dexfarkin: (me)
First Leonard and now Pohl. Not a good time to be a transformational writer.

Frederik Pohl is one of the more under-appreciated writers of the Golden Age of Sci-Fi, lost behind the Asimovs, Heinleins, and Clarkes. But he was a tremendous figure in the industry, both as a writer and as an editor, agent, and critic. He was tremendous in discovering new talent and pushing it forward into the spotlight and a major contributor to the nascent maturing literary criticism in the field. He also remained relevent up to his death, blogging regularly, managing appearances as his health would allow, and writing right up until the point that his body gave out before his ideas. You can`t ask for more.

If you haven`t read him, I can`t recommend `The Space Merchants`more. Written in 1953 with C. M. Kornbluth, it described a future where nation-states exist merely to support massive corporations which control everything on an overpopulated Earth, and advertising has turned into a courtier`s caste in service to them. It is stilted in prose and clunky in terms of characterization, but the ideas show a remarkable foresight and critical understanding of how a path to the future can be built. It is futuristic satire that out-Mad Men's Mad Men easily.

'Re-writes,' [Tildy] said wildly. 'I slave my heart out for that white-haired old rat, and what does he give me? Re-writes. "This is good copy, but I want better than good copy from you," he says. "Re-write it," he says. "I want colour," he says, "I want drive and beauty, and humble, human warmth, and ecstasy, and all the tender, sad emotion of your sweet womanly heart, " he says, " and I want it in fifteen words." I'll give him fifteen words, " she sobbed, and pushed past me down the hall. 'I'll give that sanctimonious, mellifluous, hyperbolic, paternalistic, star-making, genius devouring Moloch of an old -'

The slam of Tildy's own door cut off the noun. I was sorry; it would have been a good noun.
dexfarkin: (me)
Stacey Rambold, a Senior High teacher convicted of raping 14-year-old Cherice Morales, who later committed suicide, was sentenced to spend just 30 days in jail. The judge justified his decision in part by saying he listened to recorded statements given by Morales before her death and believes that while she was a troubled youth, she was "as much in control of the situation" as Rambold.

Emily McCombs does a very nice job putting things into perspective here - http://www.xojane.com/issues/stacey-rambold-cherice-morales

Peak Water

Aug. 26th, 2013 12:47 pm
dexfarkin: (me)
http://scienceblogs.com/significantfigures/index.php/2013/08/19/peak-water-in-the-american-west

And now the badly understood practice of widespread fracking are not only rapidly draining regional aquafiers, but also contaiminating the water table along with it. Once that happens, you are going to have whole stretches of the Midwest that will be unable to sustain human life - forced mass migrations of the like not seen since the Dust Bowl.
dexfarkin: (me)
I had a minor dustup on tumblr not long ago regarding a meme that was bouncing around about DC's refusal to seriously push a 'Wonder Woman' property into development for television or movies because it was 'too complicated' to build around a female protagonist. Meanwhile, Marvel's new "Guardians of Galaxy' movie not only had two female leads (one a WoC), but includes a talking raccoon, thus lampooning DC's excuse by pointing out a talking rodent wasn't as complicated for Marvel as a female protagonist was for DC. There were responses that pointed out Marvel's 'Black Panther' being stuck in development limbo for several years now with the excuse of the film being 'complicated' is analogous to DC's excuse regarding a WW property, and I rebutted it. However, it did get me thinking it over whether I was playing apologist for Marvel (because of my own preferences) and I did a bit of research on the respective companies approach to film and unearthed some stats.

Rambling On )
dexfarkin: (me)
Elmore Leonard passed away today at 87 from a stroke, in the midst of writing his 46th novel. Leonard never got quite the critical stature that his deserved, as his novels were ghetto-ized to the 'crime' genre, but his impact is tremendous. His style; terse, fast, unrelenting, became the blueprint adopted by the modern noir and for the dialogue of script writers like Black and Tarentino. In a very real sense, the cliched patter of the 80s buddy cop film was diluted Leonard, which gave way to a truer adaption in the sprawling, off-topic and brutal narratives of the 90s and beyond. If you've never read him, you'll find his work instantly familiar and recognizable, from his legions of fans, influenced writers and poor imitators.

Elmore Leonard's Ten Rules of Writing

1. Never open a book with weather.
2. Avoid prologues.
3. Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue.
4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said”…he admonished gravely.
5. Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.
6. Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose."
7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
9. Don't go into great detail describing places and things.
10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.

My most important rule is one that sums up the 10.

If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.”
― Elmore Leonard

Two Streets

Aug. 2nd, 2013 12:40 pm
dexfarkin: (me)
Quite a nicely depressing piece by David Atkins regarding something I've been talking about for a decade now, how the corporatization of the global economy is actually creating conditions in which traditional capitalistic structures either fall apart or turn into poisonous death spirals. The link, so to speak, between Main Street and Wall Street is shattered at this point, and the grim hold on old supply-side economics causes further damage when applied to a system it was never meant to be applied to. Worth a read.

http://digbysblog.blogspot.ca/2013/08/the-link-between-wall-street-and-main.html
dexfarkin: (me)
Adam Gopnik (man, wouldn't that be the best name for a hard-line conservative advisor?) has posted an article called 'Abraham Lincoln and the Birth of Stand Your Ground' which analyzes the growth of duelling in the US and how it informs modern day Stand Your Ground. It ties in a speech by Lincoln on vigilante violence and it's effects on democracy. His call for “Reason, cold calculating unimpassioned reason, must furnish all the materials for our future support and defense.” is a strike at the unpinnings of laws like Stand Your Ground which essentially legalize subjective judgement and passion as the root justification for action.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2013/07/abraham-lincoln-and-the-birth-of-stand-your-ground.html?mbid=social_retweet

Weekend

Jul. 15th, 2013 10:54 am
dexfarkin: (me)
Stuff has been happening, don't care to discuss it. Just going to go dark a little for the next while, focus on myself. If you haven't heard from me, email. Otherwise, don't expect much of anything until the summer is over.

That being said, went and saw 'Pacific Rim' on Sunday. It was quite well done; a nice balance between action and world building, mostly solid across the board. If you had a childhood anything like mine, you grew up with the old monster movies of Godzilla wreaking havoc on Tokyo. There was a kind of majesty to those old movies, in the sheer scope of damage that you were supposed to believe was happening, and the hopeless bravery of the defense force men who mustered planes and tanks to be wiped out by the dozens in the fight. PR caught that thread, played up a hundred times over with a mix of CGI and massive sets. It was able to generate the same kind of spectacle and invoke a similar awe from that viewing as an eight year old to now.

It's certainly a flawed film; there's plenty of schtick and the character development is not what one would call unexpected. But it makes up for it by onapologetically ratcheting up the bright, terrific weirdness at every chance, from Charles Day's twitching flesh hacking brain jump to Ron Perlman's glorious entrance as a dandified black market monster parts thug. Charlie Hunnam was a pretty solid lead, bringing the right kind of intensity and the ability to be the tituler hero of a movie. Despite the fact that he gets outshone by the performances of a number of other actors, he's always able to engage and hold the scene. Idris Elba is as always; powerful, precise, and compelling in a role that is inconsistantly written. Rinko Kikuchi really steals the show though, able to exude this impressively deft combination of strength and vulnerability that so often gets pushed into emotional weakness in lesser hands. Her Mako is wonderfully flawed over steely determination and the conflict of duty which mirrors the struggles of those around her. In a movie with a lot of characters who barely get fleshed out past their stereotypes, she's a polished gem.

The backstory of the Jaegers and Kaiju could have been lifted from any anime, which is in part why it works so well. In fact the visuals are almost examples of what can happen when CGI catches up to that animation could do in the 80s, creating a dystopian world that mimicks the visual style. The attack on the Golden Gate bridge is beautifully rendered, and the scattershot retelling of the backstory begs for more details. In anything, it frames the relentless intensity that the movie locks into a third of the way in and never let up on. It's an excellent sci-fi film, derivative without being a complete copy, familiar without being stock, and seemingly aware about what it wants to be the whole time. It could have pushed a tacky love story in the middle. It could have tried for 'depth' with a poorly executed grieving period in the middle. It could have tried to elevate the narrative by making the story about man's hubris. It avoided them all to focus on fucking up a giant dragon squid thing with a bitching robot sword. As it should have...
dexfarkin: (me)
First off, to my friends in the Great Satan, I hope you had a good holiday of over-eating and then blowing shit up. Being that it is now July the 5th, allow me to direct you to a speech on that day from the esteemed Frederick Douglass, which makes a nice reminder that the symbology of the day aside, freedom has and will always be a process, at times enlarged and at times constrained, and rarely equally distributed or enojoyed. With the recent developments with the VFA and assaults on the reproductive freedoms of women in numerous states, it rings perhaps a little louder and more relevant than in some other years - http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/douglassjuly4.html

***

I've made not secret on the fact that I'm not terribly happy in my current job. Without going into grand detail, the TL:DR summary is that I have all the responsibility for anything that goes wrong, and virtually no authority to drive making things right, which is just not a sustainable state of affairs. So, I've hung my shingle back out and snagged an interview for Tuesday with another company - a position with more money, more authority, and more focus. Hopefully, I'll be able to land it and make a smooth transition. If not, it's a very encouraging sign for further, future opportunities.

