PYF terrible book: Freud molesting a thesaurus.

WickedHate · # ? Aug 29, 2016 02:47

flosofl posted:

Are you talking about the Domination series by SM Stirling? He wrote those as a deliberate dystopia as opposed to "things are differently bad, but they just work out anyway" . They're not supposed to be feel-good books in support of racism and eugenics.

Anyway, that's not Turtledove.

That's true and I was about to say that also, but intended bad guys or not, it wrecks the engagement when they're just so inexplicably successful despite basically being those rich guys who went to try and start a libertarian country on some already owned rock. Or that one cyborg furry debacle without the cyborg furry bit.

CSA is a similar way, but I've come to view it as an extended metaphor for real life rather than standard alternate history fiction. A parable, really, so the details don't matter as much, especially when it's a single mid sized movie and not a book series.

Adbot · # ? May 8, 2024 05:44

C.M. Kruger · # ? Aug 29, 2016 03:16

Syd Midnight posted:

Ol' Poes-Law Stirling

He says he's not evil but he writes evil reeeeeal well.

He's just a Charlie Chaplain fan, the letters on that flag stand for "Schoolbus Safety", and the armband is a Buddhist token of good luck.

BrigadierSensible · # ? Aug 29, 2016 03:35

KozmoNaut posted:

They've started putting ads for Narconon on the buses around here. It really gets my blood boiling, because the Scientology connection is not immediately obvious, so they probably manage to rope in a lot of desperate people at the lowest points of their lives. It's sickening.

A while back, but I feel I should comment on this. My Uncle is a recovering Heroin addict, and he got clean vie Narcotics Anonymous, the AA but for drugs. And whilst there is a lot that can be said about AA, (and NA)'s methods, at least they are not a cult taht demands you pay more and more of your time and money to move up in the 'church' hierarchy.

It is very sad, and very sneaky of them to change the spelling, (Narconon as opposed to the commonly uses phrase Narc-Anon), and discredit a program that, whilst not without it's faults, did help my Uncle get clean.

Antivehicular · # ? Aug 29, 2016 03:56

BrigadierSensible posted:

A while back, but I feel I should comment on this. My Uncle is a recovering Heroin addict, and he got clean vie Narcotics Anonymous, the AA but for drugs. And whilst there is a lot that can be said about AA, (and NA)'s methods, at least they are not a cult taht demands you pay more and more of your time and money to move up in the 'church' hierarchy.

It is very sad, and very sneaky of them to change the spelling, (Narconon as opposed to the commonly uses phrase Narc-Anon), and discredit a program that, whilst not without it's faults, did help my Uncle get clean.

Per Wikipedia, Narconon is a separate organization from Narc-Anon/Narcotics Anonymous. The one your uncle used is presumably still non-Scientological.

Apraxin · # ? Aug 29, 2016 04:08

Wheat Loaf posted:

Another one is Stars and Stripes Forever by Harry Harrison. It's also alternate history, which is one where the Trent Affair goes differently and somehow results in the British Empire going to war with both the USA and the CSA in the middle of the American Civil War. It features: the USA and CSA immediately patching up their differences so they can fight the British; Mexican bandits being able to beat gurkhas in single combat; the Americans launching a land invasion of the British Isles (how they managed to get past the Royal Navy is glossed over a bit, as I recall); giving Ireland independence and magically making the centuries-old problems between Protestants and Catholics disappear; and removing Queen Victoria from power and "introducing" democracy to the British (who are all cringing feudal peasants).

And 1862, by Robert Conroy, which is another alternate history involving the British getting involved in the Civil War, only with Mills and Boon level sex scenes. Highlights include the USS Monitor being able to handily beat the most advanced British ironclads of the day by shooting their rudders off, and Ulysses S. Grant guaranteeing victory by his mere presence on the battlefield. It's just a boring wank of a novel.

Oh god, I remember picking up Stars and Stripes Forever as a teenager, based on the blurb on the back saying what a masterpiece of alt-history it was and how realistically it depicted a war where Britain allied with the CSA. Highlights I remember included:

- The British sailing their whole invasion fleet all the way across the Atlantic to attack a Union-held island without landing in the CSA to reprovision or anything first, taking it, killing the whole garrison (I think including murdering prisoners), discovering they'd got lost on the way and it was actually a Confederate island, and then just saying 'no biggie' and declaring war on the CSA too because they hate American FREEDOM and DEMOCRACY.

