The Nihilist's Pocket Survival Guide to Modern Society

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > The Nihilist's Pocket Survival Guide to Modern Society

Mel Mudkiper: Jan 19, 2012; At this point, Mudman abruptly ends the conversation. He usually insists on the last word.

Tungyn Cheque

# ¿ Mar 18, 2024 16:58

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# ¿ May 9, 2024 00:20

Mel Mudkiper: Jan 19, 2012; At this point, Mudman abruptly ends the conversation. He usually insists on the last word.

Tungyn Cheque posted:

Actually, the Look Inside function to Read a Sample is causing all sorts of formatting problems. I have raised this with Amazon. The actual Kindle download is properly formatted. I have verified this on my own Kindle. The image on the back is Guy Fawkes and he is associated with anti-establishment themes. He led the failed Gunpowder Plot in England in an attempt to overthrow the Monarchy. Yes, the image was used in V for Vendetta, an excellent movie btw. The Guy Fawkes mask also is used by the hacker group Anonymous. It is a very appropriate image to associate with the main character who is unconventional and not beholden to societal norms.

holy poo poo

# ¿ Mar 20, 2024 01:24

Mel Mudkiper: Jan 19, 2012; At this point, Mudman abruptly ends the conversation. He usually insists on the last word.

Maybe I am growing soft in my old age but homie every step of this is a mistake

Also you used "enquiring minds want to know" twice in that excerpt and ideally you should write it never

Mel Mudkiper fucked around with this message at 05:18 on Mar 20, 2024

# ¿ Mar 20, 2024 05:15

Mel Mudkiper: Jan 19, 2012; At this point, Mudman abruptly ends the conversation. He usually insists on the last word.

Horizon Burning posted:

he pm'd me that information as well

lmao I just got one too

# ¿ Mar 20, 2024 14:20

Mel Mudkiper: Jan 19, 2012; At this point, Mudman abruptly ends the conversation. He usually insists on the last word.

for the sake of fun I looked up book life by publishers weekly because I could not imagine how this book got reviewed positively by publishers weekly and then I found out its literally a scam that lets you buy positive reviews

EDIT: On further review it appears that all of his positive reviews have come from literal paid review sites lmao

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Mel Mudkiper fucked around with this message at 14:47 on Mar 20, 2024

# ¿ Mar 20, 2024 14:31

Mel Mudkiper: Jan 19, 2012; At this point, Mudman abruptly ends the conversation. He usually insists on the last word.

Tungyn Cheque posted:

nor am I self-promoting.

bruh

# ¿ Mar 20, 2024 18:35

Mel Mudkiper: Jan 19, 2012; At this point, Mudman abruptly ends the conversation. He usually insists on the last word.

I think we scared him off, good hustle hit the showers

# ¿ Mar 21, 2024 11:57

Mel Mudkiper: Jan 19, 2012; At this point, Mudman abruptly ends the conversation. He usually insists on the last word.

Youd think a nihilist would handle a bad reception better.

# ¿ Mar 21, 2024 14:58

Mel Mudkiper: Jan 19, 2012; At this point, Mudman abruptly ends the conversation. He usually insists on the last word.

gently caress im owned

# ¿ Mar 21, 2024 16:49

Mel Mudkiper: Jan 19, 2012; At this point, Mudman abruptly ends the conversation. He usually insists on the last word.

Bilirubin posted:

who says the art of trolling is dead on SA?

I feel like it saps the real sense of wonder in a life to look at every terrible decision and assume malicious subterfuge instead of magical ignorance

# ¿ Mar 21, 2024 17:11

Mel Mudkiper: Jan 19, 2012; At this point, Mudman abruptly ends the conversation. He usually insists on the last word.

Tequila Bob posted:

I'm gonna give you three pieces of advice:

1. Get off of the forums. Not because you broke rules or whatever; you're just not representing yourself well here. Especially that last bit of dialogue, I felt embarrassed just reading it.
2. Ditch the AI cover art. It's atrocious. A crowd of almost-people, and the disembodied front of a bus - what is this cover art saying about the contents of your book? If you're trying to be counter-cultural, maybe don't embrace one of the worst trends that corporations are trying to poison our culture with.
3. Work with an editor. A human editor. I have read the samples of this book, and it is plain that you have either rejected lots of feedback or not sought any in the first place.

Yeah I am reluctant to engage sincerely with a work and author who do not merit it, but the biggest issue is that the book is built around a vanity of an artistic voice it fails to produce.

Like, the supermarket section is an exercise in meaningless. Not in a nihilistic way, but in the actual sense of not having a purpose to be. Theres no insight, no criticism. Theres no actual nihilism or survival guidedness to it.

Its just unnecessarily purple prose about a person who sees a condom and fails to say anything interesting.

