Joe Velikovsky's Blog, page 19
October 1, 2018
In praise of "The Sense of Style" (Pinker 2015)
In praise of:
The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century (Pinker 2015)
What a wonderful book!
Classic writing style has never been more fun to read!
I particularly loved:
From the end of that spectacular chapter:
My brief (and sometimes waggish) summary of some of those tricky writing tips include:
AVOID, LIKE YOU WOULD THE BUBONIC PLAGUE (which, can kill you):
Metadiscourse (which includes, Signposting, which is coming up next, and see what I did there).
Metadiscourse is: `verbiage about verbiage, such as subsection, review, and discussion. Inexperienced writers often think they’re doing the reader a favor by guiding her through the rest of the text with a detailed preview. In reality, previews that read like a scrunched-up table of contents are there to help the writer, not the reader.' (Pinker 2015, p. 38)
Signposting - Instead of explaining (or, previewing) what your next section or chapter will do, (e.g., In this next section, I will discuss the causes of ...) and instead, Ask the reader an interesting question! (e.g., What makes [X]s do [Y]?).
Likewise, instead of summarizing (e.g.: In the section/chapter above I have shown that...) in Classic Style you should use figurative language to demonstrate a literal view. Convert the language into a mental "view". (e.g.: As we have just seen...)
Hedging - Stop using weasel-words! `Many writers cushion their prose with wads of fluff that imply that they are not willing to stand behind what they are saying, including almost, apparently, comparatively, fairly, in part, nearly, partially, predominantly, presumably, rather, relatively, seemingly, so to speak, somewhat, sort of, to a certain degree, to some extent, and the ubiquitous I would argue (does this mean that you would argue for your position if things were different, but are not willing to argue for it now?).' (Pinker 2015, p. 43)
Apologizing - Don't apologize that there is no standard definition for the topic you are discussing, nor open by saying it is "complex" and there is "uncertainty" and "controversy." Pinker writes: `In classic style, the writer credits the reader with enough intelligence to realize that many concepts aren’t easy to define and that many controversies aren’t easy to resolve. She is there to see what the writer will do about it.' (Pinker 2015, p. 42)
Professional narcissism - Don't say "In recent times, researchers have focussed on the problem of...[X]" just pose the question and answer it: "[X] is the mystery. How does it work?".
On this, Pinker says: `researchers are apt to lose sight of whom they are writing for, and narcissistically describe the obsessions of their guild rather than what the audience really wants to know. Professional narcissism is by no means confined to academia. Journalists assigned to an issue often cover the coverage, creating the notorious media echo chamber. Museum signs explain how the shard in the showcase fits into a classification of pottery styles rather than who made it or what it was used for. Music and movie guides are dominated by data on how much money a work grossed the weekend it was released, or how many weeks it spent in the theaters or on the charts. Governments and corporations organize their Web sites around their bureaucratic structure rather than the kinds of information a user seeks.' (Pinker 2015, p. 41)
Clichés - Try and create new cliches! Don't just use the old ones. - It's boring!
(The movie mogul Sam Goldfish said: "What we need around here are some new cliches!")
Mixed metaphors - Keep it consistent, stupid!
Pinker says: `Classic prose is a pleasant illusion, like losing yourself in a play. The writer must work to keep up the impression that his prose is a window onto the scene rather than just a mess of words. Like an actor with a wooden delivery, a writer who relies on canned verbal formulas will break the spell. This is the kind of writer who gets the ball rolling in his search for the holy grail, but finds that it’s neither a magic bullet nor a slam dunk, so he rolls with the punches and lets the chips fall where they may while seeing the glass as half-full, which is easier said than done.
Avoid clichés like the plague— it’s a no-brainer. (12) When a reader is forced to work through one stale idiom after another, she stops converting the language into mental images and slips back into just mouthing the words.' (Pinker 2015, pp 45-6)
Metaconcepts - These are abstractions of abstractions! `Could you recognize a “level” or a “perspective” if you met one on the street? Could you point it out to someone else? What about an approach, an assumption, a concept, a condition, a context, a framework, an issue, a model, a process, a range, a role, a strategy, a tendency, or a variable? These are metaconcepts – concepts about concepts.' (Pinker 2015, p. 49)
These mean your prose is too abstract, and not concrete. If you really have to use a "model", a "strategy", etc, then, immediately follow it up with examples! Paint a visual picture!
In Classic Style: You put the reader in the scene with you, and make it so that you are both viewing the object that you are talking about.
Then again - an actual scientific model is okay, if you include a diagram, in my view. e.g.: See the Creative Practice Theory model. Or say, the Systems Model of Creativity.
But of course - in Classic Style you should also include concrete examples, right after mentioning any abstract concept. (Like I just did above, with those 2 links, to CPT and the Systems Model of Creativity.)
Zombie nouns - e.g. "There is no anticipation of a cancellation" is better said "It's still on." Pinker writes: "The nominalization rule takes a perfectly spry verband embalms it into a lifeless noun by adding a suffix like –ance, –ment, –ation, or –ing.Instead of affirming an idea, you effect its affirmation ; rather than postponing something, you implement a postponement. The writing scholar Helen Sword calls them zombie nounsbecause they lumber across the scene without a conscious agent directing their motion." (Pinker 2015, p. 50)
and finally, Pinker (2015) warns against:
Unnecessary passives - Make the language active (active not passive verbs) unless there is a need for the passive. (Sometimes the passive voice is better! Depends on the exact problem-situation.)
====================
And so, those are but a fraction of the priceless advice in this wonderful book!
A crucial point - and which, as far as I know, nobody has ever made before, I would like to make [note the signposting, but I think it's worth it this time] is:
Classic Style is, literally, creative writing.
Namely, the standard bipartite definition of creativity (Runco & Jaeger 2012) is: an artifact (word, sentence, paragraph, book, movie, joke, etc - a unit of culture) that is "new and useful", and the tripartite definition of creativity is: new, useful and surprising.
Now...
Just to use one example from the above excellent list by Pinker, let's look at:
Cliches!
Pinker 2015 (rightly) adjures (i.e. advises, if you have never seen that word before) on Plain vs. Classic Style:
Okay well - stated formally, by Martindale (1989):
So, with his book, Pinker is showing us:
Did you catch that? It's a profound truth.
(Profound, because the opposite of it is also true; namely: using cliches is uncreative writing.)
Pinker is showing us: how to be - literally - creative in our writing...!
Let's break it down:
1. "New" = Combine two old things, to get a new thing.
Namely, combine the phrase "The early bird gets the worm" with another phrase - a joke, in this case - ("but") "the second mouse gets the cheese."
2. "Useful" = Okay so the utility of any solution depends on the precise problem-situation, and how well it is solved by that creative artifact (idea, process, or product).
In this case, the problem (i.e., task, goal, objective) is:
At least; the new twist on an old cliche shows, just one of the very many stylistic tricks, devices, moves, or techniques, of Classic Style writing. (There are literally hundreds of heuristics for Classic (prose) Style. It's much like: Screenwriting Heuristics.)
And finally: (in looking at: 1. new, 2. useful, 3. surprising as the 3 criteria for creativity...)
3. "Surprising" = unexpected.
The 2nd half of the sentence ("but the second mouse gets the cheese.") is an extra added (and/or, `new') twist on an old cliché, or turn of phrase!
I, for one, didn't see the second part of the phrase, coming! It was a nice surprise.
I mean to say: I could not have predicted it. (And: I had not heard/seen/did not know that specific phrase/joke before. So, it was also new . To me! (And, no doubt, to many other readers, who also have not heard that entertaining phrase before.)
So it is - officially - a creative sentence. New, useful and surprising .
It achieves all the three goals/criteria, at once!
But - what is most amazing: Pinker (2015) does this, over and over and over...!
Sentence after sentence after sentence!!!
Thus:
He is super-creative in his writing.
Super: Classic Style!
My admiration and appreciation for this kind of writing knows no boundary conditions! (I was going to say "Knows no bounds", but that seems a cliche. And I am trying to write in Classic Style more often. It takes a while to learn. Practise makes... less-imperfect.)
Have I made myself clear? Here is my (new, useful & surprising) point:
Classic Style writing, literally is creative writing.Classic Style writing, actually is creative writing.Classic Style writing, really is creative writing.
My favourite writers/thinkers are (to name only seven of hundreds):
Charles Darwin, Stanley Kubrick, Dan Dennett, Richard Dawkins, Brian Boyd, Steven Pinker, Helen Sword...
And, guess what?
They all write in Classic Style!
...And, guess what else?
Steven Pinker has written a book (2015) on Classic Style, in Classic Style!
(That is an amazing feat! He actually: walks the talk-!)
And, it is an absolute pleasure to read.
And: informs, educates, explains, entertains!
...I LOVE IT!
...Why are you not reading it, right now???
(Okay, maybe you first have to finish reading this blog post.)
Okay, it's over, so: GO! :)
And sprint, don't perambulate.
As an aside - for my next trick, I am actually going to try and write a book in the Classic Style.
It is about: this.
-----------------------------
Dr. Joe T. Velikovsky, Ph.D. (Communication & Media Arts)
& High-Movie-RoI Consultant (see: The StoryAlity PhD)
-------------------
`The word communication will be used here in a very broad sense to include all of the procedures by which one mind may affect another. This, of course, involves not only written and oral speech, but also music, the pictorial arts, the theater, the ballet, and in fact all human behavior... The language of this memorandum will often appear to refer to the special, but still very broad and important, field of the communication of speech; but practically everything said applies equally well to music of any sort, and to still or moving pictures, as in television." - The Mathematical Theory of Communication, (Shannon & Weaver 1949, pp. 3-4).
Also:
“I know you think you understand what you thought I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant” - (attributed, and ironically, possibly mistakenly, to: Robert McCloskey, namely the children's book author and illustrator, date of quote unknown)
& this autosig is not even near complete yet, as
JT Velikovsky is also a:
Transmedia Writer-Director-Producer: Movies, Games, TV, Theatre, Books, Comics
Transmedia Writing Blog: http://on-writering.blogspot.com.au/
& (High-RoI) Story/Screenplay/Movie Analyst - and Evolutionary Systems Theorist
See: https://storyality.wordpress.com/
& Bio-Culture (Science & the Arts) & Transmedia Researcher
Academia link: https://aftrs.academia.edu/JTVelikovsky
See, also:
Joe Velikovsky on IMDb:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/joeteevee
Okay - the autosig is over now. You can stop reading.
The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century (Pinker 2015)What a wonderful book!
Classic writing style has never been more fun to read!
I particularly loved:
`Chapter 2:
A Window onto the World.
Classic Style as an antidote
for
Academese, Bureaucratese, Corporatese, Legalese, Officialese,
and other kinds of Stuffy Prose.'
(Pinker 2015, p. 26)
From the end of that spectacular chapter:
"In this chapter I have tried to call your attention to many of the writerly habits that result in soggy prose: metadiscourse, signposting, hedging, apologizing, professional narcissism, clichés, mixed metaphors, metaconcepts, zombie nouns, and unnecessary passives.
Writers who want to invigorate their prose could try to memorize that list of don’ts.
But it’s better to keep in mind the guiding metaphor of classic style: a writer, in conversation with a reader, directs the reader’s gaze to something in the world.
Each of the don’ts corresponds to a way in which a writer can stray from this scenario."
(Pinker 2015, p. 56, bold emphasis mine)So my advice is: read the book!
My brief (and sometimes waggish) summary of some of those tricky writing tips include:
AVOID, LIKE YOU WOULD THE BUBONIC PLAGUE (which, can kill you):
Metadiscourse (which includes, Signposting, which is coming up next, and see what I did there).
Metadiscourse is: `verbiage about verbiage, such as subsection, review, and discussion. Inexperienced writers often think they’re doing the reader a favor by guiding her through the rest of the text with a detailed preview. In reality, previews that read like a scrunched-up table of contents are there to help the writer, not the reader.' (Pinker 2015, p. 38)
Signposting - Instead of explaining (or, previewing) what your next section or chapter will do, (e.g., In this next section, I will discuss the causes of ...) and instead, Ask the reader an interesting question! (e.g., What makes [X]s do [Y]?).
Likewise, instead of summarizing (e.g.: In the section/chapter above I have shown that...) in Classic Style you should use figurative language to demonstrate a literal view. Convert the language into a mental "view". (e.g.: As we have just seen...)
Hedging - Stop using weasel-words! `Many writers cushion their prose with wads of fluff that imply that they are not willing to stand behind what they are saying, including almost, apparently, comparatively, fairly, in part, nearly, partially, predominantly, presumably, rather, relatively, seemingly, so to speak, somewhat, sort of, to a certain degree, to some extent, and the ubiquitous I would argue (does this mean that you would argue for your position if things were different, but are not willing to argue for it now?).' (Pinker 2015, p. 43)
Apologizing - Don't apologize that there is no standard definition for the topic you are discussing, nor open by saying it is "complex" and there is "uncertainty" and "controversy." Pinker writes: `In classic style, the writer credits the reader with enough intelligence to realize that many concepts aren’t easy to define and that many controversies aren’t easy to resolve. She is there to see what the writer will do about it.' (Pinker 2015, p. 42)
Professional narcissism - Don't say "In recent times, researchers have focussed on the problem of...[X]" just pose the question and answer it: "[X] is the mystery. How does it work?".
On this, Pinker says: `researchers are apt to lose sight of whom they are writing for, and narcissistically describe the obsessions of their guild rather than what the audience really wants to know. Professional narcissism is by no means confined to academia. Journalists assigned to an issue often cover the coverage, creating the notorious media echo chamber. Museum signs explain how the shard in the showcase fits into a classification of pottery styles rather than who made it or what it was used for. Music and movie guides are dominated by data on how much money a work grossed the weekend it was released, or how many weeks it spent in the theaters or on the charts. Governments and corporations organize their Web sites around their bureaucratic structure rather than the kinds of information a user seeks.' (Pinker 2015, p. 41)
Clichés - Try and create new cliches! Don't just use the old ones. - It's boring!
(The movie mogul Sam Goldfish said: "What we need around here are some new cliches!")
Mixed metaphors - Keep it consistent, stupid!
Pinker says: `Classic prose is a pleasant illusion, like losing yourself in a play. The writer must work to keep up the impression that his prose is a window onto the scene rather than just a mess of words. Like an actor with a wooden delivery, a writer who relies on canned verbal formulas will break the spell. This is the kind of writer who gets the ball rolling in his search for the holy grail, but finds that it’s neither a magic bullet nor a slam dunk, so he rolls with the punches and lets the chips fall where they may while seeing the glass as half-full, which is easier said than done.
Avoid clichés like the plague— it’s a no-brainer. (12) When a reader is forced to work through one stale idiom after another, she stops converting the language into mental images and slips back into just mouthing the words.' (Pinker 2015, pp 45-6)
Metaconcepts - These are abstractions of abstractions! `Could you recognize a “level” or a “perspective” if you met one on the street? Could you point it out to someone else? What about an approach, an assumption, a concept, a condition, a context, a framework, an issue, a model, a process, a range, a role, a strategy, a tendency, or a variable? These are metaconcepts – concepts about concepts.' (Pinker 2015, p. 49)
These mean your prose is too abstract, and not concrete. If you really have to use a "model", a "strategy", etc, then, immediately follow it up with examples! Paint a visual picture!
In Classic Style: You put the reader in the scene with you, and make it so that you are both viewing the object that you are talking about.
Then again - an actual scientific model is okay, if you include a diagram, in my view. e.g.: See the Creative Practice Theory model. Or say, the Systems Model of Creativity.
But of course - in Classic Style you should also include concrete examples, right after mentioning any abstract concept. (Like I just did above, with those 2 links, to CPT and the Systems Model of Creativity.)
Zombie nouns - e.g. "There is no anticipation of a cancellation" is better said "It's still on." Pinker writes: "The nominalization rule takes a perfectly spry verband embalms it into a lifeless noun by adding a suffix like –ance, –ment, –ation, or –ing.Instead of affirming an idea, you effect its affirmation ; rather than postponing something, you implement a postponement. The writing scholar Helen Sword calls them zombie nounsbecause they lumber across the scene without a conscious agent directing their motion." (Pinker 2015, p. 50)
and finally, Pinker (2015) warns against:
Unnecessary passives - Make the language active (active not passive verbs) unless there is a need for the passive. (Sometimes the passive voice is better! Depends on the exact problem-situation.)
====================
And so, those are but a fraction of the priceless advice in this wonderful book!
A crucial point - and which, as far as I know, nobody has ever made before, I would like to make [note the signposting, but I think it's worth it this time] is:
Classic Style is, literally, creative writing.
Namely, the standard bipartite definition of creativity (Runco & Jaeger 2012) is: an artifact (word, sentence, paragraph, book, movie, joke, etc - a unit of culture) that is "new and useful", and the tripartite definition of creativity is: new, useful and surprising.
Now...
Just to use one example from the above excellent list by Pinker, let's look at:
Cliches!
Pinker 2015 (rightly) adjures (i.e. advises, if you have never seen that word before) on Plain vs. Classic Style:
`The early bird gets the worm, for example, is plain.
The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese is classic. '
(Pinker 2015, p. 30)Wait, How does creativity work, again?
Okay well - stated formally, by Martindale (1989):
`Ultimately, all creative products have this quality: old ideas or elements are combined in new ways.
This is the case for all domains of creativity.’
(Martindale, 1989, p. 212, bold emphasis mine).
So, with his book, Pinker is showing us:
How to make an old thing (e.g.: a cliche): new, useful and surprising.
Thus: officially, creative.
Did you catch that? It's a profound truth.
(Profound, because the opposite of it is also true; namely: using cliches is uncreative writing.)
Pinker is showing us: how to be - literally - creative in our writing...!
Let's break it down:
1. "New" = Combine two old things, to get a new thing.
Namely, combine the phrase "The early bird gets the worm" with another phrase - a joke, in this case - ("but") "the second mouse gets the cheese."
2. "Useful" = Okay so the utility of any solution depends on the precise problem-situation, and how well it is solved by that creative artifact (idea, process, or product).
In this case, the problem (i.e., task, goal, objective) is:
I want not to bore my readers!
I want to do the opposite, namely entertain, or educate, or amuse, or inform, (etc - insert other possible goals here, there may well be many goals.)The new thing - the actual phrase: "The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese" - is: entertaining as well as informative, as it demonstrates for us, how to do classic writing. So it is indeed: useful!
