Media Tie-ins: Good or Bad?
Jim C. Hines has recently been berating himself over his bias against media tie-in novels here and here. I think he’s being a little hard on himself. Granted, it’s probably “unfair” to have this bias, but he’s not the only one.I’ve had this bias for years. When I was younger I used to read media tie-ins all the time: Star Wars and Dragonlance mostly. Now, I don’t read any media tie-ins and here’s why: I’m mostly uninterested in the worlds they are presenting. I don’t care about the Magic the Gathering universe, or Star Trek, or Forgotten Realms, or any of it. I don’t. They’re old news to me and boring. There are too many damn books in those series anyway. I think of media tie-ins as lesser forms of literature. Yes, I understand this is silly, much for the same reasons that Mr. Hines stated about his own relationship with this particular form of bias. My problem is that I’ve read quite a few media tie-in novels, and only a small handfull have even been worth my time. Yes, there probably are many great media tie-in novels, but I’ve never read them and I don’t have the patience to wade through the crap to find them. I got turned off after reading three or four horribly written books in a row. Think of it like food: you eat something that looks good, but it tastes like crap, and every time you try a different version of that something, it’s crappy; would you keep eating that food or eventually pass it off as something you’re just not going to eat? Yes, this is probably a terrible bias to have, because there are likely dozens of great authors who write media tie-ins, but it has a reason to exist. I like original worlds better. I get the impression that authors who create their own worlds subsequently create better stories. The exception might be the Star Wars stuff set in the future (cause we all mostly hate the milking of the prequel era stuff). There’s a lot of room for originality there because, for the most part, none of that story has been told or established, and Star Wars has hundreds of planets that were never written about or discussed in the movies. There are quite a lot of good Star Wars books (I’ve read four that I really enjoyed and then one about Han Solo which was crap, but I was younger and I just loved it, so it has a special place in my heart). There’s too many of them. The most popular shared universes are flooded with stories by dozens of authors. Where do I start? Who is good? Who isn’t? Which series are more interesting? There’s just too much there. Even the Star Wars universe is flooded, and now with a lot more stuff I really don’t want to touch anymore. That all said, I understand that I probably have a rather silly bias towards media tie-ins. Authors who write in shared worlds probably put a lot of work into it, or at least I hope they do, because that wouldn’t look good for media tie-ins if they didn’t do any work at all.At the same time, however, I don’t think it’s all that silly to have a bias, or to dislike a particular form of literature. If you just don’t like something, you can’t force yourself to like it. I don’t like practically all literary fiction novels, because they put me to sleep, and you can’t really force me to like them (the occasional few novels will wow me, but most of them make me wonder how it got published). Disliking media tie-ins doesn’t make you a bad person. There are plenty of people reading such books, so it really doesn’t matter if you’re one of those who doesn’t read them–there will probably be a market for them for a long time. There are loads of people reading literary fiction, even though I mostly don’t like it (some of it is growing on me though). This is just the way it is. Some of us only read mystery novels, while others only read mainstream fiction, or romance novels, etc. It can’t possibly be expected of all of us to read everything, can it?So…What forms of literature are you biased against?
