Systems Update: Upbeat

There’s a loud, powerful pounding at the door and then the bell rings. Already aggravated that your No Solicitors sign has been ignored – yet again! – this election season, you’re ready to give the poor fool a rant on the value of their education with special emphasis on reading and comprehension. You’re surprised no one is there when you open the door. Kids; ring and run or whatever they call it now. You walk out into the driveway to look up the street but it’s empty, devoid of movement and sound but for the wind blowing leaves into neighbor’s yards. No dogs barking, no cars approaching though you can smell a fire pit on the breeze. No one is out in their front yard. It’s a nice fall night.

Bewildered, you go back inside and lock the storm door and the inner door. Once the latch is closed you turn to go back to the kitchen and that’s when you see him. Tall, dressed in a brown trench coat, spiky blond hair, a look of disappointment on his face standing in the middle of your living room, watching you. Your heart begins to race.

Hi, I’m Jason. I write things for myself and hope others will like them. 

UPBEAT

Pretty soon we’ll be deep into Talking Head Analysis Overdrive season, and that brings a lot more tedium to the news media. Still, opinion can be important, often influencing those who are unsure for whatever reason to swing their attention one way or another. I don’t agree with every opinion and I give more weight to informed, educated opinion than I do the ones that sound good in small bites, which is something that I wish everyone did. Still. Stifling opinions is not something we should do in America but it happens. Witness the Washington Post and L.A. Times owners declining to put themselves at odds with one of the candidates.

In the aftermath of Bezos spiking the WaPo endorsement for President I moved two preorders for books from Amazon to my local independent bookstore. Pricing at both was exactly the same and the only difference is that I’ll have to pick them up at the store instead of my front porch. No big deal.

The convenience of Amazon is a powerful thing and it’s valuable for stuff you can’t get locally. (In part due to Amazon’s desire to be the One and Only.) The more we spend in our home communities, though, the stronger, the better those communities become. Spending cash in those places when you can also accomplishes the same thing because that money stays in the community rather than being siphoned off by the big banks and their partners as ‘fees’ for processing.

I’m not big into audiobooks and don’t have Audible, but my local library has resources for that if I feel the need.  I’ll use a local shop for used books (or biblio.com) instead of Abebooks, too. Just in case you don’t know, Amazon owns both Audible and Abebooks so I’ll avoid them as much as I can, too.

Of course this doesn’t work for everyone and I recognize that. But because it does for me, I’m switching as much as I can away from a juggernaut of loss leaders and convenience to the community I live in. If I and a few others start spending more locally, maybe things will get better. Certainly, I’ll be more engaged with it by being more out in it.

Blast off.WRITING ABOUT SCIENCE FICTION

I’ve been reading a lot of blogs and various ‘news’ pieces about science fiction and most of them amount to very light opinion pieces that are more like pregnant social media posts than actual thinking about the genre. As a consumer of science fiction in all its forms, I enjoy light opinion pieces as much as deeper thoughts. So I’m writing this from a place of love for the genre and love for those who create everything in and around it. I’m not calling anyone out.

Now, with my metaphorical editor hat on, let’s explore what my consumer half would like to see more of when bloggers write about science fiction. 

It always amuses me to see new writing about concepts like the multiverse and note the author’s reference is no more than twenty years old and rooted in first experiences with the concept are less than five years old. The idea of multiple universes has been around for quite a long time, long enough to say that it’s not really new any more. Perhaps it’s just being a middle-aged white man in the world now, and I know that writers fall out of favor (and out of print) along the path to the future, but contributions to the genre shouldn’t be overlooked or forgotten. In fifty years, will the current batch of multiverse stories still be remembered by anyone except those that experienced them in the moment? History says likely not.

But let’s explore how a writer could embrace that history in their discussion of the concept. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction gives a reasonable history of the term ‘multiverse’ and – via The Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction – one can find a timeline of references to the term throughout the genre. Additionally, just visiting a better-known resource such as Wikipedia will give anyone writing about the concept some context. I mean, this is the low-hanging fruit but even doing a scholarly search through Google yields easily accessible thoughts on the concept from respected sources such as Scientific American.

Science fiction is a genre of ideas and dialogue, of looking forward from today and extrapolating what the future might hold, of remembering the past and striving not to repeat it. Taking it seriously when writing about the genre should be an implied imperative. Not that the genre is always serious, but writing about it should be unless the intent is to be comic. 

What this consumer (and editor if the hat is still on) wants is intelligent dialogue about the subject of science fiction. Discussion is what we have now, the one way cry of someone begging to be heard on the subject of their favorite things about that subject. What I want to see is more thoughtful musing on aspects of science fiction and what it means to the writer, inviting others to agree or disagree in the same thoughtful way.

(I know, I know. It’s the Internet and I’m asking for a unicorn. I can dream, can’t I?)

So hit me up with some serious writing on the subject of science fiction and share your thoughts, if you’re so inclined. Links in the comments to quality dialogue on the subject are appreciated.

CONSOMMÉ

Damn, the new album from The Cure – the first in 16 years? – is the heaviest thing I’ve heard in a long, long time. It’s so dark and a fine companion to, as others have said, David Bowie’s final album Blackstar. I mean, wow. WOW. Songs Of a Lost World is an amazing record and I wish it was a bit longer, but I’m glad to have it to listen to and absorb.

Harlan Ellison’s The Last Dangerous Visions has arrived at my home (via my local bookstore) and I’m exploring it a bit at a time. It’s taken decades to get here and I want to savor it.

Finally, I’ll reaffirm that I’m all in with Harley Quinn’s and Poison Ivy’s romance on the Harley Quinn cartoon. And when I read Poison Ivy in comics I hear Lake Bell’s voice.

ASSERTIONThe Magic 8-Ball sees you.AT CAPACITY

Wow, that was a lot. Am I procrastinating writing Masque? Maybe a little. (And it’s not like I’m not writing. I’ve been writing a lot on Masque – I mean five drafts now is a lot of words. Isn’t it?) But I digress.

I’m passionate about my favorite subjects and I want it to be better. Being that I have no influence in this realm, I’m really just shouting into the void which shrugs and closes itself off. Then that stranger shows up in your living room, wanting to talk about – whatever.

Your vote (like your dollar) counts more at the local level than nationally, but every vote is important. You also don’t have to broadcast who you voted for. Please just vote.

Our resiliency as a society is tested every day now and in sometimes disturbingly innovative ways over the last ten years or so, too. All that stress builds up and exacts a toll. Trusting people is more difficult than ever before but there are still some who can be trusted if only we recognize them. I choose to trust people until they prove I can’t. 

Look, just – be real with each other. Stop trying to one up and garner likes in the process. Do your thing and let others do theirs. Support your friends and let the negative crap slough off like water off a duck. They say authenticity is the coin of the realm. So be yourself, okay? Take a deep breath, take a step back, and disengage whenever you can. Care for yourself and I’ll see you when I see you.

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