- The USA and CSA deciding they need to reunite to defeat this new threat, but not being able to reconcile the whole slavery thing - until John Stuart Mill lectures the Confederate Congress on how a slave-based economy is not long-term economically viable, at which point they slap their foreheads, admit to their own stupidity, agree to free the slaves, and rejoin the Union.

- The British, after losing the first round of the war, allying with Mexico and shipping hundreds of thousands of Indian troops and slave laborers to the US-Mexican border to build a giant wall and fortification system as a prelude to invading through the southwest.

- USS Monitor destroying the whole Royal Navy, one ship at a time, and blasting through the armor on British ironclads while being impervious to any counter fire because its armor is curved while theirs is high-sided or something.

- Queen Victoria shrieking with feminine hysteria in every scene she was in.

The Lone Badger · # ? Aug 29, 2016 04:25

Apraxin posted:

- USS Monitor destroying the whole Royal Navy, one ship at a time, and blasting through the armor on British ironclads while being impervious to any counter fire because its armor is curved while theirs is high-sided or something.

Wouldn't Monitor have sunk by itself if it tried to enter the open ocean?

Antivehicular · # ? Aug 29, 2016 04:26

Apraxin posted:

Oh god, I remember picking up Stars and Stripes Forever as a teenager, based on the blurb on the back saying what a masterpiece of alt-history it was and how realistically it depicted a war where Britain allied with the CSA. Highlights I remember included:

- The British sailing their whole invasion fleet all the way across the Atlantic to attack a Union-held island without landing in the CSA to reprovision or anything first, taking it, killing the whole garrison (I think including murdering prisoners), discovering they'd got lost on the way and it was actually a Confederate island, and then just saying 'no biggie' and declaring war on the CSA too because they hate American FREEDOM and DEMOCRACY.

- The USA and CSA deciding they need to reunite to defeat this new threat, but not being able to reconcile the whole slavery thing - until John Stuart Mill lectures the Confederate Congress on how a slave-based economy is not long-term economically viable, at which point they slap their foreheads, admit to their own stupidity, agree to free the slaves, and rejoin the Union.

- The British, after losing the first round of the war, allying with Mexico and shipping hundreds of thousands of Indian troops and slave laborers to the US-Mexican border to build a giant wall and fortification system as a prelude to invading through the southwest.

- USS Monitor destroying the whole Royal Navy, one ship at a time, and blasting through the armor on British ironclads while being impervious to any counter fire because its armor is curved while theirs is high-sided or something.

- Queen Victoria shrieking with feminine hysteria in every scene she was in.

This is amazing. I really can't get over the concept of a "realistic" alt-history of the British Empire vs. the mid-Civil War USA/CSA that's anything other than a messy, quick British stomp-fest and subsequent re-annexation. At that point you might as well drop in the weird alien plotlines that alt-hist inexplicably loves, or America secretly having wizards, or something -- it's no less "realistic" than "oh, we're inexplicably immune to the Royal Navy because AMURRICA."

BrigadierSensible · # ? Aug 29, 2016 05:05

Antivehicular posted:

Per Wikipedia, Narconon is a separate organization from Narc-Anon/Narcotics Anonymous. The one your uncle used is presumably still non-Scientological.

Yeah. My post was badly phrased. My uncle went to NA (Narcotics Anonymous).

I meant it was bad and sneaky of Narconon/ the Scientologists to steal the name from a more reputable organization, and as such perhaps have people who need and want help with their addiction coming in and getting Hubberd-ed.

the holy poopacy · # ? Aug 29, 2016 05:42

flosofl posted:

Are you talking about the Domination series by SM Stirling? He wrote those as a deliberate dystopia as opposed to "things are differently bad, but they just work out anyway" . They're not supposed to be feel-good books in support of racism and eugenics.

Anyway, that's not Turtledove.

S.M. Stirling uses this defense a lot but he writes an awful lot of books where everything happens to work out wonderfully for racists and eugenicists, without anything much to suggest that this isn't super peachy.

