Austin Dragon's Blog, page 18

Month’s Guest Blogger (Horror) Liz Wilkins

October Guest Blogger Liz Wilkins of the website Liz Loves Books!

Well it’s October and for horror enthusiasts, that means Halloween and endless scary books, movies and the like.

I announced last month that horror is one of the genres I’ll be releasing next year. Though it is one of the genres I like, the truth is most horror entertainment out there is downright awful (I do blog about one notable exception on television though). Most of the material I consider good to great (books or movies) is from thirty or more years ago, including the classics. That’s a lot of years. But one of the best-selling authors of all time has made this genre his domain and that is of course, Stephen King.

So I asked my friend Liz who lives in wonderful England and is a fellow King fan to help me with this question: Why are so many of the good Stephen King books turned into such bad Stephen King movies?

I did a random count of 37 Stephen King movies and yes, we have classics like The Shining and The Shawshank Redemption, but then we get Sleepwalkers and Maximum Overdrive. Even television series are a mixed bag: The Stand started out great, but ended mediocre at best; same with It. The rest are so bad we don’t even want to remember them (ie., The Langoliers, yikes!).  So why such a bad track record with the Stephen King book adaptations?

So here’s Liz:

Stephen King and the movies.

I have been a Stephen King fanatic since I picked up a copy of “The Stand” – the uncut version – in my early teens, after which I devoured everything he had already written and have not missed a story since. I am never disappointed – some of course are better than others but one thing I can count on when it comes to this author is an electrifying read.

You would think therefore, that his imaginative writing and deeply dark storytelling would lend itself well to the visual medium – he is, after all, a master of words, his descriptive prose painting an often horrifying picture in your head as you read.  Surely any movie based on his work would be amazing. Well, not so much.

Out of the numerous and extensive adaptations of King novels and short stories I have seen (and trust me I have seen them all) I could count on one hand the ones that actually work.  Truly terrible most of them – the absolutely AWFUL version of Riding the Bullet for example, which loses every sense of the feeling of the original work and had me throwing shoes at the television. More recently, Under the Dome has been adapted into a popular television series – it is actually quite good but again very little of the original source material remains. Mr King is involved there but it seems even he has a problem with page to screen…

Perhaps his work is too dark, too full of depth to transfer easily..The most popular film of course, nearly always voted for in polls as one of the scariest movies of all time, is “The Shining” starring the indomitable Jack Nicholson. It is in fact a darn scary movie – but again it is not the work of Stephen King. He himself has made no effort to hide that fact that he does not like it.

There are excellent ones of course. The original 1970’s adaptation of “Carrie” is chilling and captures the ambience of the King novel very well.  Kathy Bates as an actress has had some success in bringing his characters to life, with “Misery” and “Dolores Claiborne” but overall adaptations of King novels tend to fall extremely flat.

Unless, it seems, they are in the hands of Frank Darabont. The Green Mile is a marvel of an adaptation and he took Mr King’s evocative short “Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption” and turned it into a tour de force. Then of course another short “The Mist” to which he added an ending that was so haunting, I have never been able to watch the movie since…

So perhaps it takes a particularly visionary director to create a King novel on screen. I was recently disappointed to hear that JJ Abrams had abandoned his plans to bring The Dark Tower to life as I thought his eclectic style would have been highly suitable. It is now in the hands of the equally talented Ron Howard however so I would hope that something amazing will come to pass.

Overall  when thinking about it though, perhaps it should be said that Stephen King’s novels should remain on the page and in the active imagination of the readers brain.

Liz Wilkins runs one of the best book review websites out there and you can find her at www.lizlovesbooks.com

#Stephen King

The post Month’s Guest Blogger (Horror) Liz Wilkins appeared first on Official Website of Author Austin Dragon.

A Society Darkly

Is “Good” Horror Becoming too Horrific?

When I think of what I consider the best horror movies of all time, The Exorcist (1973) and The Shining (1980) immediately spring to mind.  I hate slasher films (excluding the original 1978 Halloween movie) and what’s called “torture-porn” (Saw, Hostel and the like) and never watch them. Back in 1995, I saw David Fincher’s Seven which incredibly was only his second feature film, starring Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt, Kevin Spacey and Gwyneth Paltrow. I can’t believe it’s been nineteen years since that movie was released. I also hate serial killer films but Seven ranks is a great movie and I saw it specifically because of the outstanding cast and it made me a fan of director Fincher as well.

However, I remember thinking to myself afterwards that I was glimpsing the future of entertainment and I was reaching for a word—the anti-hero. The audience wouldn’t tune in to see our hero (or heroine) vanquish the bad guy (or gal), but they would instead gather around to see the latest exploits of everyone’s favorite criminal succeed at another crime and, later, this would devolve into wanting to see the violence they would unleash against unsuspecting and innocent victims. Rooting for the bad guy over the good guy marks a major paradigm shift in society because it is no longer just an occasional thing in entertainment, but has become mainstream. We’ve always had stories of the bad guy as the “star” going back to Edgar Allen Poe in the 1800s or Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho in 1960. I am talking about people tuning in not just to see the bad guy but specifically to see (and revel in) what bad things the bad guy will do to innocent people. There was the television show Dexter and there is now the show Hannibal.

