20 Minutes into the Present

Max Headroom is finally on DVD. And we have it.



I like to think that I remember the show because of the writing. Max was one of the first shows about the media, and how the modern life has become more and more entwined with television. The plots were fairly standard (Ace reporter Edison Carter discovers an injustice, and gets on the air at the last moment to right the wrong). But the MacGuffins that drive the stories are very perceptive and unusual.

The conflation of television and politics is particularly relevant today, when we have television personalities holding political rallies, and getting the nation whipped up over this molehill or that. While we have not reached the point of Max Headroom where it is illegal to turn the television off, there is precious little difference between someone who can't turn their television off, and someone who won't.

The plots also usually depend on there being someone moral in a chain of events that will say "no" to the murder or imprisonment of an innocent person. For every monster out there, there is a moral individual who is able to stop them. Considering that the show is remembered for being very 'cynical' Max Headroom held the positive view that someone in the chain of command can stop an atrocity.

Part of the fascination with the show, twenty years later, is how close it comes to being real. The episode "Academy" features a show trial on Network 23, which is rather creepily reminiscent of the OJ Simpson trial.

Amazingly, in the dark future, there are few guns, and no one gets shot. I wonder if this is primarily because the writes of the show were English, rather than American. None of the show's problems have yet been solved through violence. It's the tool of terrorists and fascists.

The characters spend a lot of time watching screens and watching people interacting with screens. And not just because Max, the titular character, is confined to one. It's rather disconcerting... there's about as much face time as there is someone talking to someone over a screen. And there's more tapping on keyboards than Jessica Fletcher ever did.

Max should also be remembered for the contradiction he was. A prime-time show that critiques the media it was on. An anti-media icon that shilled for Coca-Cola. Did the producers and writers of Max sell out? Or were they cleverly co-opting a media to get their message out? It's hard to tell, but it's a lot of fun to analyze.

The Big Fan-Fic Kerfluffle

Well, somebody blew up about fan fiction, and SF being a fairly small community, there's been a bit of discussion about it.

And it's been interesting to hear various people weigh in on the discussion. Predictable, I find the most interesting and cogent thoughts to be from writers of my generation, and who I've met.

Charlie Stross has a very well thought-out post on his attitude toward fan fiction using his characters or settings.

Nick Manatas presents a very interesting case of what copyright is and what it is not, using the rather complex case of HP Lovecraft as an example.

Me? I'm essentially still a fanfic writer, although I've gotten paid decently for one of them. And, as Silviamag said in the comments of Nick Mamatas' post, "I'll say it again: the day there's erotic lesbian fan fiction of my work is the day I've made the big leagues."

Pseudographia, How I Love Thee...

What would the Star Wars saga be like if it were really a saga? Old Norse scholar Jackson Crawford has given a sample of how it might look. He has written an article about Tattúínárdœla saga, the Saga of the People of the Tattooine River Valley, complete with snippets of Old Norse.

As someone who loves sagas, this is a brilliant piece of literary nonsense; pseudographia.

Huh...

I think my career as a photographer has started.


One of the joys of owning my own website is that I can peek behind the curtain and look at the mechanics. In this case, you're looking at the amount of bandwidth used by qusoor.com. It includes a rundown of how many times a particular page has been referenced, and where data is being sent. It's kind of interesting... about eight years ago, I discovered that Anton LaVey's daughter had linked to the Ultimate Hellblazer Index from her site.

Because I'm on a great server, I've got a lot of bandwidth that I don't use, so I'm pretty lenient about people who use my photos. But every now and then I check out the list to see who's using what. And if I don't approve, or some is heavily using my pictures, I'll put up an unpleasant image. If you're going to show a lot of people an image, at least have the decency to use your own bandwidth. My photo of Sting, for example, is surprisingly popular.

This morning, as I was looking through my links, I came across this little leach. I guess he likes my photography. Yeah, there's a difference between using it for free and actually paying for it, but I guess my photo was evocative enough that it suited his purposes.

Can't Say The Results Were Unexpected:

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Sixth Level of Hell - The City of Dis!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Low
Level 2 (Lustful)	High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Low
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Moderate
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very High
Level 7 (Violent)	High
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	High
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Moderate

Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test

So if anyone asks, you can describe me as a violent, malicious, lustful heretic. But you knew that already, right?

It says "King"

Your result for The Godzilla Personality Test!...

Godzilla: King of the Monsters!

