Prior to beginning my little series on farm parables, I made a video discussing the symbolism of the farm, as well as the symbolism of Prometheus, and how those too semiologies line up.
This video was a response to the following comment:
You are missing the opportunity cost. As an economist I have to tell you you might need to rethink your business model. A problem in all businesses with giving free samples or discounts is that you drown the market. There is a finite number of people in the world willing to buy an indi medieval fantasy, or japanese shogun historical fantasy. If you give out free copies of your product the first people to take those are the ones that have the highest demand for it. Its like a restaurant giving a wednesday discount because its the low day. But what happens is that all the fans of your restaurant that come saturday night and pay full price, come Wednesday to get the same food cheaper, and since they already ate once this week they wont come at your place on the weekend. I just published yesterday my first paper back yesterday, and ebook, and second publication are on the pipeline. Thank you David your videos helped a lot and kept me motivated to finish. all that said $500 is not cool. What I think is realistic is to get $500 from my first book in one year assuming i keep publishing all year long. How much did you pay for ISBN, Copy right, printing essentials, and all other small expenses? From a purely accounting point of view you might be at a loss, from an economical point of view you are down the equivalent of minimum wage hours dedicated into writing, editing, and everything else.
I put this review out on YouTube the day of release, but I haven’t been keeping up with dvspress except for fiction (lately, at least), so in case you missed it, here is my spoiler-free consumer-focused review of Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi.
Basic Breakdown:
Production total – 8.7/10
Aesthetics: 9/10 – Delivers the OT aesthetics in sharp detail, use of specific colors is effective.
Effects: 9/10 – Excellent CG and cinematic effects. The movie is comparable to the prequels fidelity if a bit less baroque and unconvincing with some of the cg characters.
Sound design (abstain) – The theater was not set up properly and the sound peaked constantly, but I think the sound design was likely a great improvement over the Force Awakens.
Cinematography – 8/10 – The cinematography was good, and generally shots were well-edited and showed the action clearly, though even at two-and-a-half hours the editing felt a little too tight. A descent iteration of contemporary editing strategies.
Story Total – 3/10
Characters/Acting: 4/10 – Andy Serkis and Mark Hamill deliver strong, convincing performances that take up too little screen time. Every other performance was bad, and was accentuated by terrible dialogue, missed humor (and indeed humor that was wildly out of place in a Star Wars film), and poor casting. None of the characters act in a normal, human way, and all the characters lack any sort of consistent moral beliefs. The female characters, in particular, were offensively incompetent and bitchy stereotypes, clearly made by a gamma male who doesn’t believe in the feminism he is trying to portray.
Plot: 2/10 – Nothing in the plot makes sense in the greater Star Wars universe, or especially with the setups of The Force Awakens. Nihilism is the main theme, probably unintentionally, as Rian Johnson is clearly incapable of understanding basic moral action, virtues, or common sense. A large portion of the movie (~45 minutes) is completely pointless, undermines the mcguffin of the movie (The First Order can track through lightspeed, and yet characters lightspeed away to have a jaunt in a casino planet). The entire plot would have been avoided had any character acted like a normal, well-adjusted human being.
General Effect – 2/10
Aside from a few “Star Wars” moments, the movie is a disaster and an insult to fans. Rian Johnson, with one single work, sweeps away decades of world-building in the Star Wars universe. The hero of the Original Trilogy, Luke Skywalker, is revealed to be a villainous, cowardly and pathetic human. The mystery boxes of Force Awakens are used to insult fans by making fun of them waiting for reveals that would make the nonsense of the previous movie make sense. In a break of the fourth wall, a character tells the audience to “let the past die, kill it if you have to,” essentially telling them off for being fans or being attached to older Star Wars movies. New Force powers are pulled out pockets at will as gotchas, with no prior vision of them in earlier movies and no explanation of how any character learned them.
Rey, the Mary Sue of the first movie, is at the end of the movie able to surpass Luke in every way, including beating him in a duel, having just learned about the force a week prior (as this movie takes place right after TFA).
The entire affair is deeply insulting and I believe will harm the long-term value of the franchise.
Final Score: 4.5/10
I recommend this movie for people who want a cinematic special effects experience with Star Wars aesthetics, but don’t care at all for a good story and generally don’t have an attachment to Star Wars in general.
Recently I got to watch the new Dark Tower movie, very, VERY, loosely adapted from the epic 7 book series by Stephen King. We didn’t go into the theater with expectations of a true-to-text adaptation – after all, it wasn’t called The Gunslinger and Roland was played by a black actor when he was explicitly white in the book (which actually mattered, as a black character had racial issues with him). This positively affected our experience, but we still felt the movie had significant problems. Watch our video to hear them in detail!
OMG I’m reviewing a contemporary movie! Guardians of the Galaxy 2 is a space fantasy / space opera film made by Disney and takes place in the Marvel universe, though it is not a super hero film. I review and analyze the film’s production, writing, story, and overall effect.
Sign up for my mailing list – http://eepurl.com/cQOfWH
Pre-order my new fantasy novel Water of Awakening here (only 99 cents for the ebook) – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071G49GH9
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, besides being a significant achievement in children’s literature, is often the first fantasy series that readers are exposed to due to its widespread popularity, solid stories, and accessible language. In the video below, I go over what you can expect from the series, including its christian allegory, its format in relation to the development of children’s literature, and why I think it is still worth reading today. I will continue this series, going over each book in the series in greater detail and analyzing the themes and stories present in more depth.
If you are interested in my own fantasy books, be sure to sign up for my mailing list for advance access to my projects. My latest novel, The Water of Awakening, will be released on July 7 and may be pre-ordered on Amazon.com.
David V. Stewart is a fantasy and Historical Fiction writer, the author of Muramasa: Blood Drinker and Prophet of the Godseed.
So, the silence on the site when it comes to new fiction content shall at last be broken. The secret book is finished, and in the video below I show off the cover, talk about the artist (Kerem Beyit) and give you some insight into this new book, which is solidly in the heroic fantasy/adventure fantasy genre. I’m really excited to bring this experience to you, and will be putting up a pre-order on Amazon very shortly.
In the meantime, be sure to subscribe to my email list (you can do so on the right side of the page or follow this link) to get early access to the book and also get some books for free to keep you busy until The Water of Awakening launches!
Matthew J. Wellman joins me once again to discuss the many, many problems with Peter Jackson’s movie adaptation of JRR Tolkien’s classic epic fantasy tale The Hobbit. How could he be so successful with Lord of the Rings and yet fail so spectacularly with The Hobbit?
Writers of the dawn is:
David V. Stewart – Fantasy and Historical Fiction Author, musician
Fellow fantasy author Mattew J. Wellman joins me to talk about Peter Jackson’s movie adaptation of JRR Tolkien’s Return of the King, the third part of Tolkien’s epic fantasy classic, The Lord of the Rings.
Writers of the dawn is:
David V. Stewart – Fantasy and Historical Fiction Author, musician
Writers of the Dawn (Fantasy authors David V. Stewart and Mattew J. Wellman) break down Peter Jackson’s adaptation of JRR Tolkien’s second volume in The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers. What sacrifices were made during production to make the movie adaptation function? What was done well? We also discuss the pushing of the original ending into the final movie.
Writers of the Dawn is:
