DVS Press

Portland

David V Stewart May 25, 2020 May 25, 2020Creative non-fiction, Non-fiction, Uncategorized 1

Portland is a sanctuary city with no Latinos living in it. That’s a simple statement, but it sums up everything about the city’s culture – it’s all about signaling. And it’s the kind of signaling that’s an inversion of a regular business sign. A sign in front of a fruit stand advertises that they have a certain fruit because they have that fruit want you to come in and buy that fruit. The signaling the people of Portland do is pointed towards what they lack – virtue, taste, uniqueness, and quality. Virtue signaling is always a sure sign that virtue…

Color: The Key to Impact and Emotion

David V Stewart May 23, 2020 May 23, 2020Analysis, Art, Non-fiction, Uncategorized 0

Time for something different – some tips on choosing the right colors for art, ad copy, and things like book covers. Let’s start with some examples of great fantasy art by Kerem Beyit: Kerem’s proficiencies are many, but one of the reasons his art has such a vivid “pop” and stands out so much is his use of color, specifically limited color range centered on two different (but rarely complementary) colors. Rather than attempting to go for some “realistic” approach to color representation, he distills things down to a few charged areas. The result is really eye catching. Notice in…

Steven Pinker – Immune to Reason

David V Stewart May 22, 2020 May 22, 2020Ethics, Non-fiction, Philosophy, politics, Uncategorized 4

Easy to see Pinker is full of shit once again. People need to work (duh) even if he doesn’t. The idea of an afterlife IMPROVES behavior – both in theory (fear of judgment of the creator) and in practice (Atheists are the biggest mass murderers in history). A life whose value is greater than a dog for reasons of marginal utility is not one that is valued. If you are an object, value of human life is a non-sequitur. First reply: Because they deserve it. What does it mean to make life safer, longer and happier to an atheist like…

Turns out he didn’t want a conversation

David V Stewart May 22, 2020 May 22, 2020Non-fiction, politics 0

Open this up and Twitter and you’ll see what I mean. Literally no one can reply. Don’t get me wrong, this sort of feature on Twitter is not necessarily a bad thing. There’s a benefit to having the option to get rid of bell ringers screwing up conversations, but you shouldn’t talk out of both sides of your mouth and pretend you’re going to just have a talk with everyone. Generally speaking though, if you’re a high profile Twitter account, or just one with an agenda, and you want to open up conversations you’re basically going to end up in…

Iron and Clay: A Doomer Tale

David V Stewart May 21, 2020 May 24, 2020Fiction, Parables, Short Story 3

Jim was the smartest kid in Glenns Ferry, Idaho. He aced every math exam, always tested well in science and English, and got exemplary marks in history. He was otherwise a normal, well-liked kid that played football and soccer throughout high school. Though he was never the star athlete, sports kept him active and grounded and provided him a good set of friends off the field and year-round. All of them knew he was the smartest of the group, but he never made a big deal out of it, preferring to go with the flow and help with homework only…

Apolitical™

David V Stewart May 19, 2020 May 19, 2020Art, Ethics, Games, Philosophy, politics, Uncategorized, Writing 4

Sorry, folks, the Apolitical™ brand is just that – a brand. I get it – you don’t like the politics being forced into your favorite franchises at the expense of story, gameplay, aesthetics, and the general effect of the medium itself. I get that female Thor is lame and super-buff She-Hulk is an eyesore. I know that it’s not fun to be lectured about global warming in the middle of a space-opera game, or to be forced to play a game as an uggo who’s bent on killing your favorite franchise characters – and will succeed. I know it’s annoying…

Why forced diversity doesn’t work

David V Stewart May 15, 2020 May 15, 2020Art, Non-fiction, Uncategorized, Writing 4

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…

Maybe I don’t “get” writers

David V Stewart May 14, 2020 May 14, 2020Creative non-fiction, Non-fiction, Writing 2

I’m a writer. I write. Seems pretty simple, but I don’t seem to do any of the things that other writers do. I barely use Facebook, but when I do I see posts from a half-dozen writers groups that I joined at some point that instantly make me scratch my head. Posts like, “What is your Main Character’s favorite past time?” “What kind of media do you think your villain likes?” “What kind of food did you put into your fantasy story?” “What would you think about a magic system that is based on the four foodgroups?” (I made that…

When the Wind is in the West

David V Stewart May 13, 2020 May 13, 2020Creative non-fiction, Uncategorized 0

There is always a feeling I get during the season changes: the transition from hot to cool, from cool to cold and back again. That’s how the seasons are here in central California – the weather is the same for eight weeks, then transitions for about one or two weeks to a new season. This year the heat has been slow in coming, and I’m not complaining. The feeling is something akin to nostalgia, but different – more like a memory of things that never were. My imagination always goes wild. Dreams get more intense. The sun shows at different…

The Left Can’t Meme

David V Stewart May 11, 2020 May 11, 2020Art, Games, Non-fiction, politics 4

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)…