Web Hype
6 Things of Scin
1. Sonora Review jump-jacked their flash fiction contest deadline. It is now May 1 (Bach’s death-day). Joe Wenderoth is the final judge. It pays a cool G (or 4000 draft PBRs in little plastic cups at Egan’s, Tuscaloosa, Alabama.)
It’s dirty, it’s dark, it’s loud, and it’s VERY smoky.
2. Or: A student on Tuesday asked “Why write if you are not going to publish?” Fair enough, BUT. Have you ever played chess on a back porch? Ever swam in a river, with no intention of crossing? The discussion blossomed. Writing as enjoyable play? Period.
3. Ever lipped something 100% not yours but kick ass at a reading and told no one? Ever. It is VERY fun. Try it. (Stories welcome)
4. Lit and gaming going to keep stadium lamping/furry cheeking one another. You can feel it, prickly on your skin. If Cage is right, both about the stakes and the merits of his creation, then gaming could be about to embark on an extraordinary transition, and in 20 years’ time, the people who make these games could be as fêted and culturally imposing as Ken Loach, Zadie Smith or Simon Rattle.
5. Used to be authors could sell their “letters” and maybe retire (or at-least cash in for those final years). It was a rite of passage for the big dogs. Like a reverse-benefactor. UT is the bumbledom/fangs (they believe) of all this. But. With email, IM, vid chat, what record will exist? What letters? What drafts? DELETE. Lost pinky drive. DELETE. Maybe it’s all for the better? DELETE.
6. Here is your Meat Joy because we all like that sort of thing. Meat and Joy.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6AK9TI3-LU
Tags: Joe Wenderoth, Meat Joy, sonora review, steal this book, Tuscaloosa
more than just enjoyable play, there is the capacity for self-transformation
more than just enjoyable play, there is the capacity for self-transformation
I always seem to be commenting on the video game stuff. Heavy Rain has had a lot of hype, and has gotten pretty good reviews so far. I am sure it will be a good game, and as far as heavily pushing story over gameplay, it’s a step forward for “artistic” games. But what I think artistic games should be is not an imitation of literature or movies, necessarily, but something that only video games can be. This is difficult to pin down, not just for me right now, but also for developers (since the “Citizen Kane” of games has yet to be made). I think Heavy Rain will be interesting, groundbreaking, etc. in certain ways, but being described as an “interactive film” in reviews is sort of a red flag that gaming isn’t there yet. Not that the article you linked to is claiming that, really, since its own outlined time frame is 20 years from now. so whatever.
I always seem to be commenting on the video game stuff. Heavy Rain has had a lot of hype, and has gotten pretty good reviews so far. I am sure it will be a good game, and as far as heavily pushing story over gameplay, it’s a step forward for “artistic” games. But what I think artistic games should be is not an imitation of literature or movies, necessarily, but something that only video games can be. This is difficult to pin down, not just for me right now, but also for developers (since the “Citizen Kane” of games has yet to be made). I think Heavy Rain will be interesting, groundbreaking, etc. in certain ways, but being described as an “interactive film” in reviews is sort of a red flag that gaming isn’t there yet. Not that the article you linked to is claiming that, really, since its own outlined time frame is 20 years from now. so whatever.
I think the Kane’s are coming, though, and not in 20 years time.
I think the Kane’s are coming, though, and not in 20 years time.
I think the industry is opening up to that idea, and games like Heavy Rain are really helping. If Heavy Rain is even a modest success, even more groundbreaking games will have a better chance. Every success will accelerate the process, maybe. Especially in the sense that people who may have had no interest in developing games because they saw them as something else (“just games”) could become interested in games and make something really great.
I think the industry is opening up to that idea, and games like Heavy Rain are really helping. If Heavy Rain is even a modest success, even more groundbreaking games will have a better chance. Every success will accelerate the process, maybe. Especially in the sense that people who may have had no interest in developing games because they saw them as something else (“just games”) could become interested in games and make something really great.
sean, did you tell the student (lad?) about the running/racing analogy? that really sunk it in for me.
sean, did you tell the student (lad?) about the running/racing analogy? that really sunk it in for me.
Picking up a copy of Heavy Rain tomorrow (pre-ordered.) Very excited, and a report will probably pop up here on my thinking on it, in it.