Nearly two thousand years ago in the Ancient Roman Empire the main entertainment of the day was going down to the local coliseum to watch seasoned gladiators square off in fights to the death against each other, maybe some novice fighters, and, yes, wild animals (dog, boars, lions, tigers, and  bears, oh my). The death sports also included convicted criminals, political enemies and even random people in the audience to “liven” things up. Look at all the many serial killer shows and pseudo-serial killer shows there are on American television. Good grief! I don’t watch any of them but if there are that many on the TV schedule then it means a lot of people are.

The scariest movie I ever saw was Horror Express (1972). Don’t know it? It was one of British Hammer films with Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, and Telly Salavas from the tv series Kojak. The reason it was the scariest movie I ever saw was because I had no business sneaking down in the middle of the night from my room to watch it in the living room without my parents’ permission. They of course would never have let me watch it but hey, I may have been five or six years old but I was a mature five or six. Seriously, I had nightmares for weeks! Almost thirty years later I found the movie in a classic DVD rental store and couldn’t wait to watch it again. It was a bit cheesy, a bit dated, but I found the special effects to be better than some of the CGI you see on a typical movie on the Sci Fi channel.  Blinded people with bloody eye sockets, an autopsy wherein a woman’s skull was opened to examine her brain. Yep, I had no business watching this as a small child but now as an adult I thought it was all great fun. But that’s the point. A child is supposed to be innocent and that’s why we as a society shields (or should shield) them from certain things because they are not equipped to handle them yet. Sadly, I think the modern five year old would have no problem with this movie because they’ve already seen much worse already and that is much more than a shame. I believe if a society’s children never have their period of innocence then those children will grow into adults collectively who paradoxically never mature properly.

Let’s Have Dinner With Hannibal the Cannibal

Now that brings me to what prompted this blog post to begin with and that is the series on NBC Hannibal. Was there any doubt this was coming after Anthony Hopkins’ portrayal of the iconic serial killer created by author Thomas Harris on the big screen? I watched the entire first season of Hannibal through Netflix and it was by no means a chore. There are all kinds of shows with the “viewer discretion advised” warning but not so with Hannibal which arguably has some of the most disturbing scenes and stories ever on television.  Examples include naked women impaled on razor sharp deer antlers, comatose men buried in the dirt and feed intravenously as mushrooms grow and consume their bodies, and a serial killer who makes a person into a human violin (he wanted to be able to ‘play’ a person).

Mads Mikkelsen who plays the title actor is a great actor and I have enjoyed his work in even movies that I didn’t care for. Every actor from Laurence Fishburne, Caroline Dhavernas, etc. is at the top of their craft, and especially Hugh Dancy who plays Will Graham. The writing is excellent and the visual direction is amazing. We had arrived at the point where I feared we were inevitably headed after I saw the movie Seven. As with any entertainment you must put the art aside and ask yourself what exactly you’re watching. We are watching a series about a serial killer doing all kinds of evil things to innocent people and each episode introduces an assortment of one or more other killers doing a new and unique set of evil things to people.

There is nothing wrong with violence against evil or evil people (such as against, for example, slavery, Adolf Hitler, a real-life serial killer cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer). It is actually…good. Psychologically, enjoying bad things happening to bad people is healthy. But haven’t we returned to those days of the Ancient Romans in the coliseum who couldn’t get enough of the carnage against innocents.  With digital technology and the incessant consuming of digital entertainment not only for television and movies, but books, email, etc. I argue that we are creating a generation that “lives” more in that virtual world rather than the real world, they’d rather text or chat rather than meet the friend in person (they don’t even pick up the phone anymore), and the violence (and sex) of that entertainment has to sink lower, become more intense, become more twisted to keep this mass audience “hooked.” I wouldn’t be so concerned long term about the society if the kids actually got up and walked away from the smart phones and tv to go out to directly interact with the real world without a wireless internet connection anywhere.  The average person spends an astonishingly 11 hours a day on digital media—television, the internet, and smartphones! http://mashable.com/2014/03/05/american-digital-media-hours/ I find that scary. (No wonder we have a public obesity problem!)

Was Confucius Right? “To see and listen to the wicked is already the beginning of wickedness.” 

Of course, I can hear the voices saying about my qualms this “evolution” of our entertainment is “it’s only fiction, relax,” or “it’s not real.” There are three problems in increasing order of importance:

1) To quote Morpheus: “What is real?”

I’m not being metaphysical but this isn’t the 1890s when the first “moving pictures” came out. Movie magic is so advanced now, as you can tell from the glut and coming glut of comic book super hero movies, that whatever we can imagine we can put on the screen. People who have heard gunshots for the first time say that it sounds like firecracker pops. Why would they say that? After growing up on movies with the standard amplified audio of gun shots, to the average person the sound of a gunshot is real, but an actual gunshot in real life is not. We have reached the phenomena where in the mind’s eye of many, “fake” is more real than reality because it is indistinguishable from that reality.

