Literary Clusterfucks 2013

the dream of hypertext

I just thought the piece was poorly written. It left me with no curiosity about Sanderson, whom I'd never heard of before reading it, and it didn't make me want to read anything more by its author. It was a failure — if I was the guy's editor, I would not have published it.

are secret books that you buy and then you have to buy another subscription to unlock the text within it

― hootenanny-soundtracking clusterfucks about milking cows (Neanderthal)

disrupting gnosticism

I’ve read 17 of the actual books. Or maybe it’s 20.

I think the 17-20 Sanderson books might have broken him.

I wouldn't call it a hit-piece exactly, but I don't think it's good. Way too self-preoccupied, and I hate this kind of strained conclusion that barely says anything.

I suspect there will be big announcements soon. There have to be. Sanderson is bigger than ever. A good writer? Who knows. What I do know, now, is this: So many of us mistake sentences for story, but story is the thing. Things happening. Characters changing. Surprise endings.

Jean Auel wrote such wretched prose I've never been able to get through more than two paragraphs of it. But she sold millions of copies of her books and my mom loved her stuff. Presumably her appeal was similar to Sanderson's. I'll never know because I can't be arsed.

IT’S NOT THAT Brandon Sanderson can’t write. It’s more that he can’t not write. Graphomania is the name of the condition: the constant compulsion to get words out, down, as much and as quickly as possible. The concept of a vacation confuses Sanderson, he once said, because for him the perfect vacation is more time to write—vocation as vacation. His schedule is budgeted down to the minute, months out, to maximize the time he spends, rather counter-ergonomically, on the couch, typing away. Most days, he wakes up at 1 pm, exercises, and writes for four hours. Break for the wife and kids. Then he writes for four more. After that he plays video games or whatever until 5 am. A powerful sleeping pill is all that works, finally, to get him, and the voices in his head, to shut up.

Of his own work, Sanderson has said: “I detest rewriting,” “I write for endings,” and “I write to relax.” It shows. He writes, by one metric, at a sixth-grade reading level.

I'm interested in the idea that he just bashes this stuff out, it reminds me of this Bob and Ray skit where they're interviewing a guy who's written a 1000 page history of the United States that's full of errors such as Abe Lincoln driving to his inauguration in a motor car, and he says something like 'well, when I sit down at my typewriter I just keep going until I get finished, y'know'. I heard that this is how Woody Allen makes his movies - writes the script on one go with minimal redrafting, shoots it quickly in as few takes as possible, and then the next day he's writing the script for the next one. Allen also acknowledges that he's not very good at making movies just like Sanderson acknowledges he's not very good at writing. I wonder if this style of creation will become more widespread in the future as the distinction between 'professional' and 'hobbyist' artist breaks down?

I wonder if this style of creation will become more widespread in the future as the distinction between 'professional' and 'hobbyist' artist breaks down?

you mean, breaks down even further than it already has?

this piece could have been three words, "saunderson is mormon." the end.

― ꙮ (map), Friday, March 24, 2023 11:53 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

heh

lol!!!

Presumably her appeal was similar to Sanderson's.

Neanderthal sex?

no thanks i'm busy

apparently this author also teaches creative writing (at BYU)

I'm looking at the "Popular Highlights in this book" thing on amazon that shows what people highlighted in their kindle app for his books and shaking my head slowly

Regarding Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, my uncredited work is in the book. "Solution" is, by the author's own admission, a take on my game Train. She uses the same theme, gameplay patterns, releases the game at the same location (MIT) ... more

— Brenda Romero (@br) March 22, 2023

Update: The Washington Post spoke with Knopf, publisher of Tomorrow x3. They stand by Zevin and are apparently unwilling to credit me noting, ". . . the only games listed in the author’s acknowledgments are video games." Board games don't count? https://t.co/voVNyBq9dM

— Brenda Romero (@br) March 24, 2023

The object of the game is for players to fill a boxcar with tokens and get it to the other side of a board. Train, too, contains a grim reveal: Players eventually read cards informing them that the tokens represent Jews and that the boxcars were headed toward concentration camps.

Makes u think

a clusterfuck within a clusterfuck!