At least; the new twist on an old cliche shows, just one of the very many stylistic tricks, devices, moves, or techniques, of Classic Style writing. (There are literally hundreds of heuristics for Classic (prose) Style. It's much like: Screenwriting Heuristics.)
And finally: (in looking at: 1. new, 2. useful, 3. surprising as the 3 criteria for creativity...)
3. "Surprising" = unexpected.
The 2nd half of the sentence ("but the second mouse gets the cheese.") is an extra added (and/or, `new') twist on an old cliché, or turn of phrase!
I, for one, didn't see the second part of the phrase, coming! It was a nice surprise.
I mean to say: I could not have predicted it. (And: I had not heard/seen/did not know that specific phrase/joke before. So, it was also new . To me! (And, no doubt, to many other readers, who also have not heard that entertaining phrase before.)
So it is - officially - a creative sentence. New, useful and surprising .
It achieves all the three goals/criteria, at once!
But - what is most amazing: Pinker (2015) does this, over and over and over...!
Sentence after sentence after sentence!!!
Thus:
He is super-creative in his writing.
Super: Classic Style!
My admiration and appreciation for this kind of writing knows no boundary conditions! (I was going to say "Knows no bounds", but that seems a cliche. And I am trying to write in Classic Style more often. It takes a while to learn. Practise makes... less-imperfect.)
Have I made myself clear? Here is my (new, useful & surprising) point:
Classic Style writing, literally is creative writing.Classic Style writing, actually is creative writing.Classic Style writing, really is creative writing.
My favourite writers/thinkers are (to name only seven of hundreds):
Charles Darwin, Stanley Kubrick, Dan Dennett, Richard Dawkins, Brian Boyd, Steven Pinker, Helen Sword...
And, guess what?
They all write in Classic Style!
...And, guess what else?
Steven Pinker has written a book (2015) on Classic Style, in Classic Style!
(That is an amazing feat! He actually: walks the talk-!)
And, it is an absolute pleasure to read.
And: informs, educates, explains, entertains!
...I LOVE IT!
...Why are you not reading it, right now???
(Okay, maybe you first have to finish reading this blog post.)
Okay, it's over, so: GO! :)
And sprint, don't perambulate.
As an aside - for my next trick, I am actually going to try and write a book in the Classic Style.
It is about: this.
-----------------------------
Dr. Joe T. Velikovsky, Ph.D. (Communication & Media Arts)
& High-Movie-RoI Consultant (see: The StoryAlity PhD)
-------------------
`The word communication will be used here in a very broad sense to include all of the procedures by which one mind may affect another. This, of course, involves not only written and oral speech, but also music, the pictorial arts, the theater, the ballet, and in fact all human behavior... The language of this memorandum will often appear to refer to the special, but still very broad and important, field of the communication of speech; but practically everything said applies equally well to music of any sort, and to still or moving pictures, as in television." - The Mathematical Theory of Communication, (Shannon & Weaver 1949, pp. 3-4).
Also:
“I know you think you understand what you thought I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant” - (attributed, and ironically, possibly mistakenly, to: Robert McCloskey, namely the children's book author and illustrator, date of quote unknown)
& this autosig is not even near complete yet, as
JT Velikovsky is also a:
Transmedia Writer-Director-Producer: Movies, Games, TV, Theatre, Books, Comics
Transmedia Writing Blog: http://on-writering.blogspot.com.au/
& (High-RoI) Story/Screenplay/Movie Analyst - and Evolutionary Systems Theorist
See: https://storyality.wordpress.com/
& Bio-Culture (Science & the Arts) & Transmedia Researcher
Academia link: https://aftrs.academia.edu/JTVelikovsky
See, also:
Joe Velikovsky on IMDb:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/joeteevee
Okay - the autosig is over now. You can stop reading.
September 29, 2018
In praise of Stylish Academic Writing (Sword 2012)
Stylish Academic Writing (Sword 2012)
I should say up front, some of my favourite academic scholarly (and even general audience) writers include Daniel Dennett, Steven Pinker, Brian Boyd and Richard Dawkins, among so many others... (and now also - Helen Sword!)
To explain - I've just been reading this absolutely terrific book:
Stylish Academic Writing (Sword 2012)
And, since it is such a glowingly-remarkable book, I shall now make some glowing remarks about it...!
But first some more Backstory: I am aiming to improve my academic writing style.
So with this goal in mind, recently, I have read:
The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century (Pinker 2012).
and also
Clear and Simple as the Truth: Writing Classic Prose (Thomas and Turner, 1994/2017), which I also blogged about here.
At any rate, of the three, Helen Sword's (2012) book was the most enjoyable to read! I loved it.
Not least as, the methodology underpinning it reminds me so much of my Ph.D study (2016), which compares the advice in the movie screenwriting manuals to actual movie success and failure...(!)
...In short, I adore this way of thinking!
And, I soooo wish I had known about this wonderful book, when I did my Ph.D.
But better late than never, as I now aim to write a book... For both a general and academic audience. (Please wish me luck.)
In the book, Sword (2012) has presented invaluable wisdom resulting from not just one, but two wonderfully-useful studies:
The first is a study of 100 (yes, n=100!) academic writing style guide manuals from 2000-2010 (a study conducted by Louisa Shen under Sword's supervision) which examines their (a) prescriptions and (b) cautions, about various academic writing techniques.
This is a brief snapshot of some of the results of that study:
(But - you really must read the book itself, probably also including its Appendix, to understand the details of the above results, and their implications for academic writers...!)
Meanwhile the second study informing the advice in Sword (2012) is an examination of 500 academic articles (50 papers, each drawn from 10 academic disciplines: Medicine, Evolutionary Biology, Computer Science, Higher Education, Psychology, Anthropology, Law, Philosophy, History, and Literary Studies). (Sword is herself a Literary scholar, and her thinking and writing is such a pleasure to absorb!)
And, here are two more tables from the book, with some of the results from that study, results which form the majority of the book's content:
(But again - you really must read the book itself, to understand the details of the above results, and their important implications for academic writers!)
And lastly a third incredibly-informative and useful table from this excellent book:
(But did I mention? - You really must read the book itself, to understand the details of the above results, and their important implications for academic writers! Not least as I have deliberately reproduced them a little bit blurry here, as I really think you should buy and read the book.)
And finally here is my very brief - and not at all comprehensive - summary of the content of book.
Sword (2012) gives sage advice:on capturing and maintaining the reader's... attention!on do's and don'ts for crafting your article - or even book - Title, and even Section and/or Chapter Headings. (Loads of nifty tricks right here!)on structuring your articles (i.e., IMRAD [Introduction, Method, Results, Analysis, Discussion] structure vs. bespoke structure vs... hybrid?)on choices you as a writer can make about deviating from disciplinary conventions (in style, form, content, tone, and more!)on imitating the common versus imitating the successful in academic writing (and, see my PhD for the same approach in movie screenwriting!)on personal voice (and the use or avoidance of personal pronouns!)on establishing bonds with your reader!on assessing different reader-types' responses (experts, colleagues, nonacademic friends, strangers... even strange friends...)on turning the abstract (ideas, concepts, theory) into the concrete (images, metaphors, analogies, scenes, anecdotes) and why it's a Very Good Idea...on avoiding abstract nounson concrete nouns and vivid verbs - and on great reasons for keeping them close together in a sentence!on passive vs active verbs!on curbing clutter. Kinda like Strunk & White's classic "Omit unnecessary words" (only: better!)on avoiding jargonitis (or, using it well, when it's actually advisable!)on why jargon is like a computer macro!on avoiding repetitionon avoiding repetitionon Genette, re: paratexts and why you really should think about them!on when to use semi-colons in: a Title! (And: When not to. And: Why) Scientifically-Proven Creativity Tricks!* e.g. "For inspiration, find an engaging title from a discipline other than your own and mimic its structure. No one in your discipline need ever know.”" (Sword 2012, pp. 74-5) on CARS vs. the problem-solution model!How to hook your readers!!! (You can even open by talking about figs from every angle! Be honest, have you ever tried it? - What about plums? ...Just sayin'.)On using: Anecdotes! Scenes! Scenarios! Quotes! Surprising facts! (and more!)The many different ways you can use: Story! And different types of story! (e.g. the research story; the researcher's story; a story from within the research, and so on!) ...Stories keep us compelled to read on! (So: you can use that!)on point-of-view... (Have you ever been an atom, an animal, an alloy? Start now! Eminent creative geniuses do this, so why shouldn't you?)on the crucial difference between the ole "Show Don't Tell" guideline (in: drama/screen media) and "Show AND Tell" (in: stylish academic writing!)on irregular verbs! And how Pinker wrote a whole half-a-book about them!on when to use: Case Studies!on Nabokov's butterflies! Did you know you can identify butterfly species by examining their genitals closely? (I thought about moving "closely" in front of examining but it wasn't as funny)on the use of Humour! And when not to use: Humor!(That's not a typo.)on Evolutionary Arms Races-!!!on how images and words have different departments in the brain! on using diagrams and/or illustrations!on using Figurative Language!on Foucault and the panopticon! (sort of)on Foucault and Derrida: What's the différance?on having a good hard look at yourself in the mirror, when you do use jargon! (Mainly, as the actress said to the bishop: What's your motivation?)on metaphors! Like: sentences as bricks!How Woolf drew a diagram of the structure of one of her stories! Because: Who's afraid of drawing a diagram?on literary allusions! (see what I did there)on Paragraph Outlines! (Like a Scene Breakdown for writing a film script; same-same, only different!)on how different citation styles (e.g. APA 6th, MLA, Chicago, etc) can actually change your modes of thinking-! e.g. In MLA you think: author, author! In APA you think: facts, facts! (Well; sort of.)on when and how and why to use Endnotes and/or Footnotes** on: expressing complex ideas clearly !!!on avoiding pretentious obscurantism !!!on how to write better Abstracts!on Watson and Crick (1953) cracking DNA and their cheeky little note in there about how: something had not escaped their attention!on: writing outside the carton! (ok, box)on borrowing from the best-est!on more on: creativity!on how: Move over, The 6 C's of creativity , because here comes... the 6 c's of stylish academic writing:
It also analyzes examples of bad academic writing, showing just exactly where they went wrong...!
And in fact - one fascinating exemplary paper made me realize - to my horror - that President Trump (sorry to even mention his name) was predicted in 2003. Namely: "What Happens When Authoritarians Inherit the Earth? A Simulation" (Altemeyer 2003). (The horror... The horror...)
And hey - get this - there's even a fun and helpful website to test your writing out on!
In short, in my view - this book is a must-read for all academic scholars!
~Enjoy!!!
--------------------
FOOTNOTES (and/or Endnotes, hard to say in a blog-post)
* I am not making this up. i.e., specifically I am not making up, this part: Scientifically-Proven Creativity Tricks!* e.g. "For inspiration, find an engaging title from a discipline other than your own and mimic its structure. No one in your discipline need ever know.”" (Sword 2012, pp. 74-5) As the scientific study of creativity shows that, borrowing ideas from neighbouring (or even, distant-!) domains of knowledge (i.e., academic disciplines) is a proven trick that a vast number of eminent creative geniuses have used... I am not making this up. I have a PhD in creativity. In: Movies. And Screenwriting.
In short, as Helen Sword (2012) advises: Imitate the successful !!! (And what's more - try and do the opposite, or at least do something different from, the not-so-successful / effective / creative !)
** - and even asterisks!
Thanks for reading!
In short I want to thank and praise Helen Sword for writing this wonderful book. I now have a much greater appreciation for great writing!
My next goal in life is to master some (or even all) of her wonderfully helpful prescriptions!
-----------------------------
Dr. Joe T. Velikovsky, Ph.D. (Communication & Media Arts)
& High-Movie-RoI Consultant (see: The StoryAlity PhD)
-------------------
`The word communication will be used here in a very broad sense to include all of the procedures by which one mind may affect another. This, of course, involves not only written and oral speech, but also music, the pictorial arts, the theater, the ballet, and in fact all human behavior... The language of this memorandum will often appear to refer to the special, but still very broad and important, field of the communication of speech; but practically everything said applies equally well to music of any sort, and to still or moving pictures, as in television." - The Mathematical Theory of Communication, (Shannon & Weaver 1949, pp. 3-4).
Also:
“I know you think you understand what you thought I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant” - (attributed, and ironically, possibly mistakenly, to: Robert McCloskey, namely the children's book author and illustrator, date of the quote is unknown to me)
& this autosig is not even near complete yet, as
JT Velikovsky is also a:
Transmedia Writer-Director-Producer: Movies, Games, TV, Theatre, Books, Comics
Transmedia Writing Blog: http://on-writering.blogspot.com.au/
& (High-RoI) Story/Screenplay/Movie Analyst - and Evolutionary Systems Theorist
See: https://storyality.wordpress.com/
& Bio-Culture (Science & the Arts) & Transmedia Researcher
Academia link: https://aftrs.academia.edu/JTVelikovsky
See, also:
Joe Velikovsky on IMDb:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/joeteevee
Okay - the autosig is over. You can stop reading now.
I should say up front, some of my favourite academic scholarly (and even general audience) writers include Daniel Dennett, Steven Pinker, Brian Boyd and Richard Dawkins, among so many others... (and now also - Helen Sword!)
To explain - I've just been reading this absolutely terrific book:
Stylish Academic Writing (Sword 2012)And, since it is such a glowingly-remarkable book, I shall now make some glowing remarks about it...!
But first some more Backstory: I am aiming to improve my academic writing style.
So with this goal in mind, recently, I have read:
The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century (Pinker 2012).
and also
Clear and Simple as the Truth: Writing Classic Prose (Thomas and Turner, 1994/2017), which I also blogged about here.
At any rate, of the three, Helen Sword's (2012) book was the most enjoyable to read! I loved it.
Not least as, the methodology underpinning it reminds me so much of my Ph.D study (2016), which compares the advice in the movie screenwriting manuals to actual movie success and failure...(!)
...In short, I adore this way of thinking!
And, I soooo wish I had known about this wonderful book, when I did my Ph.D.
But better late than never, as I now aim to write a book... For both a general and academic audience. (Please wish me luck.)
In the book, Sword (2012) has presented invaluable wisdom resulting from not just one, but two wonderfully-useful studies:
The first is a study of 100 (yes, n=100!) academic writing style guide manuals from 2000-2010 (a study conducted by Louisa Shen under Sword's supervision) which examines their (a) prescriptions and (b) cautions, about various academic writing techniques.
This is a brief snapshot of some of the results of that study:
(But - you really must read the book itself, probably also including its Appendix, to understand the details of the above results, and their implications for academic writers...!)
Meanwhile the second study informing the advice in Sword (2012) is an examination of 500 academic articles (50 papers, each drawn from 10 academic disciplines: Medicine, Evolutionary Biology, Computer Science, Higher Education, Psychology, Anthropology, Law, Philosophy, History, and Literary Studies). (Sword is herself a Literary scholar, and her thinking and writing is such a pleasure to absorb!)
And, here are two more tables from the book, with some of the results from that study, results which form the majority of the book's content:
(But again - you really must read the book itself, to understand the details of the above results, and their important implications for academic writers!)
And lastly a third incredibly-informative and useful table from this excellent book:
(But did I mention? - You really must read the book itself, to understand the details of the above results, and their important implications for academic writers! Not least as I have deliberately reproduced them a little bit blurry here, as I really think you should buy and read the book.)
And finally here is my very brief - and not at all comprehensive - summary of the content of book.
Sword (2012) gives sage advice:on capturing and maintaining the reader's... attention!on do's and don'ts for crafting your article - or even book - Title, and even Section and/or Chapter Headings. (Loads of nifty tricks right here!)on structuring your articles (i.e., IMRAD [Introduction, Method, Results, Analysis, Discussion] structure vs. bespoke structure vs... hybrid?)on choices you as a writer can make about deviating from disciplinary conventions (in style, form, content, tone, and more!)on imitating the common versus imitating the successful in academic writing (and, see my PhD for the same approach in movie screenwriting!)on personal voice (and the use or avoidance of personal pronouns!)on establishing bonds with your reader!on assessing different reader-types' responses (experts, colleagues, nonacademic friends, strangers... even strange friends...)on turning the abstract (ideas, concepts, theory) into the concrete (images, metaphors, analogies, scenes, anecdotes) and why it's a Very Good Idea...on avoiding abstract nounson concrete nouns and vivid verbs - and on great reasons for keeping them close together in a sentence!on passive vs active verbs!on curbing clutter. Kinda like Strunk & White's classic "Omit unnecessary words" (only: better!)on avoiding jargonitis (or, using it well, when it's actually advisable!)on why jargon is like a computer macro!on avoiding repetitionon avoiding repetitionon Genette, re: paratexts and why you really should think about them!on when to use semi-colons in: a Title! (And: When not to. And: Why) Scientifically-Proven Creativity Tricks!* e.g. "For inspiration, find an engaging title from a discipline other than your own and mimic its structure. No one in your discipline need ever know.”" (Sword 2012, pp. 74-5) on CARS vs. the problem-solution model!How to hook your readers!!! (You can even open by talking about figs from every angle! Be honest, have you ever tried it? - What about plums? ...Just sayin'.)On using: Anecdotes! Scenes! Scenarios! Quotes! Surprising facts! (and more!)The many different ways you can use: Story! And different types of story! (e.g. the research story; the researcher's story; a story from within the research, and so on!) ...Stories keep us compelled to read on! (So: you can use that!)on point-of-view... (Have you ever been an atom, an animal, an alloy? Start now! Eminent creative geniuses do this, so why shouldn't you?)on the crucial difference between the ole "Show Don't Tell" guideline (in: drama/screen media) and "Show AND Tell" (in: stylish academic writing!)on irregular verbs! And how Pinker wrote a whole half-a-book about them!on when to use: Case Studies!on Nabokov's butterflies! Did you know you can identify butterfly species by examining their genitals closely? (I thought about moving "closely" in front of examining but it wasn't as funny)on the use of Humour! And when not to use: Humor!(That's not a typo.)on Evolutionary Arms Races-!!!on how images and words have different departments in the brain! on using diagrams and/or illustrations!on using Figurative Language!on Foucault and the panopticon! (sort of)on Foucault and Derrida: What's the différance?on having a good hard look at yourself in the mirror, when you do use jargon! (Mainly, as the actress said to the bishop: What's your motivation?)on metaphors! Like: sentences as bricks!How Woolf drew a diagram of the structure of one of her stories! Because: Who's afraid of drawing a diagram?on literary allusions! (see what I did there)on Paragraph Outlines! (Like a Scene Breakdown for writing a film script; same-same, only different!)on how different citation styles (e.g. APA 6th, MLA, Chicago, etc) can actually change your modes of thinking-! e.g. In MLA you think: author, author! In APA you think: facts, facts! (Well; sort of.)on when and how and why to use Endnotes and/or Footnotes** on: expressing complex ideas clearly !!!on avoiding pretentious obscurantism !!!on how to write better Abstracts!on Watson and Crick (1953) cracking DNA and their cheeky little note in there about how: something had not escaped their attention!on: writing outside the carton! (ok, box)on borrowing from the best-est!on more on: creativity!on how: Move over, The 6 C's of creativity , because here comes... the 6 c's of stylish academic writing:
"communication, craft, creativity"
and
"concreteness, choice and courage"
(Sword 2012, p. 173)But you will really have to read the book to register the details. (Words are useful tools of information-compression but sometimes you need to read the long version. Not just: my riskily glib and frivolous bullet-point summary of it!)The book provides wonderful samples of stylish academic prose throughout, including examples by Pinker, Dennett, Boyd and Dawkins! (Yaaaaay! Found my peeps!)