*sigh*

Jul. 2nd, 2013 01:03 pm
dexfarkin: (me)
http://www.wboy.com/story/22728815/update-9-year-old-boy-shot-and-killed-in-harrison-county

You know, I guess the biggest cultural difference I can outline between Canadians and Americans is that I don't know a single person outside of those living in the far north that thinks a reasonable response to hearing suspicious noises outside your house is to go out with a gun and start blasting 'warning shots' to scare intruders away. Maybe it's the hump I'll never get over, because I can't link up 'on my property' with 'I'm in my right to take your life' which seems to be the basis for so many stand your ground laws and killing of innocents in the American gun culture. Looking through the average messageboard, it appears the standard American thought process is that the second someone steps off the public sidewalk and on to your grass, they automatically become Whedon-esque Reavers, capable of raping, murdering and cannibalizing your whole family unless you line up as much firepower as possible to deter them.

Maybe it's my pussied, not a real man, kinda faggy weak liberal side, but seriously, how do you live with gunning somebody down in those circumstances? I mean, maybe he's trying to steal my bike. Maybe he wants to steal my television. Is that worth living with the fact that I've just killed a human being to protect my stuff? I just can't see that as anything beyond a broken feral culture, so hopped up on this fantasy that roving gangs of rapists and murders are just looking for any sign of weakness to break in and ravage your family; that the lie has been wrapped up in Batman and John Wayne for so long that it is easy enough to swallow killing someone in the highly statistically unlikely chance that they're really preparing for something worse than petty crime.

This woman and her supporters will loudly decry this as a tragic accident. But it's not. The gun didn't accidentally go off. Her intention was to put bullets in the air. I just can't concieve the thinking that justifies why in the first place.

MacZombie

Jun. 27th, 2013 04:15 pm
dexfarkin: (me)
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/06/paid-sick-leave-florida-disney-alec

Now I kind of want to write a peace where the US actually saves the world from mass zombification because the sickness is spread so quickly by the workforce being unable to take time off during the first symptoms manifesting that once they turn, it is such a huge percentage of the population to automatically crash the entire infrastructure at once. It gets contained by the evacuation/adbandonment of Canada and swaths of UN peacekeepers pouring into Mexico and ironically manning the other side of the high tech border security to wipe out roaming packs. We could make the final statement - Zombie Fast Food - over one billion eaten.
dexfarkin: (me)
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/20/checking-out/

I'm always entertained by the fact that employers have been pushing an environment of easily replaceable labour, little training, negative reinforcement and declining benefits, and yet they still hold the idea that their work force should be loyal and happy to sacrifice for the good of the company. My first 'management' job involved developing sales programs for a sales force. We were constantly training new people to replace others, with my superiours wondering why people left as soon as they had any better opportunity.

As I said then, and it applies today. If you treat your employees as disposable, your employees will treat your company as disposable.

E3

Jun. 11th, 2013 04:46 pm
dexfarkin: (me)
So, the reports so far are that the Playstation 4 and Sony sidled up to Microsoft and the X-Box One in the middle of the convention floor, shived them in the kidneys, and left them to bleed out and die amidst the discarded leftlets and power bar wrappers. Because all great corporate struggles for market share are best described as scenes from 'OZ'.

Seriously though, it seems like Microsoft has doubled down on the same kind of nonsense that they flashed with Windows 8, trying to bully their marketshare into improved profit, without any consideration that other options remain. You have to question whether or not their board understands how much the market has changed, and that the more heavy handed an attempt to force control happens, the more likely others are to adopt alternate platforms as a form of self-defense. To use an old analogy, the main driver behind the rise of Napster, Kazaa, and the other music sharing systems was the constant price fixing of CDs by the music companies themselves, demanding the same unsustainable profits from when they controled production and distribution. When people realized that paying $28 for a new CD (almost 4 hours work at minimum wage at the time) was ridiculous, they went hard for other options. How many X-Box gamers are going to take a serious look at Steam or the PS now?

