A List of Links

Today, I show you some interesting links I found throughout the internet.

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(Three-act structure does suck. The “second act” always needs more meat.)

“IT’S THIS WHOLE DULL FOCUS ON BEGINNING, MIDDLE, AND END, WHICH MAKES SOME BASIC SENSE IN TERMS OF “SUMMARIZING” A PLOT, BUT IT GIVES ZERO INDICATION OF HOW TO ACTUALLY WRITE THAT STORY.”

https://archive.fo/mQmay

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(Alex Athans makes an important point.)

“[The “Nation of Immigrants” idea] is actually more of a modern conception. The first few great waves of immigration…were actually tightly controlled affairs. And the integration was not as smooth as we’re lead to believe.”

http://bit.ly/2q9soBA

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(This lady has the right idea. Good on you, @TheLauralania from Twitter!)

“Guys deserve to be spoiled & told how handsome they are daily. Do you expect him to treat you like a Queen if you treat him like a servant?”

https://archive.fo/EzsFi

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(This was done with an Etch-A-Sketch.)

http://bit.ly/2qNlwx9

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(No Black Widow movie because there isn’t much distinctive about her mythos.)

https://youtu.be/b3FpXdGxMTM

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Yokio Jokio

Through an incisive article by JD Cowan on the decline of pop culture, I found a trailer for a new anime-style Netflix series called Neo Yokio:

I thought that, at the very least, it would be a cringe volcano, but judging from the trailer, it’s worse than that.

It’s dull and lifeless.

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Romantic Weapons

Not a space fighter, but close enough for government work.

Yesterday, I spoke of why ancient weapons such as swords captivate modern audiences. But I thought on the issue some more and realized that the past isn’t the only source of idealized weaponry, for there are two other instruments of war that figure in stories of adventure: space fighters and giant robots. Unlike the sword, neither weapon has existed in real life, thus their image has not yet been diminished by being made obsolete in the face of advancing technology.

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The Swords of Our Fantasies

The weapons of true heroes. (Taken by Glsanthoshkumar)

We live in an era of truly destructive weaponry: Automatic rifles, precision guided missiles, nuclear bombs. They are delivered by tank and by plane, by ship and by rocket. Comptuer technology has taken this to another level, allowing for delivery of all those weapons with minimal human intervention. It is a capacity for destruction our ancestors once ascribed only to gods.

Yet in our fantastic fiction, we have a distinct prefence for ancient weapons: spears, axes, bows, and above all, swords. Even in modern environments, hand-to-hand combat is often emphasized over gunplay, as if the hero and the villain would rather fight with cold steel than hot lead.

I can think of a few reasons why this is the case.

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I Heard Light Novels Were Good, but I Read Some and Was Disappointed!

What happens when you read a light novel.

Light novels: a form of popular literature in Japan, comparable to the pulps of yesteryear. They eschew high literary aspirations in favor of violence and sex. Lovely dames easy on the eyes, not mannish harpies drawn ugly, grace the covers and the pages. Many an anime have been made from these books, and more are being produced as we speak. It sounded tailor-made for me, so I decided to delve into this genre for myself.

Only to get burned twice.

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Can Steemit Monetize Short Fiction?

It is well known that today, one cannot hope to make any real money at short fiction; the payouts are too small and even the biggest venues are too obscure, largely read not by general readers but by other authors or people who want to be authors. Its close cousin, the serial, limps on as a vehicle for writing about established characters; few new works debut in this manner anymore. The situation looks dire, and seems to be getting worse by the day.

But the advance of computer technology has provided a possible solution to this crisis. Say hello to Steemit, a blockchain-based blogging platform.

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Constant Adventure vs. Constant Worldbuilding

A day before this posting, I finished reading Jon Mollison’s new novel, Adventure Constant, about an astronaut who gets stranded on an alternate Earth where battles are fought with swords and modern tech is nowhere to be found, but counterparts to the familiar modern nations exist. He befriends a Hawaiian warrior and agrees to help him rescue his kingdom’s princess, but little does he realize that the kidnapper has a more sinister plot in mind.

As I read this, I realized something about the tale: it forced me to evaluate settings in a new way and break out of staid thought patterns.

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2.B.A. Master, Pokemon’s Surprisingly Good Soundtrack

Back in the innocent days of the 90s, a little Game Boy game from Japan called Pokemon took the US by storm. It became a national obsession, with a well-regarded television anime and a dizzying array of collectibles turning up in every playground. Except for the trading card game and a damned fun Monopoly game, most of it was pretty low quality.

However, there was a piece of merchandise that holds up pretty well even today: the soundtrack, 2.B.A. Master.

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Futari wa Insomnia Cure

(Inspired by a recent Deus Ex Magical Girl post.)

A while ago, I watched an anime called Futari wa Pretty Cure, the very first series in what would become the Pretty Cure, or “Precure,” franchise. I had heard good things about it, especially about how it was a “subversive” take on magical girls that had a lot of physical combat as opposed to the magic spells favored by Sailor Moon and its ilk. With high expectations, I fired up Crunchyroll and started watching.

It was the worst series I ever saw.

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Troping Sword & Flower

Click the picture to go to the page.

At the end of January, I published a novella called Sword & Flower, where a Puritan and a J-Pop singer team up to fight demons in purgatory. However, after I had released the work, I neglected one very important thing.

A TV Tropes page.

Never fear, though, because as of today, Sword & Floweris now fully troped. Of course, I built the trope page myself, but under their rules, that’s fine. Have fun reading both it and the actual book.

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