Eleanor Arnason's Blog, page 6

On Writing

From facebook:

I like to tell young writers there are three things they must avoid: complexity, ambiguity and irony. All three are bad, but irony is the worst.

Humor is iffy, unless it is done broadly in a story that is obviously humorous. Ha-ha, laugh riot is okay. And there's a good chance you won't be taken seriously unless you write seriously.

Marketing

I am using a comment I made elsewhere, in reference to a person who argued that you shouldn't talk about politics on facebook if you were an author, because it would piss readers off and damage your brand. The purpose of social media is to promote your brand...

I wrote: "When I read an essay like this one, I realize I know absolutely nothing about being a writer. I write stories. Editors buy them. If an editor doesn't buy a story, I send it to another editor. Sometimes no one buys the story. That is the sum of my knowledge about writing. All the cool stuff about branding passed me by. I am good at bookkeeping, and I wish I was better re contracts. But marketing is a mystery."

To which I will add: When I encounter a person who self-promotes nonstop, I tend to edge away. They come across as a narcissist or clueless or -- worst of all to a Minnesotan -- someone who is bragging.

Announcements of new books out are, of course, okay. Descriptions of writing techniques and problems are interesting. (I can only write with a quill pen, while hanging from a chandelier.) (That isn't me, by the way. I write sitting in a chair, usually with a computer, though sometimes with a ballpoint or rollerball.)

Discussions of the business of writing and publishing are also interesting, if I think the people involved know what they are talking about.

It's the sense that I am the target of marketing that bothers me. If I want ads, I will turn off all the ad blockers...

Gershwin

I swear to God that I just heard Bob Christianson on MPR announce a piece as "Elmer Fudd sings Gershwin." It struck me as odd that anyone would have recorded such an album and that MPR Classical would play it. The piece was clearly Gershwin, but with no vocal. It turned out it was Joshua Bell plays Gershwin. I need to get my hearing checked.

County by County

From the Washington Post, the election county by county. Notice that Minnesota voted for Trump, except for the Twin Cities Metro Area, the northeast Arrowhead, which is Duluth and the Iron Range, and one southeastern country, which might be Rochester...

We might need a county by county or state by state analysis. The blue in the Dakotas is mostly reservations, I think.

The area around Madison is blue, also Milwaukee. Detroit and Flint are blue. If I am reading correctly, Toledo, Cleveland and Youngstown are blue. So cities, including the old industrial cities, are blue. What does this do to my theory that losing the Great Lakes industrial belt has hurt the Democrats? In need of more research. You can't make bricks without straw.

It's good to remember that the old industrial cities are heavily people of color...

My Uncle Lou is in his 90s. A time like this, I need a damn good pollster, but he isn't anywhere close.

I don't know what to think...

Mood

My mood has been lifting. Do I think the current situation is bad? Yes. But I can't remain anxious all the time.

I have a Lydia Duluth story coming out in Clarkesworld in December, and my crooked octopus bookkeeper will come out in F&SF in March.

Now, it's time to move on to not yet finished stories.

The Election

From facebook:

I am trying to think through the election results. What I come back to is the Great Lakes industrial belt, aka the Rust Belt. The Great Lakes used to be lined with iron mines, steel mills, car plants, tire plants, glass plants. You used to be able to predict the economy by car orders, since it was car manufacturing that drove the industries around the Great Lakes. All these plants had been unionized by the CIO in the 1930s. The workers got good wages, and for the most part -- urged by the unions -- they voted Democratic. All the Great Lakes states had rural areas, which were mostly Republican. But the plants and the workers gave the states a good chance of voting Democratic. So what happens when the Great Lakes industrial belt dies, due to outsourcing and automation? And why did the Democrats think they could do without union workers and unions?

Remember that these industrial unions were integrated, and there was large black working class in the cities around the Lakes. The black workers still had to deal with prejudice, which is why the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement (DRUM) was founded in Detroit in the late 1960s or early 1970s. The history of unionism around the Lakes was a long struggle to overcome racism and form a unified working class. What has happened around the Lakes is not as simple as white racism. It's the gutting of American industry and the breaking of the industrial unions. We know from the example of Germany that it's possible for a modern western nation to preserve its industry and its unions. (Though neoliberalism has taken a toll in Germany.) American business made a decision to destroy the industrial heartland, and the New Democrats were okay with this.