WickedHate · # ? Aug 29, 2016 06:47

Apraxin posted:

Oh god, I remember picking up Stars and Stripes Forever as a teenager, based on the blurb on the back saying what a masterpiece of alt-history it was and how realistically it depicted a war where Britain allied with the CSA. Highlights I remember included:

- The British sailing their whole invasion fleet all the way across the Atlantic to attack a Union-held island without landing in the CSA to reprovision or anything first, taking it, killing the whole garrison (I think including murdering prisoners), discovering they'd got lost on the way and it was actually a Confederate island, and then just saying 'no biggie' and declaring war on the CSA too because they hate American FREEDOM and DEMOCRACY.

- The USA and CSA deciding they need to reunite to defeat this new threat, but not being able to reconcile the whole slavery thing - until John Stuart Mill lectures the Confederate Congress on how a slave-based economy is not long-term economically viable, at which point they slap their foreheads, admit to their own stupidity, agree to free the slaves, and rejoin the Union.

- The British, after losing the first round of the war, allying with Mexico and shipping hundreds of thousands of Indian troops and slave laborers to the US-Mexican border to build a giant wall and fortification system as a prelude to invading through the southwest.

- USS Monitor destroying the whole Royal Navy, one ship at a time, and blasting through the armor on British ironclads while being impervious to any counter fire because its armor is curved while theirs is high-sided or something.

- Queen Victoria shrieking with feminine hysteria in every scene she was in.

You know, I'm aware I just ripped a series for not being plausible, but this all sounds kind of fun in a childish sort of way.

C.M. Kruger · # ? Aug 29, 2016 08:05

The Lone Badger posted:

Wouldn't Monitor have sunk by itself if it tried to enter the open ocean?

In fact that's exactly what happened. The USS Monitor was being towed south to participate in the blockade of Charleston, some bad weather came up, and she foundered and sank approximately 10-15 miles off North Carolina.

Groke · # ? Aug 29, 2016 08:15

Wheat Loaf posted:

I believe S.M. Stirling was banned from alternatehistory.com a number of years ago for making comments which were interpreted as advocating genocide against Muslims. (Keep in mind that whether he's doing that is the administrator's interpretation of them.)

He said as much in plain text on Usenet back in the day, no interpretation required.

divabot · # ? Aug 29, 2016 11:02

Syd Midnight posted:

The worst-named character I've ever seen in a book was a guy named Uck Faye.

E-Man #5, First Comics (1983). E-Man was a lame non-descript superhero until the creators, Joe Stanton and Nicola Cuti, got control of their character, then it got really weird and good. I don't know anything else. I'd pm you but there's no contact info to send you a forum upgrade.

Readily contactable at dgerard at gmail :-)

I'm still picking at Loki's Child. (1100 words so far reading the first chapter in Amazon preview. I may have issues.) So, literary abyss-divers: have you ever read a novel about pop music that actually worked and wasn't a complete piece of poo poo?

All the least-unreadable examples of this species of folly, that don�t make you shout �WRONG! WRONG! BULLSHIT!� twice a page, tend to be thin fictionalisations of real events; plenty of hosed-up poo poo happens in music that makes people go �someone should write a book about this.� e.g. Platinum Logic by Tony Parsons fails as an even slightly coherent novel, but every lurid and tawdry incident in that book is a version of something that happened, and spotting the players is the fun bit.

Terry Pratchett�s Soul Music is the only example I can think of of a pop music novel that works, and that�s primarily as a Discworld novel where the pop music is that volume�s decoration, if a clearly fact-checked one.

There's a reason pop music novels aren't a genre, just a pile of cautionary examples as to why this trick never works.

Wheat Loaf · # ? Aug 29, 2016 11:29

divabot posted:

I'm still picking at Loki's Child. (1100 words so far reading the first chapter in Amazon preview. I may have issues.) So, literary abyss-divers: have you ever read a novel about pop music that actually worked and wasn't a complete piece of poo poo?

Does The Commitments count?

darkwasthenight · # ? Aug 29, 2016 12:34

divabot posted:

Readily contactable at dgerard at gmail :-)

I'm still picking at Loki's Child. (1100 words so far reading the first chapter in Amazon preview. I may have issues.) So, literary abyss-divers: have you ever read a novel about pop music that actually worked and wasn't a complete piece of poo poo?

