zornwil Posted May 2, 2005 Report Share Posted May 2, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings I honestly don't know what to say to that. Its flattering' date=' but it seems beyond my league. Can genre fiction even hit those levels?[/quote'] I guess it depends how genre you remain, so that's a valid point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor Otaku Posted May 2, 2005 Report Share Posted May 2, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings I honestly don't know what to say to that. Its flattering' date=' but it seems beyond my league. Can genre fiction even hit those levels?[/quote'] Try not to think of it as genre fiction to begin with. The main focus of the story should be the very first layer that the reader sees and the genre should be just the background and window dressing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Skaramine Posted May 2, 2005 Report Share Posted May 2, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings Try not to think of it as genre fiction to begin with. The main focus of the story should be the very first layer that the reader sees and the genre should be just the background and window dressing. A-men! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor Otaku Posted May 2, 2005 Report Share Posted May 2, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings A-men! Now if I could just remind myself that... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Skaramine Posted May 2, 2005 Report Share Posted May 2, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings Now if I could just remind myself that... Hold on. I've got ink and a rusty nail. I'll tattoo it on ya... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vondy Posted May 2, 2005 Report Share Posted May 2, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings You could do it. I was just thinking earlier today that if I could find a practical alternative to my job... oh, btw If I can find the information from them, could you keep it in mind to contact a company over there for me? They are the ones who make the bullpup conversion sniper stock for the M-14 rifle. I know several people who would like them, if something could be worked out. Now that the Stupid AWB has sunsetted, it might be possible. I can try! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vondy Posted May 2, 2005 Report Share Posted May 2, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings Depends on your opinion of Kurt Vonnegut. He blurs the lines between what people call "literary" fiction and "genre" fiction, I think. Some of his writing is very powerful, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Gillen Posted May 2, 2005 Report Share Posted May 2, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings I read slaugherhouse 5 in high school. I hated it. oh well. Why did I know you would say that? JG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vondy Posted May 2, 2005 Report Share Posted May 2, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings Dashell Hammet. William Bourroughs. Robert E. Howard. Louis L'Amour. John D MacDonald. Yeah. Genre can rise above. I completely agree these authrors rise above the norms of their genres and are amazing story tellers. I would add Raymond Chandler, especially when it comes to writing and the slick use of metaphor; another would be Patrick O'Brien who writes some of the finest genre (british naval) fiction out there (not to everyone's taste, but the man knows how to write!). I guess when I use the phrase "that level" I mean something a little different. I was responding to Zorn's use of the world weighty. I would have picked different author's of course (I can't finish a Mailer novel and Vidal is more miss than hit with me), but I had a sense of what he was getting at. I would have picked Steinbeck or Hemingway (or Ken Kesey), probably. These author's stories often just step up and smack you - hard. They've got power rolling behind them. They force you to react. I seldom feel that way when I pick up a piece of "genre fiction" (it could simply be I'm reading the wrong stuff). I had a Danish exchange teacher for American Lit in my senior year of highschool who read one of my short stories and spent the rest of the year telling me I could be the next great American writer. I hated hearing it. I also, without making a conscious decision, stopped writing. It made it hard to be fair about my writing. Its only been the last few years I've tried to start again. This whole conversation has gotten me thinking about the "genre fiction" I've read and whether any of it has reached out and given me a good right hook, or forced me to reassess what I think about something, or taught me a deeper lesson - more than just entertained. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazza Posted May 2, 2005 Report Share Posted May 2, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings VDM, Also check the status of copyrights on any story you submit and see if you can retain the copyrights for second printings etc. I've recent read about REH's 'copyright chaos' and would advise you find out who owns the copyrights to any story you submit. There is too many cases in the Twentieth Century when the artists got the short stick and had to fight to get there copyrights back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gewing Posted May 3, 2005 Report Share Posted May 3, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings Why did I know you would say that? JG A: I think I mentioned it before. B: I guess I'm becoming too predictable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Skaramine Posted May 3, 2005 Report Share Posted May 3, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings A: I think I mentioned it before. B: I guess I'm becoming too predictable. I didn't expect THAT! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Gillen Posted May 3, 2005 Report Share Posted May 3, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings A: I think I mentioned it before. B: I guess I'm becoming too predictable. That was kind of a precognition joke. JG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Gillen Posted May 4, 2005 Report Share Posted May 4, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings From "War in the Pacific" : "Emporer Hirohito said that the military concentrated to much on the spirit and not enough on science." I wonder if this didn't effect the rise of high tech in Japan after the war? I thought the reliance on high tech was due to several factors: 1. They lost 2. They lost because they didn't have the tech base or resource base to deal with the US, and couldn't compete on a purely industrial/military level, but can compete on the level of trade and services in a post-war world market 3. The 'spirit' referred to a Shinto concept of Japan as invincible and the Emperor as godlike, ideas that Hirohito himself gladly gave up. The old Japanese self-concept was rather flawed in that regard, and it was unsustainable in defeat. JG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zornwil Posted May 4, 2005 Report Share Posted May 4, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings I think also that the emphasis on spirit and some Shinto ideals was due to Japan's lack of resources, i.e., it was basically a rationalization. It's interesting that both Germany and Japan were relatively resource-poor. And that their conquests put them on the path to greater resource riches but were too destabilizing not to create the global conflict they could not control. A more modest plan on either side (Japan vs China, Germany vs Russia) might have enabled the long-term empires they sought, then again the drive for those conquests, especially in Germany's situation, doesn't seem possible without the extremism which made restraint and long-term thinking virtually impossible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackSword Posted May 4, 2005 Report Share Posted May 4, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings North Dakota had an overnight low of 2 degrees yesterday. When will America take global warming seriously?? JG I had the same thought this morning. We have had frost the past two days in StL. I don't ever remember frost this late in the spring. My thought was, "Finally, the global cooling theory has come to pass...oh wait...its global warming now." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Worldmaker Posted May 4, 2005 Report Share Posted May 4, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings I may have some more cash available for a pic towards the end of the month so ATTENTION WORLDMAKER ! Would you like a Storn rendered picture of Half Track from the fatal four ? Of course I would. Hell, man... if I could afford it, I'd put Storn on my permanent payroll for NPC art. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Skaramine Posted May 4, 2005 Report Share Posted May 4, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings North Dakota had an overnight low of 2 degrees yesterday. When will America take global warming seriously?? JG When George W. Bush's penis breaks of and shatters on the sidewalk in front of him, despite wearing thermal underwear? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Skaramine Posted May 4, 2005 Report Share Posted May 4, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings Things I Learned From Watching The Shield: #3: Concealing a corpse under a Porta-Potty helps hide the smell. JG I so want to watch that tape. Damn.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Skaramine Posted May 4, 2005 Report Share Posted May 4, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings The first "really cool" moment in the Return of the King, at least for me, is the lighting of the beacons, going all the way to Aragorn's "The beacons are lit! Gondor calls for aid!" and Theoden's "And Rohan will answer! Muster the Rohirrim!" in response. That scene choked me up in the theaters. That is one of the scenes that truly makes a man's heart soar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mentor Posted May 4, 2005 Report Share Posted May 4, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings Not for me. Tolkein was a wonderful world-builder who wrote well-crafted and elegant prose' date=' but I don't consider him a great [i']writer. [/i]He frequently strayed from theme and plot, and I felt the writing in Lord of the Rings often lacked vigor and healthy pacing. he was doting on the languages and the world he wanted to create more than he was actively telling a story. This is not to say I don't like Tolkein's wgs down when I fork, but it is to say I can put it down without much effort. Then again, I hated Citizen Kane, so what do I know? Interesting take on Tolkien. He was deliberately trying to emulate some of the style qualities of Anglo Saxon sagas in the telling of the story of the One Ring, and anybody who has read some will agree that they really drap own in description. OTOH, the setting of Middle Earth sort of required a lot of descriptive prose to give both tone and pacing. I can easily see how a reader would get distracted although I was then opposite. I couldn't put the damn thing down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Gillen Posted May 4, 2005 Report Share Posted May 4, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings I think also that the emphasis on spirit and some Shinto ideals was due to Japan's lack of resources, i.e., it was basically a rationalization. It's interesting that both Germany and Japan were relatively resource-poor. And that their conquests put them on the path to greater resource riches but were too destabilizing not to create the global conflict they could not control. A more modest plan on either side (Japan vs China, Germany vs Russia) might have enabled the long-term empires they sought, then again the drive for those conquests, especially in Germany's situation, doesn't seem possible without the extremism which made restraint and long-term thinking virtually impossible. To me it demonstrates that (contrary to some opinion) imperalism is not good for your economy- and free trade is not imperalism. JG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Gillen Posted May 4, 2005 Report Share Posted May 4, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings Erszebet Bathory has a very interesting biography. Do a google search on her if you don't have a weak stomach. I'm thinking of starting an Urban Legand that the origin of the word "bath" came from her name. Very interesting indeed. JG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Gillen Posted May 4, 2005 Report Share Posted May 4, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings Of course, the third really cool moment is the coolest. When Eowen gets between the Nazgul and his prey. Not even "Legolas takes down the behemoth", the fourth moment, is as cool as the third. "That's still only one!!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Squirrel Posted May 5, 2005 Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 Re: Musings on Random Musings Very interesting indeed. JG I was bored last night and did some search on BTK and was reminded of that particular killer and figured I'd look her up. I recall hearing once something that she did to people involving cages but I can't recall the details now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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