. . . but not West Virginia.
(slightly) Early lunch. Sitting back with a nearly perfect grilled cheese sandwich (on rye bread w/sautéed onion), some tomato slices, corn salsa and chips.
*sigh* Is It Just Me?
While reading my pdf copy of Korsybski’s “Science and Sanity,” I found myself wanting to correct minor errors of punctuation, probably introduced by the conversion from hardcopy and not caught by the line editor. The text itself seems perfectly logical–if dense and sometimes even obscurantist (though I am assured that is by design)–and without any obvious errors. It’s just that periods in the middle of sentences irritate me.
Or. . . did Korzybski do that intentionally for that reason? Just to thump that bone on folks like me? I’d not put it past him. . . *heh*
BTW, naturally each chapter in the pdf copy is separately password protected (because the copy I have is available only in discrete chapters), so I can’t correct them w/o cracking the password (probably doable with the tools I have on hand or can access), but that’s just too much like work. *heh*
It’s. . . the little things
1981-1989 was consumed by work. I paid attention to “news” only whenever it had strictly local or serious national import, so I missed ALL details surrounding news of a serial killer’s apprehension in 1988–an event that might have been interesting to me. . . had I caught a few pieces of information–because it wasn’t of local or national importance. Yeh, yeh, it was news, but not really in any way important except to the community where it happened. (Network–and now cable–“news” manufactures national “importance” to local stories all the time, but it’s a fake “importance”.)
What was interesting to me, years later when I learned about details, is that the guy started his killing two years after I had moved from the area where he was operating. “The area”? I once lived four blocks from the house where the guy lived and killed, just barely out of the “good part of the ghetto” (as it was often referred to by its denizens). When we (my Wonder Woman, our daughter and I) moved from the area, we were living in the “good part of the ghetto,” five blocks away from the (future) “kill house” and working (my Wonder Woman and I; our daughter was not yet a year old *heh*) three blocks from where the guy ended up killing six men.
Missed it by that much.
A Reader’s POV
I read a lot of books, by most folks’ measures. In the last few years, the mix has skewed more strongly toward fiction, partly as a result of reading so many articles and blog posts online–a real mixed bag of (mostly) non-fiction. I do still read non-fiction books, though, although the mix there is tending more toward DIY books of various kinds, now, with fewer and fewer sci-tech, philosophy, history, and suchlike.
How many is “a lot”? Generally more than one/day, a little more than twice as many as the average American reads each year,* according to some, but nothing to brag about. The only reason I say as much is that I think–perhaps–I have some sort of feel about what’s being published nowadays, both from “traditional” publishing and “indie” publishing, and I have to say, it’s mostly crap.
You read that right. I read more than a book a day, but I start and “circular file” at least 2 more that aren’t worth my time. And what makes them not worth my time?
- jejune plots, characters, dialog, and narration that could be better done by the average lobotomized fifth grader
- execrable English: everything from words misused (MANY of them!) to grammar apparently straight from a reference titled, “Stupid English for Stupid People”
- an insulting lack of homework/research done and overall dumbfounding ignorance about topics keyed to plot or characterization (example: when a writer doesn’t know the difference between a semi-automatic firearm and a revolver but is writing a character whose weapons proficiency is key, it’s insulting)
- baffling, completely, totally and absolutely stupid lack of internal agreement: Hey! That truck the character is now driving was a mini-van on the previous page!
And that’s just considering the fiction. On non-fiction, consider instructions in a DIY book to do things on a project in a way that WILL NOT WORK, CANNOT WORK, ARE COMPLETELY STUPID. Insulting the reader or targeting stupid people as the writer’s intended market? Either way, crap.
And no, let me repeat: these issues are not limited to “indie” books. The standards for both text and editing in books being published–by whatever means–is in the toilet nowadays.
But. . . of the books I give a shot at my eye time, one in three is still worth reading, so there’s that. *sigh*
Still, that’s slightly better than the one in five or six links to new (to me) voices on the Internet that are worth reading. That’s ~16%-20% of the links I follow from articles, searches, etc. Not bad, really, when talking about the interwebs. So, why I expect better from published (by whatever means) books? Because these writers expect to be paid for their writing. If they’re going to be paid, they ought to make sure they have the chops to write well and they ought to do their homework and PAY FOR LITERATE copy editing and line editing, since few writers are capable of performing those tasks themselves. (I have read advance reader copies–pre-editing–from a few writers that are remarkably clean, well-edited already by the writers, but such writers are few and far between.)
Note to writers: LEARN how to write. If you want to write in English, LEARN THE LANGUAGE. No, growing up speaking it doesn’t count. READ a LOT of well-written text. Concentrate on writers who can really write. No, not writers who write like you do. (In another recent post, I suggested a couple of writers whose command of English exceeded that of 99% of writers today. That sort of writer.) From there, proceed to writer who really challenge you, but STAY AWAY FROM SUCKITUDINOUS FICTION! After a few years focused on well-written text, then try writing again. Next: Find editors/proofreaders outside your circle of friends and acquaintances, editors/proofreaders who are more literate, better-read than you are. Pay them what they’re worth to fix your crap.