All the least-unreadable examples of this species of folly, that don’t make you shout “WRONG! WRONG! BULLSHIT!” twice a page, tend to be thin fictionalisations of real events; plenty of hosed-up poo poo happens in music that makes people go “someone should write a book about this.” e.g. Platinum Logic by Tony Parsons fails as an even slightly coherent novel, but every lurid and tawdry incident in that book is a version of something that happened, and spotting the players is the fun bit.

Terry Pratchett’s Soul Music is the only example I can think of of a pop music novel that works, and that’s primarily as a Discworld novel where the pop music is that volume’s decoration, if a clearly fact-checked one.

There's a reason pop music novels aren't a genre, just a pile of cautionary examples as to why this trick never works.

High Fidelity and Kill Your Friends, and that's about it. Like Soul Music they're both more about music as a setting though, and that's why they work. I make my money from music, and I'm a lifelong believer in the power and rock and roll and other such stupidity, but I'll be the first to admit that the actual process of making music is incredibly loving boring to read about unless you're personally involved.

Who wants to read 200 pages of some dude describing music you can't hear anyway? It just turns into a long form version of that Tenacious D joke about writing a song about the best song in the world that they can't actually play you.

Groke · # ? Aug 29, 2016 12:39

How about Espedair Street by Iain Banks? Fictional rise-to-stardom story set in the world of 1970s rock.

divabot · # ? Aug 29, 2016 14:02

Wheat Loaf posted:

Does The Commitments count?

darkwasthenight posted:

High Fidelity and Kill Your Friends, and that's about it. Like Soul Music they're both more about music as a setting though, and that's why they work. I make my money from music, and I'm a lifelong believer in the power and rock and roll and other such stupidity, but I'll be the first to admit that the actual process of making music is incredibly loving boring to read about unless you're personally involved.

Who wants to read 200 pages of some dude describing music you can't hear anyway? It just turns into a long form version of that Tenacious D joke about writing a song about the best song in the world that they can't actually play you.

Groke posted:

How about Espedair Street by Iain Banks? Fictional rise-to-stardom story set in the world of 1970s rock.

You people, I'm so crediting "the assistance of some helpful goons" :3:

Yeah, music as the setting at most is likely the key, and slipping into talking about it in earnest is probably the fatal weakness.

(*cough* I'm actually the sort of person who reads rock criticism and literary criticism: 200 pages of some dude describing music I'm not hearing or books I'm not reading is my idea of a pleasant afternoon. But I'm clearly receiving my karmic payback.)

Let's continue with the terrible book. (I stopped at 2:30am last night because otherwise I'd have been up until four. Having way too much fun down here in the abyss.)

I posted this bit before, but I just noticed the heels bit. He thinks these women look twenty-four, but he has them wearing heels to a music business meeting that they literally haven�t learnt to walk in yet. Let me tell you manly blokes a secret: it�s not that hard to walk in heels. You walk on tiptoe and slightly waggle your hips in time. It takes hours to learn, not years. Including drunk. Of those women that wear heels at all, the only ones who go out, typically to see bands, in heels they can�t walk in yet are literally teenagers.

(Also, I totally describe myself to myself every time I see myself in a mirror, and I�m sure you do too.)

Here are narratorial descriptions of the hyoomun feeemales who are so cutely play-acting at thinking they're a band:

yes yes, we get that you're a pig by now. Note that these detailed assessments are reached in real-time during a conversation.

But, back to the original meeting:

Nobody talks like any of this, and that sort of noun pileup is the exclusive domain of people who read 200 pages of writing about music they're not hearing.

Foolish hyoomun feeemale, interrupting my important exposition to pretend to know as much about the thing you're actually here to do as a male would have picked up watching television.

We're now into a chapter narrated by Scotty, ~~Mixerman~~ Blenderman's trusty assistant, but it's good to see that he's completely - some might say indistinguishably - in tune with his boss's views on the filthy distaff of the species. Glad to see those loving sex clowns won't be milking any money from your dick. Just like they didn't succeed at doing in high school. Or even try to.

This is clearly a cut and paste from an actual session. This is the other hazard of novels about pop music: the delusion that your pub anecdotes also make good fiction writing. Digressions into technical detail help with giving the impression you know what you're talking about, but isn't what we call good writing. (Is this a Tom Clancy specialty? Dan Brown does this but gets the detail wrong too.) Technobabble (thankfully mostly-accurate) is the main stylistic quirk of this chapter.