Picking up a copy of Heavy Rain tomorrow (pre-ordered.) Very excited, and a report will probably pop up here on my thinking on it, in it.
i was just coming to post here about number 3 and to ask you (david e) if you read that o’brien story until someone called bullshit, and if so, how far did you get before someone called it, if they did at all?
i was just coming to post here about number 3 and to ask you (david e) if you read that o’brien story until someone called bullshit, and if so, how far did you get before someone called it, if they did at all?
I’m excited about Heavy Rain. It’s going to look super awkward in five or ten years, but it’s an important step.
I’m excited about Heavy Rain. It’s going to look super awkward in five or ten years, but it’s an important step.
Re letters. There’s a funny line in Detlev Clausen’s Theodor W. Adorno: Ein letztes Genie: Clausen describes Adorno and Marcuse as belonging to die letzte briefschreibende Generation (the last letter-writing generation). Amazing. (The book came out in 2005.) I’ve easily exchanged thousands of emails with the people I know best, tens to hundreds to people with mere walk-on parts. In the past, if someone wanted to collect my correspondence, they would have had to chase down all the people I’d written to – not necessarily an easy task, since rather a lot of people who think they like me decide later that we are not on speaking terms. Had they been sent paper letters, they would probably have thrown them in the nearest bin. In our emailschreibende Generation, both sides of the correspondence are on various laptops, back-up CDs, portable hard drives and what have you. The sort of person who once relied on Hotmail and has now moved on to Gmail, and who is selective about the emails they save to disk, would not be able to offer this kind of insight to posterity, but in principle it’s a lot easier these days than it used to be.
Something I think is not being done but could be would be to move from the book launch to an event more like an art show: you could have an installation with paper notes and clippings, laptops on which you could read drafts of the book, correspondence relating to the various revisions. As things stand we really have no idea how unusual Gordon Lish’s treatment of Carver’s texts actually was – we have books out in the world, but we have no way of knowing the relation of author to text in the world we live in. (Gagosian had a show in London a few years ago displaying sketches and trial pieces by Rachel Whiteread in preparation for an installation at Tate Modern; the Royal Academy had a show of Bridget Riley’s work where they also displayed the sketches in which Riley had worked out what she wanted to do; we don’t really see that kind of curation in the book world.)
Re letters. There’s a funny line in Detlev Clausen’s Theodor W. Adorno: Ein letztes Genie: Clausen describes Adorno and Marcuse as belonging to die letzte briefschreibende Generation (the last letter-writing generation). Amazing. (The book came out in 2005.) I’ve easily exchanged thousands of emails with the people I know best, tens to hundreds to people with mere walk-on parts. In the past, if someone wanted to collect my correspondence, they would have had to chase down all the people I’d written to – not necessarily an easy task, since rather a lot of people who think they like me decide later that we are not on speaking terms. Had they been sent paper letters, they would probably have thrown them in the nearest bin. In our emailschreibende Generation, both sides of the correspondence are on various laptops, back-up CDs, portable hard drives and what have you. The sort of person who once relied on Hotmail and has now moved on to Gmail, and who is selective about the emails they save to disk, would not be able to offer this kind of insight to posterity, but in principle it’s a lot easier these days than it used to be.
Something I think is not being done but could be would be to move from the book launch to an event more like an art show: you could have an installation with paper notes and clippings, laptops on which you could read drafts of the book, correspondence relating to the various revisions. As things stand we really have no idea how unusual Gordon Lish’s treatment of Carver’s texts actually was – we have books out in the world, but we have no way of knowing the relation of author to text in the world we live in. (Gagosian had a show in London a few years ago displaying sketches and trial pieces by Rachel Whiteread in preparation for an installation at Tate Modern; the Royal Academy had a show of Bridget Riley’s work where they also displayed the sketches in which Riley had worked out what she wanted to do; we don’t really see that kind of curation in the book world.)
Not to excessively fawn etc, but I’d attend an exhibition of notes and correspondence and drafts and edits for The Last Samurai — an all-time fave (thanks).
Not to excessively fawn etc, but I’d attend an exhibition of notes and correspondence and drafts and edits for The Last Samurai — an all-time fave (thanks).
ha, christopher, thanks for asking. the reading is this sunday night. knowing me i’ll probably chicken out.
ha, christopher, thanks for asking. the reading is this sunday night. knowing me i’ll probably chicken out.
no way, dude. do it. as a social experiment if nothing else. in the name of science, david!
no way, dude. do it. as a social experiment if nothing else. in the name of science, david!
with the jump-jacked deadline, when are results expected? thanks.
with the jump-jacked deadline, when are results expected? thanks.