The most worrisome aspect for me personally is that the X-Box One is yet another company moving increasingly to erode the idea of ownership, demanding usurious licensing fees for any use with specific conditions attached to them. I'm old and thus a dinosaur waiting to be put down by younger predators, but the idea of ownership and private property is a core element of personal freedom. As more companies demand that their customers become users as opposed to owners of their product, the ability to accrue and disperse goods at one's own wishes is challenged. There have been several cases already about people with not inconsiderable e-book collections passing on, discovering that their heirs had no claim on them. In some cases, we're talking about tens of thousands of dollars simply being deleted from an estate.

It also shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the secondary market, and that ignorance is actually a pretty severe danger to creators. Most authors have long been supporters of used book stores, understanding that secondary sales eventually drive new sales. Game developers should be equally strong supporters of the secondary market, as systems like X-Box Live and PSN allow for tertiary sales for DLC and related materials. But they fail to understand that the secondary market drives new business, and it is ultimately self-defeating to try and hamstring it. At least half of the video games I own have been purchased because of either playing a borrowed or rented game and later purchasing it, or buying a used game and purchasing later installments in the series. Many of those are games that I would have never paid full price for in order to try them. By relying on the direct market and advertising/demos, the X-Box One is disconnecting itself from a powerful sales tool in a way that will ultimately hurt their direct market sales. It is myoptic and ill-considered, and thanks to Sony, puts them at a major disadvantage in next-generation consoles.
dexfarkin: (me)


The best part is that you call tell the people who read the books in these shots by their smug, horrible half-smiles during the carnage. It's that look of 'That's right, you fuckers! I lived through this in 2001 so you can all bite me!'

Twitter reactions: http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/06/03/game_of_thrones_red_wedding_upsets_fans_to_the_rains_of_castamere.html

To be fair, I recall how fucked off I was following 'A Storm of Swords'. I'd picked it up with my limited Christmas money and ended up finishing the book at 5am on a work night. The thing that caught me off balance was the casual brutality in it; the kind of unrelenting viciousness as Moremont's daughter is stabbed through the stomach, Robb is butchered, and his wolf's head is sewn on to his decapitated corpse. While it would unfortunately foreshadow Martin's descent into bad shock based plot twists, at the time, it was a jarring shift that was completely unexpected. It's kind of gratifying to see that the television show could garner a similar reaction.

GoT

Jun. 3rd, 2013 03:09 pm
dexfarkin: (me)
I know no one thinks I have a soul any more in any case, and this is just helping things along, but man, the intertubes reaction to the Red Wedding in GoT last night is just... delicious.

Uhuh

May. 21st, 2013 04:17 pm
dexfarkin: (me)
http://jezebel.com/female-purity-is-bullshit-493278191

I've always thought this line of reasoning boiled down to 'I hate sluts, except when they want to be slutty with me. 'cause I'm awesome. Even though they're still dirty whores. And the dirtiest dirty whoresluts are the ones I wanted to bone but they friendzoned me. So now I'll show them. Sluts. Whores. Whuts. Slores.' And then Frank Miller fell asleep on the bar and we tossed his ass out on to the road.

I really like the last point; Fuck men, fuck women, fuck no one: it doesn't matter! You know what the right reason to sleep or not sleep with any number of people is? Whatever one you decide on your own, for your own reasons and for your own pleasure, however that is achieved.
dexfarkin: (me)
http://www2.macleans.ca/2013/05/21/rob-ford-where-were-we/

Thanks to Gawker, it very much looks like Rob Ford is in the centre of allegations of smoking crack with known drug dealers and making a series of incredibly foolish comments when encouraged to do so. At this point, until the tape or file containing the video can be foresnicly analyzed, there's no proof beyond 'gotcha' media to substantiate anything.

However, the incredibly weak response by the Mayor, his own history of substance abuse issues, and his general disregard for moderating his behaviour proves a deep, fertile plain on which conclusions can grow. I don't know whether or not it is Ford in the video, but it would not surprise me greatly if he was.

As Americans grapple with the idea of a crack smoking Mayor of Toronto, making racist and homophobic screeds to a camera phone, with the general reputation of Canadians, remember some core items. Ford's political bread and butter are a deep belt of suburban voters; older and less tolerant with Canada's general multiculturalism and inclusionary approach. They are decidedly anti-urban, resenting green initiatives like bike lanes and expanded recycling, the implementation of toll roads, and expanded public transit in favour of tax reduction. As William Gibson so aptly described it, Ford's election as Mayor was 'as if New Jersey residents were able to vote for the Mayor of New York' in terms of his representative nature of the city.