It also analyzes examples of bad academic writing, showing just exactly where they went wrong...!
And in fact - one fascinating exemplary paper made me realize - to my horror - that President Trump (sorry to even mention his name) was predicted in 2003. Namely: "What Happens When Authoritarians Inherit the Earth? A Simulation" (Altemeyer 2003). (The horror... The horror...)
And hey - get this - there's even a fun and helpful website to test your writing out on!
"THINGS TO TRY
• For a playful insight into what ails a sagging paragraph, go to the Writer’s Diet Web site (http://www.writersdiet.com) and paste a sample of your writing (one thousand words maximum) into the online WritersDiet test, a free diagnostic tool designed to tell you whether your sentences are “flabby or fit.” (Sword 2012, p. 60)
In short, in my view - this book is a must-read for all academic scholars!
~Enjoy!!!
--------------------
FOOTNOTES (and/or Endnotes, hard to say in a blog-post)
* I am not making this up. i.e., specifically I am not making up, this part: Scientifically-Proven Creativity Tricks!* e.g. "For inspiration, find an engaging title from a discipline other than your own and mimic its structure. No one in your discipline need ever know.”" (Sword 2012, pp. 74-5) As the scientific study of creativity shows that, borrowing ideas from neighbouring (or even, distant-!) domains of knowledge (i.e., academic disciplines) is a proven trick that a vast number of eminent creative geniuses have used... I am not making this up. I have a PhD in creativity. In: Movies. And Screenwriting.
In short, as Helen Sword (2012) advises: Imitate the successful !!! (And what's more - try and do the opposite, or at least do something different from, the not-so-successful / effective / creative !)
** - and even asterisks!
Thanks for reading!
In short I want to thank and praise Helen Sword for writing this wonderful book. I now have a much greater appreciation for great writing!
My next goal in life is to master some (or even all) of her wonderfully helpful prescriptions!
-----------------------------
Dr. Joe T. Velikovsky, Ph.D. (Communication & Media Arts)
& High-Movie-RoI Consultant (see: The StoryAlity PhD)
-------------------
`The word communication will be used here in a very broad sense to include all of the procedures by which one mind may affect another. This, of course, involves not only written and oral speech, but also music, the pictorial arts, the theater, the ballet, and in fact all human behavior... The language of this memorandum will often appear to refer to the special, but still very broad and important, field of the communication of speech; but practically everything said applies equally well to music of any sort, and to still or moving pictures, as in television." - The Mathematical Theory of Communication, (Shannon & Weaver 1949, pp. 3-4).
Also:
“I know you think you understand what you thought I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant” - (attributed, and ironically, possibly mistakenly, to: Robert McCloskey, namely the children's book author and illustrator, date of the quote is unknown to me)
& this autosig is not even near complete yet, as
JT Velikovsky is also a:
Transmedia Writer-Director-Producer: Movies, Games, TV, Theatre, Books, Comics
Transmedia Writing Blog: http://on-writering.blogspot.com.au/
& (High-RoI) Story/Screenplay/Movie Analyst - and Evolutionary Systems Theorist
See: https://storyality.wordpress.com/
& Bio-Culture (Science & the Arts) & Transmedia Researcher
Academia link: https://aftrs.academia.edu/JTVelikovsky
See, also:
Joe Velikovsky on IMDb:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/joeteevee
Okay - the autosig is over. You can stop reading now.
September 22, 2018
Styles of writing in: `Clear and Simple as the Truth' by Thomas & Turner
So, I've just been reading:
Clear and Simple as the Truth - Writing Classic Prose - Second Edition
(Thomas & Turner 1994 / 2017)
And - it's terrific. Read it!
I was alerted to its existence by this (also-excellent) book:
The Sense of Style (Pinker 2015)
As, see the [9] minutes mark to the [30] mins mark (or so - in fact watch it from start to finish), of this great lecture, by Steven Pinker from 2014:
Steven Pinker on The Sense of Style (Talks at Google, 2014)
Anyway - back to Clear and Simple as the Truth (2017), as that is the point of this post.
So - I've been a professional writer for 25 years, have also been reading stuff for 40 years (and - a professional movie & TV script reader for 20 years) and, didn't consciously know that there were some [8] very important categories (styles) of prose (nonfiction) and poetry and novel and play, writing.
But Thomas and Turner (2017) lay these 8 styles out clearly (and simply), and: I like them!
So this (below) is my uber-brief Summary of what they say, in the book:
The 8 major styles of writing are:
Plain style, Classic style, Reflexive style, Practical style, Contemplative style, Romantic style, Prophetic style, and Oratorical style.
At least, from pages 72 through 97 of their book, those are the categories (or: styles) of writing they explain, and with examples and critiques of those examples.
But I do note, on page 69 they say this:
And I note, Sublime is not explicitly discussed as a category quite like the others are in pages 72-97. But - they do say:
And Now, I am going to try and summarize the basic characteristics (and, give examples of) these major styles, as Thomas & Turner (2017) have explained it.
(And, I sure hope this works.)
Here we go.
1) Plain style - clear and simple writing, but - the theology (the belief system / worldview) behind plain style assumes the knowledge it presents (as: common knowledge, or common sense - even possessed by young children) is "the truth". But - the fact is, sometimes kids can actually be very wrong (truth and reality may be more complex than a kid can comprehend) - so, Plain style is basically a much simpler, (much worse, less accurate, less true) version of Classic style.
Classic style takes Plain style and adds to it: sophisticated thought, conceptual refinement, critical thinking and also personal responsibility.
In Plain style, you can also sometimes basically trick people into thinking what you are saying is true, but mainly because it falls back on moves like "As any child knows..." which may well be true information in some cases - but may also be a rhetorical trick (and/or, the result of muddy thinking).
Plain style also uses cliches, whereas Classic style often extends and rethinks cliches:
e.g., a Plain style phrase might be "The truth is pure and simple..." (which is a cliche) - whereas by distinction, a Classic style phrase would instead be: "The truth is rarely pure and never simple..." (as Oscar Wilde wrote).
So - some writers may well use many different styles, all within the one work! (Even in a blog post - like this!)
(Also - the authors of any given piece of writing may not even have known that these 8 different styles exist - or else, some of the styles may well have emerged after they were writing!)
Thomas and Turner note:
A typical religious person talking to another religious person.
In my view, most of Mark Manson's essays, as, they seem to be the result of very shallow thinking? e.g. this essay of his on Evolutionary Psychology, as he is writing about something he clearly knows very little about, namely Evolutionary Psychology. (I would also note - he switches styles a few times within that lousy blog-post, but overall it is mostly written in Plain style.)
Hmm, and actually right now, I can't think of too many more very good / obvious examples of Plain style (as importantly, it is usually not very memorable because of its actual Plain style!), but - most bad student essays, and indeed a whole lot of blogs are written in Plain style; rife with cliches, and very simple - often wrong-headed - thinking).
In contrast to Plain style:
2) Classic style - takes a very clear stance on 5 key issues:
(You will have to read the actual book by Thomas and Turner in full, to see all the details of those 5 x things, above.... But - just as an example, Cast means there are 2 people in the classic "scene", and they are equals; not a "Professor talking down to Student". Conversely, in Oratorical style, the Scene and Cast is: a speaker talking to a crowd, and s/he is trying to persuade that crowd of something or else summarize their consensus view.)
As the authors also write:
Thucydides' The Peloponnesian War. Plato's Apology. Euclid's The Elements of Geometry. Descartes' Discourse on Method. Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi. Austen's Pride and Prejudice.
Also (surprisingly) most good Guide Books, such as say: The Audubon Field Guide to North American Birds. (...Seriously!)
I also suggest, (given my understanding of styles) that these works below are (primarily if not totally) written in Classic style:
Darwin On The Origin of Species. Dawkins The Selfish Gene. Dennett Darwin's Dangerous Idea. Boyd On the Origin of Stories. Csikszentmihalyi Creativity.
Interestingly, in short, and in retrospect, a great many of my favourite nonfiction books seem to be written in Classic style. (i.e., Now that I think I know, what it actually is ! Having read Clear and Simple as the Truth. And no, this blog post is not written in Classic style; it uses various styles, depending on the situation.)
Basically, as the authors note, Classic style is "a transparent window through which its subject is presented". (p. 73)
Also, you can't really skim-read Classic writing, as, you miss nuance... The "last third" of a classic sentence is not predictable!
Moving on now to the next category of style outlined by Thomas and Turner:
3) Reflexive style - this style is: writing (and, thinking) that questions (and even doubts) its own competence...
One point they make is that, in a cookbook (say) we don't expect philosophical (ontological and epistemological) introductions about whether cooking even exists, and if it is even possible to talk about cooking...
Raising such doubts self-consciously in the writing is a Reflexive style. It uses Philosophy to appear "knowing", whereas Classic writing deliberately ignores such questions and just cuts to the car-chase.
Classic style assumes that we can (and indeed should) talk (i.e., write) about the subject we are describing, explaining or otherwise discussing. And, that it is interesting for its own sake. (And - may well also be, very useful knowledge and/or insight to have or use.)
Examples of Reflexive style include:
Quite a lot of Philosophy. Especially that writing that questions its own ability to describe or communicate anything.
Meanwhile - (next style in our listicle...)
4) Practical style - is writing that tells you how to solve a practical problem: Build a house, change a tyre, skin a cat, or whatever.
Most Instruction Manuals are usually written in Practical style.
Most scientific and even artistic research papers, which are presenting the results of some research. And also, Instruction Manuals. And "How-To" (D.I.Y.) books. Most Screenwriting Manuals would also thus be an example of Practical style.
Moving on now to:
5) Contemplative style - which is focussed on the writer's interpretation, and thus (implicitly) tries to convince the reader to interpret it in the same way.
Examples of Contemplative style include:
E B White's contemplative essays (obviously :)
Preachers, who present a text and then present their interpretation of it.
Moving along:
6) Romantic style - is all about the writer, not the reader.
As the authors say:
Proust, In Search of Lost Time
Probably lots of Romantic writing, e.g.: Taylor-Coleridge, Wordsworth, Blake, Shelley, Byron, Keats. (Including many or even all of their poems... not just their essays or the like)
Goethe, in The Sorrows of Young Werther.
Importantly:
(Romantics obscure creativity. The scientific study of creativity is much more useful to people!)
Moving along to:
7) Prophetic style - is its own authority, usually "by" some kind of deity or mystical prophet or something with divine powers. And/Or, reporting what the "prophet" (or deity, or supernatural being) has "said" (or "declared").
In short, science is always better than supernatural or mystical stuff.
Examples include:
The Old Testament.
Or in fact, most bibles of most religions.
...and finally our last style:
8) Oratorical style - is basically a public speaker, talking to a crowd and trying to convince them of something.
Ulysses (eg at certain points, in The Iliad, and The Odyssey) and also Pericles (his "Funeral Oration" in Thucydides' Pelopponesian Wars), whenever they are a spokesperson for an audience.
And - I am also thinking of, the "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears" speech in Julius Caesar.
Also, Jefferson (US Declaration of Independence): "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." (etc)
==============================
Anyway - so, that's an overview / summary of the 8 styles, namely:
Plain style, Classic style, Reflexive style, Practical style, Contemplative style, Romantic style, Prophetic style, and Oratorical style.
And importantly - Classic style assumes that there is an Objective Truth.
(That: "Truth is not: Mind-Independent" (p. 99))
...So: I like it!
(I also like: Karl Popper. And Dan Dennett, and the like... Same deal.)
And so - I very highly recommend the book:
Clear and Simple as the Truth - Writing Classic Prose - Second Edition
(Thomas & Turner 1994 / 2017)
And - Thanks for reading this post!
(The main reason I wrote this post was to force myself to check that I understand the 8 major styles as described and examined in the book.)
I've written million-selling games and novels and movies, not sure in what style... I'd have to re-read/rewatch/replay them, and figure it out. But from now on I'll be aware if it when creating stuff.
FYI, I see there is another summary of Thomas & Turner, on a blog by somebody, here. Theirs is probably a better (more comprehensive) Summary than mine, but as I say, I was mainly just trying to make sure that I understood the book (and thus the styles).
As an aside - I am actually going to try and write a book in the Classic style.
It is about: this.
-----------------------------
Dr. Joe T. Velikovsky, Ph.D. (Communication & Media Arts)
& High-Movie-RoI Consultant (see: The StoryAlity PhD)
-------------------
`The word communication will be used here in a very broad sense to include all of the procedures by which one mind may affect another. This, of course, involves not only written and oral speech, but also music, the pictorial arts, the theater, the ballet, and in fact all human behavior... The language of this memorandum will often appear to refer to the special, but still very broad and important, field of the communication of speech; but practically everything said applies equally well to music of any sort, and to still or moving pictures, as in television." - The Mathematical Theory of Communication, (Shannon & Weaver 1949, pp. 3-4).
Also:
“I know you think you understand what you thought I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant” - (attributed, and ironically, possibly mistakenly, to: Robert McCloskey, namely the children's book author and illustrator, date of quote unknown)
& this autosig is not even near complete yet, as
JT Velikovsky is also a:
Transmedia Writer-Director-Producer: Movies, Games, TV, Theatre, Books, Comics
Transmedia Writing Blog: http://on-writering.blogspot.com.au/
& (High-RoI) Story/Screenplay/Movie Analyst - and Evolutionary Systems Theorist
See: https://storyality.wordpress.com/
& Bio-Culture (Science & the Arts) & Transmedia Researcher
Academia link: https://aftrs.academia.edu/JTVelikovsky
See, also:
Joe Velikovsky on IMDb:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/joeteevee
Okay - the autosig is over now. You can stop reading.
Clear and Simple as the Truth - Writing Classic Prose - Second Edition
(Thomas & Turner 1994 / 2017)
And - it's terrific. Read it!
I was alerted to its existence by this (also-excellent) book:
The Sense of Style (Pinker 2015) As, see the [9] minutes mark to the [30] mins mark (or so - in fact watch it from start to finish), of this great lecture, by Steven Pinker from 2014:
Steven Pinker on The Sense of Style (Talks at Google, 2014)
Anyway - back to Clear and Simple as the Truth (2017), as that is the point of this post.
So - I've been a professional writer for 25 years, have also been reading stuff for 40 years (and - a professional movie & TV script reader for 20 years) and, didn't consciously know that there were some [8] very important categories (styles) of prose (nonfiction) and poetry and novel and play, writing.
But Thomas and Turner (2017) lay these 8 styles out clearly (and simply), and: I like them!
So this (below) is my uber-brief Summary of what they say, in the book:
The 8 major styles of writing are:
Plain style, Classic style, Reflexive style, Practical style, Contemplative style, Romantic style, Prophetic style, and Oratorical style.
At least, from pages 72 through 97 of their book, those are the categories (or: styles) of writing they explain, and with examples and critiques of those examples.
But I do note, on page 69 they say this:
"...style is plain, classic, romantic, contemplative, oratorical, sublime, prophetic, practical, or diplomatic."
Thomas, Francis-Noël. Clear and Simple as the Truth: Writing Classic Prose - Second Edition (p. 69). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition (2017).And, Diplomatic is not explained in detail as a style, in the book...
And I note, Sublime is not explicitly discussed as a category quite like the others are in pages 72-97. But - they do say:
"The closest model in classical antiquity for our analysis of classic style is Longinus’s analysis of “the sublime” in On the Sublime, perhaps the most brilliant treatment of a style ever written."
Thomas, Francis-Noël. Clear and Simple as the Truth: Writing Classic Prose - Second Edition (p. 69). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition.So, here's the thing: as I understand it, Classic style is Plain style but with some fancy bits added on, and, Plain style is basically (more or less) very close to what Longinus (long ago) called: Sublime style.
And Now, I am going to try and summarize the basic characteristics (and, give examples of) these major styles, as Thomas & Turner (2017) have explained it.
(And, I sure hope this works.)
Here we go.
1) Plain style - clear and simple writing, but - the theology (the belief system / worldview) behind plain style assumes the knowledge it presents (as: common knowledge, or common sense - even possessed by young children) is "the truth". But - the fact is, sometimes kids can actually be very wrong (truth and reality may be more complex than a kid can comprehend) - so, Plain style is basically a much simpler, (much worse, less accurate, less true) version of Classic style.
Classic style takes Plain style and adds to it: sophisticated thought, conceptual refinement, critical thinking and also personal responsibility.
In Plain style, you can also sometimes basically trick people into thinking what you are saying is true, but mainly because it falls back on moves like "As any child knows..." which may well be true information in some cases - but may also be a rhetorical trick (and/or, the result of muddy thinking).
Plain style also uses cliches, whereas Classic style often extends and rethinks cliches:
e.g., a Plain style phrase might be "The truth is pure and simple..." (which is a cliche) - whereas by distinction, a Classic style phrase would instead be: "The truth is rarely pure and never simple..." (as Oscar Wilde wrote).
““Seeing is believing” is plain.
“Seeing is believing only if you don’t see too clearly” is classic."
Thomas, Francis-Noël. Clear and Simple as the Truth: Writing Classic Prose - Second Edition (pp. 72-73). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition.Bear in mind also - in any given piece of writing: it may be the actual case that a sentence, a paragraph, even a chapter, may be in one style (e.g., Plain, or Classic, or Romantic, etc!) while others vary.
