Comments | kuroshii: because it bears repeating

kuroshii

because it bears repeating

Apr 23, 2007 16:37

and because i want a record of it somewhere i can nab easily, thank you:

THE GREAT CLOMPING FOOT OF NERDISM

http://www.williamgibsonbooks.com/blog/2007_04_01_archive.asp#5345355050073702108
M John Harrison, absolutely brilliantly, as quoted by Warren Ellis :

"Every moment of a science fiction story must represent the triumph of writing over ( Read more... )

Comments 15

inspectorxero April 23 2007, 21:53:35 UTC

so, i understand the point of this, i think. does this mean that one should look down their nose and tolkein and poo-poo him for trying too hard?

perhaps, a different angle would be (this coming from someone who prefers all his writing to be set in the "real" world) that those that cannot world build are jealous of the abilities of those that can and rather than respect the ability seek to tear it down.

kuroshii April 23 2007, 22:18:30 UTC

no, because tolkien didn't let the world he created get in the way of a fantastic story.

they're talking about folks that go "ooo! look at this neat place i made up! looklooklook, it has it's own laws of physics completely different from ours!...wait, you mean things have to happen? i need character development and a plot? oh come on, isn't this neat planet with it's flying cars and it's purple sun enough for you?!"

inspectorxero April 23 2007, 23:49:17 UTC

ah. yes. that is annoying.

mcd000 April 24 2007, 00:34:48 UTC

All things considered, gleaning the intent of a quote fourth-hand (you cite Gibson, citing Ellis, quoting Harrison), is a crap-shoot at best. I know my initial read on it was more or less exactly the same as inspectorxero's ( ... )

kuroshii April 24 2007, 00:49:20 UTC

ah. yes.

i didn't mean (by posting the quote) to devalue the building of the world itself. if you're writing a story in a new world/universe, you've got to have put that thought into it.

but it doesn't need to all go in to the story, and it better not be at the expense of the story.

so, yeah. what i'm grumping at (and what i thought, perhaps wrongly, that harrison was initially grumping at and the folks in between were agreeing with by quoting) is making a new world just for the "playing with clay" factor and leaving it at that. to me, telling a story is the most important part of it: if i wanted to simply show off a cool purple sun, i'd write a travelogue...and i've done that in reality! but a travelogue is usually not a story. there's got to be a reason why your story takes place in that particular world you've made and no other.

mcd000 April 24 2007, 01:31:04 UTC

Oh, definitely. As they say, the designer knows he has achieved perfection when there is nothing left to take away. Anything that doesn't expressly need to be established as different should be taken as understood to be 'normal'... extraneous details and such can work great as background elements on film, but in text, they're clutter.

kuroshii April 24 2007, 02:08:14 UTC

exactly. as harrison put it (above): it's "the attempt to exhaustively survey a place that isn't there." no thank you! tell me the story!

whitebuddha April 25 2007, 00:57:01 UTC

totally off topic, but this is your first reminder that you are definitely, for sure going to GenCon this year!

Right?

kuroshii April 25 2007, 14:19:22 UTC

i'm workin' on it. but even if i can't go for the whole weekend to GM for shadowrun as i'd like, i should at least be able to go down for the day saturday or something. should, dammit. we shall see!

pseudomatt May 10 2007, 11:56:30 UTC

I hope this doesn't apply to God. He built an entire universe, but I find his foot to be more dainty than clomping. He tends to be very subtle about everything...unlike certain sci-fi and fantasy writers, who indeed have great, clomping feet.

Just because of the sound of it, it might be more fun if we reject the Great Clomping Elbows of Geekistry.

Oh! The worship of prisms? Prismism. And if two leaders in this religion were to have a public falling out, it would be called The Prismism Schism.

Okay. I'll turn me off now. Hope you are well...

kuroshii May 16 2007, 15:18:23 UTC

And if two leaders in this religion were to have a public falling out, it would be called The Prismism Schism.

sure puts a new spin on the term "enlightenment," doesn't it? ;)

pseudomatt June 1 2007, 18:31:39 UTC

You have to post now.

I'm not posting, but that's different. My plan is to live vicariously through Kuroshii... so, without your verbalization, I live in an empty, blank space.

Without posts, it sort of feels like I am living in a box that has no inside, outside or walls. It's a non-box. A Noh mask over a boxless zilch.

Anyway. I hope you are well, my friend.

kuroshii June 2 2007, 20:09:41 UTC

A Noh mask over a boxless zilch.
are you saying you're Kaonasshi ("No-Face") from Spirited Away? in which case you're calling me Sen. i'll try to help you like Sen helped No-Face: i will do my best to think of something to say (post) in the next day or three. i hadn't realised so much time had gone by since my last post.

your Incredible Shrinking Blogs (both of them) have made me sad. :( i hope you at least saved them off as files somewhere.

pseudomatt June 4 2007, 05:35:22 UTC

I do have the posts saved. I'm even continuing to write the sessions, I had just started to feel embarrassed by them (and very repetetive), I couldn't have them up anymore. Maybe I'll put the sessions in these comments, make Kuroshii-land their secret home base.

kuroshii June 4 2007, 17:53:36 UTC

Hmmm. If you like, I could even make the occasional "super-sekrit" posting here in kuroshii-land, just for you to comment on. I'd friendslock it/them so random passersby wouldn't see.