The Terrorists of Santa Cruz
Some of you know who I’m talking about, and some of you don’t. For those that live in Santa Cruz or attend UCSC, you’re probably aware of the actions described in this article of the SC Sentinel. And I have something to say about this, because, quite honestly, the biggest problem with Santa Cruz as a city is that its citizens and its government don’t care enough to say anything. Warning, there will be harsh language from this point on. Tune out if you don’t want to hear it… To those people who call themselves freedom fighters, animal rights activists, environmentalists, etc: fuck you. Those of you who seek to achieve results through violence are terrorists. You are no better than the people who drove two planes into the two towers on September 11th, 2001. You are no better than the folks responsible for the Oklahoma City bombing or the numerous attacks on the World Trade Center prior to 9/11. You are no better than Hitler, Stalin, or anyone who has ever sought to rule the world through terror and destruction. You are no better than the individuals who rape, murder, and otherwise terrorize the innocent in this country or elsewhere. You are all hypocritical pieces of shit who do not deserve to even be called human, because your actions are despicable, unacceptable, and horrid.You seek to achieve liberation of animals by attacking researchers and their families…families who are, by default, INNOCENT, who have done nothing wrong whatsoever. What exactly do you think will become of this? Will we stop testing on animals? No, in fact, you’re making some folks support the industry even more. The fact is, we are all guilty of what you hate so much about your fellow man. You too have benefited from testing on animals. Vaccines, medicines, etc. All of these things you have used at some point in your life. In fact, even to step into a hospital is to support the very thing you despise. Without animal testing we would not have cures for the diseases that plague us. Would you be so quick to condemn millions if not billions of innocent people to death so we can become like you?The problem is, I don’t fucking want to be like you. I like the taste of cow. I like chicken and pig and other animals. Their meat tastes good to me. I won’t stop eating them because you don’t like the way they are being treated. I won’t stop eating them if you threaten my life or bomb homes with children in them. You have to accept that people are not going to be like you, not without you taking control of the entire world, which will not happen without a fight of some sort. And people will lose their lives in that fight, yours and ours. Millions will die as you attempt to rule the world like the fascist pigs that you are. You may have entirely valid reasons for wanting to fight, but that does not give you the right to attack people at their homes, nor does it give you the right to kill or destroy public or government property. Remember, when you destroy things that belong to UC Santa Cruz, it comes out of the pockets of ALL STUDENTS. Everyone pays because of that. And because of you, now the UC will have to tighten security and make the lives of students more difficult, all because you are unwilling to fight for what you believe in in a manner that is acceptable.And don’t give me this bullshit about how peaceful protest doesn’t work. You and I both know that is a load of complete shit. Martin Luther King did not achieve freedom for blacks by murdering white people or bombing homes. No, in fact, he was the complete opposite. He took hits from the people that hated him, and all the way kept himself composed. He was an inspiration to us all and he never once lifted a hand to strike down those that despised him. Contrary to what you pea brained fuckwads think, violence doesn’t solve everything. And unfortunately for you, nothing you do will stop the consumption of animals in this world. Ever. Humans are meat eaters. Deal with it. Likewise, until YOU come up with methods to replace our current methods for discovering more about genetics, etc. we will continue to do that out of necessity. We absolutely require the use of animals for testing to provide us with cures for cancer, etc. As a result, all violence does is make us more aware that there are crazy ass fuckers in the world who deserve their own fucked up island to live on so we don’t have to deal with them.And I’ve had fucking cancer. I want a cure for that, okay? Whatever it fucking takes. Your bullshit actions aren’t going to stop me from finding those cures in this lifetime. It only makes me more resolute in my beliefs.So, in the end, I hope the fuckers who have done and will do terrible things in this city and any other city will be caught and locked up forever. May your sins against humanity condemn you to a life behind bars. Your rights are not being trampled on. You can peacefully protest. You, however, are breaking the law, repeatedly, and harming human beings who simply believe differently. This is the same narrow-minded, sick mentality that led Hitler to commit genocide against the Jews, or Stalin to kill Christians and political dissenters, or Mao Ze-Dong to murder his fellow people and the people of Tibet, or the list of other remarkably horrible acts of genocide you can find here. You all are markers of evil, people on this earth who have nothing better to do than terrorize people for literally no valid reason. You are not fighting oppression. You are fighting an imaginary nothing, a force you think exists, but doesn’t. And people are paying with
Foreclosure Stupidity
Most of us know about the show “Extreme Makeover”. If you don’t, here’s the short version:A group of do-gooders (and I mean that nicely) find families in need of help, show up at their homes, boot them out for a week (usually on some sort of nice vacation) and remodel their entire home so that it suits the family more appropriately. Usually the families have some sort of medical condition in the family (such as children with severe brain deficiencies, or heart conditions, or other things that make life a little difficult). The homes given to them aren’t cheap. In fact, some of the homes created are damn expensive, mostly because they are custom made, not track homes.Well, apparently on family thought it would be a brilliant idea to use their brand new, custom built home that was DONATED to them as collateral on a $450,000 loan. And now they’re in foreclosure on the house. Yup, that’s right. This family, who was given a brand new home to suit their needs–generously given, I might add–decided to put it up as collateral for a loan for a business deal…and now they’re losing it. Some of the volunteers who helped build the home were less than thrilled about the family’s financial decisions. “It’s aggravating. It just makes you mad. You do that much work, and they just squander it,” Lake City Mayor Willie Oswalt, who helped vault a massive beam into place in the Harper’s living room, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. My sentiments exactly. I’d be pissed off too. It’s not every day someone hands you something that valuable and says “all I want is a hug in return”. Idiots. (Don’t click the read more, there isn’t any more after this!)
