Category: Art

Why forced diversity doesn’t work

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There is a divide that the greater culture of the center/right has a hard time explaining, but an easy time recognizing: The difference between “forced diversity” and diversity which is incidental to a story. The surface definition should be pretty easy to work with: Forced diversity is the inclusion of characters in media that are members of social/ethnic/sexual groups for no discernible story reason. Obviously, a story about a transwoman struggling to fit in will include trans characters. “Forced diversity” is having a character that is trans for no reason related to the plot. It’s a character that is put…

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The Left Can’t Meme

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It’s an old meme at this point that the left can’t meme. I had a great discussion last week with Brian Niemeier about his book, Don’t Give Money to People Who Hate You, and in it the subject of memeology of the left came up: I mentioned a former friend that had an image of her turned into a meme, so she started trying to make her own memes of herself as some sort of gatcha. The results were as you would expect – a wall of text trying to explain something crowding out (and thus reducing the impact of)…

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On Reviews and the Indie Movement – An Optimate Memo

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I haven’t done much in the way of book reviews, either here or on my YouTube channel, but I’m reconsidering how I approach this. First, take a look at this blog post by Alexandru Constantin, regarding where he has settled on book reviews: There are few things I want to cover here related to all this, before I get to prescriptions: Tradpub may be a facade, but it is one that normal folks think is real – and perception matters What is the point of a book review? Is there any point to negativity? The “political right” doesn’t think strategically…

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The (Game) Song Remains the Same

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A good thread to kick things off: Games are first, and foremost about their gameplay, NOT their story. Story in games can be great. You can tell stories in unique and interesting ways that other mediums just can’t do. However, gameplay is a prerequisite for a gaming experience to be… well, game. I never finished The Last of Us because its gameplay was, quite frankly, too boring. It also looked boring. The story started off with a good hook in the form of tragedy, but then became a slog. There was very little game at the macro level, and none…

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A Culture In Need of ENJOYABLE Books

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Talking with some other #pulprev friends today, one of the best points brought up about stories in video games is that players often focus on the story because they don’t read. I’ve made this point numerous times regarding video games and stories within them – if your goal is to tell a tight story, a game is not a very good medium. Gameplay is the art that is unique to games; this doesn’t mean you SHOULDN’T tell a story with a game, it just means that if your primary goal is a traditional, highly constructed story, you are better off…

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Don’t give money to people who hate you

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Brian Niemeier’s new book is out now, and it’s a number one best seller: Let’s address one 100 IQ level comeback I see frequently when talking about shutting your wallet to the mega-corporations who not only don’t give a shit about the franchises that you grew up with, but actively hate you and your culture and want it (and you) dead: bUt yOu Use AMaZon/yOuTUbE/fAcEbOok/PAtreON First, this isn’t an argument against the basic thesis at all, but an attempt to make an argument for behavioral consistency (otherwise known as the hypocrisy fallacy or “tu Quoque” – you can’t say something…

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The Coming Creative Boom

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The Corona-Chan quarantine might bless us with a baby boom, but it will also bless us with a creative boom, and in the “right” direction. Hollywood has had to halt its productions. They might lose 20 billion dollars. They’ve put their feature movies onto streaming platforms, just so that they get seen and the brands can maintain some value. Hollywood and its giant apparatus represents the last remaining tower, however dark and menacing, of the corporate period in art. It takes lots of money and lots of people to make art on that scale, and virus is a perfect menace…

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Keys to Prolific Creativity now available!

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My book on creativity and productivity is now available in ebook ($2.99) and physical formats. Grab it now and unlock your inner master! ebook – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084P8P1M2 physical – https://amazon.com/dp/B086B79WFW Still not sold? Listen to the introduction and first chapter in audiobook format: Just so you know, the audiobook by necessity will be a later release. Amazon takes much longer to process audiobooks than the physical editions. I’m still waiting for the completed audiobook for Eyes in the Walls to go live. In the meantime, you can check out the ebook here:

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Aesthetics MATTER

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I’ve been travelling lately, so I’ve missed some on-point commentary by my contemporaries. Alexander, who I’ve had on NewPub Talk before, nails it once again: Within that article is one things that I’ve been trying to hammer for years: Aesthetics Matter. Aesthetics are powerful. Aesthetics have meaning. They aren’t just arbitrary window dressing, as some post-modern critics would have you believe. My YouTube subs often take exception to my heavy weighing of Aesthetics as a category when I review movies and games, but I often feel like I give them too little weight. Good aesthetic presentation can save a sub-par…

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Gail Simone reveals what they all actually think of you

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This thread is a beast: Once again, the mask slips and one of the “caretakers” of beloved western franchises shows exactly what she thinks of the people who like her medium. I actually found myself laughing quite a bit at that thread, not because the satire was cutting or accurate, but because I felt like I was watching somebody scream into a mirror. Leftists these days don’t seem to either understand satire or be able to make their own, primarily because they have absolutely no idea how 99% of the population truly thinks, looks, and acts like. This is why…

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