So - some writers may well use many different styles, all within the one work! (Even in a blog post - like this!)
(Also - the authors of any given piece of writing may not even have known that these 8 different styles exist - or else, some of the styles may well have emerged after they were writing!)
Thomas and Turner note:
"“Grace is simple” is plain. “Grace, from the perspective of God, is simple” is classic, as is “The machinery of grace is always simple.”
Plain style values simplicity but shuns nuance.
Classic style values both simplicity and nuance."
Thomas, Francis-Noël. Clear and Simple as the Truth: Writing Classic Prose - Second Edition (p. 72). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition.And - some Examples of Plain Style would be:
A typical religious person talking to another religious person.
In my view, most of Mark Manson's essays, as, they seem to be the result of very shallow thinking? e.g. this essay of his on Evolutionary Psychology, as he is writing about something he clearly knows very little about, namely Evolutionary Psychology. (I would also note - he switches styles a few times within that lousy blog-post, but overall it is mostly written in Plain style.)
Hmm, and actually right now, I can't think of too many more very good / obvious examples of Plain style (as importantly, it is usually not very memorable because of its actual Plain style!), but - most bad student essays, and indeed a whole lot of blogs are written in Plain style; rife with cliches, and very simple - often wrong-headed - thinking).
In contrast to Plain style:
2) Classic style - takes a very clear stance on 5 key issues:
Truth, Presentation, Scene, Cast, and also Thought and Language.
(You will have to read the actual book by Thomas and Turner in full, to see all the details of those 5 x things, above.... But - just as an example, Cast means there are 2 people in the classic "scene", and they are equals; not a "Professor talking down to Student". Conversely, in Oratorical style, the Scene and Cast is: a speaker talking to a crowd, and s/he is trying to persuade that crowd of something or else summarize their consensus view.)
As the authors also write:
"The concept of classic style assumes that plain style already exists.
The classic version introduces a refinement, a qualification, a meditation on the plain version that makes it classic.
Classic style takes the attitude that it is superior to plain style because classic style presents intelligence as it should be presented: as a sparkling display, not weighed down by grinding earnestness."
Thomas, Francis-Noël. Clear and Simple as the Truth: Writing Classic Prose - Second Edition (p. 16). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition. (boldface emphasis mine)Examples of Classic style (as given by the authors, Thomas and Turner) include:
Thucydides' The Peloponnesian War. Plato's Apology. Euclid's The Elements of Geometry. Descartes' Discourse on Method. Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi. Austen's Pride and Prejudice.
Also (surprisingly) most good Guide Books, such as say: The Audubon Field Guide to North American Birds. (...Seriously!)
I also suggest, (given my understanding of styles) that these works below are (primarily if not totally) written in Classic style:
Darwin On The Origin of Species. Dawkins The Selfish Gene. Dennett Darwin's Dangerous Idea. Boyd On the Origin of Stories. Csikszentmihalyi Creativity.
Interestingly, in short, and in retrospect, a great many of my favourite nonfiction books seem to be written in Classic style. (i.e., Now that I think I know, what it actually is ! Having read Clear and Simple as the Truth. And no, this blog post is not written in Classic style; it uses various styles, depending on the situation.)
Basically, as the authors note, Classic style is "a transparent window through which its subject is presented". (p. 73)
Also, you can't really skim-read Classic writing, as, you miss nuance... The "last third" of a classic sentence is not predictable!
"[when you read] the end [e.g. the last third] of a classic sentence, you will recognize that the sentence was true to its direction, but that does not make the sentence predictable, because it usually contains a conceptual refinement that is clear and simple as the truth but not a cliché and hence not predictable."(The authors also then provide 4 great examples of such Classic sentences in their book. Here is just one...)
Thomas, Francis-Noël. Clear and Simple as the Truth: Writing Classic Prose - Second Edition (pp. 81-82). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition.
"Although a dirty campaign was widely predicted, for the most part the politicians contented themselves with insults and lies. (Julian Barnes on the 1992 British parliamentary elections)"
Thomas, Francis-Noël. Clear and Simple as the Truth: Writing Classic Prose - Second Edition (p. 82). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition. (bold emphasis mine)Basically, the last third of the sentence in Classic style writing is often creative: i.e., new, useful and surprising!
Moving on now to the next category of style outlined by Thomas and Turner:
3) Reflexive style - this style is: writing (and, thinking) that questions (and even doubts) its own competence...
One point they make is that, in a cookbook (say) we don't expect philosophical (ontological and epistemological) introductions about whether cooking even exists, and if it is even possible to talk about cooking...
Raising such doubts self-consciously in the writing is a Reflexive style. It uses Philosophy to appear "knowing", whereas Classic writing deliberately ignores such questions and just cuts to the car-chase.
Classic style assumes that we can (and indeed should) talk (i.e., write) about the subject we are describing, explaining or otherwise discussing. And, that it is interesting for its own sake. (And - may well also be, very useful knowledge and/or insight to have or use.)
Examples of Reflexive style include:
Quite a lot of Philosophy. Especially that writing that questions its own ability to describe or communicate anything.
Meanwhile - (next style in our listicle...)
4) Practical style - is writing that tells you how to solve a practical problem: Build a house, change a tyre, skin a cat, or whatever.
Most Instruction Manuals are usually written in Practical style.
"In the model scene behind practical style, the reader has a problem to solve, a decision to make, a ruling to hand down, an inquiry to conduct, a machine to design or repair—in short, a job to do. The reader’s need, not the writer’s desire to articulate something, initiates the writing."Thomas and Turner later write:
Thomas, Francis-Noël. Clear and Simple as the Truth: Writing Classic Prose - Second Edition (p. 75). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition.
"The best-known teachers of practical style are Strunk and White, in their ubiquitous Elements of Style.
The best teachers of practical style are Joseph Williams and Gregory Colomb, in Williams’s Style: Toward Clarity and Grace and a series of academic articles and technical reports."
Thomas, Francis-Noël. Clear and Simple as the Truth: Writing Classic Prose - Second Edition (p. 78). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition.Examples of Practical style are:
Most scientific and even artistic research papers, which are presenting the results of some research. And also, Instruction Manuals. And "How-To" (D.I.Y.) books. Most Screenwriting Manuals would also thus be an example of Practical style.
Moving on now to:
5) Contemplative style - which is focussed on the writer's interpretation, and thus (implicitly) tries to convince the reader to interpret it in the same way.
"In contemplative style, the distinction between presentation and interpretation is always observed: the writer sees something, presents it to the reader, and then interprets it.
The stress is on the interpretation, but the transition is always explicitly marked. E. B. White, a master of the contemplative essay, characteristically observes this sequence, as he does in “The Ring of Time,” a dazzling piece of writing that is entirely unclassic."
Thomas, Francis-Noël. Clear and Simple as the Truth: Writing Classic Prose - Second Edition (pp. 82-83). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition.I am also reminded of the TV series The Wonder Years, where after a flashback, there is always a scene where the now-adult-voice of the narrator narrates "It was at that time, I realized: [insert some proverb or insight here, etc]"
Examples of Contemplative style include:
E B White's contemplative essays (obviously :)
Preachers, who present a text and then present their interpretation of it.
Moving along:
6) Romantic style - is all about the writer, not the reader.
As the authors say:
"Classic Style Is Not Romantic Style
Contemplative style is fundamentally about the writer’s thought and often explicitly acknowledges this focus. Romantic style, although not necessarily focused on the writer’s thought in the sense of his analysis or reflection, is always and inescapably about the writer. Romantic prose is a mirror, not a window.
Romantic style does not separate thought from sensation, memory, and emotion. All these things together are experience.
Neither does romantic style distinguish the person who experiences from the experience. The romantic writer therefore cannot be an observer who sees something separate from himself; both the writer and his experience are inseparable elements of a perpetual dialectic in which the writer creates a world, which in its turn creates him. This process is something like the pulse of life. A writer can describe this dynamic relationship, but cannot “present” it and allow it to be verified."Examples include:
Thomas, Francis-Noël. Clear and Simple as the Truth: Writing Classic Prose - Second Edition (p. 86). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition.
Proust, In Search of Lost Time
Probably lots of Romantic writing, e.g.: Taylor-Coleridge, Wordsworth, Blake, Shelley, Byron, Keats. (Including many or even all of their poems... not just their essays or the like)
Goethe, in The Sorrows of Young Werther.
Importantly:
"Both the classic writer and the romantic writer are vulnerable but in entirely different ways. The classic writer is vulnerable because he speaks noncontingent truth to which everybody is vulnerable. The romantic writer is vulnerable because everybody is vulnerable to the conditions of life.
The classic writer is always vulnerable to challenge; the romantic writer never."
Thomas, Francis-Noël. Clear and Simple as the Truth: Writing Classic Prose - Second Edition (pp. 88-89). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition.Classic is basically the opposite of Romantic writing. (No wonder I hate Romantic writing so much :)
(Romantics obscure creativity. The scientific study of creativity is much more useful to people!)
Moving along to:
7) Prophetic style - is its own authority, usually "by" some kind of deity or mystical prophet or something with divine powers. And/Or, reporting what the "prophet" (or deity, or supernatural being) has "said" (or "declared").
In short, science is always better than supernatural or mystical stuff.
Examples include:
The Old Testament.
Or in fact, most bibles of most religions.
...and finally our last style:
8) Oratorical style - is basically a public speaker, talking to a crowd and trying to convince them of something.
"The model scene of oratorical style is neither casual nor spontaneous. Its prototypical occasion is the assembly of a group of people faced by a public problem—like military invasion, the forming and maintenance of public values, or the judging of social offenders.
This scene creates a cast. Leadership is necessary, and the assembly’s job is to respond to a candidate who puts himself forward.
The orator assumes a role as leader of both the public moment and the setting of policy. He invites the audience to yield to his rhythms and to his views, which he typically presents as a version of common verities."
Thomas, Francis-Noël. Clear and Simple as the Truth: Writing Classic Prose - Second Edition (pp. 91-92). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition.Examples include:
Ulysses (eg at certain points, in The Iliad, and The Odyssey) and also Pericles (his "Funeral Oration" in Thucydides' Pelopponesian Wars), whenever they are a spokesperson for an audience.
And - I am also thinking of, the "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears" speech in Julius Caesar.
Also, Jefferson (US Declaration of Independence): "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." (etc)
==============================
Anyway - so, that's an overview / summary of the 8 styles, namely:
Plain style, Classic style, Reflexive style, Practical style, Contemplative style, Romantic style, Prophetic style, and Oratorical style.
And importantly - Classic style assumes that there is an Objective Truth.
(That: "Truth is not: Mind-Independent" (p. 99))
...So: I like it!
(I also like: Karl Popper. And Dan Dennett, and the like... Same deal.)
And so - I very highly recommend the book:
Clear and Simple as the Truth - Writing Classic Prose - Second Edition
(Thomas & Turner 1994 / 2017)
And - Thanks for reading this post!
(The main reason I wrote this post was to force myself to check that I understand the 8 major styles as described and examined in the book.)
I've written million-selling games and novels and movies, not sure in what style... I'd have to re-read/rewatch/replay them, and figure it out. But from now on I'll be aware if it when creating stuff.
FYI, I see there is another summary of Thomas & Turner, on a blog by somebody, here. Theirs is probably a better (more comprehensive) Summary than mine, but as I say, I was mainly just trying to make sure that I understood the book (and thus the styles).
As an aside - I am actually going to try and write a book in the Classic style.
It is about: this.
-----------------------------
Dr. Joe T. Velikovsky, Ph.D. (Communication & Media Arts)
& High-Movie-RoI Consultant (see: The StoryAlity PhD)
-------------------
`The word communication will be used here in a very broad sense to include all of the procedures by which one mind may affect another. This, of course, involves not only written and oral speech, but also music, the pictorial arts, the theater, the ballet, and in fact all human behavior... The language of this memorandum will often appear to refer to the special, but still very broad and important, field of the communication of speech; but practically everything said applies equally well to music of any sort, and to still or moving pictures, as in television." - The Mathematical Theory of Communication, (Shannon & Weaver 1949, pp. 3-4).
Also:
“I know you think you understand what you thought I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant” - (attributed, and ironically, possibly mistakenly, to: Robert McCloskey, namely the children's book author and illustrator, date of quote unknown)
& this autosig is not even near complete yet, as
JT Velikovsky is also a:
Transmedia Writer-Director-Producer: Movies, Games, TV, Theatre, Books, Comics
Transmedia Writing Blog: http://on-writering.blogspot.com.au/
& (High-RoI) Story/Screenplay/Movie Analyst - and Evolutionary Systems Theorist
See: https://storyality.wordpress.com/
& Bio-Culture (Science & the Arts) & Transmedia Researcher
Academia link: https://aftrs.academia.edu/JTVelikovsky
See, also:
Joe Velikovsky on IMDb:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/joeteevee
Okay - the autosig is over now. You can stop reading.
August 12, 2017
JB - Above-Top-Secret-Agent-Guy-Person - Chapter 1
J.B. : Above-Top-Secret-Agent-Guy-Person
A thrilling series of thrilling top-secret adventure novels
Chapter 1
of
J.B.: Above-Top-Secret Agent Person Guy
Adventure #1:
“The Case of the Thing with the Thing, and Whatsaname”
By: JT Velikovsky
© August 12th2017
Page 1, Chapter 1:
====================================
J.B., super-handsome and athletic heart-throb top-secret agent guy walked down the long corridor of CIA Headquarters in Langley Virginia in the good ole U.S. of A.
This meeting was going to be the most important meeting of his life, and he knew it. The stakes could not be higher. He could feel it in his boner.
He saw the secret CIA Briefing Room door getting closer and closer as he walked towards it.
…This was it.
The moment of truth…
Just then disaster struck. A stinking miasma reached his nose, for he had just farted the worst silent fart of his life–possibly even the worst fart in recorded human history–and suddenly, his whole world came crashing down around him.
This was bad.
His heart raced. What to do? It was a potentially-lethal fart, he realized.
Someone could get hurt, or even killed.
Should he hang around in the corridor for 60 seconds, and try and walk it off, before entering the Briefing Room? Surely, he couldn’t just walk a fart like this into this big important meeting with some of the most powerful and serious people in the world.
But, he also knew, if he did that, and paced around in the corridor for a minute, it would mean he would be one minute late for the most important meeting in his life, and possibly even in all of human history.
Panic set in. Using the age-old `combat-breathing technique’, he fought the panic off. He mentally counted to four as he breathed in, then held his breath for a slow count of four again, then breathed out as he counted to four a third time. This made it worse, as having now really ingested the terrible fart, he also felt nauseous and light-headed. He fought off the gag reflex and mentally slowed his heartbeat with the old `slowing the heartbeat down’ yoga trick.
Think; I’ve got to think-?! he thought…
He stood stock still before the door as now the backwash of the drifting fart gently enveloped and overtook him.
What if someone came out of the door, right now…? The entire jig would be up.
Game Over. Roll Credits. Pack up the chairs and go home. The End. Never To Be Continued. That is definitely All, folks.
It would be an unmitigated disaster… His whole reputation was on the line. If this played out like it looked like it was going to, unless he took action–and fast–then he, J.B., top-secret-agent, would forever be: that guy who did that worst fart, ever. And, walked it right into a big meeting.
Rumours would spread. No-one would ever again take him seriously.
His reputation, his entire career, was on the line.
But–should he now pace around in the hallway, and walk it off?
If anyone saw him, they might mistake his pacing intentions as nerves, or anger, or even frustration. Would that be even worse? Maybe. Hard to say.
He stood frozen, standing right before the door, steeling his nerves. …What to do?
Suddenly the door burst open and a pert, bosomy, female Aide–with great shapely legs–in her early 20s, dressed in a suit, rushed out of the door, a folder clutched under one arm. She brushed past J.B., and she raced off down the hall, her luscious boobs jiggling under her shirt, dragging the bulk of his fart away with her down the hall. It got caught up in her slipstream as she went, and she took most of it away with her.
J.B. was saved, due to random chance.
Phew, he thought. Yay, for: random chance!
He sniffed the air again, still unsure. Was it still there...? Lingering traces, perhaps?
Eureka!
The fart was now almost undetectable. His lack of a good plan had worked out brilliantly.
He watched her go, ten feet away... now, twenty feet...
As she moved off, he admired her shapely female figure, the waggle of her ass, the bounce of her booty.
Must be jello, cos jam don’t jiggle like that, he surmised, sexistly.
His boner twitched in his pants, programmed by millions of years of genetic evolution to respond to random visual female sexual-signals.
Suddenly, she was now thirty feet away, and she halted–and turned back to look him square in the eye.
Uh-oh... he thought.
His heart stopped. Surely, she had now smelt his fart - and had realized what had just happened.
...How would he ever bone her now, if the chance even came up? He had never even seen her before in his life, but he already knew, he had blown his chance of randomly getting his rocks off with her, whoever she was. Maybe, she was even: important.
“They’re ready for you J.B., so head right on in,” she smiled warmly at him.
He noticed the curves and the ballast of her ample breast, through her very low-cut blouse... her mouth-watering breasts served up there for his visual pleasure like a platter of juicy rockmelons. They had jiggled a little as she spoke and were still settling... It was pure poetry in motion.
She turned on her high heel which she knew made her calf muscles look more shapely and would attract more sexual attention from males, and she marched off, obviously in a hurry. But not too much of a hurry, as she knew his gaze was still on her and she wanted to show off her assets from behind.
He nodded, stunned. As she titted away down the corridor, he wondered just how she knew his name, "J.B."...? - That information was supposed to be above-top-secret...?
Maybe, he thought, his above-top-secret reputation preceded him...?
Maybe she had heard of him, maybe he was even famous in CIA circles, and maybe, if the chips fell right, he could actually give her a good schtupping sometime in her near future, after all.
After all, hadn’t her words just now, had a hidden second meaning, a salacious subtext? “They’re ready for you J.B., so, head right on in…” were her exact words.
Surely, she was communicating via code: her sexual readiness for him...?
It could hardly be more obvious, he thought, like the gutter-minded chauvinist sexist pig he was, since he was a male.
Surely, she was actually, really saying: “Bone me but good, big boy - Go for gold!”
He smiled and he nodded knowingly. Stuff was going good today. He was probably going to get laid tonight, and as usual, being a male, he didn't really give a shit, by which random female.
He took another deep breath, steeled his nerves, adjusted his boner, and he knocked on the big important secret CIA door.