He's been likened to a political version of Chris Farley, but the dead comedian would have a serious effort ahead of him to out-embarass himself against Ford's record. After Ford's election, he immediately axed a major and much needed public transit overhaul plan in favour of expensive and limited subway expansion that he did not have funding for. Now the city is scrambling to replace it after the provincial and federal governments both told Ford they would not fund his own plan, leaving him losing vote after vote as the current TTC chair slowly re-authorizes the compenants of the former plan piece by piece. His constant repositioning on the downtown casino has condeemed the 'Pro' side that he supports, as an organized opposition has knocked out support one vote at a time. Finally, his buffoonish media gaffs, from reading in his car while driving on the freeway, starting an infamous weight loss challenge with other Mayors only to bail on his own three months in after being photographed leaving a KFC with a bucket of fried chicken under one arm, drunken public appearances, and his own near removal for misuse of civic powers add up to a failed joke of an executive.

While his allies attempt to protray this all as a media assassination by a left-wing paper, the reality is that no one assassinated Rob Ford's career; he put the gun in his own mouth. The question is mostly likely when, not if, the video surfaces and pulls the trigger.
dexfarkin: (me)
Acceptance and tolerance are the proper expectation in any polite, civilized society. Understanding, on the other hand, is the product of shared empathy; the responsibility of both parties to the process of personal education. When either side abducates that responsibility solely to the other, no matter how valid the reasons, acceptance and tolerance remain all that you can reasonably expect.

Also known as 'Why Dex will never be a BFN on tumblr.'

***

It's been a stunningly good half year for concerts and public events. I've been to see the Tragically Hip, the Arkells, Leonard Cohen, Garbage, Jonathan Coultan, several Jays games, and the last four exhibitions at the AGO. Coming up is Dylan Moran, Dr. John, and Kevin Quain. Who knew that a busted ankle encourages one to get off the couch?

***

Just finished Sean Howe's 'Marvel Comics: The Untold Story'. Kind of weird reading it after deciding to take up collecting monthly comics again. Most of the intrigue I knew, although having the specifics are interesting. It actually makes Todd MacFarlane look like an even bigger douchebag, which I didn't even think was possible. The book is mostly focused on the 1950-1975 years, and clips through the last three decades way too fast. You can also tell which stories he got the most access to, focusing on Steve Gerber's career long past the point that Gerber was really relevent and beating the Kirby/Lee Feud to death. However, if you weren't engaged when a lot of the first historical articles on Marvel's history came out in the 90s, it's an excellent way to jump in.

Overall, it's a worthwhile book despite its flaws, and it will surprise the casual fan just how popular comics once were and the personalities behind their (often accidental) creation.

In the same vein, still ctaching up on my comics. It's a shame that X-Men: Legacy's relaunch is focused on David Haller in a riff not dissimilar to Ellis/Grant's reworking on X-Man during the Counter-X series. Haller's crazy now involves harvesting his hundreds (thousands) of ridiculously named alien-like multiple personalities to grab their powers for use in various situations. The art is weak, but Spurrier's writing has a nice flow, even if it feels like a repeatative and his handle on Haller is improving. It is a shame because prior to the relaunch, Legacy was producing some excellent work with Rogue, really getting a hold of her as an experienced, mature leader who has found herself suddenly one of the leaders of the modern mutant movement and trying to adapt to that.

In general, I've been enjoying the new X-titles. The writing is usually good, and even when the stories get a bit shakey, there's enough innovation to at least keep clunky plotting from dragging down the book. As a Cyclops fan, I'm enjoying the final exposure that Scott has been basically insane since they got him back from Apocalypse and is able to slide into Magneto territory without the self-delusion that Erik relied on for so many years. I haven't gotten into the All-New X-Men yet with Bendis - I have to catch up on X-Factor first - but so far, this has been the most consistently good period of writing on the X-Books that I can think of since the Seagal/Casey days around Zero Tolerance.

***

Finished the final book of the Wheel of Time last week. Still not sure how to feel about it, since the sense that its done and over is so very odd. For the most part, I think Sanderson did a good job tying most of the floating plot lines and prophecies together, although even if the fans would have revolted, a book between the last two might have smoothed out the pacing. That being said, I've been reading this series since I was 15 years old and it is finally done. That's a very strange feeling.

I will say that there were more then a few times that after that long a set-up, the actions of certain characters earned a geninue 'Fuck Yeah!' while reading. The book certainly has flaws; some glaring. But the fucking thing is done! Going to dwell on just that for a while.

***

Are there any decent games coming out this year? I'm excited about Lego: Marvel Superheros and GTA 5 and that's about it. DA3 hasn't been announced yet and I'm pretty leary of Faffains Creed IV: The Curse of the Black Pearl or whatever the fuck it is. Is there anything else?
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