define('DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT', true); define('DISALLOW_FILE_MODS', true); Among Mad People » Five lists make a post? No, wait…
 

Five lists make a post? No, wait…

  • What I purchased on Black Friday:
    1. Lunch for me and my family at the Blue Elephant: $30
    2. Gas: $19.99
    3. A pack of gum for my daughter and a York Peppermint Patty for me: $2.25

      So, you see, to the tune or $52.24, I am doing my part to keep this great consumerist state going.

  • Things I am no longer doing, and glad for it:
    1. Shopping at Target
    2. Reading new Gene Wolfe

      I love “Seven American Nights” and “The Death of Dr. Island” and “The Tree is My Hat” and “Golden City Far” and always will, but the new stuff doesn’t work for me, and I don’t want to have to take Wolfe down from the genius pedestal, so I’ve decided I’ve met my Wolfe quota for this lifetime.

    3. Flying

      There’s only one way to call bullshit on the latest incarnation of security theater, and that’s to refuse to play the game. I don’t have to fly anywhere, and I’m not going to.

  • Things I am no longer doing, but wish I were:
    1. yoga
    2. writing
    3. composting (the composter was among the things destroyed during the work on the house, and I don’t yet have a new one)
  • Story types that have to overcome my prejudices to get bought at PodCastle:
    1. Stories about 9/11
    2. Stories about New York
    3. Stories set in China or Japan, written by Westerners or containing talking animals, Samurai or ninjas
    4. Stories with untrustworthy worldbuilding
    5. Stories without sensory details, other than the visual (aka, lack of sensory details makes Anna cry)
    6. Stories where the exotic locale exists only in the service of the white, Western male hero, to better highlight his manliness and glory.
    7. Stories written with the sensibilities of film, or about films.
    8. Stories that are ostensibly philosophical, particularly religiously philosophical, but never go farther than philosophy and/or religion 101.
    9. Stories that have stated morals
  • Conversely, stories which will have special appeal for me:
    1. Lyrical or poetic work, full of sensory details
    2. Stories that are unflinching in the tough parts
    3. Stories that draw from atypical milieus, but not if the milieu is just set dressing and not integral
    4. Stories with questions about identity, the nature of life, and free will
    5. Plots that turn on unintended consequences
    6. Stories that have language and communication as a primary theme or plot piece
    7. Stories that reflect on the numinous, without cynicism
    8. Stories that approach, but do not necessarily explain, the weirdness of the world

Comments

Comments are closed.

Powered by WordPress
index.php