Well the same goes for the carnage depicted in movies. My issue is not with violence. I consider Thirteen Assassins to be the greatest samurai ever made and despite extreme violence and gore, it actually is not glorifying violence at all. The sentiment of the characters is, “this is what we have to do, we’re not happy about it, most of us are going to die, so let’s kill this psycho.” The opening sequence of Saving Private Ryan is brutally violent as American troops storm the beaches of Normandie, France but that’s the point: war is hell, even for the good guys.

It’s not the fact of the violence of Hannibal, it’s the quality of the violence.  It’s one thing if there is an accident on the freeway and people want to stop and look. It’s quite another to say to people at 11:00 pm there will be some gruesome violence at this location and you have a crowd of people show up at that time and location.

2) Why Don’t You Know My Name?

We are reinforcing the collective sentiment in the media and the public that victims don’t matter. Hitler was responsible for six million dead; Stalin, twenty million; Mao, eighty million. People can name Ted Bundy, Dahmer, William Gacy, and many other serial killers, but can anyone name one of the innocent victims. They live on in books and movies but no one, save the families and friends, ever acknowledge the victims. I do not want to be unfair to the makers of Hannibal because I know that this is not their intention; I am looking at all this from a macro or global level. But the fact remains, ever can name the killer, no can name the victim.

3) Entertainment is “God.”

The ultimate problem is that entertainment is the leading shaper of both morality and culture today. This is true for the masses by a wide margin, even among religious people. The innocence of the society should be as precious to us all as the innocence of children. I am not talking about censorship for adults; I am opposed to that. But adults themselves should be far more very discriminating about the kinds of images and sounds that they allow to whorl around inside of their heads. The mind isn’t just a terrible thing to waste but it is a terrible thing to pollute. Think healthy living for not only your body but your mind.

This is a heavy blog post for me to write as I’m my no means a morose person and the movie Seven is part of my movie collection. But I’ve somehow always been able to see certain trends in society before they materialize, especially the bad ones. This debate on violence in entertainment is not a new one. It is a balancing act for all of us and by all means, enjoy your entertainment. There’s nothing wrong with being scared or creeped out by a Stephen King book or enjoying a story about the descent into madness of a “normal” person like the classic book The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells or the contemporary television show Breaking Bad. But despite forces in the society trying to blur the lines, there is still good and evil and I am not interested in living in a world where evil rules the day or, even scarier, a world where the average person doesn’t know the difference between the two. With the power of modern entertainment on the general society we cannot ignore its impact on that society long-term. I’m not talking censorship or protesting these actors, writers and producers. All I’m saying is to think about the digital media you consume on a frequent basis, that’s all.

Hannibal is an impressively well-made show with a great cast but I will not be watching any more of it.  It’s interesting that the “good guy” William Graham is the epitome of neurosis and on the verge of losing himself to insanity. However, Hannibal is suave, debonair, calm and clever. Well he is still a twisted serial killer and serial killers are not cool. With the entertainment industry’s fixation and the general worship of this new kind of anti-hero, murdering left and right with glee, with our popcorn in hand, are we not all spectators in a modern-day version of Ancient Rome’s arena? Is not our society darkening?

What do you think?

#Hannibal #Confucius #Serial Killers

The post A Society Darkly appeared first on Official Website of Author Austin Dragon.

My Guest Blog at Andrew Knighton Writes

Diversity In Science Fiction And Why It Matters To Us

Firstly, I’d like to thank fellow sci-fi writer Andrew Knighton in Great Britain for featuring me as a guest blogger on his site. This post is a continuation of a discussion that we posted earlier this month about this diversity question in science fiction.

Here’s my guest post on Andrew’s website: http://andrewknighton.com/2014/09/25/diversity-in-science-fiction-and-why-it-matters-a-guest-post-by-austin-dragon/

The full post is below:

What is Diversity to Me? I learned a long time ago from my stint in political activism that it is very important to define words and terms from the start. It’s the reason that most political debates are pointless and real solutions are rare. Different groups respond differently to the same words whether it’s liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans in America, or two different groups of Labor and Conservatives in England, respectively.

As a Black man born in one of the most diverse cities in the world, New York city, living in another overseas for a year, when I began college—Paris France, and upon my return to the States moved to even more diverse one—Los Angeles, CA, I am obviously at home in diversity.

Unfortunately much of the diversity as defined by many elite has simply devolved into the arbitrary color of a person’s skin. That is not diversity. Diversity is not just race; it is culture, class, language, upbringing, nationality, politics, education, occupation, religion (if applicable), and more. It is a rich tapestry of the story and experiences that make you who you really are. Diversity that is just a game of musical chairs based on skin color is boring.

