Bermuda triangle
Drawing is taking a line for a walk
Paul Klee
But then surely so is writing [with pen literally anyway, metaphorically only with other means]. The challenge of narrative is to get around a triangle without it seeming like a triangle? Straight story telling is A to B, more involved tales go via C first, but the really interesting stuff starts/finishes and travels via other nodes entirely.
PARTICIPATORY CLI-FI
Really interesting participatory story-telling project. Shame one never hears about these things till after. Hopefully this pilot was deemed a success and a larger project will return in 2016.
post-print fictions
An interesting website with articles/thoughts on digital literature. One work I must look into is Hamlet on the Holodeck though this seemingly only looks at digital narrative.
I have long held a desire to do some post post-graduate research into ‘experimental’ fiction [whatever that may mean], but unfortunately I find the structure of higher education to be ill-fitted to such an endeavour. Simply, if the topic of enquiry is ‘non-standard’ then perhaps the accreditation process has to be likewise?
Then of course there is the cost of the study, for what one would imagine is unlikely to be an area of research that is going to lead to anything but academic possibilities/progression/work?
I have therefore long held the believe that such a doctorate would need to be a PhD by ‘other means’.
skiffy
As long noted, Sci-Fi books have had a bad press [often of its own making] due not so much to content [though often as pulpy as its wrapper] but due to the frequently awful cover art.
This of course never need be the case. Though arguably fashions change over time [and there are fans of pulp/bad taste art] book covers should be something you would hang on your wall as art if you were able [like movie posters and LP covers in frames].
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syntax and ideas
Interesting radio programme. I love the speech from Jaws.
Best quote “Thought is analogue whilst words are digital.”
Raw Shark Texts
stroop
I love the hand-printed quality of the original Stroop test. Perhaps the exacting nature of the test with the inexactness of the way it is presented highlight the delicious contradiction of words?
nystagmus
I taught myself to speed read [to a certain degree] whilst still in my teens [the book is still around somewhere – must refresh the skill] so I found this article very interesting. ‘Less is more’ seems to be the message?
Remember, writers: If your composition isn’t as simply written as humanly possible, you’re doing it wrong. Again and again, we’re telling authors, “Listen, there are thousands of books and articles I can read instead of yours, thousands of gifs and videos and tweets and listicles I can enjoy at the tap of a finger. So don’t make this too hard for me.”
As a supporter of less verbiage in fiction it might seem that I agree with the above statement, which from one perspective is true, but on the other hand fewer words does not have to mean less complex, less depth or easier.
I do find it both funny and frightening that by the logical extension of the ‘make it simpler’ idea we seem to be inevitably regressing [progressing?] closer back towards a communication system of monosyllabic grunts? How many character are allowed on Twitter? Surely far too many?
Jane read book.
John want book.
John burn book.
Book bad John.
Book bad Jane.
complexity
Difficult books? A list of lists. Surely any book is difficult if the subject doesn’t interest you? I can’t think of anything more tedious than 19th century romances; even more long winded than contemporary verbiage laden efforts.
Some works are only intelligible if you are prepared to take the time to try to unpick the complexities of the language. Some, particularly stream of conscious style narratives, perhaps do not have an easily decipherable ‘story’ or meaning?
Some complexity resides at the word level, some at the sentence level, some at the paragraph level, some at the chapter level [to but use the commonly defined and excepted terms for linguistical units].
The problem as I see it with current writing practice is twofold: authors [or rather potential writers] are taught certain ‘rules’ that must be obeyed. One of which for instance is ‘narrative flow’. Having digested this rule they may well go on to produce perfectly acceptable/high selling/highly read but ultimately rather bland narratives.
The second problem is writers do not figure out that whilst there may be nothing wrong with learning the rules as guidelines, there is a need to ‘break’/extend these stipulations; so few writers then go on to learn how to fly. Most remain ‘plodders’ in both structure and subject.
There is certainly a place for ‘straight’ fiction told in a straight way [I am currently struggling to find a path through the poetry of Prynne] as no one is of a mind to work hard all the time, but the comparative sparsity of ‘complicated’ literary works is rather …. words fail me.
revolver
Would make a good premise for a story? Earth stops rotating. I seem to recall a H.G Wells? short story about a man who discovers he can work miracles and in so doing stops the Earth revolving; and everyone flew off into space as gravity failed. Not sure it works that way, despite common belief.
obscene
The passage of time. “The tendency to deprave and corrupt.”
One always looks back and wonders just what was the problem with certain books? Religion, sexual content, ‘bad’ language? Whether Howl or Lady Chatterly’s Lover or Naked Lunch or Lolita or Ulysses.
Presumably most authorities have now discovered that banning or censoring something does little more than increase desire from potential readers [most of whom may probably have never heard of a book if it hadn’t been the victim of a controversy].
An interesting podcast on Joyce’s banned tome.
connections
An interesting little resource that makes some connections between some 20th Century British authors. Would need to be much enlarged and with more peculiar links to be truly wonderful.
normal B S
I have enjoyed reading B.S. Johnson’s House Mother Normal and Albert Angelo but I couldn’t get into Trawl. Intriguing/unusual format is not enough if the topic is of no interest yo you. I also disagree with Johnson that ‘all narrative must be true to life’.
bum’s rush
A great title for a work? Sinister Buttocks. Apparently a top scorer in what is now known as rogeting. An attempt to get away with plagiarising other work by changing certain words to synonyms.
hell freezes over
Beginning to upload some of the whittlings from the last 10 years. Nothing complete. Hopefully airing laundry in ‘public’ will be the needed prod to continue with the painfully slow process of discovery.
This blog malarkey certainly ain’t straightforward! Took me a whole evening to find a suitable theme [needed width]. Strangely it has ended up being a theme that was created for the display of images rather than text, which is completely appropriate given the ‘visual’ nature of the works.
Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers. ISAAC ASIMOV
korl miere 