Gay marriage equals the end of democracy?
Orson Scott Card is apparently at it again. To be honest, I’m not even going to touch this. If you want to read some brilliant counter-rants, go here, here (this one is suprisingly not tinged with hateful anti-man language), or here. In short, I think Card has lost his mind and joined the ranks of the very lunatic religious wackjobs who have been attempting to tear down the foundations of science and rationality for decades. His insanity is too obvious. He needs to go on vacation or something. Seriously. Nobody should be this angry about anything (except, perhaps, having one’s entire race of people eradicated). If this is a publicity stunt or something, it’s working, cause he’s getting loads of attention. Anywho, I’m done. His rant is so horrible I don’t even have the time to refute his dribbling nonsense. (Don’t click the read more, there isn’t any more after this!)
Feminists: Why I stopped listening.
This is probably going to be controversial somehow. So if you’re easily offended, stop reading. Consider yourself warned.Over at Yahoo there is a report that feminists are up in arms over a new game from Sony. Why are they up in arms? Because the game, called “Fat Princess”, is about a, well, fat princess running around collecting cake and getting fatter so that your enemies can’t capture you so easily.Why is this so offensive? I have no idea. Is it because she’s fat? If so, are there no fat women in the world who eat cake? Is there a sudden shortage of cake eating plump women? Or is it because the game is about a fat girl chasing cake to get fatter so she can’t get captured? Okay, if that’s the case, I still don’t get it. Before anyone goes off and says “well, you’re a man, you don’t get it anyway, cause you’re sexist by default”, I’ll have you know that I am far from the sexist male you might think. I support gender equality and I don’t believe there are that many differences between males and females beyond physical things. We are the same species and neither is better than the other (well, I’m a little biased in that women are better than men, but that’s because I am not really attracted to men). I simply don’t get what is sexist about this game. There are games featuring fat guys too, you know, not to mention a plethora of portrayals of fat men who consume cake for pleasure. It’s not like this is such an unusual concept.Having said that, here is my problem with all this. It’s just a game. Yes, I said it. It’s just a stupid game. Emphasis on stupid. This isn’t a game I’d play, unless it had something really weird to it, but I still don’t think this is something to get upset about. If something like this upsets you, maybe you need to go on vacation or stop reading the news. Seriously. This is such a minor, pointless thing to get upset over, unless there’s something I’m not aware of in the game.This is only one facet of the angry feminist movement that has completely turned me off from reading anything related to their “members”. They have valid points about a lot of things, but they come off so angry and bitter that it’s hard for me to listen to their rants for more than ten seconds. It’s hard for me to take you seriously if your arguments are tinged with sarcasm, hatred, anger, bitterness, and other such negative inflections. If you want my attention, you have to make your points heard from a logical, rational standpoint. This is the same reason I don’t listen to religious arguments that try to claim that the Earth is only 4,000 years old.And then there is the hypocrisy.It’s all well and good to fight hard for gender equality, but it works both ways. How many commercials have there been featuring stereotypical stupid males doing something stupid and laughable? And do feminists rise up and say “hey, that ain’t right”? Of course not. The problem is that many in the feminist movement say “we want equality” without actually understanding what that last word means. Equality doesn’t mean we stop making sexist female jokes, but you can make sexist male jokes all you want. You want equality, then all sexist jokes have to stop, or we’re allowed to rip on one another equally without people getting in a tiffy over something like a plus size princess with a cake fetish.Feminists also seem to forget that the climate has changed for gender relations. Fifty years ago it was different, but today there is more gender equality. Of course we have a long way to go, and I’m not saying that sexism doesn’t exist. I’m simply saying that things are different now. Of course there are things yet to be achieved in the interests of gender equality. We haven’t had a female president yet, or a