On to Chapter 3! I'm slightly curious as to who this is about, though not enough to go looking. Pop stars married to their producer are not rarities. What I'm wondering is how he's generating these names.

yes thanks that's great Fenris thank you. Totally volcel, we believe you.

This is probably the first actually-amusing imagery in the book ...

... but we can't be expected to notice it's funny unless the characters supply a written laugh track!! (see also: Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality.)

The rest of Chapter 3 is about Gillian Hitler (a riff on Marilyn Manson) and how he sunk his career. Jasmine from Fatal Lipstick is a huge fan.

Chapter 4 is Scotty bitching about ~~ProTools~~ SonoViz, and how much nicer analog tape (like Fenris Wulf uses) is. There's a bit about a semimythical piece of Soviet sound distortion equipment called a Gromko, and then:

- Fenris proceeds to break suspension of disbelief with a bludgeoning author politics polemic actually in the middle of a bludgeoning author musical polemic.

Chapter 5 is more Scotty Wulf didacticism on LOUDNESS WARS and why MP3s suck. Scotty's narrative function is pretty clear by now.

More when I'm feeling stronger, the loved one would like me to stop ranting all the stupid bits at them for now.

divabot has a new favorite as of 14:27 on Aug 29, 2016

Wheat Loaf · # ? Aug 29, 2016 14:49

One terrible book I read parts of was this self-published polemic by a Russian (?) writer named M. H. Ahundova which was basically a homophobic screed insisting that Freddie Mercury wasn't gay or bisexual at all. In fact, he was 100% STRAIGHT (he wasn't irreligious either, nor was his background Zoroastrian; he was an honorable God-fearing Christian man) but he died because the GAY MAFIA bribed his doctor to infect him with AIDS so they could have a martyr. And said sinister gay conspiracy is led by none other than the nefarious Elton John. Roger Taylor, Brian May and John Deacon are all aware of the truth, but for some reason can't or won't come forward with it.

Dire stuff, what little I read of it. It was a PDF version that I found online.

divabot · # ? Aug 29, 2016 15:05

Actually, there's not much to go on the preview.

Chapter 6, Blenderwulf enlightens us on his opinions of what women should look like, then buys drugs to bribe the SonoViz sales rep. Chapter 7, Fatal Lipstick do some recording and it's pretty dull to read about, particularly the extended slabs of purported lyrics (another standard fatal flaw of bad novels about pop music). Chapter 8, an uninteresting recounting of more recording where nothing happens.

Chapter 9. You loving tool, Fenris. Steve Albini would rip your head off and poo poo down your neck.

That's the end of the preview. So far it's been a fairly tedious straight-up rewrite of the Mixerman Diaries.

Now, this is just the first, and apparently best, part. Apparently it takes a weird ~~left~~ right turn (there are no left turns in a Castalia House book) into political ranting, the band bringing about an anti-SocJus Ragnarok or something or other along these lines. And Islamophobia enough to put off anti-SJ*W metallers. Also, he's been writing and rewriting this thing since 2006.

Phil offered to buy a drat copy so I could finish the review, but, quite apart from the ethical conflict in giving Vox Day money, there's the ethical conflict that that would involve reading it. So I may just finish with:

quote:

After the extended Mixerman crib, there�s a political polemic plot of some sort � the victory of anti-SocJus courtesy the singer who is either virtually or literally Satan and her musicians fomenting a Galtian anti-government rebellion, some anti-Islam ranting, Ragnar�k, lots of cribs from Ayn Rand and right-wing conspiracist nutcases � all the ideas you hope the alt-right meme-spouting Trump fans on your Facebook feed are only joking about, though you fear deep down that they seriously mean them. Even an Amazon reviewer notes: �In Part 2 and Part 3 the pillow of political ranting slowly suffocates the story, the characters, and the laugh out loud vibe of Part 1.�

But everything about this book is written in crayon, so I�m not going to bother.

Proteus Jones · # ? Aug 29, 2016 15:08

BrigadierSensible posted:

Yeah. My post was badly phrased. My uncle went to NA (Narcotics Anonymous).

I meant it was bad and sneaky of Narconon/ the Scientologists to steal the name from a more reputable organization, and as such perhaps have people who need and want help with their addiction coming in and getting Hubberd-ed.