Also for all this “diversity talk,” people are rightly justified in being annoyed at the “talk with no end” about the subject or a “token” character thrown into a story in a feeble attempt to placate them. Virtually everyone will be Asian in a novel set in Japan or overwhelmingly White if set Sweden, but that’s not what we’re talking about. In the diverse or global societies often reflected in science fiction, demographic reality is not being reflected. Yes, fiction is fiction, but…

Three Reasons Why Diversity in Science Fiction Matters

It Gives Us a Unique Window on a Problem. One of the brilliant things about science fiction is that it allows the reader to see an intractable problem from other points of view. Often that unique perspective can do more to highlight the issue or strengthen the drama than the same stereotypical characters we keep seeing over and over again.
It Introduces Us to the New. Over six billion people, hundreds of countries, thousands of religions, tens of thousands of cultures, millennia of recorded human history. Science fiction spends a lot of energy creating new worlds to amaze us when the reality is that there already exists “new worlds” in our own to engage us that we never even knew existed.
More Diversity Equals Less Tokenism. If we see “real” diversity with meaningful stories, substantive characters, and well-thought out backgrounds, the more the public will expect and demand it. I love Star Trek and always will but even as a child I thought it peculiar that there wasn’t far more diversity in the series knowing what the racial and ethnic make-up of the planet was (and is). Tokenism acts like people are just skin-color and genitalia. Diversity acknowledges and showcases so much more.

Science fiction writers, through this genre, we are in probably the best possible position to reflect the great big, wide universe of…humanity.

The post My Guest Blog at Andrew Knighton Writes appeared first on Official Website of Author Austin Dragon.

Month’s Guest Blogger (Science Fiction) Andrew Knighton

Diversity in science fiction

Diversity is a hot topic in science fiction. There’s increasing acknowledgement that the genre has long been dominated by straight white men, and that it would be good to diversify both the creators and the characters.

This is a trend that, as a straight white man, I’m in favour of. So why is diversity important to me?

Aesthetic variety

I’m a fan and writer of science fiction and fantasy. A large part of their appeal for me is the range and variety of things they contain. The potential to read about something new, whether it’s a new place, a new culture, a new technology, a new point of view…

So one selfish reason for wanting more diversity is that I want to read it. I know what’s it’s like to be a middle-class straight white bloke, just like I know what it’s like to live in 20th century England. I want fiction that varies all these things, that takes me to new places, new viewpoints, new experiences.

A parade of people like me, even ones living in the 25th century, is not as much fun as variety.

Empathy

I also have less selfish reasons. Modern culture provides me with a lot of novelty, but it also provides me with the safe and the familiar, people who represent me and my experiences. I don’t want those people to go away – it’s nice to see myself represented. But I want others to also feel that security.

I have several nieces. I want them to feel confident that they can do whatever they want with their lives, because that lesson will give them courage and opportunities. But to learn that they need to see people like them – in this case girls and women – taking on just as varied and powerful roles as men, not being relegated to support or romantic encounters.

And what I want for my nieces I want for everyone – the chance to be empowered and encouraged by a culture that represents you, as well as the opportunity to read and watch all the other sorts of people who fill the world.

Sensitivity and diversity

In trying to provide more diverse representation we have to recognise and understand the negative responses this provokes. People who are used to seeing themselves as the default representation of humanity, whether in science fiction or any other walk of life, can feel threatened when we try to change that. They don’t have a right to be over-represented, but they are used to it, and shouting that they are wrong won’t change that. If we are to bring everyone along for the ride, truly living up to the aim of diversity, then we have to acknowledge their unsettled feelings and help them to move on.

A genre that has aliens and androids has space for every race, gender and sexuality to be equally represented. Here’s hoping, both selfishly and selflessly, that we can get to that place.

About the Author:

Andrew is a freelance writer based in Stockport, England, where the grey skies provide a good motive to stay inside at the word processor. His collection of steampunk stories, Riding the Mainspring, is available through Amazon and Smashwords and he is planning a science fiction collection for later this year. He blogs about science fiction, fantasy and writing at andrewknighton. com and can be found on Twitter as @gibbondemon.

The post Month’s Guest Blogger (Science Fiction) Andrew Knighton appeared first on Official Website of Author Austin Dragon.

Guest Blogger of the Month (Science Fiction)

Diversity in science fiction

Diversity is a hot topic in science fiction. There’s increasing acknowledgement that the genre has long been dominated by straight white men, and that it would be good to diversify both the creators and the characters.

This is a trend that, as a straight white man, I’m in favour of. So why is diversity important to me?

Aesthetic variety

I’m a fan and writer of science fiction and fantasy. A large part of their appeal for me is the range and variety of things they contain. The potential to read about something new, whether it’s a new place, a new culture, a new technology, a new point of view…

So one selfish reason for wanting more diversity is that I want to read it. I know what’s it’s like to be a middle-class straight white bloke, just like I know what it’s like to live in 20th century England. I want fiction that varies all these things, that takes me to new places, new viewpoints, new experiences.

A parade of people like me, even ones living in the 25th century, is not as much fun as variety.

Empathy

I also have less selfish reasons. Modern culture provides me with a lot of novelty, but it also provides me with the safe and the familiar, people who represent me and my experiences. I don’t want those people to go away – it’s nice to see myself represented. But I want others to also feel that security.

I have several nieces. I want them to feel confident that they can do whatever they want with their lives, because that lesson will give them courage and opportunities. But to learn that they need to see people like them – in this case girls and women – taking on just as varied and powerful roles as men, not being relegated to support or romantic encounters.

