Odd Lots

[jeff_duntemann]

• Hurricane activity is at a 45-year low, and no major hurricane has achieved landfall on US soil in almost ten years. Tornadoes have been pretty scarce recently as well. Then again, it's mid-April and snowing like hell outside right now. Two outa three ain't bad.
• The Food Babe gets her you-know-what handed to her. This, after all, is the woman who

Comments

[jeff_duntemann]

I've known you long enough to respect your opinion on this, but for now we'll have to agree to disagree. Publishing is my industry, and I've worked in it now for 30 years. Print publishing in the genres is shrinking (though "collapsing" might be more accurate) and will no longer be a serious force in ten years. The Sad Puppies phenomenon would not have happened if indie ebook publishing had not become a viable route for upcoming writers. The gatekeepers are losing their grip. If I'm to stay in touch with my own industry, I have to understand dynamics like these, and understand them deeply.

Ideological tags are limiting, and I don't apply them to myself. You've read me long enough to know that I have libertarian leanings, and that goes back even farther than my involvement in publishing. One reason I consider myself sane is that I don't adhere to ideologies. I think every issue through from first principles, if they interest me enough to be worth the time. The fact that I don't talk about an issue does not mean that I haven't thought it through.

I don't generally use the term "SJWs" because it's overbroad and unnecessary. When somebody acts like a troll, they're a troll, and it doesn't matter which side of an argument they're on.

I'm going to continue writing about publishing culture, which includes Sad Puppies, the Human Wave, and what appears to be a gradually expanding fork in SFF social networks. Again, it's my industry, and I paint what I see.