January 2012
32 posts
Praskovia Kovalyova-Zhemchugova - Wikipedia, the... →
This entry may fail to make sense >_>
I was having a discussion with several people about a) why are visual novels VISUAL, b) why don’t novels have multiple endings, but games often do, c) why we still read purely textual stories but don’t play purely textual games anymore (well, some people
have abandoned pure text)
1. Novels, as a form (in the West), derive from fictional (first person) memoirs and accounts. Thusly,...
25 Things I Learned From Opening a Bookstore -... →
Blue Lines Revisited: So, What ARE People Buying... →
tomewing:
Yesterday I asked the question, “what are people buying instead of music?”. If the free availability of music - legal or otherwise - has led to a relative decline in money spent on non-free music, where has that money gone? I got a bunch of really interesting responses, so here they are.
Tech
I also voted tech (see original post for a rundown of the other responses). Then again,...
an entirely uninformed entry, but that is what...
Was intrigued by this article about Pitchfork. via mefi.
I have no grounding to properly evaluate the claims made, as I fall into the category of “have heard there is a well-known website known as Pitchfork.”
The main criticism it makes of Pitchfork is that they are fans, and not critics, and exert a malign influence upon their favorite genres because they elevate a sort of...
What to call baby? | The Japan Times Online →
Countries & Colour | Jerod Gibson Design →
Question of the day inspired by recent readings: What works that are actually good end with “and then they woke up” (Besides Alice in Wonderland)?
My thoughts on pretension (since it seems to be...
BTW, “The Season of Pretension” would be a good title for something, it strikes me. (Refs: Link 1, Link 2) BTW, haven’t read through as carefully as I could, so I could be repeating someone. 1. I tend to believe a person who “fraudulently” puts on airs or pretends to things is most accurately termed a ‘poseur,’ but YMMV. I also often feel that in practice,...
On "angst dissonance"
Angst Dissonance
Someone sent me this link in the context of a discussion they showed me about “manpain” etc.
Must say this TVtropes post is fairly good about analyzing what is so annoying about it. IME though, I don’t come across it too much, but… that is because I try to avoid sucky things, and angst dissonance/manpain is, I believe, indicative of poor writing in...
more random tablet notes.
Must say typing on a tablet is (still) quite pants. I still don’t see how people do it on a phone, but they seem to be able, somehow. I can vaguely touch-type if I landscape-mode the tablet, but the lack of tactile feedback is disconcerting.
Also, fie on Tumblr for not making the tumblr app compatible with my version of Android. Maybe it’ll be better once the upgrade to ICS comes, but...
“The Latin word refrigerium literally means ‘refreshment’, and is the origin of...”
– Refrigerium - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Huh.
Comments Commentary - Matt Gemmell →
There seems to be a debate on comments within the tech-blogging community.
“As tablets lose weight, so do e-readers. As tablets get cheaper, so do...”
– “The E-Reader, as we know it, is doomed” – Marco.org
I agree with this response (Marco’s argument, BTW, is that it’s NOT doomed, although the post title is misleading). Based on what I’ve heard about Pixel Qi and Mirasol, it is going to be quite awhile before a best-of-both-worlds...
Also dumping this here: Is the Final Fantasy franchise dying? Apparently the last two installments were relatively unsuccessful. I didn’t play them because I didn’t have the correct console, or the descriptions of the plot turned me off; FF12 was described as LoTR+Star Wars, which made me be all like “why would I want to play that?” and FF13 was described as a mess,...
Was discussing with Z her dislike for House and other shows that feature an Asshole Genius. Z really hates these because they seem to validate the idea that it’s ok to be an asshole if you’re a genius, and have some kind of ronery destiny of the genius going on. She then went on to ask what I thought, but my thoughts on the matter are that I really have no desire to watch House so it...
A Massive Black Field of Cut Steel Plants Reveals... →
This is What Happens When You Give Thousands of... →
December 2011
17 posts
[Transcript] Tyler Cowen on Stories - Less Wrong... →
This is tangential to the story, er, talk itself, but in a way which I have never been able to articulate well, I have always been suspicious about stories as forms of literary criticism (a la fanfic, or a la literary fiction responding to classical works). As stories themselves, fine, but I have always had this perhaps irrational suspicion that it was somehow not ‘true’ or...
“Media products act like solidarity goods – a permanent economic class of goods...”
– - Faris Yakob
For people who liked my final Poptimist column, this quote is the “replication” perspective in a nutshell. Not that it doesn’t apply to imitative stuff too, but if this is the criteria for value and worth, then things that spread by imitation will always be less economically efficient...
How You Got Videogames Wrong #2: The Vanity Glitch... →
Really interesting blog post on “The Vanity Glitch.” The comments by the author actually explain his point better than the article itself, IMHO, so scroll down after you read it.
I do actually seek something similar to this in fiction, the encounter with the Other, and I am gathering his point is that this ‘glitch’ highlights and foregrounds this aspect of storytelling....
Apps I am trying out on Transformer
So far, I have tried out the following apps on my Asus Transformer:
Since I bought it from Gamestop, I received some free games. Must say, of the ones I’ve tried, none of them really appeal to me because of the genre, or because they would be much better with a controller (like the Sonic game). Mind you, I have never been into platformers, racing games, or shooters, so I can’t...
Paris Review – Document: The Symbolism Survey,... →
In 1963, a high school student sends prominent writers of the day a questionnaire on symbolism.
Вне времени, вне пространства... - Клод Верлинд... →
The artwork of Claude Verlinde.
“Adolescent boys, of the kind who take up books in the first place these days,...”
– “The Lord of the Rings,” “Twilight,” and Young-Adult Fantasy Books : The New Yorker
This is TOTALLY LIKE SHOUNEN MANGA.
“Paul Graham’s essay “What You’ll Wish You’d Known,” which I teach in my first...”
– Paul Graham and not being as right as he could be in “The Age of the Essay” « The Story’s Story
From the essay. Oddly this makes me think of fictional works and responses to them: works that are “argumentative/essay-like” and more explicitly treat with ideas are IMHO more...
Paul Graham and not being as right as he could be... →
Quite interesting… I need to show this to some people I know who teach writing.
Asus Transformer First Impressions
Recently bought an Asus Transformer (I got it for significantly less than an iPad, BTW). I think it’s quite a good machine, quick, and with a nice screen. I’ll admit I bought it mainly to read manga and pdfs, and it does a good job with those. The “stretch to zoom” thing is very handy.
The interface presents rather a learning curve; I don’t have a smartphone, so this...
November 2011
27 posts
