the Vault’s closing gives one a good idea of the pressures that made it close. That article is probably a good warm-up for the aforementioned piece on indie video stores.…
In a world obsessed with “maximizing shareholder value,” it’s nice to know that money can mix with imagination and do great things. Enter Yuri Milner, tech billionaire who wants us to get a probe to Alpha Centauri, stat. Okay, it’s more of a generational thing, but let’s face it: we have to figure out how to become more than a one-planet civilization sooner rather than later. Interstellar scouting missions don’t accomplish that, but they do keep…
So much of writing can roll up into “having something to say,” so I found Alan Jacobs’ piece in The Atlantic on Tolkien and Technology interesting. Tolkien casts such a long shadow across the world of fantasy, that it’s interesting to consider how much his views on technology color other works in fantasy.
I should spend more time talking about and linking to Mark Evanier‘s series on rejection. However, in the meantime, in light of my post on Monday, I figured I’d list Part 7 of his Rejection series which covers low and no pay writing. One standout quote: “Working cheap or for free occasionally leads to getting paid decently but more often, it leads nowhere… or to more offers to work for little or no money.” At…
My head nodded knowingly, along many other part-time scribes, as I read Wil Wheaton’s piece last Fall about turning down Huffington Post’s offer to e-print a popular article of his in exchange for “exposure.” Wil Wheaton touches on what appears to be one of the most infuriating aspects of the modern economy (though I know examples of it have existed for ages): exposure is sufficient payment for creative work. Robert Bevan, from a post on…
Roger Corman, the indefatigable indie film icon, has apparently fallen afoul of financial shenanigans because of others’ mismanagement as detailed in this piece by Eriq Gardner in The Hollywood Reporter. I, for one, am looking forward to Death Race 2050.
It’s well known that the Internet has disrupted existing industries like a rampaging honey badger. It’s probably also obvious –upon reflection– that this easily extends into the realm of politics. A long-form article by Timothy B. Lee appearing on Vox.com delves into how this has factored into the current political season. No matter how you view some of the candidates, it’s interesting to see how this is shaking up the status quo — and also…
Jokes from my previous post about cheerleaders’ souls aside, it’s good to note that the debate about whether a business should seek profit to the exclusion of all else, or join it with purpose has raged for years, as explored in this article from Inc. by Bill Saporito. Personally, I like it when businesses are profit-minded, but purpose-driven. (At some point when I’m not feeling swamped with deadlines, I’ll elaborate on that phrase.)