Narcanon and Narcotics Anonymous are two different organizations.

Toast Museum · # ? Aug 29, 2016 15:29

flosofl posted:

Narcanon and Narcotics Anonymous are two different organizations.

And BrigadierSensible is saying that Scientology using a soundalike name to dupe people is a lovely tactic. I don't think that was unclear.

Proteus Jones · # ? Aug 29, 2016 15:30

Toast Museum posted:

And BrigadierSensible is saying that Scientology using a soundalike name to dupe people is a lovely tactic. I don't think that was unclear.

It was to me, because I can't read.

SiKboy · # ? Aug 29, 2016 17:28

flosofl posted:

It was to me, because I can't read.

Having read a decent number of books mentioned in this thread, I think I almost envy you.

there wolf · # ? Aug 29, 2016 17:52

divabot posted:

This is clearly a cut and paste from an actual session. This is the other hazard of novels about pop music: the delusion that your pub anecdotes also make good fiction writing. Digressions into technical detail help with giving the impression you know what you're talking about, but isn't what we call good writing. (Is this a Tom Clancy specialty? Dan Brown does this but gets the detail wrong too.) Technobabble (thankfully mostly-accurate) is the main stylistic quirk of this chapter.

I don't think impenetrable technobabble gives the impression that you know what you're talking about. It just makes me suspicious that you're bullshitting and relying on the audience being to dumb to realize.

divabot · # ? Aug 29, 2016 18:54

there wolf posted:

I don't think impenetrable technobabble gives the impression that you know what you're talking about. It just makes me suspicious that you're bullshitting and relying on the audience being to dumb to realize.

Hi my name is Fenris Libertar'ian Theodorebeale Wolf Rand and I have long fluffy black hair (that's how I got my name) with Objectivist streaks and helpful tips that reaches my mid-back and icy rational eyes like limpid tears and a lot of people tell me I look like Anton LaVey (AN: if u don't know who he is get da hell out of here!). I'm not related to Ayn Rand but I wish I was because she's a major loving hottie. I'm a sound engineer but my teeth are straight and white. I have pale white skin. I'm also a Satanist, and I go to a magic school called Castalia in Finland where I'm in the seventh year (I'm seventeen). I'm a Libertarian (in case you couldn't tell) and I wear mostly black. I love the Ron Paul forums and I buy all my ideas from there. I was walking outside Mom's basement. It was snowing and raining so there was no sun, which I was very happy about. A lot of SJWs stared at me. I put up my middle finger at them.

Stuporstar · # ? Aug 29, 2016 19:22

divabot posted:

Readily contactable at dgerard at gmail :-)

I'm still picking at Loki's Child. (1100 words so far reading the first chapter in Amazon preview. I may have issues.) So, literary abyss-divers: have you ever read a novel about pop music that actually worked and wasn't a complete piece of poo poo?

All the least-unreadable examples of this species of folly, that don�t make you shout �WRONG! WRONG! BULLSHIT!� twice a page, tend to be thin fictionalisations of real events; plenty of hosed-up poo poo happens in music that makes people go �someone should write a book about this.� e.g. Platinum Logic by Tony Parsons fails as an even slightly coherent novel, but every lurid and tawdry incident in that book is a version of something that happened, and spotting the players is the fun bit.

Terry Pratchett�s Soul Music is the only example I can think of of a pop music novel that works, and that�s primarily as a Discworld novel where the pop music is that volume�s decoration, if a clearly fact-checked one.

There's a reason pop music novels aren't a genre, just a pile of cautionary examples as to why this trick never works.

A couple cyberpunk-era authors have attempted pop music centered novels that I know of, but whether or not they're complete pieces of poo poo is up for debate. I read Norman Spinrad's Little Heroes over a decade ago, and the only thing I remember apart from him predicting computer-generated pop stars was that it was mostly a vehicle for Boomer nostalgia about the good old days of rock and roll vs. them damned kids and their MTVees. There was just enough self-aware comedy in it that I'd have to reread it to determine how bad it really is.