“Come in” said a deep authoritative voice from behind the CIA door.
Two burly armed secret service agents stepped out, and they ushered him inside the secret room.
From scanning both their expressionless secret agent faces, they didn’t seem to smell the traces of his fart..?
He seemed to have actually, gotten away with it?
...The perfect crime?
As top secret agent J. B. stepped inside the dimly-lit CIA top-secret Briefing room, he saw about twenty important men in suits (and also a few sexy women - but then again, all women were sexy to J.B.; he’d pretty much fuck anything female that moved, as noted previously) were all seated around a large round table.
There was the President, the joint chiefs of staff, the head of the CIA, head of the FBI, head of Homeland Security... and some other folks he didn’t recognize but he knew they must be super-important, powerful and authoritative people; because they were wearing suits.
Maybe, they were even, members of the Secret Society who really ran the world… he thought. Or, who knows what?, he thought. Like - The Majestic-12, or The Bilderbergers, or The Illuminati, or the Masons, or someone like that…
J.B. wasn’t quite sure whoactually ran the world, if anyonedid, as all that was well above his pay-grade.
There sure were a lot of Conspiracy Theories about it, and, they were pretty powerful memes, he had to admit, but - that was not his concern right now.
Right now, he had to give the greatest presentation of his life, right here in this secret Briefing room of the CIA.
“Gentlemen, and of course, ladies,” J.B. smiled charmingly, and nodded to them all, and especially, to the women. Some of the women even nodded and smiled back. Maybe, he could schtupp some of them later, he thought.
All eyes were now on him. And you could almost hear a pin drop, if someone had actually dropped one, right then. (But, it also seems odd that anyone would have a pin handy - unless maybe they were sewing, which they clearly weren’t.)
The President smiled a guarded smile at J.B., and announced to all the important people present, “Everyone - as you all know - this is top-secret special-agent J.B…. And J.B., this is… everyone... And now, Agent J.B., if you would proceed with your Above-Top-Secret Briefing, for us?”
J.B. nodded and smiled at the President.
He moved over to the laptop computer by the digital projector, and he tapped the space-bar key to wake it up.
This was always a tense time... Would the computer even work properly? Had the tech-guys, even set all of this up properly? ...Had they even loaded up the right PowerPoint file, that he had sent them via email this morning-? This could all be very awkward and embarrassing…? There was lots that could go horribly wrong.
Phew, thought, as his actual PowerPoint presentation finally appeared on the large screen on the wall.
Its title screen boldly read: “Above-Top-Secret: The Simulation Conspiracy”.
“Ladies and gentlemen... In the course of my investigations, I, personally, have stumbled upon evidence, that suggests - we are all... living inside a computer simulation."
A few stunned gasps were heard, around the darkened room. J.B. continued:
“Namely - our entire universe, and everything in it, is a simulation, and is probably running on some kind of alien computer or whatever, and which was created by some currently-unknown advanced alien civilization, or something.”
He now clicked though more of his PowerPoint slides, and everyone’s attention was utterly riveted.
It was all going pretty well so far, all things considered, J.B. thought?
He went on, as he clicked through more of the slides he had prepared earlier:
“Apart from the fact that DNA itself is digital, and also, everything from quarks to atoms to molecules to DNA up to planets and galaxies everything else - can now be simulated in our own very powerful digital computers- even so that, the simulated lifeforms inside them, actually think they are conscious and living - new evidence from another angle has recently come to light, that: we are indeed, all living in a sim. And thus - we are conscious sims, inside, a simulated universe. Running on, some alien computer someplace, probably.”
The whole room just listened, and waited, in stunned silence.
You could have heard another pin drop, but, I rest my case about it seeming unlikely that there would be any pins in the room, anyway.
Who even uses pins? These days we have Velcro and zippers and whatnot, thanks to: Science and Technology.
I mean I guess, some people use safety-pins, sometimes.
But still, it seems unlikely any of the most powerful and secret people in the world would have safety-pins on them, in a top secret, big important meeting like this one. But anyway.
J.B. glanced around the dimly-lit room, now noticing that there were, actually, some pretty hot babes and MILFs in the room, and he actually seemed to be impressing them right now, with his presentation.
So, maybe he could schtupp some of them later on... This day was just getting better and better all the time.
He continued with his briefing:
“The new evidence is that - it also appears, that there are clues hidden in the bibles of almost every religion that has ever existed on Earth, that - we are living in a sim. Right now!"
He paused for effect again, and to take a quick chance to peek at the exposed cleavages in the low cut suits of of some of the MILFs gathered around the table. They all looked pretty awesome to him. Bosomy-cleavage pretty much never got old.
"And so - I now give you, Exhibit A, the Old Testament bible.”
Now, he clicked and a quote from the Old Testament appeared on the big screen.
“ `In the beginning, God created the sky and the earth’. ”
J.B. read it out aloud, just in case anyone in the room was illiterate, or something. (He would still be quite happy to schtupp them, regardless.)
Then he flicked through slides of a few other quotes, from some other bibles of other religions...
“As we do a close reading of almost all religious bibles in existence, and, there are thousands of them - and when we also check this data, via artificially-intelligent text-parsing algorithms, we are now able to see: there are countless hints, or clues, cleverly hidden within all these ancient and even modern bible texts, that…”
He paused again just for effect. Yes, definitely gonna schtupp at least one of these MILFs, he thought. He continued his speech:
“… the universe, and everything in it - even our very own planet Earth, and even us, as human beings, and all plants and animals - were created by computer programmers, otherwise known as The Great Game Design Team in the Sky, and here shortened to the acronym `Group Of Developers’ or `G.O.D.’ for short . The clues are obvious, once you know what you’re looking for.”
Another shocked murmur rippled around the room. J.B. soaked it up.
More currency, in the getting-laid-tonight game... Cha-ching! Cha-ching! he smiled to himself. He was gonna cash this currency out, tonight! Payday was on the way...
J.B. clicked the next slide, showing: some decoded DNA.
“Also, the Human Genome Project, now in 2018, has secretly discovered - a hidden coded message in the so-called `junk DNA’ of all living organisms, including even ourselves... It is, a `remark’ as computer coders would call it, left there in our DNA. by the coders of the simulation that we are all in. Like, a “maker’s mark”, if you will...”
J.B. again paused for effect. Maybe even that blond over there, he thought. She seemed pretty enraptured. Was she: swooning? Yes, she was.
“And so now, ladies and gentlemen, I will reveal to you, the screen of this presentation that shows: The hidden secret message, within the DNA of all organisms, plants and animals. Even, in yourselves. Written there, in every cell of your... body.”
He looked over at the bustiest blond's body, and she licked her lips at him.
It was on, baby, on! Yeahhhh babay!
J.B. turned back to the computer, clicked the mouse button again, and now the screen showing the secret hidden message appeared...
Everyone in the room gasped… Surely, it couldn’t be true-?!!!
[END OF - CHAPTER ONE]
And also ...
(PS – Wow, Note the super-cool cliffhanger / `page-turner’ there-!
Did you see that ?!
As if, you don’t want to read Chapter 2, right NOW - !!!)
(Note also how - this book begins with a supercool Conspiracy Theory, that might even be true!
Namely that we are living in a Sim..!!!!
See: The Simulation Argument.
Hooboy, man - this is: fucking great stuff!
(Aw Man, this JTV dude can really write!)
Also note how, it’s even an ironic, `meta’, parody of `sexist secret agents’ with initials JB, like James Bond or Jason Bourne or Jack Bauer...!
...and also note - we also haven’t yet been told, what J.B. even stands for!
…What a brilliant tease-?!!!
Note even also, the vague influence of the `Butler’ satirical novels!
And - Note: lots of other stuff, too!
Like how it emulates crap like `50 Shades',
but from a sexist male perspective!
...Wowsers! OMG - This stuff is GREAT!!!)
To Be Continued, in
Chapter 2 –
of the book,
currently known as:
J.B.: Above-Top-Secret Agent Person Guy
in
Adventure #1:
THE CASE OF THE THING with the THING, and WHATSANAME
By: JT Velikovsky
in
The B.A.L.L.S.A.C.K. Series –
Brilliant Adventures in Secret Agent Conspiracy (Known)
(Hey wow - Note also - how deliberately `zen-stupid’ the title of the book is!
I guess this guy, likes Bob Burden’s writing, too!)
Hey, and it turns out, he [JTV] even wrote another satirical novel, too:
AM SO AS !
But, whatever!
The point is -
…TO BE CONTINUED!!!
Holy shit, this guy’s a genius.
What great (meta) writing!!!
Especially even in the age of #MeToo and all that.
It's almost as if he's amusingly implying: First, Eliminate Sex!
But even that too may be a satire, as: who knows?
...Amazing!
And
Shut up and just take my money,
I want to read lots more of this crazy satirical parodical stuff!!!
============================================
-----------------------------
Dr. Joe T. Velikovsky, Ph.D. (Communication & Media Arts)
& High-Movie-RoI Consultant (see: The StoryAlity PhD)
-------------------
`The word communication will be used here in a very broad sense to include all of the procedures by which one mind may affect another. This, of course, involves not only written and oral speech, but also music, the pictorial arts, the theater, the ballet, and in fact all human behavior... The language of this memorandum will often appear to refer to the special, but still very broad and important, field of the communication of speech; but practically everything said applies equally well to music of any sort, and to still or moving pictures, as in television." - The Mathematical Theory of Communication, (Shannon & Weaver 1949, pp. 3-4).
Also:
“I know you think you understand what you thought I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant” - (attributed, and ironically, possibly mistakenly, to: Robert McCloskey, namely the children's book author and illustrator, date of quote unknown)
& this autosig is not even near complete yet, as
JT Velikovsky is also a:
Transmedia Writer-Director-Producer: Movies, Games, TV, Theatre, Books, Comics
Transmedia Writing Blog: http://on-writering.blogspot.com.au/
& (High-RoI) Story/Screenplay/Movie Analyst - and Evolutionary Systems Theorist
See: https://storyality.wordpress.com/
& Bio-Culture (Science & the Arts) & Transmedia Researcher
Academia link: https://aftrs.academia.edu/JTVelikovsky
See, also:
Joe Velikovsky on IMDb:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/joeteevee
Okay - the autosig is over now. You can stop reading.
A thrilling series of thrilling top-secret adventure novels
Chapter 1
of
J.B.: Above-Top-Secret Agent Person Guy
Adventure #1:
“The Case of the Thing with the Thing, and Whatsaname”
By: JT Velikovsky
© August 12th2017
Page 1, Chapter 1:
====================================
J.B., super-handsome and athletic heart-throb top-secret agent guy walked down the long corridor of CIA Headquarters in Langley Virginia in the good ole U.S. of A.
This meeting was going to be the most important meeting of his life, and he knew it. The stakes could not be higher. He could feel it in his boner.
He saw the secret CIA Briefing Room door getting closer and closer as he walked towards it.
…This was it.
The moment of truth…
Just then disaster struck. A stinking miasma reached his nose, for he had just farted the worst silent fart of his life–possibly even the worst fart in recorded human history–and suddenly, his whole world came crashing down around him.
This was bad.
His heart raced. What to do? It was a potentially-lethal fart, he realized.
Someone could get hurt, or even killed.
Should he hang around in the corridor for 60 seconds, and try and walk it off, before entering the Briefing Room? Surely, he couldn’t just walk a fart like this into this big important meeting with some of the most powerful and serious people in the world.
But, he also knew, if he did that, and paced around in the corridor for a minute, it would mean he would be one minute late for the most important meeting in his life, and possibly even in all of human history.
Panic set in. Using the age-old `combat-breathing technique’, he fought the panic off. He mentally counted to four as he breathed in, then held his breath for a slow count of four again, then breathed out as he counted to four a third time. This made it worse, as having now really ingested the terrible fart, he also felt nauseous and light-headed. He fought off the gag reflex and mentally slowed his heartbeat with the old `slowing the heartbeat down’ yoga trick.
Think; I’ve got to think-?! he thought…
He stood stock still before the door as now the backwash of the drifting fart gently enveloped and overtook him.
What if someone came out of the door, right now…? The entire jig would be up.
Game Over. Roll Credits. Pack up the chairs and go home. The End. Never To Be Continued. That is definitely All, folks.
It would be an unmitigated disaster… His whole reputation was on the line. If this played out like it looked like it was going to, unless he took action–and fast–then he, J.B., top-secret-agent, would forever be: that guy who did that worst fart, ever. And, walked it right into a big meeting.
Rumours would spread. No-one would ever again take him seriously.
His reputation, his entire career, was on the line.
But–should he now pace around in the hallway, and walk it off?
If anyone saw him, they might mistake his pacing intentions as nerves, or anger, or even frustration. Would that be even worse? Maybe. Hard to say.
He stood frozen, standing right before the door, steeling his nerves. …What to do?
Suddenly the door burst open and a pert, bosomy, female Aide–with great shapely legs–in her early 20s, dressed in a suit, rushed out of the door, a folder clutched under one arm. She brushed past J.B., and she raced off down the hall, her luscious boobs jiggling under her shirt, dragging the bulk of his fart away with her down the hall. It got caught up in her slipstream as she went, and she took most of it away with her.
J.B. was saved, due to random chance.
Phew, he thought. Yay, for: random chance!
He sniffed the air again, still unsure. Was it still there...? Lingering traces, perhaps?
Eureka!
The fart was now almost undetectable. His lack of a good plan had worked out brilliantly.
He watched her go, ten feet away... now, twenty feet...
As she moved off, he admired her shapely female figure, the waggle of her ass, the bounce of her booty.
Must be jello, cos jam don’t jiggle like that, he surmised, sexistly.
His boner twitched in his pants, programmed by millions of years of genetic evolution to respond to random visual female sexual-signals.
Suddenly, she was now thirty feet away, and she halted–and turned back to look him square in the eye.
Uh-oh... he thought.
His heart stopped. Surely, she had now smelt his fart - and had realized what had just happened.
...How would he ever bone her now, if the chance even came up? He had never even seen her before in his life, but he already knew, he had blown his chance of randomly getting his rocks off with her, whoever she was. Maybe, she was even: important.
“They’re ready for you J.B., so head right on in,” she smiled warmly at him.
He noticed the curves and the ballast of her ample breast, through her very low-cut blouse... her mouth-watering breasts served up there for his visual pleasure like a platter of juicy rockmelons. They had jiggled a little as she spoke and were still settling... It was pure poetry in motion.
She turned on her high heel which she knew made her calf muscles look more shapely and would attract more sexual attention from males, and she marched off, obviously in a hurry. But not too much of a hurry, as she knew his gaze was still on her and she wanted to show off her assets from behind.
He nodded, stunned. As she titted away down the corridor, he wondered just how she knew his name, "J.B."...? - That information was supposed to be above-top-secret...?
Maybe, he thought, his above-top-secret reputation preceded him...?
Maybe she had heard of him, maybe he was even famous in CIA circles, and maybe, if the chips fell right, he could actually give her a good schtupping sometime in her near future, after all.
After all, hadn’t her words just now, had a hidden second meaning, a salacious subtext? “They’re ready for you J.B., so, head right on in…” were her exact words.
Surely, she was communicating via code: her sexual readiness for him...?
It could hardly be more obvious, he thought, like the gutter-minded chauvinist sexist pig he was, since he was a male.
Surely, she was actually, really saying: “Bone me but good, big boy - Go for gold!”
He smiled and he nodded knowingly. Stuff was going good today. He was probably going to get laid tonight, and as usual, being a male, he didn't really give a shit, by which random female.
He took another deep breath, steeled his nerves, adjusted his boner, and he knocked on the big important secret CIA door.
“Come in” said a deep authoritative voice from behind the CIA door.
Two burly armed secret service agents stepped out, and they ushered him inside the secret room.
From scanning both their expressionless secret agent faces, they didn’t seem to smell the traces of his fart..?
He seemed to have actually, gotten away with it?
...The perfect crime?
As top secret agent J. B. stepped inside the dimly-lit CIA top-secret Briefing room, he saw about twenty important men in suits (and also a few sexy women - but then again, all women were sexy to J.B.; he’d pretty much fuck anything female that moved, as noted previously) were all seated around a large round table.
There was the President, the joint chiefs of staff, the head of the CIA, head of the FBI, head of Homeland Security... and some other folks he didn’t recognize but he knew they must be super-important, powerful and authoritative people; because they were wearing suits.
Maybe, they were even, members of the Secret Society who really ran the world… he thought. Or, who knows what?, he thought. Like - The Majestic-12, or The Bilderbergers, or The Illuminati, or the Masons, or someone like that…
J.B. wasn’t quite sure whoactually ran the world, if anyonedid, as all that was well above his pay-grade.
There sure were a lot of Conspiracy Theories about it, and, they were pretty powerful memes, he had to admit, but - that was not his concern right now.
Right now, he had to give the greatest presentation of his life, right here in this secret Briefing room of the CIA.
“Gentlemen, and of course, ladies,” J.B. smiled charmingly, and nodded to them all, and especially, to the women. Some of the women even nodded and smiled back. Maybe, he could schtupp some of them later, he thought.
All eyes were now on him. And you could almost hear a pin drop, if someone had actually dropped one, right then. (But, it also seems odd that anyone would have a pin handy - unless maybe they were sewing, which they clearly weren’t.)
The President smiled a guarded smile at J.B., and announced to all the important people present, “Everyone - as you all know - this is top-secret special-agent J.B…. And J.B., this is… everyone... And now, Agent J.B., if you would proceed with your Above-Top-Secret Briefing, for us?”
J.B. nodded and smiled at the President.
He moved over to the laptop computer by the digital projector, and he tapped the space-bar key to wake it up.
This was always a tense time... Would the computer even work properly? Had the tech-guys, even set all of this up properly? ...Had they even loaded up the right PowerPoint file, that he had sent them via email this morning-? This could all be very awkward and embarrassing…? There was lots that could go horribly wrong.
Phew, thought, as his actual PowerPoint presentation finally appeared on the large screen on the wall.
Its title screen boldly read: “Above-Top-Secret: The Simulation Conspiracy”.
“Ladies and gentlemen... In the course of my investigations, I, personally, have stumbled upon evidence, that suggests - we are all... living inside a computer simulation."
A few stunned gasps were heard, around the darkened room. J.B. continued:
“Namely - our entire universe, and everything in it, is a simulation, and is probably running on some kind of alien computer or whatever, and which was created by some currently-unknown advanced alien civilization, or something.”
