LOL. Well, no doubt about it some of my male ancestors were both very bright and as pragmatic as the guy who reckons taking on machine-gunners with a horse and lance is great idea. Having read some of the letters - they KNEW it was daft as a brush, but still believed it was right to try - and managed to believe that somehow they might make it work.
Well, I am glad abouth the 'no'. I don't do poor-me well.
It's (possibly) going to be co-authored (that will depend on price - I need the money.) I've expanded the whole background into a very cool mix of mythology/faerie and regency
Or do people want yet another paean to victimhood and how bad humans (specifically men) all are?
Depends on what you mean by "people". Members of Homo Sapiens, in general, tend to find your books incomprehensible. Maybe you'd get a somewhat better success rate if you wrote in Chinese ;-).
For Science Fiction and Fantasy readers, I think it's quite clear what we want. We want an interesting(1) story, we want our good guys to be good (not perfect, but good), and we want them to win. You're after our beer money, and we wouldn't pay for whine.
I think that there is an elitist current in publishing that believes in victimhood and the evil of humanity. They also think that investing in buggy whip manufacturers is a good business plan.
(1) Interesting both in the thoughts it raises, and the way it is told. Your blend of humor and ideas definitely works.
(grin) you're an evil bastard. Chinese. Yeah, well, not gonna happen. My heroes may not always 'win' - but if they 'lose' they'll go down in a way that makes the reader feel they did win. Henri - in Pyramid Scheme - the only way the little frog could really win was to lose. But he died a winner. The problem is the buggy whip investors are putting my money and future into their business plan. Many a thing can be said in jest that will still strike home but would simply raise the shields if said in an in your face serious way.
The idea of the hero is something that has gone out of fashion according to the critics ... and yet humans still yearn for their heroes, if the box office is anything to go by. But the very idea of the hero (or even anti-hero or villian for that matter) is disruptive to the PC ideal that all people are created equal. The truth is, people aren't equal. We all have different skills and experiences; for example, I wouldn't attempt to go up half the slopes you "mad climbing ijits" start salivating over, and no doubt there is stuff I do that you wouldn't do on a dare. If you want an extreme view of this take a look at traditional Japanese culture, which produces a massive urge for conformity on it's members ... and yet the greatest traditional heroes are those that don't conform to this herd mentality. There is a special place in the heart for the loner, the non-conformist. And take a look at a genre which the critics despise more than ours: the romance genre. The idea of heroes and heroines isn't gone from here, and the books are still
( ... )
I agree that heroes are beloved and always will be. I've always bought into the idea that there are more heroes hidden among ordinary people than we realise - its a dream I think most people like to buy into. Being entirely biased, I like heroes who are faced with vast apparently invincible problems or opponents, who fail to give in, who overcome by that quintessially human thing - out-thinking rather than just out-toughing the other side. I'll extend your definition of heroes and why we like them one more step. I like a hero who can get the crap knocked out of them (physically or pschhologically or just by the situation he or she find themselves in) and yet get up, dust themselves off and have another go - possibly because this is the kind of person I would like to be, and even vicariously experiencing it is re-affirming.
Well, I'm a fan of your works because I have similar opinions about what makes a good story. Heck, I really don't care what the political correctness of the writing is, I just want a good tale. For example, I enjoy John Ringo's works and some of Tom Kratman's stuff - a lot of what I consider the loonier ideas on either end of the political spectrum make great fiction, as long as it stays fiction. But then, I grew up in a small rural California town that was an interesting mix of retired hippies & rednecks, so I absorbed an interesting spectrum of opinions. Heavy doses of individualism & boundary pushing I think is the biggest common thread from that. Neither the hippies or the rednecks have much use for authority, when it comes down to it.
It would appear that PC trumps story in the buyers minds and story trumps PC in the readers. Occassionally they meet in the middle. I suppose anti-authoritarianism (which I've always rated a 'fontiers/colonist' characteristic)or at very least expecting authority figures to prove they ought to be that at frequent intervals is a much a part of me as breathing. One of the things - which is patently obvious in SA (and maybe true of the US?) is that the idea that those strove to bring down the old authority/conformity replace it just has not been understood. They become authority. You cannot be the revolution anymore - when you control the reigns of power, and dictate terms. You are then the authority. Those who parrot the lines of the old revolution are not the brave few expressing dangerous views. They're mainstream. They might be right (or wrong)but they have become Authority. It's kinda easy to slip into being just as bad and repressive as the one they replaced.
I'd say that's true of the US as well, but the big difference here from SA that I see is that here the Authority is resigned to the idea of giving up power peacefully when they get kicked out by people who get fed up with their ideas/corruption/whatever.
The only good PC is the one that I use to write on. Anything else is a symptom of the same leftist gray-matter degradation that elected the current U.S. commie-in-chief.