Then there's Bruce Stirling's Zeitgeist which focuses on the slimy manager of a barely-talented Spice Girl's troupe who are getting murdered, but then quickly ditches the whole conceit to become American Gods-lite with the shady dude being the son of some ancient myth man, a plot about corrupt politics in the Balkans, and I don't know what the gently caress. But despite it being an incredibly hard book to describe because it veered all over the place, it wasn't a complete piece of poo poo. I'm the kind of person who stops reading books I hate, and I actually finished that one without feeling totally ripped off�faint praise, I know.

Sham bam bamina! · # ? Aug 29, 2016 19:50

divabot posted:

Hi my name is Fenris Libertar'ian Theodorebeale Wolf Rand and I have long fluffy black hair (that's how I got my name) with Objectivist streaks and helpful tips that reaches my mid-back and icy rational eyes like limpid tears and a lot of people tell me I look like Anton LaVey (AN: if u don't know who he is get da hell out of here!). I'm not related to Ayn Rand but I wish I was because she's a major loving hottie. I'm a sound engineer but my teeth are straight and white. I have pale white skin. I'm also a Satanist, and I go to a magic school called Castalia in Finland where I'm in the seventh year (I'm seventeen). I'm a Libertarian (in case you couldn't tell) and I wear mostly black. I love the Ron Paul forums and I buy all my ideas from there. I was walking outside Mom's basement. It was snowing and raining so there was no sun, which I was very happy about. A lot of SJWs stared at me. I put up my middle finger at them.

Then he put his Mises into my Rothbard and we did it for the first time.

there wolf · # ? Aug 29, 2016 20:07

divabot posted:

Hi my name is Fenris Libertar'ian Theodorebeale Wolf Rand and I have long fluffy black hair (that's how I got my name) with Objectivist streaks and helpful tips that reaches my mid-back and icy rational eyes like limpid tears and a lot of people tell me I look like Anton LaVey (AN: if u don't know who he is get da hell out of here!). I'm not related to Ayn Rand but I wish I was because she's a major loving hottie. I'm a sound engineer but my teeth are straight and white. I have pale white skin. I'm also a Satanist, and I go to a magic school called Castalia in Finland where I'm in the seventh year (I'm seventeen). I'm a Libertarian (in case you couldn't tell) and I wear mostly black. I love the Ron Paul forums and I buy all my ideas from there. I was walking outside Mom's basement. It was snowing and raining so there was no sun, which I was very happy about. A lot of SJWs stared at me. I put up my middle finger at them.

I brought my Drake · # ? Aug 29, 2016 20:13

Jim Hines' Libromancer series opens with a cataloger entering books into a public library catalog by zapping ISBNs with a barcode scanner. The audience (and the story for that matter) doesn't need a palletload of technobabble to understand why a specialist is competent or even the best specialist who ever specialized. It's the little things. Books describing legendary gunslingers are bad about this too.

Antivehicular · # ? Aug 29, 2016 20:17

queserasera posted:

Jim Hines' Libromancer series opens with a cataloger entering books into a public library catalog by zapping ISBNs with a barcode scanner. The audience (and the story for that matter) doesn't need a palletload of technobabble to understand why a specialist is competent or even the best specialist who ever specialized. It's the little things. Books describing legendary gunslingers are bad about this too.

Yes, but if the narrator doesn't make a bunch of snide technical remarks about the musicians using bad kit due to ignorance/using good kit based on a role model/having the sheer temerity to use any kit at all, how would the reader know that every female character is a a stupid bitch, huh?!

Goldskull · # ? Aug 29, 2016 20:50

divabot posted:

On to Chapter 3! I'm slightly curious as to who this is about, though not enough to go looking. Pop stars married to their producer are not rarities. What I'm wondering is how he's generating these names.

Veteran rock producer Mutt Lange & Shania Twain, although yeah, he must have some wacky script to generate the alternate names.

Sham bam bamina! · # ? Aug 29, 2016 20:53

"pet veal"

divabot · # ? Aug 29, 2016 21:00

Sham bam bamina! posted:

"pet veal"

A cow, but a young cow. A tasty young cow. Mmm. Perhaps we've come full circle to Piers Anthony's "In The Barn".

I found the artist's DeviantArt :nws:

by the way. I don't want to indulge in cruel stereotypes, but I think it's quite likely, if he thinks those are actually artistically adequate renditions of naked women, that he's never seen an unclothed human female in real life. There's a reason artists do life drawing classes.

divabot has a new favorite as of 21:05 on Aug 29, 2016

pookel · # ? Aug 29, 2016 21:24

divabot posted:

The rest of Chapter 3 is about Gillian Hitler (a riff on Marilyn Manson) and how he sunk his career. Jasmine from Fatal Lipstick is a huge fan.

