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1. Rather liked the below youtube video, featuring Louis CK on why he hates cell phones:
( Read more... )
The comment that stuck out for me was about empathy. When you insult someone to their face - and you see how much pain it causes them, you see and feel their pain and are less likely to do it. But when you just text it, email it, or post it online, you don't see their face and so don't feel their pain. The empathy is gone. Explains a lot of nasty online conflicts in a nutshell.
2. Conversation between me and co-worker about current events:
[Joke is made about someone hiding a plane.]
Me: Someone hid a plane?
Co-worker (flabergasted): The Malaysia Plane.
Me: What Malaysia Plane?
Co-worker: The missing one.
Me: There's a missing plane?
Co-worker: How can you not know about the Malaysia Plane??
Me: I haven't really been watching the news lately. Well outside of the local news and weather at any rate.
Co-worker: You are the only person I know who doesn't know about this. What rock are you hiding under? How can't you know about this???
Me: Hmmm, now I want to google the plane.
Co-worker: You don't need to google it, all you have to do is visit any website on the internet.
Me: News websites.
[Apparently they lost a plane with over 260 people on it over the Pacific. They can't find the plane. It just disappeared. Sounds like something out of a science fiction television series. Also, why hasn't my flist been posting about this? Or maybe you have, and I've just been oblivious.]
3. There's a rather interesting review on Good Reads about a new non-fiction novel entitled Fic:Why Fanfic is Taking Over the World by Anne Jamison and various other contributors.
While this is rather tempting - if only to read Nautibitz and Amber Benson's contributions, there are some bits that are likely to annoy me. The main one being the author's ignorance of simple copyright laws and regulations. First off, according to the reviewer, the author seems to think all fanfic is copyright infringement. It's not. It's actually permissible under the Fair Use Clause, as long as the writer is not publishing it for financial gain or the distribution isn't depriving the original owner of financial gain. This is a common mistake of many people in the publishing industry as well as in fandom. The other big mistake Jamison makes is she equates plagirism with copyright infringement. Stating that fanfic is basically plagirism. No. Again that's wrong. Plagirism is literally copying the content of someone else's work and passing it off as your own. For art - it's forging a painting. That's outright theft. Copyright infringement doesn't mean outright theft. It would be like taking a Buffy script and copying out huge sections and putting those sections in a fanfic - that's plagirism. Not the same thing as fanfic.
I don't mind if fiction writers don't fact check. Nor do I mind if bloggers don't fact check.
Put people who write non-fiction for a living must fact-check.
So, I'm passing on this book. Even if it addresses an interesting topic - the P2P, Push-to-Publish fanfic movement. Basically, you take a "popular" fanfic that you wrote, change the names, and publish it. (It needs to be Alternate Universe or Everybody's Human (if the original material was paranormal/fantasy or sci-fi), and not closely resemble the original material you based it on, obviously.) My difficulty with it - is a lot of fanfic writers tend to leave out critical details, mainly as a short-cut, which is justified by the fact that their readers know the original material like the back of their hand - so no worries.
But when you change it - removing all resemblance to the original material - then those details become necessary to the story. An example is 50 Shades of Grey - which was scant on character development for 80% of its supporting characters. They came across as stock characters. And were a bit interchangeable. Oddly, the better fanfic writers, who do provide these critical details are either not as widely popular (they don't write erotica), or tend to be more into writing about a paranormal or fantasy world - building and reinterpreting the current one, which makes it impossible to do a P2P.
The other difficulty I have with P2P is that I rather like the creative spontaneity and playfulness of fanfic. Publishing it sort of kills that.
4. Reading Meme:
Finished reading The Undead Pool, book 12 in the Rachel Morgan series by Kim Harrison. If you haven't read the first 11 books, you'll be hopelessly lost. While I enjoyed aspects of the book, I find Harrison's increased focus on science and her thematic arc...grating, as well as mildly preachy. If you decide to read Harrison's novels - stop at book 9. The last three aren't that good. The writing quality slides downhill a bit. Or better yet? Just read up to The Outlaw Demon Wails. I have a feeling, and this happens a lot with prolific best-selling writers or so I've discovered, that the editor decided not to take a nap or a vacation.
Other than that, I did enjoy it. And I like the direction the books are headed.
Currently reading? I'm not sure. I tried Magic Bites. And am attempting Notorious Pleasures by Elizabeth Hoyt. Sort of flirting with books, hoping one keeps my attention and doesn't put me to sleep. I've admittedly been doing a lot of work-related reading. Read the FRA Report of Metro North's Derailment today, and a lot of information on Fire Alarm Detection Systems - while revising a 264 page contract. Feel brain dead.