And what I want for my nieces I want for everyone – the chance to be empowered and encouraged by a culture that represents you, as well as the opportunity to read and watch all the other sorts of people who fill the world.

Sensitivity and diversity

In trying to provide more diverse representation we have to recognise and understand the negative responses this provokes. People who are used to seeing themselves as the default representation of humanity, whether in science fiction or any other walk of life, can feel threatened when we try to change that. They don’t have a right to be over-represented, but they are used to it, and shouting that they are wrong won’t change that. If we are to bring everyone along for the ride, truly living up to the aim of diversity, then we have to acknowledge their unsettled feelings and help them to move on.

A genre that has aliens and androids has space for every race, gender and sexuality to be equally represented. Here’s hoping, both selfishly and selflessly, that we can get to that place.

About the Author:

Andrew is a freelance writer based in Stockport, England, where the grey skies provide a good motive to stay inside at the word processor. His collection of steampunk stories, Riding the Mainspring, is available through Amazon and Smashwords and he is planning a science fiction collection for later this year. He blogs about science fiction, fantasy and writing at andrewknighton. com and can be found on Twitter as @gibbondemon.

The post Guest Blogger of the Month (Science Fiction) appeared first on Official Website of Author Austin Dragon.

The Relevance of Science (Fact and Fiction)

What I so like about science fiction is not only its potential to be a precursor to science fact, but its potential influence on all other aspects of society such as culture, government, entertainment, philosophy, etc. But does science fiction really influence science? And does science influence modern science fiction anymore?

Last Monday, I attended a talk in Downtown L.A. by the organization, Zocalo Public Square which sponsors free events mostly in the Los Angeles area. The event was titled “Can Science Fiction Revolutionize Science?” Its main speakers were Neal Stephenson, NY Times best-selling author and called “legendary” for his science fiction/speculative fiction work, including his trailblazing cyberpunk novel Snow Crash; Lawrence Krauss, a theoretical physicist, cosmologist and tenured professor at the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University, a bestselling author too including The Physics of Star Trek; and moderated by Annalee Newitz, editor-in-chief of io9, a popular blog that focuses on science fiction, fantasy, futurism, science, and technology.

When so much of the science fiction today is dystopian, the event was also a continuation of their collaboration on the book Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future, described as “inspired by New York Times bestselling author Neal Stephenson, an anthology of stories, set in the near future, from some of today’s leading writers, thinkers, and visionaries that reignites the iconic and optimistic visions of the golden age of science fiction.”

A full account of the event (and more generally positive than I’m about to write) is here: http://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2014/09/16/when-science-and-science-fiction-collide/events/the-takeaway/

Sadly, Ms. Newitz, the moderator was far more interesting than either one of the guest speakers, but then they might have been frazzled from trying to find parking (if any of you have been to Downtown LA, then you know what I mean). However, there were plenty of excellent points made directly and indirectly.

The science guy, Mr. Krauss, said something that was funny: “my research has no practical relevance” and he seemed to want to prove the point by talking about something that he obviously was personally excited about: gravitational fields. I can’t say that I was and at one point I wanted to glance at my watch (oops, I don’t wear watches anymore, that’s what smart-phones are for) to see how long he was going to talk. It’s good to see someone with a genuine fascination in a subject, but I had zero interest, would never have any interest, and didn’t think anyone else in the audience did either. An important point he made was “most of the time in science you’re not making any progress.” Fundamentally from a public policy and public/private financing standpoint that is the problem; it’s hard to capture the public imagination when nothing much is happening.

What of the science fiction world of writing? Lots of dystopian futures, lots of space travel, lots of aliens, touches of time travel. However, not too much in the way of expanding on great scientific frontiers or trying to predict the next ones as their book Hieroglyph wishes to inspire. But is that fair? Did Jules Verne predict the submarine, lunar module, and taser gun or did someone just make that fiction into reality? Did Star Trek predict the cell phone (communicator) or was it the inevitable evolution of telecommunications regardless of whether a writer was smart enough to see it?

Another great point was made by Mr. Stephenson who responded to a quick question by Ms. Newitz about all the “White guys” writing science fiction. He made the point regarding the issue of diversity (which I wrote earlier in the month here) that there is a big difference between “diversity” and tokenism. One is real, the other fake and people can tell the difference. Also since you are writing fiction, every reader should be able to relate to your characters even a (Ah! Hide the children!) White person.

For my part, I have one science fiction series that would definitely fall into the dystopia category not because that’s what I prefer or is my personal inclination or worldview, but because I believe our real future is truly going to be more Blade Runner-ish rather than Start Trek-ish. But ultimately, I am a “glass is half full” rather than “glass is half empty” kind of guy and next year I will also introduce two sci-fi series that will be much more non-dystopian.

Science fiction is one of infinite possibilities in what you can create. Science is one of infinite possibilities in what you may discover. There will always be lots of overlap but both realms are their own unique planets and we shouldn’t try to marry them together every chance we get. We should simply ask ourselves of both is the science fiction good (the writing) and is the science relevant to my life or productive to the world?