PC ideals often conform to some very good and noble concepts (like equality before the law). It's just the ideal and the actually have drifted poles apart (like that translating into 'special equality' for some). And to be blunt some aspects of my philosophy (on care for the old and for those genuinely incapable of caring for themselves, and on inheritance, for example) are so far left as to make the average commie look like a neo-nazi. On other issues - like dealing with attacks on my citizens I'd make Ringo look like a left wing apologist. And I've always said the US should go back to being a nett exporter of revolution against authoritarian and unrepresentative regimes ;-).
The biggest problem I see with PC ideals is that the people who push them the strongest often forget that they are just that - ideals. Humans being the imperfect critters that we are, we're not going going to meet anyone's ideals, and trying to force them on us gets ugly, fast.
Of course, I'm from a culture that takes perverse pleasure in turning PC into a joke and starts by assuming that anyone in authority is a corrupt bastard and it's up to them to prove otherwise ;)
From what I see, the difference between left and right in the US at least is vanishing fast. It's becoming a case of "which flavor of would-be dictator would you like?" The idea that it might be a good thing to spend less than your income and actually produce something of value seems to have been lost, right along with the notion that what consenting adults do in private is their own busines.
And yes, I definitely want heroes. And heroines. And villains. If I wanted grim, dreary slice of life, I'd read the newspapers.
I think that's the right assumption for EVERYONE to make about authority figures. :-) (guess that part is not going to be hard to fit in - as the bishop said to the actress)
thinks to self - there has to be something bizarre about author and authority being so close but so different ;-)
Comments 14
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Well, I am glad abouth the 'no'. I don't do poor-me well.
Reply
(The comment has been removed)
Reply
Depends on what you mean by "people". Members of Homo Sapiens, in general, tend to find your books incomprehensible. Maybe you'd get a somewhat better success rate if you wrote in Chinese ;-).
For Science Fiction and Fantasy readers, I think it's quite clear what we want. We want an interesting(1) story, we want our good guys to be good (not perfect, but good), and we want them to win. You're after our beer money, and we wouldn't pay for whine.
I think that there is an elitist current in publishing that believes in victimhood and the evil of humanity. They also think that investing in buggy whip manufacturers is a good business plan.
(1) Interesting both in the thoughts it raises, and the way it is told. Your blend of humor and ideas definitely works.
Reply
Chinese. Yeah, well, not gonna happen.
My heroes may not always 'win' - but if they 'lose' they'll go down in a way that makes the reader feel they did win. Henri - in Pyramid Scheme - the only way the little frog could really win was to lose. But he died a winner.
The problem is the buggy whip investors are putting my money and future into their business plan.
Many a thing can be said in jest that will still strike home but would simply raise the shields if said in an in your face serious way.
Reply
The idea of the hero is something that has gone out of fashion according to the critics ... and yet humans still yearn for their heroes, if the box office is anything to go by. But the very idea of the hero (or even anti-hero or villian for that matter) is disruptive to the PC ideal that all people are created equal. The truth is, people aren't equal. We all have different skills and experiences; for example, I wouldn't attempt to go up half the slopes you "mad climbing ijits" start salivating over, and no doubt there is stuff I do that you wouldn't do on a dare.
If you want an extreme view of this take a look at traditional Japanese culture, which produces a massive urge for conformity on it's members ... and yet the greatest traditional heroes are those that don't conform to this herd mentality. There is a special place in the heart for the loner, the non-conformist.
And take a look at a genre which the critics despise more than ours: the romance genre. The idea of heroes and heroines isn't gone from here, and the books are still ( ... )
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But then, I grew up in a small rural California town that was an interesting mix of retired hippies & rednecks, so I absorbed an interesting spectrum of opinions. Heavy doses of individualism & boundary pushing I think is the biggest common thread from that. Neither the hippies or the rednecks have much use for authority, when it comes down to it.
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Of course, I'm from a culture that takes perverse pleasure in turning PC into a joke and starts by assuming that anyone in authority is a corrupt bastard and it's up to them to prove otherwise ;)
From what I see, the difference between left and right in the US at least is vanishing fast. It's becoming a case of "which flavor of would-be dictator would you like?" The idea that it might be a good thing to spend less than your income and actually produce something of value seems to have been lost, right along with the notion that what consenting adults do in private is their own busines.
And yes, I definitely want heroes. And heroines. And villains. If I wanted grim, dreary slice of life, I'd read the newspapers.
Reply
I think that's the right assumption for EVERYONE to make about authority figures. :-) (guess that part is not going to be hard to fit in - as the bishop said to the actress)
thinks to self - there has to be something bizarre about author and authority being so close but so different ;-)
Reply
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