He now clicked though more of his PowerPoint slides, and everyone’s attention was utterly riveted.
It was all going pretty well so far, all things considered, J.B. thought?
He went on, as he clicked through more of the slides he had prepared earlier:
“Apart from the fact that DNA itself is digital, and also, everything from quarks to atoms to molecules to DNA up to planets and galaxies everything else - can now be simulated in our own very powerful digital computers- even so that, the simulated lifeforms inside them, actually think they are conscious and living - new evidence from another angle has recently come to light, that: we are indeed, all living in a sim. And thus - we are conscious sims, inside, a simulated universe. Running on, some alien computer someplace, probably.”
The whole room just listened, and waited, in stunned silence.
You could have heard another pin drop, but, I rest my case about it seeming unlikely that there would be any pins in the room, anyway.
Who even uses pins? These days we have Velcro and zippers and whatnot, thanks to: Science and Technology.
I mean I guess, some people use safety-pins, sometimes.
But still, it seems unlikely any of the most powerful and secret people in the world would have safety-pins on them, in a top secret, big important meeting like this one. But anyway.
J.B. glanced around the dimly-lit room, now noticing that there were, actually, some pretty hot babes and MILFs in the room, and he actually seemed to be impressing them right now, with his presentation.
So, maybe he could schtupp some of them later on... This day was just getting better and better all the time.
He continued with his briefing:
“The new evidence is that - it also appears, that there are clues hidden in the bibles of almost every religion that has ever existed on Earth, that - we are living in a sim. Right now!"
He paused for effect again, and to take a quick chance to peek at the exposed cleavages in the low cut suits of of some of the MILFs gathered around the table. They all looked pretty awesome to him. Bosomy-cleavage pretty much never got old.
"And so - I now give you, Exhibit A, the Old Testament bible.”
Now, he clicked and a quote from the Old Testament appeared on the big screen.
“ `In the beginning, God created the sky and the earth’. ”
J.B. read it out aloud, just in case anyone in the room was illiterate, or something. (He would still be quite happy to schtupp them, regardless.)
Then he flicked through slides of a few other quotes, from some other bibles of other religions...
“As we do a close reading of almost all religious bibles in existence, and, there are thousands of them - and when we also check this data, via artificially-intelligent text-parsing algorithms, we are now able to see: there are countless hints, or clues, cleverly hidden within all these ancient and even modern bible texts, that…”
He paused again just for effect. Yes, definitely gonna schtupp at least one of these MILFs, he thought. He continued his speech:
“… the universe, and everything in it - even our very own planet Earth, and even us, as human beings, and all plants and animals - were created by computer programmers, otherwise known as The Great Game Design Team in the Sky, and here shortened to the acronym `Group Of Developers’ or `G.O.D.’ for short . The clues are obvious, once you know what you’re looking for.”
Another shocked murmur rippled around the room. J.B. soaked it up.
More currency, in the getting-laid-tonight game... Cha-ching! Cha-ching! he smiled to himself. He was gonna cash this currency out, tonight! Payday was on the way...
J.B. clicked the next slide, showing: some decoded DNA.
“Also, the Human Genome Project, now in 2018, has secretly discovered - a hidden coded message in the so-called `junk DNA’ of all living organisms, including even ourselves... It is, a `remark’ as computer coders would call it, left there in our DNA. by the coders of the simulation that we are all in. Like, a “maker’s mark”, if you will...”
J.B. again paused for effect. Maybe even that blond over there, he thought. She seemed pretty enraptured. Was she: swooning? Yes, she was.
“And so now, ladies and gentlemen, I will reveal to you, the screen of this presentation that shows: The hidden secret message, within the DNA of all organisms, plants and animals. Even, in yourselves. Written there, in every cell of your... body.”
He looked over at the bustiest blond's body, and she licked her lips at him.
It was on, baby, on! Yeahhhh babay!
J.B. turned back to the computer, clicked the mouse button again, and now the screen showing the secret hidden message appeared...
Everyone in the room gasped… Surely, it couldn’t be true-?!!!
[END OF - CHAPTER ONE]
And also ...
(PS – Wow, Note the super-cool cliffhanger / `page-turner’ there-!
Did you see that ?!
As if, you don’t want to read Chapter 2, right NOW - !!!)
(Note also how - this book begins with a supercool Conspiracy Theory, that might even be true!
Namely that we are living in a Sim..!!!!
See: The Simulation Argument.
Hooboy, man - this is: fucking great stuff!
(Aw Man, this JTV dude can really write!)
Also note how, it’s even an ironic, `meta’, parody of `sexist secret agents’ with initials JB, like James Bond or Jason Bourne or Jack Bauer...!
...and also note - we also haven’t yet been told, what J.B. even stands for!
…What a brilliant tease-?!!!
Note even also, the vague influence of the `Butler’ satirical novels!
And - Note: lots of other stuff, too!
Like how it emulates crap like `50 Shades',
but from a sexist male perspective!
...Wowsers! OMG - This stuff is GREAT!!!)
To Be Continued, in
Chapter 2 –
of the book,
currently known as:
J.B.: Above-Top-Secret Agent Person Guy
in
Adventure #1:
THE CASE OF THE THING with the THING, and WHATSANAME
By: JT Velikovsky
in
The B.A.L.L.S.A.C.K. Series –
Brilliant Adventures in Secret Agent Conspiracy (Known)
(Hey wow - Note also - how deliberately `zen-stupid’ the title of the book is!
I guess this guy, likes Bob Burden’s writing, too!)
Hey, and it turns out, he [JTV] even wrote another satirical novel, too:
AM SO AS !
But, whatever!
The point is -
…TO BE CONTINUED!!!
Holy shit, this guy’s a genius.
What great (meta) writing!!!
Especially even in the age of #MeToo and all that.
It's almost as if he's amusingly implying: First, Eliminate Sex!
But even that too may be a satire, as: who knows?
...Amazing!
And
Shut up and just take my money,
I want to read lots more of this crazy satirical parodical stuff!!!
============================================
-----------------------------
Dr. Joe T. Velikovsky, Ph.D. (Communication & Media Arts)
& High-Movie-RoI Consultant (see: The StoryAlity PhD)
-------------------
`The word communication will be used here in a very broad sense to include all of the procedures by which one mind may affect another. This, of course, involves not only written and oral speech, but also music, the pictorial arts, the theater, the ballet, and in fact all human behavior... The language of this memorandum will often appear to refer to the special, but still very broad and important, field of the communication of speech; but practically everything said applies equally well to music of any sort, and to still or moving pictures, as in television." - The Mathematical Theory of Communication, (Shannon & Weaver 1949, pp. 3-4).
Also:
“I know you think you understand what you thought I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant” - (attributed, and ironically, possibly mistakenly, to: Robert McCloskey, namely the children's book author and illustrator, date of quote unknown)
& this autosig is not even near complete yet, as
JT Velikovsky is also a:
Transmedia Writer-Director-Producer: Movies, Games, TV, Theatre, Books, Comics
Transmedia Writing Blog: http://on-writering.blogspot.com.au/
& (High-RoI) Story/Screenplay/Movie Analyst - and Evolutionary Systems Theorist
See: https://storyality.wordpress.com/
& Bio-Culture (Science & the Arts) & Transmedia Researcher
Academia link: https://aftrs.academia.edu/JTVelikovsky
See, also:
Joe Velikovsky on IMDb:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/joeteevee
Okay - the autosig is over now. You can stop reading.
July 25, 2017
Heroism Science!
HEROISM SCIENCE!
So, I recently found out about HEROISM SCIENCE !
And: Wow! It's - terrific !!!
The
Heroism Science
websiteThe website above has links to the
Journal of Heroism Science
, (open access! YAY!) where you can read much more. Fantastic stuff.
See also - this great presentation by one of the (heroic!) founders of Heroism Science: Olivia Efthimiou!
More of Olivia's great work, here, and here.
And - another great talk by another founder: Prof. Scott Allison!
The Rise of the Art and Science of Heroism Science!
Scott notes (see 6-7 mins, of the above keynote by Scott) that Joe Campbell (who discovered the hero journey monomyth, 1949 ) believed that biological processes of the body are what produce hero mythology...
My intuition likewise tells me that The Philosophy of Biology has a lot to teach us about Heroism Science... and hero mythology... Fascinating stuff-!!! In fact I blogged on it, on my PhD blog, a few years ago...
(See what I did there. A whole other story... a book about: writing stories, and,,, er, never mind.)
And - see also Scott Allison's great Heroes (& Heroic Leadership) blog:
And see Scott's (and George's and Rod's) great new book:
I love Chapter 20 - The Hero's Transformation (by Scott T. Allison and George R. Goethals)
i.e.:(...I think about scale ...a lot!)And see also Matt Langdon's great work - at the Hero Construction Co .
Below is a TEDx talk Matt did. (the sound level is a little low, so... listen up! hehe)
And check out Phil Zimbardo on: Everyday Heroes!
(Particularly on: The `Whistleblower' Heroes!
And, The (related) Bystander Effect (in Social Psychology) -
Namely, when things go wrong, people tend to stand by and watch, BUT - as soon as someone leaps in - and takes action - and DOES THE RIGHT THING, everybody follows!
But... So - who's going to make the first move?
...BE A HERO! MAKE IT: YOU!
i.e., Feel the fear - and do it anyway...!!! )
See also Phil's nonprofit organisation: The Heroic Imagination Project
Also - speaking as a million-selling videogame designer (very few games sell a million copies) I found this talk by Phil both fascinating and enlightening...!
And see Dr Clive Williams' great work at: A MudMap For Living: Discovering Your Hero's Journey.
A great talk Clive gave...
See also - Clive's great book!
So - HEROISM SCIENCE !!!
What a great idea ( ! )
More on Consilience, here...
Heroism + Science! (And - The Arts!)
Creativity - combine two old things to get a new thing - and: EUREKA! It WORKS!!!
Top Ten HEROES Characters
Anyway - loads more resources on HEROISM SCIENCE, here!
Also - (as a volunteer firefighter) I also really liked this diagram: ( Intervention and Immediate Risk - from Twitter @MrHeroSupport)
And see also The Hero Roundtable - `Often called the TED Talks of heroism, the Hero Round Table teaches people how to be more than a bystander. '
---------------------------------------------------------
And, for random News updates from me, please see: NEWS !
~Comments, always welcome.
-----------------------------Dr. Joe T. Velikovsky, Ph.D. (Communication & Media Arts)
`The word communication will be used here in a very broad sense to include all of the procedures by which one mind may affect another. This, of course, involves not only written and oral speech, but also music, the pictorial arts, the theater, the ballet, and in fact all human behavior... The language of this memorandum will often appear to refer to the special, but still very broad and important, field of the communication of speech; but practically everything said applies equally well to music of any sort, and to still or moving pictures, as in television." - The Mathematical Theory of Communication, (Shannon & Weaver 1949, pp. 3-4).
& Transmedia Writer-Director-Producer:
Movies, Games, TV, Theatre, Books, Comics
Transmedia Writing Blog: http://on-writering.blogspot.com.au/
& Bio-Culture (Science & the Arts) & Transmedia Researcher
Academia link: https://aftrs.academia.edu/JTVelikovsky
& (High-RoI) Story/Screenplay/Movie Analyst and Evolutionary Systems Theorist
See: https://storyality.wordpress.com/
See also:
IMDb: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/joeteevee
------------------------------------------
So, I recently found out about HEROISM SCIENCE !
And: Wow! It's - terrific !!!
The
Heroism Science
websiteThe website above has links to the
Journal of Heroism Science
, (open access! YAY!) where you can read much more. Fantastic stuff.See also - this great presentation by one of the (heroic!) founders of Heroism Science: Olivia Efthimiou!
More of Olivia's great work, here, and here.
And - another great talk by another founder: Prof. Scott Allison!
The Rise of the Art and Science of Heroism Science!
Scott notes (see 6-7 mins, of the above keynote by Scott) that Joe Campbell (who discovered the hero journey monomyth, 1949 ) believed that biological processes of the body are what produce hero mythology...
My intuition likewise tells me that The Philosophy of Biology has a lot to teach us about Heroism Science... and hero mythology... Fascinating stuff-!!! In fact I blogged on it, on my PhD blog, a few years ago...
The Hero's Journey - It's Not What You Think! (Velikovsky 2013)And, that article was actually then (re)-published in this great book: Miller's Compendium of Timeless Tools For the Modern Writer (2015) ...But - that's a whole other story.
(See what I did there. A whole other story... a book about: writing stories, and,,, er, never mind.)
And - see also Scott Allison's great Heroes (& Heroic Leadership) blog:
And see Scott's (and George's and Rod's) great new book:
I love Chapter 20 - The Hero's Transformation (by Scott T. Allison and George R. Goethals)
i.e.:(...I think about scale ...a lot!)And see also Matt Langdon's great work - at the Hero Construction Co .
Below is a TEDx talk Matt did. (the sound level is a little low, so... listen up! hehe)
And check out Phil Zimbardo on: Everyday Heroes!
(Particularly on: The `Whistleblower' Heroes!
And, The (related) Bystander Effect (in Social Psychology) -
Namely, when things go wrong, people tend to stand by and watch, BUT - as soon as someone leaps in - and takes action - and DOES THE RIGHT THING, everybody follows!
But... So - who's going to make the first move?
...BE A HERO! MAKE IT: YOU!
i.e., Feel the fear - and do it anyway...!!! )
See also Phil's nonprofit organisation: The Heroic Imagination Project
Also - speaking as a million-selling videogame designer (very few games sell a million copies) I found this talk by Phil both fascinating and enlightening...!
And see Dr Clive Williams' great work at: A MudMap For Living: Discovering Your Hero's Journey.
A great talk Clive gave...
See also - Clive's great book!
So - HEROISM SCIENCE !!!
What a great idea ( ! )
More on Consilience, here...
Heroism + Science! (And - The Arts!)
Creativity - combine two old things to get a new thing - and: EUREKA! It WORKS!!!
`Ultimately, all creative products have this quality: old ideas or elements are combined in new ways.And this (Transmedia) show certainly now has a new resonance...(!)
This is the case for all domains of creativity.’
(Martindale, 1989, p. 212).
Top Ten HEROES Characters
Anyway - loads more resources on HEROISM SCIENCE, here!
Also - (as a volunteer firefighter) I also really liked this diagram: ( Intervention and Immediate Risk - from Twitter @MrHeroSupport)
And see also The Hero Roundtable - `Often called the TED Talks of heroism, the Hero Round Table teaches people how to be more than a bystander. '
---------------------------------------------------------
And, for random News updates from me, please see: NEWS !
~Comments, always welcome.
-----------------------------Dr. Joe T. Velikovsky, Ph.D. (Communication & Media Arts)
`The word communication will be used here in a very broad sense to include all of the procedures by which one mind may affect another. This, of course, involves not only written and oral speech, but also music, the pictorial arts, the theater, the ballet, and in fact all human behavior... The language of this memorandum will often appear to refer to the special, but still very broad and important, field of the communication of speech; but practically everything said applies equally well to music of any sort, and to still or moving pictures, as in television." - The Mathematical Theory of Communication, (Shannon & Weaver 1949, pp. 3-4).
& Transmedia Writer-Director-Producer:
Movies, Games, TV, Theatre, Books, Comics
Transmedia Writing Blog: http://on-writering.blogspot.com.au/
& Bio-Culture (Science & the Arts) & Transmedia Researcher
Academia link: https://aftrs.academia.edu/JTVelikovsky
& (High-RoI) Story/Screenplay/Movie Analyst and Evolutionary Systems Theorist
See: https://storyality.wordpress.com/
See also:
IMDb: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/joeteevee
------------------------------------------
July 20, 2017
Spec Screenplays
Some of my Spec Screenplays
So I've written over 30 movie screenplays since I first began writing them, back in 1993. Then after my Communication degree (91-93), I went to film school (in 1995-96) and wrote lots more. Some have even been made into movies. It takes about 10 years (on average) to master the craft of screenwriting (for more, see: The 10-year rule in Creativity ). I'm also a high-RoI movie (story, screenplay, movie) consultant. For the 30 key high-RoI guidelines that I use to create movie screenplays, please see my 2017 PhD study, on the top 20 RoI movies. You can also download the PhD dissertation as a free PDF, here. Here's a short (15 minute) summary of the PhD study:
For more detail on the 30 guidelines, see my PhD. (Movies are complex.)
And - a list of my best spec screenplays to date:
US Movie Marketplace
EVERYTHING WARZ
KILL LIST
ROBOT JESUS
THE ZOMBIE-SCREENPLAY OF DORIAN GRAY
ALIEN WARPORN
JACKRABBIT the Psychotic Possessed Ventriloquist's Dummy vs. The Mafia
BIOSPHERE
DOORWAY
Australian Movie Marketplace :
DAVE CHUCKS A SICKIE
HALO
NOVOCASTRIAN LURV
UK/US Marketplace
THE EMPYRE'S VAMPYRE
And, for random News updates from me, please see: NEWS !
~Comments, always welcome.
-----------------------------
Dr. Joe T. Velikovsky, Ph.D. (Communication & Media Arts)
`The word communication will be used here in a very broad sense to include all of the procedures by which one mind may affect another. This, of course, involves not only written and oral speech, but also music, the pictorial arts, the theater, the ballet, and in fact all human behavior... The language of this memorandum will often appear to refer to the special, but still very broad and important, field of the communication of speech; but practically everything said applies equally well to music of any sort, and to still or moving pictures, as in television." - The Mathematical Theory of Communication, (Shannon & Weaver 1949, pp. 3-4).
& Transmedia Writer-Director-Producer: Movies, Games, TV, Theatre, Books, Comics
Transmedia Writing Blog: http://on-writering.blogspot.com.au/
& (High-RoI) Story/Screenplay/Movie Analyst - and Evolutionary Systems Theorist
See: https://storyality.wordpress.com/
& Bio-Culture (Science & the Arts) & Transmedia Researcher
Academia link: https://aftrs.academia.edu/JTVelikovsky
See, also:
Joe Velikovsky on IMDb: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/joeteevee
------------------------------------------
So I've written over 30 movie screenplays since I first began writing them, back in 1993. Then after my Communication degree (91-93), I went to film school (in 1995-96) and wrote lots more. Some have even been made into movies. It takes about 10 years (on average) to master the craft of screenwriting (for more, see: The 10-year rule in Creativity ). I'm also a high-RoI movie (story, screenplay, movie) consultant. For the 30 key high-RoI guidelines that I use to create movie screenplays, please see my 2017 PhD study, on the top 20 RoI movies. You can also download the PhD dissertation as a free PDF, here. Here's a short (15 minute) summary of the PhD study:
For more detail on the 30 guidelines, see my PhD. (Movies are complex.)
And - a list of my best spec screenplays to date:
US Movie Marketplace
EVERYTHING WARZ
KILL LIST
ROBOT JESUS
THE ZOMBIE-SCREENPLAY OF DORIAN GRAY
ALIEN WARPORN
JACKRABBIT the Psychotic Possessed Ventriloquist's Dummy vs. The Mafia
BIOSPHERE
DOORWAY
Australian Movie Marketplace :
DAVE CHUCKS A SICKIE
HALO
NOVOCASTRIAN LURV
UK/US Marketplace
THE EMPYRE'S VAMPYRE
And, for random News updates from me, please see: NEWS !
~Comments, always welcome.
-----------------------------
Dr. Joe T. Velikovsky, Ph.D. (Communication & Media Arts)
`The word communication will be used here in a very broad sense to include all of the procedures by which one mind may affect another. This, of course, involves not only written and oral speech, but also music, the pictorial arts, the theater, the ballet, and in fact all human behavior... The language of this memorandum will often appear to refer to the special, but still very broad and important, field of the communication of speech; but practically everything said applies equally well to music of any sort, and to still or moving pictures, as in television." - The Mathematical Theory of Communication, (Shannon & Weaver 1949, pp. 3-4).
& Transmedia Writer-Director-Producer: Movies, Games, TV, Theatre, Books, Comics
Transmedia Writing Blog: http://on-writering.blogspot.com.au/
& (High-RoI) Story/Screenplay/Movie Analyst - and Evolutionary Systems Theorist
See: https://storyality.wordpress.com/
& Bio-Culture (Science & the Arts) & Transmedia Researcher
Academia link: https://aftrs.academia.edu/JTVelikovsky
See, also:
Joe Velikovsky on IMDb: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/joeteevee
------------------------------------------
July 19, 2017
my little Geometry Symmetry Joke (the GSJ)
...my little Geometry-Symmetry Joke (the GSJ)...
(now, IN-COLOR !!! :)
And hey - you know, where i (well, kinda, prolly) got the idea...?
from: watching lots & lots of Stanley Kubrick movies.
Over and over and over and over and over again
(i get more out of them, every time... like a fine-whinge I mean a fine-wine - they get better with age)
Great Art is: good like that.
Very-densely-compressed-information, but also: ambiguous.
ie YOU decide, what it means
YOU interpret it - however u want...
free will is good like that (see Dan Dennett for more)
Depends also, what age you are too - and, whats going on in your life, etc!
eg Always Ask, the Whole Time, as you watch a Kubrick Movie:
...How does this, apply to me?
(omg so awesome. interactive cinema!)
see also: my `Categories of Canon' diagram - in:
`The Structure of the Meme, the Unit of Culture' (Velikovsky 2017)
also - kinda got the idea from, bertrand russell - and, Set Theory - and whatnot
...gotta love: diagrams
especially, symmettrical ones
(thats not a typo)
hey - & if you like that sort of thing, maybe see, also:
Creative Practice Theory
or: not..??
~jtv phd
the storyAlity guy
https://storyality.wordpress.com/
----------------------------------------------------------------
.
P.S.
On a serious note
I used to love bell-curves
But... - it's only half the story.
Why don't we show `the full picture'?
...I just want the LIES, TO END...
for i am da Light anna Troof
anna-aWy, anna-Truth
will Set [theory]
u free
...
,,
,
ie - this is bullshit, man...
(where's the other HALF goddammit? this things got a big hole in it)
But actually the video itself is awesome, see it, here. now.
hey - randomly - you know what is a great book?
Brian Boyd's On The Origin of Stories (2009).
check it out...
hey also - this is uber-good:
the clues are all there.
hidden in the symbols
you'll hav 2 figure the rest out yaself
see ya there ;)
(read Joe Campbell or something. or The Da Vinci Code. or see the hidden symbols in Nabokov's stuff. etc)
or read one of my novels:
eg: A Meaningless Sequence of Arbitrary Symbols (not by: me)
down the rabbithole
turtles all the way
...
..
,
June 28, 2017
Stuff I Have Liked (Books, Movies, Songs etc)
STUFF I HAVE LIKED
And may still be likingpossibly even, liking more than ever before(or, not)
aka:
A Few of my Fave Things at certain windows of timesome of the windows are still open
by JT Velikovsky
Not that it will probably matter, in the greater scheme of stuff, like maybe in a few decades or centuries or millennia, (unless for some reason, it actually does) - then here for this record, are some things I have liked and probably even still like - well - unless I have gone off them, since I wrote this.
FAVE MOVIES
Fight Club - Love all the philosophy in this! Also, the anger in it. Lots of energy!
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 - funny as hell, and much better than the original!
American Psycho - love the dark humour in this. And Bale's deadpan performance!
Inherent Vice - Love the absurdity in this - and the laid back feel. And Phoenix's deadpan performance!
Ex Machina - love stuff about artificial intelligence. Love Oscar Isaac's acting!
Starship Troopers - great biting satire; very darkly funny.
Adaptation - love the satire! Funny. Biting. Ironic.
Valhalla Rising - love the feel of this. (See also Bergman's The Seventh Seal.)
Evil Dead 2 - funny! And dark! And funny! And kinetic. Love all the crazy shots (all the wild camera moves).
The Thin Red Line - love the philosophical tone... and beautiful shots of nature, war, etc.
Drive - love the look and feel and vibe and music and performances. What's not to like, (Dig The Goz's understated deadpan acting - and Oscar Isaac in a great role)
Pulp Fiction - what's not to like, here?
The Sound of Music - I dunno, I just like it. (Hmm. - Is that a bit gay?)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show - ditto.
MacGruber - funny as hell
Galaxy Quest - funny as hell
Three Kings - pretty funny, also, intense!
Gattaca - a great noir vision of the genetic future, (for its time).
Deliverance - haunting!
Tenebrae - great giallo film!
Tokyo Story - makes me cry every time. Sad!
Xtro - great cheesy low-budget British sci-fi horror.
Vertigo - Hitch's masterpiece.
The Godfather - intense!
Dredd (2012) - mind-blowing! Love the colours.
Manhattan - funny and sad (Woody Allen)
Bubba Ho-Tep - offbeat and hilarious
Withnail & I - hilarious
Gladiator - epic.
There Will Be Blood
The Princess Bride
No Country For Old Men
Being There
Inside Llewyn Davis
Apocalypse Now Redux
Citizen Kane
Bicycle Thieves
Monty Python's Life of Brian
Blade Runner
The Exorcist
The Conformist
Persona
Donnie Darko
The Hitcher (the original, with Rutger Hauer)
Barton Fink
Re-Animator
The Big Lebowski
And obviously - I like the top 20 RoI movies, not just because they are good. I wrote a PhD about them. My fave out of them is probably, Primer.
The Top 20 Return-on-Investment movies
But - far above and beyond all of these already listed, I also love everything Kubrick ever did - well; apart from Spartacus - which even he also admits was "a bit silly" (way too much studio interference!)
I rave on about Kubrick, here.
And I have an article about Kubrick that I wrote in The Journal of Genius and Eminence (2018).
In general, I really love Mindbender stories (including: movies, novels, short stories, jokes, etc).
They are a level above regular stories, as they have multiple layers, deliberate ambiguity, and more than one story packed into the one story. They are also the hardest to pull off, but when they work, POW!
NOVELS
The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien
But in fact - in terms of your very first encounter with it, I highly recommend hearing the audiobook (read by Jim Norton), over reading the novel... Once you've heard the audiobook, then read the novel! Also - better if you don't know anything about this book at all, going in. Like many stories, it is better `unspoiled'.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Phillip K Dick.
I read this in high school before Blade Runner came out. Loved it. Love almost everything by P K Dick. Love those mindbendery twists!
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
Funny and absurd as hell. War is hell.
White Noise - Don de Lillo
Great satire of academia. And of American life in general.
A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
Funny, dark and brilliant. Amazing characters. Hilarious.
Also a good example of Rotten Rejections .
Moby-Dick - Herman Melville
The writing style reminds me of The Third Policeman. Or vice-versa given when both were written.
The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
Sad sells. So well written!
Labyrinths - Borges
Great philosophical mindbenders. Ok, not a novel - but, whatever.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert M Pirsig
Lotsa great stuff on thinking and science and Philosophy.
Gotta say - I also loved the Doug Kenney special issue of National Lampoon mag, back in 1985.
NON-FICTION BOOKY-WOOKS
The Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins
Read this at uni, and it set me off on a 20-year quest, to discover: the structure of the meme, the unit of culture. (I think I nailed it.)
Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life - Daniel C Dennett
Love anything this guy writes.
On the Origin of Species - Charles Darwin (see also my article in the Journal of Genius and Eminence )
Love anything this guy wrote, too.
The Descent of Man - Charles Darwin
Lifetide - Lyall Watson
Sapiens - Yuval Noah Harari
Homo Deus - Yuval Noah Harari
The Act of Creation - Arthur Koestler
Ghost in the Machine - Arthur Koestler
Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge - E O Wilson
Creativity - Csikszentmihalyi (1996)
Evolution, Literature & Film: A Reader - Boyd, Carroll & Gottschall (eds)
On the Origin of Stories - Brian Boyd
The Beginning of Infinity - David Deutsch
Life 3.0 - Max Tegmark
And - some of my other faves are listed, here.
ALBUMENS
Over time, just some of the albums I have loved that spring to mind:
Un-Led-Ed - Dread Zeppelin
Joe's Garage - Frank Zappa
Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned - The Prodigy
Aja - Steely Dan
Unit - Regurgitator
Purple Rain - Prince
The Wall - Pink Floyd
Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd
Dub Side of the Moon - Easystar All-Stars
8 - Madhouse
16 - Madhouse
Greatest Hits - Queen
The Best of Hugo Montenegro
Greatest Hits - Jimi Hendrix
Greatest Hits - Prince
Nevermind - Nirvana
The Rising & Tunnel of Love - Bruce Springsteen
Steel Wheels - The Rolling Stones
The White Album - The Beatles
Sleep Well Beast - The National
Some fave bands, over time, would include: Frank Zappa. Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Queen, The Police, Steely Dan, Dread Zeppelin, Regurgitator, The Prodigy, Frank Bennett, the EasyStar All-Stars (reggae coverband) - and many, many more...
SONGS
Some of my favourite songs, over the years: (these change a LOT, as & when new music happens)
Behind My Camel - The Police
Body Language - Queen
Bring on the Night / When the world is running down (live in Paris) - Sting
Bulls on Parade - Rage Against the Machine
Chandelier - Sia
The Rake's Song - The Decemberists
Give It Up - KC and the Sunshine Band
Jesse - Carly Simon
Mama said knock you out - LL Cool J
This is what you want... this is what you get - Public Image Ltd
Beautiful World - Devo
Hey Hey Helen - ABBA
Gun Street Girl - Tom Waits
Mindfields - The Prodigy
Sabotage - Beastie Boys
Fight The Power - Public Enemy
Grease (the whole movie musical soundtrack)
Infected Mushroom (lots of stuff by these guys)
Brickblocks - Alt-J
Hey and here's what's missing from your life - Dee Dee King (of The Ramones) doing Funky Man from 1987.
Also here's the Top 100 most viewed Youtube Music Vids - as of March 2017.
And here's the top 10 Youtube vids with over a billion views. (Not necessarily: songs)
STAND UP COMEDIANS
Some of my faves/standout standups
Louis CK
Bill Hicks
Eugene Merman
Marc Maron
(Early) Steve Martin
Jack Handey
The Jerky Boys albums (not really standup - but, whatever)
Sara Silverman
I also did a brief thing about "The Ten-Year Rule" in standup comedy, here.
Also here's 10 of the best comedy specials of all time, probably.
VIDEOGAMES
(these are mostly all old-school... but I really liked 'em!)
Lots of the Grand Theft Auto games
God of War
Soul Reaver: Legacy of Kain
Cabela's Big Game Hunter
Age of Empires II: Age of Kings
Smuggler's Run
Driver
Katamari Damarcy
Metal Gear Solid 2
Snow Bros (arcade)
Asteroid (arcade)
Journey (2012)
Virtua Fighter 2 (arcade)
POEMS
The Raven - Edgar Allen Poe
The Road Not Taken - Robert Frost
The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner - ST Coleridge
Hmm. Am not a huge poetry guy, apparently (but hey songs are usually also poems, anyway).
But anyway - here's some classic poems.
COMIX
Red Meat - by Max Cannon
Agony / Amy & Jordan - by Mark Beyer
Flaming Carrot - by Bob Burden
The Angriest Dog in the World - by David Lynch
(Randomly - as a kid, I also loved: Asterix, Snoopy, B.C., The Wizard of Id, and Crock comics. But so did a lot of people. LOL. I also loved Mad mag, and Cracked, Crazy and Sick magazines.)
SHORT YOUTUBE VIDS
Ryan Gosling's Acting Range (Funny Or Die)
(I actually really dig his acting, eg in DRIVE, but this is still funny as hell)
Bed Intruder (The Gregory Brothers)
Bushes of Love (Bad Lip Reading)
Horrifying Planet
TV
Some stuff I have really dug on television:
Rick & Morty
Dexter
Breaking Bad
Game of Thrones
Westworld
LOST
Twin Peaks
Futurama
Ren & Stimpy (back when Kricfalusi was doing it)
UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship)
And on a more serious note:
QandA (on ABC-TV)
SOME WEBSITES
That I like:
The Onion
The Oatmeal
Brainpickings
Anyway - so - that's: some stuff I have liked.
(And maybe still do, unless I've gone off it lately.)
-----------------------------
Dr. Joe T. Velikovsky, Ph.D. (Communication & Media Arts)
& High-Movie-RoI Consultant (see: The StoryAlity PhD)
-------------------
`The word communication will be used here in a very broad sense to include all of the procedures by which one mind may affect another. This, of course, involves not only written and oral speech, but also music, the pictorial arts, the theater, the ballet, and in fact all human behavior... The language of this memorandum will often appear to refer to the special, but still very broad and important, field of the communication of speech; but practically everything said applies equally well to music of any sort, and to still or moving pictures, as in television." - The Mathematical Theory of Communication, (Shannon & Weaver 1949, pp. 3-4).
& Transmedia Writer-Director-Producer: Movies, Games, TV, Theatre, Books, Comics
Transmedia Writing Blog: http://on-writering.blogspot.com.au/
& (High-RoI) Story/Screenplay/Movie Analyst - and Evolutionary Systems Theorist
See: https://storyality.wordpress.com/
& Bio-Culture (Science & the Arts) & Transmedia Researcher
Academia link: https://aftrs.academia.edu/JTVelikovsky
See, also:
Joe Velikovsky on IMDb: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/joeteevee
And may still be likingpossibly even, liking more than ever before(or, not)
aka:
A Few of my Fave Things at certain windows of timesome of the windows are still open
by JT Velikovsky
Not that it will probably matter, in the greater scheme of stuff, like maybe in a few decades or centuries or millennia, (unless for some reason, it actually does) - then here for this record, are some things I have liked and probably even still like - well - unless I have gone off them, since I wrote this.
FAVE MOVIES
Fight Club - Love all the philosophy in this! Also, the anger in it. Lots of energy!
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 - funny as hell, and much better than the original!
American Psycho - love the dark humour in this. And Bale's deadpan performance!
Inherent Vice - Love the absurdity in this - and the laid back feel. And Phoenix's deadpan performance!
Ex Machina - love stuff about artificial intelligence. Love Oscar Isaac's acting!
Starship Troopers - great biting satire; very darkly funny.
Adaptation - love the satire! Funny. Biting. Ironic.
Valhalla Rising - love the feel of this. (See also Bergman's The Seventh Seal.)
Evil Dead 2 - funny! And dark! And funny! And kinetic. Love all the crazy shots (all the wild camera moves).
The Thin Red Line - love the philosophical tone... and beautiful shots of nature, war, etc.
Drive - love the look and feel and vibe and music and performances. What's not to like, (Dig The Goz's understated deadpan acting - and Oscar Isaac in a great role)
Pulp Fiction - what's not to like, here?
The Sound of Music - I dunno, I just like it. (Hmm. - Is that a bit gay?)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show - ditto.
MacGruber - funny as hell
Galaxy Quest - funny as hell
Three Kings - pretty funny, also, intense!
Gattaca - a great noir vision of the genetic future, (for its time).
Deliverance - haunting!
Tenebrae - great giallo film!
Tokyo Story - makes me cry every time. Sad!
Xtro - great cheesy low-budget British sci-fi horror.
Vertigo - Hitch's masterpiece.
The Godfather - intense!
Dredd (2012) - mind-blowing! Love the colours.
Manhattan - funny and sad (Woody Allen)
Bubba Ho-Tep - offbeat and hilarious
Withnail & I - hilarious
Gladiator - epic.
There Will Be Blood
The Princess Bride
No Country For Old Men
Being There
Inside Llewyn Davis
Apocalypse Now Redux
Citizen Kane
Bicycle Thieves
Monty Python's Life of Brian
Blade Runner
The Exorcist
The Conformist
Persona
Donnie Darko
The Hitcher (the original, with Rutger Hauer)
Barton Fink
Re-Animator
The Big Lebowski
And obviously - I like the top 20 RoI movies, not just because they are good. I wrote a PhD about them. My fave out of them is probably, Primer.
The Top 20 Return-on-Investment moviesBut - far above and beyond all of these already listed, I also love everything Kubrick ever did - well; apart from Spartacus - which even he also admits was "a bit silly" (way too much studio interference!)
I rave on about Kubrick, here.
And I have an article about Kubrick that I wrote in The Journal of Genius and Eminence (2018).
In general, I really love Mindbender stories (including: movies, novels, short stories, jokes, etc).
They are a level above regular stories, as they have multiple layers, deliberate ambiguity, and more than one story packed into the one story. They are also the hardest to pull off, but when they work, POW!
NOVELS
The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien
But in fact - in terms of your very first encounter with it, I highly recommend hearing the audiobook (read by Jim Norton), over reading the novel... Once you've heard the audiobook, then read the novel! Also - better if you don't know anything about this book at all, going in. Like many stories, it is better `unspoiled'.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Phillip K Dick.