Personally, it is hard for me to get excited about science today when so much of it is so inaccessible and inconsequential to me. I fully recognize that objectively that is unfair as it may very well be important and relevant, but if it can’t be explained in layman terms or a person has to go to graduate school for years to be able to understand what the hell you’re talking about, then the problem is the scientific community not the human community. This is the area where science fiction shines. We are much better salespeople. If the latest batch of science fiction is exciting and thought-provoking and can inspire the next great theoretical physicist, cosmologist, or futurist engineer, no matter how “unscientific” its science, then great! Write it!

#Neal Stephenson #Hieroglyph

The post The Relevance of Science (Fact and Fiction) appeared first on Official Website of Author Austin Dragon.

Inevitable Evolution? Toys to Terminators

Science Fiction, Science Future: Inorganic Beings from Tantalizing Toys to Terrible Terminators?

In my science fiction novella, Metal Flesh (After Eden Tek-Fall, Episode I) I touch on some concepts related to inorganic beings, also known as robots and androids. Long before movies with such characters as the Data from Star Trek, Terminator from the 1980s, even Robby the Robot from the 1950s; ancient societies had many mythologies about humans or gods creating living organic beings. Philip Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (the book being the basis for the movie) introduced organic androids or synthetic humans.

We are continuously mastering the creation of mechanical bodies, but the limitation has always been their “brains.” As excited as some are about AI (artificial intelligence), which would be that “brain,” the reality is that our technological capabilities are far below even the potential of the science fiction books and movies that we have been exposed to for many decades. To use physicist-guru Dr. Michio Kaku’s apt description, in regards to our most advanced robot or computer today, they have “the intelligence of a retarded cockroach.”  Yes, even in 2014.

However, one thing you can say about humans is that they will never stop when they set their mind to a particular objective. We want thinking robots, androids indistinguishable from human beings, and AI sentience. Well, at least they say we do.

This all looks fun, don’t you think?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6feEE716UEk

But do you really want this? Right now we’re in the “toy” phase of our robotic and cybernetic abilities. If we get more advanced, whether it’s twenty, fifty or one hundred years in the future, will we enter a“terrifying” phase?

We went from fists to swords to arrows to single-shot pistols to repeater rifles to machine-guns, from tanks to bomber jets to atomic bombs. But on the other hand, we went from attributing deadly diseases in the past to evil spirits to wiping out those diseases and plagues that used to kill millions every year, we’ve gone from treating patients with leeches and chants to laser and robotic surgery. We actually do have bionic men and women walking around in the world (or the much more cooler term, cyborgs). Humankind always has the choice as to which path we take. Which one do you think we’ll take?

Cyborgs, Robots, Androids, AI and the the Future

I enjoy writing science fiction because its a way to explore possible futures and people have always been fascinating with the concept of being able to see into the future, even if what they were to see was not good at all. Are you eagerly waiting with optimism for super robots and hyper-genius-level AI, or are you scared to death and hope you won’t be alive when these things come into reality? Or are we debating (and getting worked up) about nothing and never will be able to reach these goals which are so easy to attain within the endless boundaries of our imagination but our true limitations in the physical world are altogether different?

#Robots #AI #ScienceFiction

The post Inevitable Evolution? Toys to Terminators appeared first on Official Website of Author Austin Dragon.

Inevitable Evolution? Toys to Terminators.

Science Fiction, Science Future: Inorganic Beings from Tantalizing Toys to Terrible Terminators?

In my science fiction novella, Metal Flesh (After Eden Tek-Fall, Episode I) I touch on some concepts related to inorganic beings, also known as robots and androids. Long before movies with such characters as the Data from Star Trek, Terminator from the 1980s, even Robby the Robot from the 1950s; ancient societies had many mythologies about humans or gods creating living organic beings. Philip Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (the book being the basis for the movie) introduced organic androids or synthetic humans.

We are continuously mastering the creation of mechanical bodies, but the limitation has always been their “brains.” As excited as some are about AI (artificial intelligence), which would be that “brain,” the reality is that our technological capabilities are far below even the potential of the science fiction books and movies that we have been exposed to for many decades. To use physicist-guru Dr. Michio Kaku’s apt description, in regards to our most advanced robot or computer today, they have “the intelligence of a retarded cockroach.”  Yes, even in 2014.

However, one thing you can say about humans is that they will never stop when they set their mind to a particular objective. We want thinking robots, androids indistinguishable from human beings, and AI sentience. Well, at least they say we do.

This all looks fun, don’t you think?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6feEE716UEk

But do you really want this? Right now we’re in the “toy” phase of our robotic and cybernetic abilities. If we get more advanced, whether it’s twenty, fifty or one hundred years in the future, will we enter a“terrifying” phase?

We went from fists to swords to arrows to single-shot pistols to repeater rifles to machine-guns, from tanks to bomber jets to atomic bombs. But on the other hand, we went from attributing deadly diseases in the past to evil spirits to wiping out those diseases and plagues that used to kill millions every year, we’ve gone from treating patients with leeches and chants to laser and robotic surgery. We actually do have bionic men and women walking around in the world (or the much more cooler term, cyborgs). Humankind always has the choice as to which path we take. Which one do you think we’ll take?

