Yelling Birds And Angry Grandmas
In what is apparently an ongoing series I'm going to have to subtitle at some point Middle-Aged On The Internet, I have spent time this week thinking about the growing backlash against tech. Considering that every one of the [big four]has managed to earn the ire of the customers in one form or another it’s not . . .
The Middlewest Of The Internet
Post-BBS, Pre-MySpace
Though I grew up primarily in the Midwest, living in Wisconsin for most my life with a detour into Illinois for a few years, I use Middlewest to invoke the idea of the time when the Midwest was the frontier. Like the Midwest in the Little House On The Prairie era, the late ’90s wasn’t the pioneer days of BBS’s and coding new programs out of . . .
Book Review - It’s Not News, It’s Fark by Drew Curtis
A Fark book seems like an odd proposition. In the Acknowledgments Drew Curtis thanks a friend who guided him to compromise with the publishers looking for a best-of Fark book. Curtis wanted to do a straight media critique, and what we get is a series of Fark articles that illustrate the principals of bullshit news.
Before digging . . .
Book Review - The Best American Science Fiction And Fantasy 2018 Edited by NK Jemisin
The Best American Science Fiction And Fantasy 2018 Edited by NK Jemisin
Anthologies are always fun because you can walk away with a stack of new writers to check out. While there are some established writers in this collection, there are a few who have yet to be collected. There aren't a lot of misses for me here, and my reading . . .
Searching For Narrative
We want stories from the world. Digging deep into our impulse to craft narrative can explain quite a bit about the modern world. We are not mythical creatures, but we are the ones who create the myths. (I’ll cede that this line is probably inspired by spending the last month re-reading Neil Gaiman’s Sandman.)
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Book Review - Alice Isn’t Dead by Joseph Fink
Horror is about anxiety, but what happens when you’re always anxious and afraid? The three seasons of the podcast Alice Isn’t Dead hint at this idea, but only tangentially. Telling a story with a full cast and dialog only lets you get so far into each character’s head, keeping you at arm's length. Moving into a . . .
Book Review - Misterioso/The Blinded Man by Arne Dahl
Swedish Noir started its march into popular translation with the Girl With The Dragon Tattoo series. I never got into that series, but Arne Dahl came with the endorsement of Warren Ellis. Though Dahl writes police procedurals, the prose is compelling and filled with the sort of melancholy you get living in a place that's dark for two . . .