The problem is more complex that I have made it. Trump did best in rural counties. Some of these voters might have been ex-industrial workers. There are -- or were -- plenty of mills and mines in rural areas. But I suspect most were not. The death of small towns, due to big box stores and industrialized agriculture was probably as important. (I'm guessing here. I just don't know.) Yes, voter supression may have been a factor. Yes, racism and sexism were a factor, as seen in the Trump rallies. The FBI intervening in the election probably hurt Clinton. So, a complex of issues. But losing the big industrial cities and the unionized working class can't have helped.(I don't mean Clinton lost the big industrial cities. She didn't. But the cities have been gutted. There is block after block of empty lots in Detroit.)

In the states where the race was close, any one element could have tipped the race.

Do I think the jobs could come back? Yes, but it will require a strong push by the government, and Trump is not likely to do it. We need lots of infrastructure repair, which can't be easily outsourced to Asia, and the government has ways to reward or pressure businesses. For example, Bernie Sanders new bill. "Sanders' legislation, the Outsourcing Prevention Act, would prevent companies sending jobs overseas from receiving federal contracts, tax breaks, or other financial assistance; claw back federal subsidies that outsourcing companies received over the past decade; impose a tax of either 35 percent of the company's profits or an amount that equals the money saved by moving jobs overseas, whichever is higher; and imposing stiff tariffs on executive bonuses like golden parachutes, stock options, and other gratuities."

Time Travel

From facebook:

I am reading Time Travel by James Gleick. According to him, the fascination with time travel is due to fear of death. This is BS. I want time travel because I want to see what living Mesozoic dinosaurs look like, and I want to see the future. I want time travel because it might be a way to visit the stars. It's interesting to think about because of the potential paradoxes and because it challenges the basic rule of cause coming before effect. All in all, it is nifty -- and modern. Gleick begins his book with the H.G. Wells story. Apparently you don't get time travel before you get the modern idea of time and change. It comes after Darwin and Marx. (No question Wells was influenced by Darwin. I have no idea if he was influenced by Marx, but The Time Machine is about class warfare as well as evolution. The Morlocks and the Eloi are certainly "the mutual ruin of the contending classes.")

Positive

I am going to try being more positive. As I wrote on facebook, I have a dim memory -- maybe from a book or movie out of WWII -- that spreading doubt and fear in a time of war is wrong.

I just sent money off to good cause organizations, especially those that protect women's and minority rights. Having worked for many nonprofits, I know how important money is.

I can't make up my mind about the safety pin emblem. Is it a good idea? Most likely, yes.

I post a lot of bird and animal photos on facebook, because they are cheering and calming, and I post some news, because people need to be informed.

Right now, I can't write fiction.

USSR

After the USSR broke down I was having lunch with two other science fiction writers. We were discussing the end of the Soviet Union, and I said, "It will happen here."

"Yes," one of the other writers said. "I give the US three years."

That was 25 years ago. So my friend was badly off in his estimation.

I woke up this morning thinking, Trump is our Yeltsin.

Dark Wave

John Oliver has a wonderful report on the Trump victory. He says -- absolutely rightly -- that realization of what has happened comes in waves. Then we get distracted by ordinary life for a while, then another wave of horror arrives.

A wave hit me this morning. I had a bad night's sleep and woke early. My defense against reality is (a) science fiction and (b) political analysis. If I try to understand, I am less frightened.

So this is my current theory about what will happen next.

(1) We may struggle through the next 2 to 4 years until the Democrats may come back into power, at least in part, and begin cleaning up the mess. But the Democrats need to change their strategy. Wall Street and identity politics is not a winning combination. We need a party that addresses the needs of the working class and lower middle class. A lot of working class is nonwhite, so we aren't neglecting PoC when we support working people.

(2) We may end up with a one party government, with the Republicans always in control. This would require voter suppression and the indifference of many Americans.

(3) We might end up with a fascist state. My bet would be something more like Italy or Spain than Germany. That's still very bad.

(4) We might end up like the Soviet Union, with the government breaking down and then the country itself breaking apart, while gangsters and party hacks stole everything not nailed down, with the advice and help of American economists. Maybe Russian could send advisors over. The plus side is the USSR did not have a civil war, though parts of it have: the Ukraine, for example. The minus side is the death rate went way up and the population actually contracted. That's what happens when your country turns into a failed state overrun with predators.

I'm not even talking about nuclear war or global warming.