Godzilla. The Original Badass. Congratulations, Mr. Mutated Dinosaur.

Bad News: You tend to have nuclear meltdowns on rare occasions (Godzilla vs. Destroyah) and you have a weakness to this thing called the Oxygen Destroyer. So you're not completely invincible.

Good News: You might as well be though. You've fought every monster out there and you usually come out on top. Sure you had your goofy moments in the 70's but really you are one bad son of a bitch, and everybody knows it. You have a lot of respect and people know when to get out of your way. Congrats, you're like the Fonzie of giant monsters! Oh and you tend to get mad whenever someone screws up the environment so hey good for you.

Take The Godzilla Personality Test! at HelloQuizzy

Book or Film?

Mood: Cranky and possibly ill

From PG Tremblay

Copy the list below.
Mark in bold the movie titles for which you read the book.
Italicize the ones that you’ve watched.
Tag 5 people to perpetuate the meme.

1. Jurassic Park

2. War of the Worlds

3. The Lost World: Jurassic Park

4. I, Robot

5. Contact

6. Congo

7. Cocoon

8. The Stepford Wives

9. The Time Machine

10. Starship Troopers It would been nice if the film of the same name had anything to do with the book

11. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy I've experienced this in all available media but play and towel. All were better than the film.

12. K-PAX well, when it was Man Facing Southwest

13. 2010 (but no 2001? huh?)

14. The Running Man

15. Sphere

16. The Mothman Prophecies

17. Dreamcatcher

18. Blade Runner

19. Dune

20. The Island of Dr. Moreau

21. Invasion of the Body Snatchers

22. The Iron Giant

23. Battlefield Earth

24. The Incredible Shrinking Woman

25. Fire in the Sky

26. Altered States

27. Timeline

28. The Postman (see comment on # 10)

29. Freejack

30. Solaris

31. The Invisible Man

32. The Thing (Who Goes There?)

33. The Thirteenth Floor

34. Lifeforce

35. Deadly Friend

36. The Puppet Masters

37. 1984

38. A Scanner Darkly

39. Creator

40. Monkey Shines

41. Solo (Weapon)

42. The Handmaid’s Tale

43. Communion

44. Carnosaur

45. From Beyond You know the film's going to be wacky when the story it's based on is done before the intro credits.

46. Watchers

47. Nightflyers

48. Logan's Run

I am very surprised by the people who haven't read the Wells work. And the beginning is very weighted on Creighton, isn't it? Shouldn't there be more King?

A NEW TOY

Mood: Entertained

Found on matociquala's blog, Wordle creates a word-cloud from whatever test you care to enter, emphasizing the most commonly-used words. It's fascinating, and you can adjust the colors and the font. I may start entering chapters of my novel to see what comes out of it.

This is a word-cloud for "The Patriot" the story appearing in Cthulhu Unbound. You can click on it and it will appear much larger.

Notes on the Inevitable Zombie Apocalypse

From Nick Mamatas:

You are in a mall when the zombies attack. You have:

1. one weapon.
2. one song blasting on the speakers.
3. one famous person to fight alongside you.

* Weapon can be real or fictional; you may assume endless ammo if applicable. Person can be real or fictional.

1. The Traveller-vintage Fusion Gun: Man Portable. Given the situation, there's no kill like an overkill.

2. "Mars: God of War" from Holst's Planet suite. It's reasonably long, so I won't get sick of it in ten minutes flat, while at the same time being unbelievable kickass.

3. Shane, from Shane. I don't think he missed one shot in that entire film.

Did You Know?

Ten Top Trivia Tips about John Goodrich!

1. In his entire life, John Goodrich will produce only a twelfth of a teaspoon of honey.
2. Contrary to popular belief, John Goodrich is not successful at sobering up a drunk person, and in many cases he may actually increase the adverse effects of alcohol!
3. A John Goodrichometer is used to measure John Goodrich.
4. John Goodrich is the largest of Saturn's moons!
5. Birds do not sleep in John Goodrich, though they may rest in him from time to time!
6. Human beings are the only animals that copulate while facing John Goodrich!
7. If you toss John Goodrich 10000 times, he will not land heads 5000 times, but more like 4950, because his head weighs more and thus ends up on the bottom!
8. Twenty-eight percent of Microsoft's employees are John Goodrich.
9. John Goodrich was declared extinct in 1902.
10. John Goodrichology is the study of John Goodrich.

I am interested in - do tell me aboutherhimitthem

And thank God for #6!