Its like the author assumes he is gonna make the mundane hilarious through craft and he lacks the craft

# ¿ Mar 21, 2024 17:43

Mel Mudkiper: Jan 19, 2012; At this point, Mudman abruptly ends the conversation. He usually insists on the last word.

come on share with the class

# ¿ Mar 21, 2024 18:41

Mel Mudkiper: Jan 19, 2012; At this point, Mudman abruptly ends the conversation. He usually insists on the last word.

real talk I think you have written an entire book mistaking nihilism for cynicism

# ¿ Mar 21, 2024 22:23

Mel Mudkiper: Jan 19, 2012; At this point, Mudman abruptly ends the conversation. He usually insists on the last word.

Im struggling to understand why you would get an AI to market your book for you

# ¿ Mar 22, 2024 00:49

Mel Mudkiper: Jan 19, 2012; At this point, Mudman abruptly ends the conversation. He usually insists on the last word.

At first I thought you guys were tilting at windmills calling it AI but now I am skeptical a word of it was actually written by this dude.

The cover, ad copy, reviews were all AI but somehow the hard part of actually writing wasnt?

# ¿ Mar 22, 2024 01:13

Mel Mudkiper: Jan 19, 2012; At this point, Mudman abruptly ends the conversation. He usually insists on the last word.

the author seems to have a very strange idea of what is interesting.

He focuses on a condom in the checkout lane for a paragraph and thinks people would be shocked at someone removing boxes so groceries fit better?

# ¿ Mar 22, 2024 04:00

Mel Mudkiper: Jan 19, 2012; At this point, Mudman abruptly ends the conversation. He usually insists on the last word.

I showed this to my author friend and he bought a copy and is hate reading me excerpts

# ¿ Mar 22, 2024 04:14

Mel Mudkiper: Jan 19, 2012; At this point, Mudman abruptly ends the conversation. He usually insists on the last word.

Rob Filter posted:

The AI generated marketing is amazingly terrible. Here are a few of the suggested interview questions for someone interviewing the author:

edit: lmao look at this advertising image it generated.

This is like one of the images from a review he cited

# ¿ Mar 22, 2024 06:01

Mel Mudkiper: Jan 19, 2012; At this point, Mudman abruptly ends the conversation. He usually insists on the last word.

the main character sounds like he tried to combine Ignatius J Reilly with Hauden Caufield and ended up with a hot topic t shirt

Also its becoming increasingly obvious the author doesnt know what nihilism is

# ¿ Mar 22, 2024 11:23

Mel Mudkiper: Jan 19, 2012; At this point, Mudman abruptly ends the conversation. He usually insists on the last word.

if its your own rear end and not an AI photo why is there an extremely similar photo of an entirely different person in an AI written review of your book

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# ¿ Mar 22, 2024 17:04

Mel Mudkiper: Jan 19, 2012; At this point, Mudman abruptly ends the conversation. He usually insists on the last word.

Tungyn Cheque posted:

Many comments since yesterday when I last checked the forum. I'll address some of them specifically but most generally.

Rob Filter--I used a private professional editor that I had previously worked with on another project.
SS--No further excerpts, partly because of the pinata reception but mostly because they are out of context.
Story arc and character arc build throughout a novel. To draw any conclusions about story or character based on a single chapter or excerpt from a chapter invites misinterpretation. I only included a sample chapter in the media kit because that is recommended, but I hardly think it's a valid way to make any determinations about the book as a whole.

This has generally been a tough crowd with respect to my original post. Folks are critical of the cover, the editing, the writing, the reviews, the marketing, and just about every aspect. That's fine. I can take it and the cover art criticisms are valid to a point. Nameless, faceless urban masses are a reality that Rectum Levitcus has a unique perspective on. The AI image needs some photoshopping. For folks who haven't read the book, I offered to gift up to 10 copies. I haven't had any takers but the offer still stands through March 29.

I want a free copy give me a free copy

# ¿ Mar 22, 2024 17:08

Mel Mudkiper: Jan 19, 2012; At this point, Mudman abruptly ends the conversation. He usually insists on the last word.

burner account is a go

very excited to be corrected by reading the complete work and realizing that I was being unfair

Mel Mudkiper fucked around with this message at 17:31 on Mar 22, 2024

# ¿ Mar 22, 2024 17:18

Mel Mudkiper: Jan 19, 2012; At this point, Mudman abruptly ends the conversation. He usually insists on the last word.

Gonna be real the fact he actually earnestly sent me a copy has drained like 50% of my bullying energy

# ¿ Mar 22, 2024 18:13

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# ¿ May 9, 2024 00:20

Mel Mudkiper: Jan 19, 2012; At this point, Mudman abruptly ends the conversation. He usually insists on the last word.

Tequila Bob posted:

He can't make the sample Chapter 1, though, because Chapter 1 is bad. It's actually less funny than the grocery chapter (I have a fondness for subtle puns and the "embalming" joke got a chuckle), and the story of Rectum Leviticus's birth and naming is both much more complicated and much less entertaining than it needs to be.

And the first gendered insult in the book occurs in literally the second sentence.

buddy how can you read this and then go "oh no a gendered insult"

Its critiquing the paint on the titanic

# ¿ Mar 22, 2024 22:15

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