With all sincerity, it would be good if there was a way to support your work that didn't involve donating to an organisation that arguably provides political cover for apartheid.

Is there another option?

— Kyle Spencer (@kyleville) March 24, 2023

is this is a publicity stunt?

Elizabeth Gilbert, author of "Eat, Pray, Love," delayed her new novel, set in 20th century Siberia, indefinitely after online backlash condemned the book’s publication while Russia is at war with Ukraine. https://t.co/nDBum1b75i

— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 12, 2023

Yes.

a weird one

has naomi wolf responded at all to naomi klein's new book, which apparently uses the former as an example of descending into madness?

https://x.com/Birdyword/status/1398574511826497537?s=20

hmm that was supposed to be just the image, but I imagine her response is the same

naomi: well, yeah

i like what i have read of the klein book. personal, speculative, and even experimental. a different mode than i am used to her writing in.

made me think of this: https://www.amherstlecture.org/perry2007/Borges%20and%20I.pdf

i respect the commitment

absolutely despise it when humanities academics talk about "loving books." you shouldn't love books and you shouldn't demand anyone else to love books, it is wildly inappropriate. just fundamentally not the correct way to do serious work in the archive

— i read a book, and i liked it (@drumm_colin) October 3, 2023

His commitment to arguing with every single commenter is something else

I lolled

Had you opened more books, you'd have learned "eros" is a Greek word (the Latin translation is "amor") for a kind of love, and also that love is also "philia" and "agape", which are not the same with eros. Thinking love is only eros only shows you should enagage books more.

— Alexandru Mircea (@Alex__Mircea) October 4, 2023

This guy is a researcher in monetary history. I wonder why doesn’t love books.

I think there’s a kernel of a defensible point in there but it’s not at all represented in what he’s actually written

I lolled

🐦[Had you opened more books, you’d have learned "eros" is a Greek word (the Latin translation is "amor") for a kind of love, and also that love is also "philia" and "agape", which are not the same with eros. Thinking love is only eros only shows you should enagage books more.
— Alexandru Mircea (@Alex__Mircea) October 4, 2023🕸]🐦

i followed the colin for a while, it's a fun academic nutter account. had to unfollow after a while tho he's just way too intense. i don't pretend to understand (or care to learn about) his schtick but i think "monetary history" is kind of a misnomer, he's mostly a philosophy humanities guy who reads old books

From his thread I learned that everything you don't agree with is "cop shit"

Fellas, I heard that liking books is subconscious (at best) racism and erasure of indigenous epistemologies, wyd?

It is certainly exclusionary of pre-literate and pre-verbal societies

I nominate the second sentence of that initial tweet for ILB board description.

When someone questioned him about what archives he was talking about he was like, you know, all the books in the world

don't follow this guy but he reminds me of a load of other very clever and generally correct people I used to follow on twitter until I tired of them constantly trying to start fights with absolutely everyone else on the website

just about every defense of Colin's initial tweet has come from people that attend his school lol

When someone questioned him about what archives he was talking about he was like, you know, all the books in the world

not sure he'd agree with this guy

"I always imagined that Paradise would be some kind of library.”

No, I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t.

He means "you shouldn't demand that anyone else love books," not "you shouldn't demand anyone else to love books"

But I'm just a non-academic who loves pedantic usage distinctions

I think you just wiped out a small civilization with that correction

We should be very careful of dark magic on this thread

(he doesn't mean anything)

What, like I’m going to have an untoward reverence for what the text says because I appreciate the book it’s printed in?

— Katherine Harris (@mst3kharris) October 3, 2023

Didn't expect a former FL Secretary of State to weigh in on this clusterfuck

I hadn't seen this before, but NaNoWriMo (or at least the centralised support and forums for it) seems fucked?

Remember how the quirky "write a book in 30 days" #NaNoWriMo program allegedly ignored reports of minors possibly being funneled to a ADBL fetish site from their forum & allegedly didn't investigate even tho it allegedly involved one of their mods?

*Pepperidge Farm Remembers*🧵 pic.twitter.com/e3A9K0D36X

— Arumi Velociraptor | sudo -426 int (@Arumi_kai) November 7, 2023