Cyborgs, Robots, Androids, AI and the the Future

I enjoy writing science fiction because its a way to explore possible futures and people have always been fascinating with the concept of being able to see into the future, even if what they were to see was not good at all. Are you eagerly waiting with optimism for super robots and hyper-genius-level AI, or are you scared to death and hope you won’t be alive when these things come into reality? Or are we debating (and getting worked up) about nothing and never will be able to reach these goals which are so easy to attain within the endless boundaries of our imagination but our true limitations in the physical world are altogether different?

#Robots #AI #ScienceFiction

The post Inevitable Evolution? Toys to Terminators. appeared first on Official Website of Author Austin Dragon.

Shakespeare or a Multi-racial, Chain-smoking, Albino Midget?

As we return from the Labor Day weekend—the official end of the summer of 2014, I reflect on the movies Hollywood gave us. You can see the box-office tally of the Top Ten Biggest Summer Movies here: http://www.businessinsider.com/highest-grossing-summer-movies-2014-2014-8. Also, Guardians of the Galaxy is officially the highest grossest film domestically this year so far, surpassing Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier from this spring.

One topic has bubbled to the top of discussion in entertainment news and I’d like to put my spin on it:

Would You Care If Your Favorite Book or Movie Was Written By Shakespeare or a Multi-racial, Chain-smoking, Albino Midget?

Back in the eighties, I was a huge Marvel fan(atic) and comic book collector. Then as I got ready to “ship out” to the US Army and I did the unthinkable—I stopped, just like that; and then sold my entire collection. I did keep maybe a few dozen collector items, but I sold everything else.

For a long time, the 1978 Superman movie starring Christopher Reeve (the original and as far as I’m concerned still the best Superman to this day, sorry Mr. Nolan, Man of Steel sucked!) was considered the gold-standard of superhero movies. Then, ignoring the false start of the Fantastic Four, the sky opened up in 2007 and down flew Kevin Feige as the new President of Marvel Studios, and the Golden Age of Marvel Studios movies began.

Based on one of the Marvel comic book series that most of us have never heard of (including me), Guardians of the Galaxy became the surprise break-out summer blockbuster this summer. I still consider the Avengers the best superhero movie of all time, but Guardians of the Galaxy is fighting for the number two slot with X Men: First Class in my mind. I’ll have to see both again to decide.

Diversity of Writers in Hollywood: Do You Really Care?

As the post-release Hollywood buzz machine continues in high-gear, two things have bubbled to the surface. One put a smile on my face, the other did not. The smile first. The reason Guardians of the Galaxy far surpassed expectations was not because of the great live actors (special praise for Chris Pratt) or the CGI ones (special praise for Rocket Raccoon, yes, I would never have foreseen this one either), or the awesome special effects. No! The real star was the screenplay, the writing, the writers. That’s where the conversation should have stayed, but now some have decided to take us into that tiresome universe known as “Diversity.”

Co-writer Nicole Perlman becomes the first woman to have her name on a Marvel script. Okay, whatever. I’ve personally never cared about the race, gender, height, weight, eye/hair color, singing ability, cat/dog person, zodiac sign, Marvel or DC person, Star Wars or Star Trek person, etc. of any writer before but it still seems to preoccupy some. I only care about great writing, period. On the show The Wrap, the host was Lucas Shaw and he asked Ms. Perlman, referring to Marvel movies, about the “lack of diversity” in terms of “the writing, directing, and in front of the camera” and ended the question with the following: “…every movie’s been directed by a White guy…probably between the age of 30 and 45.” See the clip here: http://www.thewrap.com/guardians-of-the-galaxy-co-writer-nicole-perlman-on-the-films-unique-twist-video/

I call them the “Bean-Counters.” They lurk in the shadows and seem to carry a secret clipboard, duct-taped to their forearm, wherein they mindlessly count the number of people of a certain race, gender, etc. wherever they go. I have always loathed these people even when I was a child back in the ‘70s. Here are my responses to Mr. Shaw:

1)      Mr. Shaw, seventy percent of America is White! Yes, most of America is still White. However, unlike some who seem to view this ominously, I’m not sure why that is a bad thing. In Africa, most people are Black; in China, most people are Asian; in Italy, most people are Catholic; in Mexico most people are Hispanic. Yes, all very shocking. The “whiteness” of America means nothing; it’s like saying the sky is blue. This isn’t America during slavery or segregation. As a Black man myself, if this doesn’t bother me, why should it bother you? [There are lots of problems faced by urban and poor communities; none of them have to do with the skin color of the majority population. I’ll stop there because I could write a massive blog post (or book) on just that—some other time.]

