The Mourning After
by rsbakker
Definition of the Day:
Labour: 1) the renting of one’s metabolic activity for the pleasure of another; 2) the single most important constituent of society, and therefore the most despised; 3) something the poor are lucky to give, and the wealthy are entitled to receive.
Just thought I would drop a quick note to thank all the well-wishers and to clarify things. First, don’t worry about me–or any other writer for the matter, especially if you work for a living. Trust me, as career paths go, this is slack. I’m only whining because I’m a slacker extraordinaire–I was made to do this for a living. I’m a monomaniac, for one, and organizationally challenged for another. But what I’m complaining about is the prospect–and at this point it’s only the prospect–of going back to post-secondary teaching… The second most slack career path I can imagine!
Second, do not worry, the APOCALYPSE HAS NOT ENDED. The books continue to sell, continue to be backlisted. If it weren’t for the pain the industry is suffering as a whole, I’m sure I would have the rights for all the remaining installments safely tucked into bed. It’s the schedule I’m concerned about. And that’s it.
Last night, as I paddled about the edges of sleep, it struck me like a bolt: by expressing anxiety about the series I was in fact undermining confidence in it. This has got to be one of the most bizarre, and horrifically important, dimensions of human social behaviour–as well as the reason the markets continually slip the noose of mathematical regimentation: the way doubt and belief gust through mobs of people. This is the real, ‘power of positive thinking,’ the one economists are so anxious to track. When the New Age cheeseheads prattle away about the need to beam positivity out into the universe they aren’t entirely off their rocker: they’re simply taking a fact of human intercourse (our attraction to confidence and positivity) and turning it into a metaphysical principle, one that–happily enough–makes everyone responsible for whatever fortune or misery the roulette wheel of indifferent existence spins out.
That, my friends, is what all blogs with any commercial dimension whatsoever boil down to: a kind of confidence game. Not only is it inescapable, it’s absolutely essential, on a whole different variety of levels…
Now if only someone would tell Julian Assange as much.
Three Pound Brain 
Great. Now I have to go look up Julian Assange. As a child of the 70s, I was the wide-eyed younger brother to all that 60s flower-power horse poop, you know–about the noble worker versus the Man, and how much fun drugs were, and how random sex with multiple strangers never hurt anybody–all that jazz. Upshot is, I am pulling my 31st year of factory work right now, with damn little to show for it, and no retirement in sight. Meanwhile, all those Peace and Love-niks from the 60s retired from Wall Street 10 years ago: may they dessicate with excruciating slowness in a bug-infested subtropical state with endless Republican governments, and may Hell be no improvement when they get there.
So don’t be all shy about the slacker track: it’s called Winning. Go for it.
Wow Alan…tell it like it is. I’ve worked in both factories and offices, and I must say offices are better, in most respects…although the amount of corpspeak you have to swallow is retched. Nevertheless, I’m holding onto this office job and sucking at the corporate teat as long as I can…
At the above: how can one not know who Julian Assange is? Have you been living under a rock the past 2 months? I guess I just keep up with the mass media propaganda machine we call ‘current events’…
Scott wrote:
“When the New Age cheeseheads prattle away about the need to beam positivity out into the universe they aren’t entirely off their rocker: they’re simply taking a fact of human intercourse (our attraction to confidence and positivity) and turning it into a metaphysical principle, one that–happily enough–makes everyone responsible for whatever fortune or misery the roulette wheel of indifferent existence spins out.”
This kind of thing is why I check this blog obsessively.
I didn’t know who he was, by name — but after looking it up and matching him to Wikileaks, now I do: my hero.
Yes, Jorge; the grad school rock. but the news is all reruns at 53, man. nor can i enthuse a human intercourse over the names of this week’s characters. and Yeah, too right about Scott’s blog. not bad for a brain-puppet on 6-second delay. 😉
Animal spirits and all that jazz. Everytime I go into a bookstore I check the fantasy racks, and naturally glance to “B” — and generally see at least one or two of your books present.
It’s sad PON and AE haven’t recieved more commercial recognition, but not terribly unsurprising. I’ve been re-reading the trilogy in anticipation of TWLW and the very elements that make it my favorite of the genre — an indepth, complex world; philosophy and history conjoined; intelligent and evocative prose; the “layers and layers” of the onion cored — are the same elements that may discourage other readers, given that such retarded chaff as Goodkind’s strident screeds still reach the bestseller lists in this day and age (to say nothing of the cultural mirror exposed when one takes a gander at the typical Wal-mart book section — ye gods!).
Still, I think the HBO’s ‘Game of Thrones’ series may stir further interest in mature fantasy, and critical recognition — even if it be among the genre adherents and not the ivory-tower trimchinners — goes a long way towards posterity-profit. I don’t see virtually any of the crap fantasy novels they churned out in the 80’s, but the more famous and notable works remain, even if in collector’s editions/omnibuses.
I enjoy your work.
I’m from Cayuga, other side of Simcoe down Hwy #3.
Can see Tolkien’s influence (on your work, not on hwy #3).
You’re doing fine, stop worrying.
Continue your work.
Stop worrying because worrying is a sign of weakness and it changes nothing.
Don’t be weak.
I refuse to enjoy the writing of a weak man.
You will complete the series.
You will be hailed by your fans.
You will be paid.
Get some sleep.
Big Jim
“You’re doing fine, stop worrying.
Continue your work.
Stop worrying because worrying is a sign of weakness and it changes nothing.
Don’t be weak.
I refuse to enjoy the writing of a weak man.”
Yeah be a real man! Would George Bush ever appear unsure? Try to be more rightwing so you can hold on to the “strong man audience”.
Finally got Prince of Nothing by the way. Compares favorably to (recently read also) David Gemmell, Brandon Sanderson, Janny Wurts, and Steven Erikson.
I would think certainty and confidence originally suggested someone who had attained an infrastructure that provided them with food and shelter – thus anyone following them would either attain those goods and/or the skills to attain those goods.
So that urge to follow made practical sense (sense being what keeps you alive)
The horrible thing is when that person has that infrastructure BECAUSE people follow them, bringing their little belongings, and they follow them because they are certain and confident.
That said, what the heck does undermining confidence mean, in like, physically measurable terms???