Reading next? No clue.
( Read more... )
The comment that stuck out for me was about empathy. When you insult someone to their face - and you see how much pain it causes them, you see and feel their pain and are less likely to do it. But when you just text it, email it, or post it online, you don't see their face and so don't feel their pain. The empathy is gone. Explains a lot of nasty online conflicts in a nutshell.
2. Conversation between me and co-worker about current events:
[Joke is made about someone hiding a plane.]
Me: Someone hid a plane?
Co-worker (flabergasted): The Malaysia Plane.
Me: What Malaysia Plane?
Co-worker: The missing one.
Me: There's a missing plane?
Co-worker: How can you not know about the Malaysia Plane??
Me: I haven't really been watching the news lately. Well outside of the local news and weather at any rate.
Co-worker: You are the only person I know who doesn't know about this. What rock are you hiding under? How can't you know about this???
Me: Hmmm, now I want to google the plane.
Co-worker: You don't need to google it, all you have to do is visit any website on the internet.
Me: News websites.
[Apparently they lost a plane with over 260 people on it over the Pacific. They can't find the plane. It just disappeared. Sounds like something out of a science fiction television series. Also, why hasn't my flist been posting about this? Or maybe you have, and I've just been oblivious.]
3. There's a rather interesting review on Good Reads about a new non-fiction novel entitled Fic:Why Fanfic is Taking Over the World by Anne Jamison and various other contributors.
While this is rather tempting - if only to read Nautibitz and Amber Benson's contributions, there are some bits that are likely to annoy me. The main one being the author's ignorance of simple copyright laws and regulations. First off, according to the reviewer, the author seems to think all fanfic is copyright infringement. It's not. It's actually permissible under the Fair Use Clause, as long as the writer is not publishing it for financial gain or the distribution isn't depriving the original owner of financial gain. This is a common mistake of many people in the publishing industry as well as in fandom. The other big mistake Jamison makes is she equates plagirism with copyright infringement. Stating that fanfic is basically plagirism. No. Again that's wrong. Plagirism is literally copying the content of someone else's work and passing it off as your own. For art - it's forging a painting. That's outright theft. Copyright infringement doesn't mean outright theft. It would be like taking a Buffy script and copying out huge sections and putting those sections in a fanfic - that's plagirism. Not the same thing as fanfic.
I don't mind if fiction writers don't fact check. Nor do I mind if bloggers don't fact check.
Put people who write non-fiction for a living must fact-check.
So, I'm passing on this book. Even if it addresses an interesting topic - the P2P, Push-to-Publish fanfic movement. Basically, you take a "popular" fanfic that you wrote, change the names, and publish it. (It needs to be Alternate Universe or Everybody's Human (if the original material was paranormal/fantasy or sci-fi), and not closely resemble the original material you based it on, obviously.) My difficulty with it - is a lot of fanfic writers tend to leave out critical details, mainly as a short-cut, which is justified by the fact that their readers know the original material like the back of their hand - so no worries.
But when you change it - removing all resemblance to the original material - then those details become necessary to the story. An example is 50 Shades of Grey - which was scant on character development for 80% of its supporting characters. They came across as stock characters. And were a bit interchangeable. Oddly, the better fanfic writers, who do provide these critical details are either not as widely popular (they don't write erotica), or tend to be more into writing about a paranormal or fantasy world - building and reinterpreting the current one, which makes it impossible to do a P2P.
The other difficulty I have with P2P is that I rather like the creative spontaneity and playfulness of fanfic. Publishing it sort of kills that.
4. Reading Meme:
Finished reading The Undead Pool, book 12 in the Rachel Morgan series by Kim Harrison. If you haven't read the first 11 books, you'll be hopelessly lost. While I enjoyed aspects of the book, I find Harrison's increased focus on science and her thematic arc...grating, as well as mildly preachy. If you decide to read Harrison's novels - stop at book 9. The last three aren't that good. The writing quality slides downhill a bit. Or better yet? Just read up to The Outlaw Demon Wails. I have a feeling, and this happens a lot with prolific best-selling writers or so I've discovered, that the editor decided not to take a nap or a vacation.
Other than that, I did enjoy it. And I like the direction the books are headed.
Currently reading? I'm not sure. I tried Magic Bites. And am attempting Notorious Pleasures by Elizabeth Hoyt. Sort of flirting with books, hoping one keeps my attention and doesn't put me to sleep. I've admittedly been doing a lot of work-related reading. Read the FRA Report of Metro North's Derailment today, and a lot of information on Fire Alarm Detection Systems - while revising a 264 page contract. Feel brain dead.
Reading next? No clue.