Richard McGowan's Blog: Smashed-Rat-On-Press - Posts Tagged "vagrant"
Don't Miss It Now Because You'll Never Get Another Chance
Back in 2012, a couple of weeks before the end of the world (as the Maya long count was about to roll over), a casual conversation with my muse led to a little rant, which I reproduce below, along with a pointer to a PDF file that I dashed off as an example of the phenomenon described below. The significance of this seed will be evident to those who have read Ice Skating in Hell with Molls, the book that eventually blossomed from this exercise in writing "the detective novel of the future"...
Have you noticed that in modern films, nearly every computer is an Apple®, with the logo clearly visible no matter what the actors are doing? Cereal boxes are always displayed with their labels clearly in-frame. Cans of soda pop are never just generic stuff, but are handled so the labels are always recognizable? That's called product placement. It's a symptom of very serious, ultimately fatal, degenerative disease in modern society.
The post-modern novel, like the average Hollywood film of today, will be a low-brow, pandering piece of schlock that is a mere vehicle for advertising. Product placement will be the key to success, because the novel will no longer be about telling stories, entertaining or educating users, or even (ho hum) providing a mirror in which humanity can ponder existence. The post-modern novel will be about selling space to advertisers, in the most direct way possible. A modest example should suffice as a beacon to light the way... toward ice skating in hell with molls.
Read the *POOF!* and you'll get the drift.
This blog posting will self destruct before Halloween.
Have you noticed that in modern films, nearly every computer is an Apple®, with the logo clearly visible no matter what the actors are doing? Cereal boxes are always displayed with their labels clearly in-frame. Cans of soda pop are never just generic stuff, but are handled so the labels are always recognizable? That's called product placement. It's a symptom of very serious, ultimately fatal, degenerative disease in modern society.
The post-modern novel, like the average Hollywood film of today, will be a low-brow, pandering piece of schlock that is a mere vehicle for advertising. Product placement will be the key to success, because the novel will no longer be about telling stories, entertaining or educating users, or even (ho hum) providing a mirror in which humanity can ponder existence. The post-modern novel will be about selling space to advertisers, in the most direct way possible. A modest example should suffice as a beacon to light the way... toward ice skating in hell with molls.
This blog posting will self destruct before Halloween.
Hit Your Brakes and Pull into the Slow Lane
Let's all slow down and work on our quality instead of releasing so darn many novels in rapid fire... (This came to my attention via The Digital Reader, by the way, so thanks.)
It seems to me that what this blogger calls the culture of write-fast, publish-much is one more part of the infectious modern notion that tells us "success" always has to be measured by quantity, whether that be sales volume or income wads, and speed.
The modern methodology, for everything "informational" from software to journalism seems to be:
0. Slap something together.
1. Sling your draft at a bunch of customers.
2. See if they report any big problems.
3. If not, then you're done, so go to Step 0.
4. If someone reported problems, then rinse a little and go to Step 1.
5. Go to Step 0.
I don't necessarily agree that every draft of every item needs to be churned through more hoops just for the churning. But time to mellow is good. A lot of writers, especially the new and the green and the newly green indie, could easily spend quite a bit more time grooming and fawning over their creations before sending those babies out onto the streets... Er, I mean, into the catalog pages...
It seems to me that what this blogger calls the culture of write-fast, publish-much is one more part of the infectious modern notion that tells us "success" always has to be measured by quantity, whether that be sales volume or income wads, and speed.
The modern methodology, for everything "informational" from software to journalism seems to be:
0. Slap something together.
1. Sling your draft at a bunch of customers.
2. See if they report any big problems.
3. If not, then you're done, so go to Step 0.
4. If someone reported problems, then rinse a little and go to Step 1.
5. Go to Step 0.
I don't necessarily agree that every draft of every item needs to be churned through more hoops just for the churning. But time to mellow is good. A lot of writers, especially the new and the green and the newly green indie, could easily spend quite a bit more time grooming and fawning over their creations before sending those babies out onto the streets... Er, I mean, into the catalog pages...
Smashed-Rat-On-Press
The main purpose of this blog is to announce occasional additions and changes to the SROP catalog or the site. And it doubles as a soap-box from which to gesticulate and babble...
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