INTELLIGENT DISCUSSIONS ABOUT ART’S ROLE in shaping cultures and individuals have to recognize the difference between censorship (an external restraint based on fear and loathing) and self-control (an internal restraint arising from the artist’s desire to communicate).
Tag: craft
The “writing” part of Writing.
NextWave SF: “Retropunk”
FIRST CAME CYBERPUNK. THEN STEAMPUNK. And by 2021, … RETROPUNK. Shiny robots. Gleaming atom-powered spaceships. Martian canal races. Alien arcologies in the jungles of Venus. Male pronouns. All the glory of a big exploitable universe sans angst or post-apocalypse modernism.…
Dorothy Parker Nailed It
(From the should-be-better-known blog Letters of Note, here’s a desperate telegram dispatched by a wall-stuck author to her (apparently, or at least in Ms. Parker’s mind) neck-breathing editor. Between this and the previous post my own writer’s block should be…
And Now, A “Word To Bring Back”
PERFORCE. – Definition: “1 (obsolete) by physical coercion 2 by force of circumstances.” – Used in a sentence: “As the VCR is currently recording Deep Space Nine, we must perforce view Firefly on DVD.” – Why: Because sometimes, “really really…
I Am a Religious Man Unthreatened By Science, Secularity And Reason
I Am a Religious Man Unthreatened By Science, Secularity And Reason • 2011.06.09 • 400 words (IN FACT, THE WHOLE “REASON” I “am” “religious” in the first place is only due to a direct perception [some might say delusion] that…
Words Mean Stuff
A SHORT LIST OF WORDS which, through overuse, have been consigned to the meaning-deficient self-parody heap: Blatant Flagrant Offen(sive/ded) Rabid Sexist Racist Controversy Security Freedom Democracy Republican Terrorism Diva (There are others, but these are what I found in this…
How To Make Your Blog Sound Important
1. BEGIN EVERY PARAGRAPH WITH “I.” 2. Repost the same story as other blogs within your target demographic. 3. When commenting in other blogs, slip in the phrase “as I wrote” and flash your URL. 4. Call everyone by their…
Harlan’s Secret
“People on the outside think there’s something magical about writing, that you go up in the attic at midnight and cast the bones and come down in the morning with a story, but it isn’t like that. You sit in…
Question of Essence
DO YOU PRACTICE AN ART form, or a life form?
Just Off The Block of My Head
IF THERE IS ANYTHING SCARIER than writer’s block, I hope I never discover it. For me, writer’s block is more than just an inability to string together something pretty or useful. It’s like losing half or more of my personality.…
2010 Roundup: Top Posts
IT’S DE RIGUEUR FOR NEWS outlets to wrap up the year with a look at their Big Stories, and we at Metaphorager.Net are no exception despite that we’re only a “news outlet” in the sense of “what’s news to me.”…
Pithyism #24
A GOOD DAY IS ONE in which the artist heaves a stone and the ripples wash up smiles and murmurs. (Or, put another way, “Blessed be the One who makes the makers.” I don’t know that one needs to “believe”…