Bryan Murphy's Blog - Posts Tagged "style"
China 2012
A plaque at the entrance to an old area of Suzhou boasts of restoration without disneyfication. A shining example to us all.
The height of new buildings around Suzhou’s landmark North Pagoda is restricted, to make sure it continues to tower above its surroundings.
Old buildings there can be demolished, but new buildings must be in traditional style. This allows limited gentrification.
Q’s family block has survived because developers would have to sell to far fewer families than they had bought from
The height of new buildings around Suzhou’s landmark North Pagoda is restricted, to make sure it continues to tower above its surroundings.
Old buildings there can be demolished, but new buildings must be in traditional style. This allows limited gentrification.
Q’s family block has survived because developers would have to sell to far fewer families than they had bought from
Back to the future
I'm re-writing a story of the future I drafted some 30 years ago, then forgot. An old friend brought the manuscript over from England recently. The title is "Cod's Roe". The idea seems good, but the style pedestrian. However, as I type it up, hoping to reinvigorate it as I go along, I'm not changing very much: mostly from past tense to present. Appropriate, huh?
Italians do it better
In France, the protest vote goes to old-style fascists; in Greece, it goes to new-style fascists; in England, it goes to Little Englanders; in Italy, it goes to new-style social anarchists. Who you gotta love?
The music of the future
When you write science fiction, you tend to extrapolate current trends to picture the future. If you write social science fiction, you will look keenly at cultural trends. Last night, the BBC (which is watchable because they are prevented by statute from bombarding you into submission with commercials every few minutes) provided a neat juxtaposition of one aspect of culture, popular music, 50 years ago and today. What struck me most was the change in the clothing of the musicians. The men in “Sounds of the Sixties” were seen as alpha males at the time, but they'd only dress so flamboyantly these days if they were striving for recognition as gay icons. And almost every part of their body was clothed. On next was the Reading Festival, where the headliners were all stripped to the waist. So how about 2066? Will the disrobing have continued, perhaps to the point of musicians of all sexes appearing starkers except for high-tech tattoos, the shyer ones preserving their modesty with hologram pixelation? Or will a reaction have set in, with performers only appearing as holograms, perhaps not even of themselves but of depersonalised avatars?