2)      Mr. Shaw, why are you diminishing Ms. Perlman? As I’ve already stated, she co-wrote a damn good script. I’m glad she (gently) pushed back on your comments and stated that any good writer, regardless of gender, could have written (and can write) the quality of the script of Guardians. The “bean-counter” people often act as if they are the “evolved” humans among us, but in reducing Ms. Perlman to “the woman writer” or when the writer is not a White male to “the Black guy,” “the Hispanic guy,” ad infinitum, they are revealing how “un-evolved” they truly are.

3)      Psst. Mr. Shaw. No one really gives a damn. Do people really care about diversity? No, the average America doesn’t. The average “bean-counter” is obsessed with it. We’re talking about good writing, whether it’s books or television or movies. People are hungry for great writing. They know it when they see it and when they find it they will become avid fans of it. I mentioned that I still consider The Avengers to be best of the super hero movies ever made. It was written by Joss Whedon, the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, etc. Do I care that he’s a “White guy” or do I care that this person can WRITE! The BBC series Sherlock is another example of outstanding writing, don’t forget Breaking Bad, and what about Netflix’s original series, the House of Cards? We want good writers and we don’t care about the labels that “bean-counter” people preoccupy themselves with and (unsuccessfully) try to get us to care about too. Go away “bean-counter” people while we enjoy the talents of the great writers amongst us; go play in the traffic or jump in a lake somewhere!

4)      If you really cared about diversity…? What all this “diversity” talk really means is that there aren’t enough Black people and Hispanics (Asians and Indians don’t count) in plain sight, as determined by the Great, Grand Rulers of the “bean-counter” people. That’s what they really mean. So to end on a serious note: you want to see more Blacks and Latinos as Hollywood writers, or anywhere else moving up the ranks of the free-market? There are two core problems: the corruption of our public school system and our urban communities! With urban schools with at least a fifty percent drop-out rate and young men and women, large numbers of both Black and Hispanic, graduating functionally illiterate (that’s French for “they can’t read”), there will be very, very few to join Ms. Perlman on the Hollywood writing stage or anywhere else since they do not have the necessary skills for the world of work or the world of high education. And sadly, we no longer have the caliber of leaders on the ground as we did a generation ago who are truly more interested in the people rather than the politics, fortune and fame. Fix those—we haven’t for the last 40 plus years—and there will be so much “diversity” that the “bean counter” people will then be running around in uncontrollable panic attacks asking “where did all these dark-skinned people come from?”

Great writers, regardless of race, gender, or labels, we love you. Keep up great work. I’ve already jumped into the future to get Scottie from the Enterprise to come back in time with me to beam all the “bean-counter” people to Ceti Alpha Five. Good riddance!

The post Shakespeare or a Multi-racial, Chain-smoking, Albino Midget? appeared first on Official Website of Author Austin Dragon.

Featured Free Stuff

Freebies? What are they? 

Throughout the year, I’m going to offer free ebooks, free excerpts and other special offers and discounts for new subscribers to my bi-weekly newsletter through the website. Current subscribers will continuously have access to all these offers. With all the books scheduled for release next year, there’s a lot of news and updates to put out. So it will always be helpful news, occasionally about the books, more often about the world of the books (including those upcoming), and no junk.

The current featured freebie is my companion novella to my current After Eden science fiction and international thriller series, Metal Flesh (After Eden Tek-Fall, Episode I). There’s very much a dystopian feel to this adventure story.

Here’s a customer review:

“The Story- The plot is revenge set up in well designed and refreshing environment. The story is quite linear still (It’s probably the intent to show that the character won’t sway from the path and is determined, but the overdose from the drug pushed him forward in the plot instead of slowing him down wasn’t as superb as the rest of the book), Loads of hinted side stories make it fun to read (I, living in UK, really liked the “last British prince” bit).

I really liked the beginning with “the metallic android with worms going through every pore” where I was shaking my head and telling myself…well that’s a bit over the top, but when I learned it’s just a hallucination caused  by side effect of a drug that the character uses to move him closer in his pursuit…nice!

The World- The world is nicely build with religion wars on whole another level and technology embedded in everyday life. For a futuristic novel however I can see very few “new” technologies. Automatically driven cars, drones, mass surveillance is something quite normal… not implemented in everyday life, but it’s the direction we are taking and I can see it becoming standard in near future. In 80 years there should be more… I know it’s easy for me to say, but that’s the feeling i have when reading the book. The setting feels like story from very near future. There is loads of internal USA referencing going on that I can spot, but not relate to.

The Character- The character is taken out of his natural environment and is exposed to “the new.” His naive and explorative nature, is nice. He doesn’t have the “I know it all” attitude and have trust in people, but is determinate, optimistic and brings the child like curiosity to it. In short,it’s very likable character that isn’t afraid to take the back seat and trust in his companions. The Characters fear of Muslims is character flaw that make him more believable in my eyes as he makes the generalisation based on the collective experience of his environment. (I don’t know anything about Islam so it plays on the fear from the unknown string)

Summary - Over the entire book is great, fast pace reading and I had loads of fun with it. I thought about the character even when not reading it and I will definitely try to get the second book you were talking about.

Excellent job.”

So tell your friends to join you as a subscriber and they’ll get an entire e-book novel for free.

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

 

#FreeStuff #AfterEdenSeries

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