Villains, violence, ebooks
Potpourri--yesterday was hideously hot and smoggy, which triggered off a no-sleep migraine. Still recovering today, whew! Anyway, today's blog about villains and violence is a repost, as last year BVC went down for a day or so, and it was lost. When it reappeared, the discussion had vanished.
What with all the talk about GRRM's series coming up, and the footle about epic fantasy and only men write or read it (this is the impression I've gained from third-hand reports of an article in the NY Times that I did not seek out and read), and general talk about violence, I figured let it run again.
Some have worried that things in the media are more violent than ever. I don't think that's true. A reading about the Roman circuses, to name a single example, will make it clear that savage entertainment has been around a LONG time. It's just that television in particular has been slowly lifting the limits that were in place when I was young. Does a steady diet of violence on media make people inured to violence in real life? What about all those teenage boys shooting hordes of various flavors of bad guys on video games?
My theory is tentative, based on observation and not study, but I don't think so. I think what inures people to violence is real violence. You can watch a million war shows, but those don't really prepare you for the horror of seeing a kid hit by a car right in front of your eyes. I think that most people early learn the difference between what's real and what isn't--though of course when we sink into fiction we like to believe it's real while it's lasting. But usually, unless there is something already wrong in our head, a small part of us is aware that we can get up and move away at any time. That the fiction will come to an end. In a real violent situation, you do NOT know what is coming next. Some like that adrenaline jag in their fiction (horror movies) but few would like to be in those situations for real; those who do find their ways to careers that make high adrenaline situations everyday, whether they include violence, or potential violence, or not.
Related to that, I think that those who use violent media as a springboard to real violence were headed in that direction already. I wonder instead if vid games and reenactments and the like can siphon off that drive for violence. We are only beginning to learn to tinker with our wiring, but the biggest clue that we do need to tinker is the evidence all around that humans can find violence beautiful, fascinating, sexy. Predators are sleek and cool.
Anyway, back to fiction, and also to Book View Cafe, where today I'm on the front page--tomorrow someone else will be. Listed there are ebooks, some of which are edited from the print versions of the days before Internet, when contracts didn't mention ebooks, some new.
It occurs to me as the ebook experiment goes on (and I'm going to have some reviews in a couple days--Ive got some loaded on my Kindle, which I take everywhere. So easy on the hands! My purse doesn't drag at my shoulder any more!) for net-savvy people, there are a couple of prospective money making opportunities: one, formatting ebooks. I mean, making them look nice.
Some of the ebooks I've acquired of late, the paragraphs aren't indented, there are repeated lines, plus the usual copyediting oopsies. A person who could take the doc file and turn the book into something handsome could earn a good living.
At BVC we've been lucky to have Vonda McIntyre and Chris Dolley making the books look nice, and Pati Nagle as well, plus Pati has a very artistic eye at making cover art. That's another way to earn money--making cover art.
There's another one: someone who, for a sum each year, will search the net for an author's name and zap the pirates busy stealing and offering books--basically making money off the writer's hard work.
What with all the talk about GRRM's series coming up, and the footle about epic fantasy and only men write or read it (this is the impression I've gained from third-hand reports of an article in the NY Times that I did not seek out and read), and general talk about violence, I figured let it run again.
Some have worried that things in the media are more violent than ever. I don't think that's true. A reading about the Roman circuses, to name a single example, will make it clear that savage entertainment has been around a LONG time. It's just that television in particular has been slowly lifting the limits that were in place when I was young. Does a steady diet of violence on media make people inured to violence in real life? What about all those teenage boys shooting hordes of various flavors of bad guys on video games?
My theory is tentative, based on observation and not study, but I don't think so. I think what inures people to violence is real violence. You can watch a million war shows, but those don't really prepare you for the horror of seeing a kid hit by a car right in front of your eyes. I think that most people early learn the difference between what's real and what isn't--though of course when we sink into fiction we like to believe it's real while it's lasting. But usually, unless there is something already wrong in our head, a small part of us is aware that we can get up and move away at any time. That the fiction will come to an end. In a real violent situation, you do NOT know what is coming next. Some like that adrenaline jag in their fiction (horror movies) but few would like to be in those situations for real; those who do find their ways to careers that make high adrenaline situations everyday, whether they include violence, or potential violence, or not.
Related to that, I think that those who use violent media as a springboard to real violence were headed in that direction already. I wonder instead if vid games and reenactments and the like can siphon off that drive for violence. We are only beginning to learn to tinker with our wiring, but the biggest clue that we do need to tinker is the evidence all around that humans can find violence beautiful, fascinating, sexy. Predators are sleek and cool.
Anyway, back to fiction, and also to Book View Cafe, where today I'm on the front page--tomorrow someone else will be. Listed there are ebooks, some of which are edited from the print versions of the days before Internet, when contracts didn't mention ebooks, some new.
It occurs to me as the ebook experiment goes on (and I'm going to have some reviews in a couple days--Ive got some loaded on my Kindle, which I take everywhere. So easy on the hands! My purse doesn't drag at my shoulder any more!) for net-savvy people, there are a couple of prospective money making opportunities: one, formatting ebooks. I mean, making them look nice.
Some of the ebooks I've acquired of late, the paragraphs aren't indented, there are repeated lines, plus the usual copyediting oopsies. A person who could take the doc file and turn the book into something handsome could earn a good living.
At BVC we've been lucky to have Vonda McIntyre and Chris Dolley making the books look nice, and Pati Nagle as well, plus Pati has a very artistic eye at making cover art. That's another way to earn money--making cover art.
There's another one: someone who, for a sum each year, will search the net for an author's name and zap the pirates busy stealing and offering books--basically making money off the writer's hard work.