No Culture Today

When Britannia turns to Filthy Island, I can't think of much.

[Writer Stuff] How to Find Where to Sell Your Stuff

I am hesitant to write about this because I suck at it, but I am still of a mind that even as a hobby, writing to a professional standard improves what you do.  Thus, finding places to sell your work can be a good idea.  Some schools of thought say write whatever you want, and there is nothing wrong with that per se.  But I prefer to write to my market, while still making sure that I write things that I enjoy writing and reading.  As you can from this blog, I tend to like the fantastic; either as Fantasy or Science Fiction.

The first thing that I would recommend for anyone writing in such a genre would be to check Science Fiction Writer's association.  Now its true in a workshop, their 'expert' writers treated me like shit, but they do a lot of good including ensure that the prices and pay for a number of venues stays relatively high.  You just need to be able to write a novel or three short stories, which is easier than it sounds but you can do it if you have the talent or the tenacity.  I have little talent beyond raw creativity; and as I explained last week, that does little good by itself.

But I also have tenacity.

You can just google writing venues or also check out (or buy) a recent copy of writer's digest.  All fine things.  What I can tell you is that especially with short stories, if they don't take electronic submissions, they probably arent worth submitting to.   Why pay postage to be able to just get a form letter as rejection? In the old days, of course, this was not an option, but this is 2016, and if they arent with the program, find somewhere else for your stuff.

Two other options are contests and anthologies.  There are number of sites that collect lists of these; but if you are considering which ones you can trust, I would go with someone who has done it before.

[Script] The Trial of Captain America - Page 2

Scene: A stark black room.  Steve Rogers stands in a white circle while Sosori walks around him.  Steve Rogers hangs his head in disgust.

Steve: I would never be a nazi.

Sosori: I don't disagree with you, but a Nazi is a nazi is a Nazi.

Steve: My whole life was told by someone else....

Sosori: Does it feel that way from your perspective?

Steve: No.  My life didn't seem fictional from my perspective.

Sosori: We have been resurrecting so called 'real people' for a few centuries, we know how to get it right.

Steve: I don't remember being a nazi.  I certain didn't choose to be one.

Sosori: That is good.  The formula we use for resurrecting a fictional character is new.  It is something that involves them putting together the bulk of the stories and letting the world and the nacent AI figure out for themselves what is true and what is not.  Every time it is generated, it is different.  There may be many Steve Rogers, but ultimately because of the evil done in the name of Captain America the Nazi, we started with figures who could be tried instead of...real symbols.  That's been done.  And it has been enough of an emberassment that they do not want to repeat the experience.

[Heliotrope] Of Course Mad Jack Churchill was a Slayer of Darkness

(Thanks to John Bridges for sharing the original article)

There are some things that go without saying.

When a tall gaunt stranger comes into town and buys up the entire garlic supply as well as all the silver weapons they can find, OF COURSE he's a vampire.

When large amounts of children go vanishing only to be replaced by adult strangers who say they were abducted OF COURSE you are dealing with an infiltration from Middle Fairy....

And when the clay more wielding bow hunting bad ass goes around hunting Nazis, OF COURSE he's not just hunting Nazis but is in fact fighting evil Thule Society members and things that threaten us all from beyond that CANNOT BE KILLED by guns.

Obviously.

In Earth, evidence of the supernatural is well hidden with blurry photographs and tall tales, but on Terra there is no such quandry.  The supernatural is well documented in Terra for anyone that wants to actually bother to look or show up at their local occult bookstore.  Every mall of considerable size has an occult book store and regular book store at the same time.   It's one of the things that makes Terra that much better than Earth.

Do you think Sir Terry Pratchet was the first English knight to force a weapon from meteoric iron?

OF COURSE NOT.  Duh.

Thousands of evil arcane nazis and their supernatural foes were killed by this actual historical badass.

[Script] The Trial of Captain America - Page 1

This is based on the Trademarked Character Captain America, which is owned by Marvel Comics, who also owns the Copyright due to the Digital Millenium Copyright Act until 2056.  This script is an act of social satire and not for profit.  All characters from Mr Hamburger are owned by Red Anvil Creative LLC.

Cast of Characters

Captain America: A fictional character created as an AI who can realize that he is a fictional character but still recall his entire existence as if he were a real person.  Not a Nazi.

Nick Spencer: Artist of questionable taste who somehow got the job as writer for Captain America.  Nazi Status...Unknown.

Sosori: A crappy defense attorney who also represented Mr Hamburger in the podcast piece, Mr Hamburger. Not a Nazi.

Angry Cow: A very good prosecuting attorny who wants to prove Captain America is a Nazi.  Also appears in Mr Hamburger. Not a Nazi.

Hitler: Author of Mein Kampf, Convicted Murderer of millions.  Talk Show Host.  Definitely a Nazi.

Judge: An AI of infinite and intelligence or wisdom.  Not a Nazi.

Should Artists who defend Nick Spencer Lose Credibility? Yes. Absolutely.

If you are an artist that defends the destruction of the intent of another artist's work, the creative community should take you less seriously.  Does that mean turning the work of ages past on its head is not allowed? Absolutely not.

The thing is, because real art is about the exploration of the soul, being contrarian or against the grain is the place where you will find great art.  Pushing the envelope is as natural to them as breathing, but that also means that there is a certain predictability in counter culture which is that which mainstream culture is NOT.

Thus, if mainstream culture starts to find interest and value in the patriotism of an American Icon, it is the natural temptation of artistic culture to challenge that and find new ways of looking at things.  This experiment often pays off; Wicked spawned a whole sub genre of films and stories about the antagonist as protagonist.  In an age of white washing and culture wars, this makes sense.  And Marvel has done an excellent job of turning many of these characters on their head, changing gender or race or even sexual orientation.

Marvel replaced Steve Rogers with someone who was Black (Falcon) and had a strong story run.

But Nick Spencer wanted to go further.  Nick Spencer, failed politician, and self proclaimed feminist because he had a story whose primary characters were women, suddenly feels that he has the chops to mess around with one of the seven or eight great icons of comics.  Sometimes this pays off; sometimes this is great story.

And the artists rushing to Nick's defense are shouting at the need to give him breathing room to do so.  But have you looked at Nick's bibliography? Nick is no Grant Morrison...Nick isn't Alan Moore.  Nick has done a lot of minor works and had short stints at some major ones.  No one at Marvel challenged him on this, but then; shouldn't we ask why?

In interviews with Nick, Nick himself has says that he is surprised that he didn't get more push back on this change but Marvel just let him do it.  Why doesn't that bother people? This isn't a story of Nick wanting to tell a powerful story and overcoming the odds to do it; its a publicity stunt and a way to kick against the foundation of an iconic image as 'a way to protest trump.'  So...why didn't he do a comic about Teddy Roosevelt and George Washington secretly being Nazis too?

People say that this is a gimmick; and that this too shall pass.  Will it? Given the inordinant amount of artists defending Nick, one must ask how much thought THEY have put into this? It seems a knee jerk response against the rabid #gamergate fanboys with no thought about what this looks like being announced the day after #SteveNeedsaboyfriend or the fact that he was originally created by jewish creators.

Make no mistake about it.  Nick knew exactly what he was doing.  Mealy mouthed excuses about "Hydra being more about Spectre than Nazis" means you don't understand Hydra OR Spectre.  So when an artist goes defending Nick's decision to do this, I must lose respect for them.  It's their choice and their creative currency, but when one artist disrespects the work of another SO MUCH without ANY visible thought to the material, I must simply shake my head and walk away.

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It is what it is.

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