Well, this is interesting. Since I have the attention span of a squirrel, I saw "Gillian Hitler" mentioned in the above passage and popped off to google it in case it was a real reference to something, before I got to this bit. In the search results was this post in an audio engineering forum thread about most offensive band names:
http://www.electricalaudio.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=956&start=60

This Fenris dude clearly spent way, way too long planning this book.

divabot posted:

Hi my name is Fenris Libertar'ian Theodorebeale Wolf Rand and I have long fluffy black hair (that's how I got my name) with Objectivist streaks and helpful tips that reaches my mid-back and icy rational eyes like limpid tears and a lot of people tell me I look like Anton LaVey (AN: if u don't know who he is get da hell out of here!). I'm not related to Ayn Rand but I wish I was because she's a major loving hottie. I'm a sound engineer but my teeth are straight and white. I have pale white skin. I'm also a Satanist, and I go to a magic school called Castalia in Finland where I'm in the seventh year (I'm seventeen). I'm a Libertarian (in case you couldn't tell) and I wear mostly black. I love the Ron Paul forums and I buy all my ideas from there. I was walking outside Mom's basement. It was snowing and raining so there was no sun, which I was very happy about. A lot of SJWs stared at me. I put up my middle finger at them.

I think I love you.

pookel has a new favorite as of 21:29 on Aug 29, 2016

there wolf · # ? Aug 29, 2016 22:01

queserasera posted:

Jim Hines' Libromancer series opens with a cataloger entering books into a public library catalog by zapping ISBNs with a barcode scanner. The audience (and the story for that matter) doesn't need a palletload of technobabble to understand why a specialist is competent or even the best specialist who ever specialized. It's the little things. Books describing legendary gunslingers are bad about this too.

I still remember a fair amount of detail about chlorine production from Stephenson's Zodiac because the details were made clear, interesting, and plot relevant. Technobabble isn't always useless, but it needs to be something more than just shoptalk you shoved into establish your character's coolness to whatever fraction of your audience is in the know.

spite house · # ? Aug 29, 2016 22:02

Stuporstar posted:

But despite it being an incredibly hard book to describe because it veered all over the place, it wasn't a complete piece of poo poo.

This could describe all of Bruce Sterling's novels really.

TheKennedys · # ? Aug 29, 2016 22:26

divabot posted:

A cow, but a young cow. A tasty young cow. Mmm. Perhaps we've come full circle to Piers Anthony's "In The Barn".

I found the artist's DeviantArt by the way. I don't want to indulge in cruel stereotypes, but I think it's quite likely, if he thinks those are actually artistically adequate renditions of naked women, that he's never seen an unclothed human female in real life. There's a reason artists do life drawing classes.

I think I just had an aneurysm looking at these; some of them are obviously either heavily photoshopped or done solely in Poser/[insert 3d rendering app of choice] but there's a bunch that look like he shopped a DAZ3D head onto a real pornstar's body and it's incredibly uncanny valley and disturbing. Someone please help me understand what's going on here

Wheat Loaf · # ? Aug 29, 2016 22:41

Inspired by reading through this thread, I thought I'd look up the old "terrible fantasy book covers" thread - the one that introduced the world to the legend of Cod Piecington - which was goldmined about 10 years ago, and was disappointed to see that most of the images are longer available because the hosting sites went down in the interim. Have there been any other threads for terrible fantasy book covers since?

PeaceDiner · # ? Aug 29, 2016 22:50

Wheat Loaf posted:

Inspired by reading through this thread, I thought I'd look up the old "terrible fantasy book covers" thread - the one that introduced the world to the legend of Cod Piecington - which was goldmined about 10 years ago, and was disappointed to see that most of the images are longer available because the hosting sites went down in the interim. Have there been any other threads for terrible fantasy book covers since?

Not a thread, but Good Show Sir posts some pretty bad stuff.

Adbot · # ? May 8, 2024 05:44

Wheat Loaf · # ? Aug 29, 2016 22:58

I'll check that out. I would have liked to start a new thread for it myself, but I've no idea how to make a halfway-decent OP.