vice president for that matter (and probably won’t this election). But we have had several female CEOs, politicians, judges, etc. Granted, there are more men than women in these positions, but would we have seen such things fifty years ago? Probably not.The point is, if you’re going to have a movement, make it one worth following. If all you do is act the bitter feminist you’re essentially isolating yourself from an audience that still has slightly more control that you. Shouldn’t you be pushing to include men into the conversation? Or are all men sexist pigs in your eyes? If you think the latter, then that’s just another facet of hypocrisy on the feminist side, since there are entire factions of feminists who believe all men are the same–and this is slightly insulting to me, as I am not a sexist pig, thank you very much. Open your mind a little and let men become a part of the equation. That’s pushing for true gender equality. Let’s face it, if men and women alike are pushing for the same thing, it’s more likely to happen for the right reasons rather than the wrong reasons. What are the wrong reasons? Political pressure from a minority. It feels like a victory to get something on the books as a minority group, but it’s even more meaningful when something gets on the books that is supported by a larger portion of the masses, something desired by more than just one group. That, and it’s more likely to happen if a larger group of people are demanding something rather than just one group.Setting aside the rambles I’ll say that I am well aware that not all feminists are bitter and angry. The problem is, they rarely call themselves feminists, perhaps because the title doesn’t really matter. People who seem to demand representation within the feminist movement are the folks I no longer listen to and who push
Does anyone teach poetry anymore?
I was channel surfing and discovered a program on BookTV of some High School Poetry Awards. I think they were Bay Area specific, but regardless, I was curious, so I tuned in to see what it was about…and was surprised to learn that I wasn’t going to see/hear poetry of artistic merit or of any sort of significance at all.Poetry is hard for a reason. I don’t write a lot of poetry because I tend to have issues grasping the imaginative nature of it (it’s far different from writing fiction due to its limiting nature and necessity for deepness despite that). Now, I’m not knocking on an individual’s attempt at art, nor on one’s take on art. This is part of the argument between literary fiction and genre fiction (you know, that whole deal where literary fiction is real fiction and genre fiction is artless dribble, which we are all well aware is a load of crap). The thing about poetry is that if one wants to be taken seriously when writing it, they have to treat it like it is a real art form. “Roses are red” is not considered a serious poetic work, but a clever little rhyme that is somewhat infectious (sort of like tuberculosis, since, for some reason, it just keeps going and going, always infecting new minds, being read, and adapted to the modern world). Poetry that wants to be, well, something of value needs to deal with issues on a deeper level, especially if you’re attempting to play it off like it is a serious piece of work.So, boy was I surprised when the first girl went up to read her poem (or second girl, or whichever girl, as I’m not sure if she was the first to read during the program) and began reading an updated version of “roses are red” that basically was a rendition of “boys act like boys” and “girls act like girls” in words just as simplistic, but without any sort of rhyming or structure to indicate the artist had actually thought about what they were writing. Yes, that is a long sentence. Needless to say, after hearing about half of a stanza, I tuned out. The words were dull, pointless, and without anything meaningful to them.This made me wonder whether or not poetry is still taught in school. It’s hard to believe that schools have degraded this much in representing the arts to their students that no good high school poets exist. I know several poets who are exceptional and of a young age, but I’ve not had the opportunity to ask them whether they are at all familiar with poetry as a literary form (as in having learned about it both historically and literally, with clever puns included).Has there been a significant change in school English courses–in the U.S. or elsewhere–in which students are no longer being given a thorough look into the great works of English language literature? I’m curious. What do you think about this? Are the arts suffering in the youth demographic?