I read this in high school before Blade Runner came out. Loved it. Love almost everything by P K Dick. Love those mindbendery twists!
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
Funny and absurd as hell. War is hell.
White Noise - Don de Lillo
Great satire of academia. And of American life in general.
A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
Funny, dark and brilliant. Amazing characters. Hilarious.
Also a good example of Rotten Rejections .
Moby-Dick - Herman Melville
The writing style reminds me of The Third Policeman. Or vice-versa given when both were written.
The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
Sad sells. So well written!
Labyrinths - Borges
Great philosophical mindbenders. Ok, not a novel - but, whatever.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert M Pirsig
Lotsa great stuff on thinking and science and Philosophy.
Gotta say - I also loved the Doug Kenney special issue of National Lampoon mag, back in 1985.
NON-FICTION BOOKY-WOOKS
The Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins
Read this at uni, and it set me off on a 20-year quest, to discover: the structure of the meme, the unit of culture. (I think I nailed it.)
Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life - Daniel C Dennett
Love anything this guy writes.
On the Origin of Species - Charles Darwin (see also my article in the Journal of Genius and Eminence )
Love anything this guy wrote, too.
The Descent of Man - Charles Darwin
Lifetide - Lyall Watson
Sapiens - Yuval Noah Harari
Homo Deus - Yuval Noah Harari
The Act of Creation - Arthur Koestler
Ghost in the Machine - Arthur Koestler
Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge - E O Wilson
Creativity - Csikszentmihalyi (1996)
Evolution, Literature & Film: A Reader - Boyd, Carroll & Gottschall (eds)
On the Origin of Stories - Brian Boyd
The Beginning of Infinity - David Deutsch
Life 3.0 - Max Tegmark
And - some of my other faves are listed, here.
ALBUMENS
Over time, just some of the albums I have loved that spring to mind:
Un-Led-Ed - Dread Zeppelin
Joe's Garage - Frank Zappa
Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned - The Prodigy
Aja - Steely Dan
Unit - Regurgitator
Purple Rain - Prince
The Wall - Pink Floyd
Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd
Dub Side of the Moon - Easystar All-Stars
8 - Madhouse
16 - Madhouse
Greatest Hits - Queen
The Best of Hugo Montenegro
Greatest Hits - Jimi Hendrix
Greatest Hits - Prince
Nevermind - Nirvana
The Rising & Tunnel of Love - Bruce Springsteen
Steel Wheels - The Rolling Stones
The White Album - The Beatles
Sleep Well Beast - The National
Some fave bands, over time, would include: Frank Zappa. Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Queen, The Police, Steely Dan, Dread Zeppelin, Regurgitator, The Prodigy, Frank Bennett, the EasyStar All-Stars (reggae coverband) - and many, many more...
SONGS
Some of my favourite songs, over the years: (these change a LOT, as & when new music happens)
Behind My Camel - The Police
Body Language - Queen
Bring on the Night / When the world is running down (live in Paris) - Sting
Bulls on Parade - Rage Against the Machine
Chandelier - Sia
The Rake's Song - The Decemberists
Give It Up - KC and the Sunshine Band
Jesse - Carly Simon
Mama said knock you out - LL Cool J
This is what you want... this is what you get - Public Image Ltd
Beautiful World - Devo
Hey Hey Helen - ABBA
Gun Street Girl - Tom Waits
Mindfields - The Prodigy
Sabotage - Beastie Boys
Fight The Power - Public Enemy
Grease (the whole movie musical soundtrack)
Infected Mushroom (lots of stuff by these guys)
Brickblocks - Alt-J
Hey and here's what's missing from your life - Dee Dee King (of The Ramones) doing Funky Man from 1987.
Also here's the Top 100 most viewed Youtube Music Vids - as of March 2017.
And here's the top 10 Youtube vids with over a billion views. (Not necessarily: songs)
STAND UP COMEDIANS
Some of my faves/standout standups
Louis CK
Bill Hicks
Eugene Merman
Marc Maron
(Early) Steve Martin
Jack Handey
The Jerky Boys albums (not really standup - but, whatever)
Sara Silverman
I also did a brief thing about "The Ten-Year Rule" in standup comedy, here.
Also here's 10 of the best comedy specials of all time, probably.
VIDEOGAMES
(these are mostly all old-school... but I really liked 'em!)
Lots of the Grand Theft Auto games
God of War
Soul Reaver: Legacy of Kain
Cabela's Big Game Hunter
Age of Empires II: Age of Kings
Smuggler's Run
Driver
Katamari Damarcy
Metal Gear Solid 2
Snow Bros (arcade)
Asteroid (arcade)
Journey (2012)
Virtua Fighter 2 (arcade)
POEMS
The Raven - Edgar Allen Poe
The Road Not Taken - Robert Frost
The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner - ST Coleridge
Hmm. Am not a huge poetry guy, apparently (but hey songs are usually also poems, anyway).
But anyway - here's some classic poems.
COMIX
Red Meat - by Max Cannon
Agony / Amy & Jordan - by Mark Beyer
Flaming Carrot - by Bob Burden
The Angriest Dog in the World - by David Lynch
(Randomly - as a kid, I also loved: Asterix, Snoopy, B.C., The Wizard of Id, and Crock comics. But so did a lot of people. LOL. I also loved Mad mag, and Cracked, Crazy and Sick magazines.)
SHORT YOUTUBE VIDS
Ryan Gosling's Acting Range (Funny Or Die)
(I actually really dig his acting, eg in DRIVE, but this is still funny as hell)
Bed Intruder (The Gregory Brothers)
Bushes of Love (Bad Lip Reading)
Horrifying Planet
TV
Some stuff I have really dug on television:
Rick & Morty
Dexter
Breaking Bad
Game of Thrones
Westworld
LOST
Twin Peaks
Futurama
Ren & Stimpy (back when Kricfalusi was doing it)
UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship)
And on a more serious note:
QandA (on ABC-TV)
SOME WEBSITES
That I like:
The Onion
The Oatmeal
Brainpickings
Anyway - so - that's: some stuff I have liked.
(And maybe still do, unless I've gone off it lately.)
-----------------------------
Dr. Joe T. Velikovsky, Ph.D. (Communication & Media Arts)
& High-Movie-RoI Consultant (see: The StoryAlity PhD)
-------------------
`The word communication will be used here in a very broad sense to include all of the procedures by which one mind may affect another. This, of course, involves not only written and oral speech, but also music, the pictorial arts, the theater, the ballet, and in fact all human behavior... The language of this memorandum will often appear to refer to the special, but still very broad and important, field of the communication of speech; but practically everything said applies equally well to music of any sort, and to still or moving pictures, as in television." - The Mathematical Theory of Communication, (Shannon & Weaver 1949, pp. 3-4).
& Transmedia Writer-Director-Producer: Movies, Games, TV, Theatre, Books, Comics
Transmedia Writing Blog: http://on-writering.blogspot.com.au/
& (High-RoI) Story/Screenplay/Movie Analyst - and Evolutionary Systems Theorist
See: https://storyality.wordpress.com/
& Bio-Culture (Science & the Arts) & Transmedia Researcher
Academia link: https://aftrs.academia.edu/JTVelikovsky
See, also:
Joe Velikovsky on IMDb: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/joeteevee
June 26, 2017
The structure of the meme, the unit of culture - Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology (Velikovsky 2017)
June 2017 - I have a new encyclopedia chapter out: The structure of the meme, the unit of culture, in The Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology, 4th Edition (Velikovsky 2017).
The structure of the meme, the unit of culture
in:
The Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology, 4th Edition (Velikovsky 2017)
For more information, see also this post:
StoryAlity#144 – The structure of the meme, the unit of culture (Encyc of InfoSci & Tech 2017)
And see also, a longer (2016) version of the chapter, in the book: Creative Technologies for Multidisciplinary Applications (2016):
See also: StoryAlity #132 – The holon/parton structure of the Meme, the unit of culture – and the narreme, or unit of story – book chapter, (Velikovsky 2016)
The Abstract of the above (2016) article:
Comments, always welcome.
-----------------------------Dr. Joe T. Velikovsky, Ph.D. (Communication & Media Arts)
`The word communication will be used here in a very broad sense to include all of the procedures by which one mind may affect another. This, of course, involves not only written and oral speech, but also music, the pictorial arts, the theater, the ballet, and in fact all human behavior... The language of this memorandum will often appear to refer to the special, but still very broad and important, field of the communication of speech; but practically everything said applies equally well to music of any sort, and to still or moving pictures, as in television." - The Mathematical Theory of Communication, (Shannon & Weaver 1949, pp. 3-4).
& Transmedia Writer-Director-Producer:
Movies, Games, TV, Theatre, Books, Comics
Transmedia Writing Blog: http://on-writering.blogspot.com.au/
& Bio-Culture (Science & the Arts) & Transmedia Researcher
Academia link: https://aftrs.academia.edu/JTVelikovsky
& (High-RoI) Story/Screenplay/Movie Analyst and Evolutionary Systems Theorist
See: https://storyality.wordpress.com/
See also:
IMDb: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/joeteevee
------------------------------------------
The structure of the meme, the unit of culture in:
The Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology, 4th Edition (Velikovsky 2017)
For more information, see also this post:
StoryAlity#144 – The structure of the meme, the unit of culture (Encyc of InfoSci & Tech 2017)
And see also, a longer (2016) version of the chapter, in the book: Creative Technologies for Multidisciplinary Applications (2016):
See also: StoryAlity #132 – The holon/parton structure of the Meme, the unit of culture – and the narreme, or unit of story – book chapter, (Velikovsky 2016)
The Abstract of the above (2016) article:
`A universal problem in the disciplines of communication, creativity, philosophy, biology, psychology, sociology, anthropology, archaeology, history, linguistics, information science, cultural studies, literature, media and other domains of knowledge in both the arts and sciences has been the definition of ‘culture’ (see Kroeber & Kluckhohn, 1952; Baldwin et al., 2006), including the specification of ‘the unit of culture’, and, mechanisms of culture.
This chapter proposes a theory of the unit of culture, or, the ‘meme’ (Dawkins, 1976; Dennett, 1995; Blackmore, 1999), a unit which is also the narreme (Barthes, 1966), or ‘unit of story’, or ‘unit of narrative’.
The holon/parton theory of the unit of culture (Velikovsky, 2014) is a consilient (Wilson, 1998) synthesis of (Koestler, 1964, 1967, 1978) and Feynman (1975, 2005) and also the Evolutionary Systems Theory model of creativity (Csikszentmihalyi, 1988-2014; Simonton, 1984-2014).
This theory of the unit of culture potentially has applications across all creative cultural domains and disciplines in the sciences, arts and communication media.’
(Velikovsky in Marks & Connor [eds] 2016, p. 208)And, for more news, see: NEWS .
Comments, always welcome.
-----------------------------Dr. Joe T. Velikovsky, Ph.D. (Communication & Media Arts)
`The word communication will be used here in a very broad sense to include all of the procedures by which one mind may affect another. This, of course, involves not only written and oral speech, but also music, the pictorial arts, the theater, the ballet, and in fact all human behavior... The language of this memorandum will often appear to refer to the special, but still very broad and important, field of the communication of speech; but practically everything said applies equally well to music of any sort, and to still or moving pictures, as in television." - The Mathematical Theory of Communication, (Shannon & Weaver 1949, pp. 3-4).
& Transmedia Writer-Director-Producer:
Movies, Games, TV, Theatre, Books, Comics
Transmedia Writing Blog: http://on-writering.blogspot.com.au/
& Bio-Culture (Science & the Arts) & Transmedia Researcher
Academia link: https://aftrs.academia.edu/JTVelikovsky
& (High-RoI) Story/Screenplay/Movie Analyst and Evolutionary Systems Theorist
See: https://storyality.wordpress.com/
See also:
IMDb: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/joeteevee
------------------------------------------
June 3, 2017
Horrifying Haikus
HORRIFYING HAIKUS
The art of the Haiku is a noble and ancient art form, perfected by the likes of Bashō, Buson, Issa, Shiki, Haibun, Kuhi and Haiga - and in the West, by the likes of Blyth, Yasuda and Henderson...
Just three LINES:
5 syllables (well; `morae'), then
7 syllables, and then
5 again.
A deeply-respected literary poetic tradition.
So - Ignoring all that, here are some: HORRIFYING HAIKUs.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
DEATH BY FART Oops - I just farted… And - think it just killedthat guy…? Wow…?! - That was, somefart…(?!)
---------------
THAT GODDAMN NINJA - AGAIN
`THEM MISSING CHEESE-SLICES…’Some freeloading ninjaStole some cheese, from in my fridge!!!At least, I think so…?!
`SO… THINK ABOUT: THAT-!!!’How do you know, someFree-loading ninja, isn’tLiving, in: YOUR HOUSE-????!!!!!
`NO CLEAN UNDIES – AGAIN…’Gotta go to work;Can’t find any clean undies……Bet it’s that ninja.
`AW MAN, I AM GETTING SO SICK OF ALL THIS SH*T GOING MISSING’I bet, that ninjaHas been living in my houseFor f*cking YEARS, now-?!
`JUST… CAN’T BE, 101% CERTAIN…’I’m not paranoid…But - there’s a ninja in here.(…Never seen him, though-?)
---------------
PAYING BILLS: KINDA SUX..?Life… can be so… short.But, sure has its great points, though-?!Like: paying your bills.
THE CASE OF THE HORRIFYING BUM-GRAPESOuch - my haemorrhoids!Blood - in my undies…A-GAIN…!!!
…Someone: Please, kill me-?
SCREW YOU… EVOLUTIONThink that I’m: depressed…?Why are we just born… to: die-?…Screw you, Evolution!!!
NOTE: There's nothing horrifying (nor even `horror-comedy') about this one:(i don't know what it's even doing here)
`ON GREAT STUFF' You know what stuff's: GREAT-?Things that are, more or less, `good'.(...positivity-!!!)
----------------------
Hey - i recently created a new artificial writer computer program, y'all should check it out.
Go, here: StoryAlity #141 – The StoryAlity-Theory `Robo-Raconteur’ artificial-writer
It looks like, THIS:
The Robo-Raconteur (artificial writer)
-----------------------------Dr. Joe T. Velikovsky, Ph.D. (Communication & Media Arts)
`The word communication will be used here in a very broad sense to include all of the procedures by which one mind may affect another. This, of course, involves not only written and oral speech, but also music, the pictorial arts, the theater, the ballet, and in fact all human behavior... The language of this memorandum will often appear to refer to the special, but still very broad and important, field of the communication of speech; but practically everything said applies equally well to music of any sort, and to still or moving pictures, as in television." - The Mathematical Theory of Communication, (Shannon & Weaver 1949, pp. 3-4).
& Transmedia Writer-Director-Producer:
Movies, Games, TV, Theatre, Books, Comics
Transmedia Writing Blog: http://on-writering.blogspot.com.au/
& Bio-Culture (Science & the Arts) & Transmedia Researcher
Academia link: https://aftrs.academia.edu/JTVelikovsky
& (High-RoI) Story/Screenplay/Movie Analyst and Evolutionary Systems Theorist
See: https://storyality.wordpress.com/
See also:
IMDb: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/joeteevee
------------------------------------------
The art of the Haiku is a noble and ancient art form, perfected by the likes of Bashō, Buson, Issa, Shiki, Haibun, Kuhi and Haiga - and in the West, by the likes of Blyth, Yasuda and Henderson...
Just three LINES:
5 syllables (well; `morae'), then
7 syllables, and then
5 again.
A deeply-respected literary poetic tradition.
So - Ignoring all that, here are some: HORRIFYING HAIKUs.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
DEATH BY FART Oops - I just farted… And - think it just killedthat guy…? Wow…?! - That was, somefart…(?!)
---------------
THAT GODDAMN NINJA - AGAIN
`THEM MISSING CHEESE-SLICES…’Some freeloading ninjaStole some cheese, from in my fridge!!!At least, I think so…?!
`SO… THINK ABOUT: THAT-!!!’How do you know, someFree-loading ninja, isn’tLiving, in: YOUR HOUSE-????!!!!!
`NO CLEAN UNDIES – AGAIN…’Gotta go to work;Can’t find any clean undies……Bet it’s that ninja.
`AW MAN, I AM GETTING SO SICK OF ALL THIS SH*T GOING MISSING’I bet, that ninjaHas been living in my houseFor f*cking YEARS, now-?!
`JUST… CAN’T BE, 101% CERTAIN…’I’m not paranoid…But - there’s a ninja in here.(…Never seen him, though-?)
---------------
PAYING BILLS: KINDA SUX..?Life… can be so… short.But, sure has its great points, though-?!Like: paying your bills.
THE CASE OF THE HORRIFYING BUM-GRAPESOuch - my haemorrhoids!Blood - in my undies…A-GAIN…!!!
…Someone: Please, kill me-?
SCREW YOU… EVOLUTIONThink that I’m: depressed…?Why are we just born… to: die-?…Screw you, Evolution!!!
NOTE: There's nothing horrifying (nor even `horror-comedy') about this one:(i don't know what it's even doing here)
`ON GREAT STUFF' You know what stuff's: GREAT-?Things that are, more or less, `good'.(...positivity-!!!)
----------------------
Hey - i recently created a new artificial writer computer program, y'all should check it out.
Go, here: StoryAlity #141 – The StoryAlity-Theory `Robo-Raconteur’ artificial-writer
It looks like, THIS:
The Robo-Raconteur (artificial writer)
-----------------------------Dr. Joe T. Velikovsky, Ph.D. (Communication & Media Arts)
`The word communication will be used here in a very broad sense to include all of the procedures by which one mind may affect another. This, of course, involves not only written and oral speech, but also music, the pictorial arts, the theater, the ballet, and in fact all human behavior... The language of this memorandum will often appear to refer to the special, but still very broad and important, field of the communication of speech; but practically everything said applies equally well to music of any sort, and to still or moving pictures, as in television." - The Mathematical Theory of Communication, (Shannon & Weaver 1949, pp. 3-4).
& Transmedia Writer-Director-Producer:
Movies, Games, TV, Theatre, Books, Comics
Transmedia Writing Blog: http://on-writering.blogspot.com.au/
& Bio-Culture (Science & the Arts) & Transmedia Researcher
Academia link: https://aftrs.academia.edu/JTVelikovsky
& (High-RoI) Story/Screenplay/Movie Analyst and Evolutionary Systems Theorist
See: https://storyality.wordpress.com/
See also:
IMDb: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/joeteevee
------------------------------------------