That might make an otherwise bad piece of dreck worth reading, IF you do the rest of your homework and either have an interesting story to tell or a useful skill to impart.
Maybe.
One of the funniest/stupidest things I’ve seen in a recent “slush pile reject” was a repeated misuse of “ridden,” as in “the bullet-ridden car” referring to a car that had been thoroughly riddled with bullets. A sure sign of an a-literate writer whose exceptionally weak verbal vocabulary exceeds that of his reading vocabulary. The rest of the thing wasn’t any better, but I did waste 20 minutes on it, just to be as fair as possible.
*Excluding those who claim to have read no books, the average read (by those who have read any books at all) is generally reported as ~7. Oh, no reference/link? Use your search-fu, Grasshopper. 😉
“Glamping”
“Weird portmanteau,” thought I. Then I thought of family “camping” vacations from my childhood (1950s). I suppose those were pretty “glamp.” *heh*
The seven (or nine, of my paternal grandparents were along, as in one of the camping trips) of us would pile in a station wagon, packed to the roof–and beyond!–with people and possessions/supplies–and pulling a trailer built by my grandfather, full of large canvas tent, campstove, lanterns, fuel, sleeping bags, food, tools and other supplies to last seven (or nine) people for a couple of weeks.
Grandmother handled most (no, all–she wasn’t much of a sharer in the kitchen, inside or out) if she were along. Otherwise, mother did most of the cooking with one or more of us kids helping. The white gas Coleman stove was used for most cooking, but when the camp stove was not needed, cooking was sometimes over a real camp fire. Either my dad or grandfather directed camp setup and teardown/packing. Fishing poles and tackle boxes (where use was allowed) were always along.
Well, that was “glamping” for my family in the 50s. *shrugs* Seemed pretty luxurious at the time, and I suppose it still is.
Playtoys
Those lil netbooks I fell “heir” to about a week ago? 1/2 of stage 1 parts (new keyboards) in and one as fully repaired as can be, absent the new memory module (coming). Ubuntu Remix (fresh install after wiping the drive) works pretty well. Puppy Linux Lucid 5.(I forget what numbers *heh*) seemed to work better, just off a USB flash drive, but multiple tries installing it to the hard drive borked, so this will be Good Enough (for this lil netbook) for now. *shrugs* It’s sorta like a 10” tablet in landscape mode w/a decent enough keyboard (instead of an onscreen Frustrator *heh*).
Slow as all get-out, though, and the lil thing will only take a max of 2GB (has 1GB installed–completely unusable as the Win7 compy it started life as), but at ~$27 to upgrade to 2GB, that’s a no-brainer.
So, so far I’ve put ~$27 into this lil netbook, what with buying a charger and a new keyboard. Fair enough. Ditto on the other one, but had to get the keyboard from a different (slower) supplier, ‘cos the other is white, and wanted to match it with a white keyboard. The other also has Win7 on it (Ultimate–installed “aftermarket”), so my Wonder Woman says she’ll use it to play Freecell since the version on Win 8.1 is so crappy, and only available via the Metro *cough* Modern tiles. *gag*
Unless we can find folks who don’t need any more than these can do and who also do need a real keyboard, I guess these will just be lil playtoys.
So be it.
Déjà vu All Over Again
The problem with reading fiction is that there is a limited number of plots, and I’ve read them all many, many times, in so many combinations and permutations that I invariably think, “Déjà vu all over again,” when reading a novel. Characters, descriptive narrative, and minute plot variations are the interest points I read fiction for anymore. Well, that and a writer’s deftness (or lack thereof) with a story arc, etc. *shrugs* There’s enough left to feed the addiction. Re-reading exceptionally well-written fiction is quite often much more interesting than most new material available.
Non-fiction? Different criteria in many ways.
My Greenish Thumb
Nice to see my Wonder Woman’s houseplants make a comeback from a Winter of Cat Destructo action, simply from being put outside (some in shade, indirect light, some out in the open). A few months of “thriving in the wild” (nope, even when I did this last year, no supplemental watering) seems to do them wonders.
My “tire-augmented” hugekultur compost bed/garden seems to be doing well. Flowers blooming and HUGE jalapeno plants grown from seed (flowering and already producing peppers) seem to testify to the worth of putting in the little extra to build the thing. Ease of weeding is also a plus. Now that everything’s up and thriving, mulch to come. Expanding this concept in the back yard. . .
The grass is growing so fast this year, I’ve only had one chance to use my fav mower–the chain-driven Fiskars reel mower–a real joy to mow with, but nothing over 6”. When rain keeps the mowing to one day a week (or my aching back–see below–says, “Another day, my friend”) 6” comes pretty quickly. Oh, well. At least it gives me more grass clippings to “drunk compost” when I have to use the gas mower. Hate all the noise, fumes and crap it stirs up in the air. At least I can wear hearing protection and a dust mask. *shrugs* It still looks scalped, not cut, but that’s a rotary mower for ya.
Gas mower doesn’t adjust handle height like the Fiskars does, though, so I always have to mow hunched over a bit. That’s a pain in the back (actually, I have a much lower opinion of that, IYKWIMAITTYD 😉 ). Still, I tell myself, “Grass clippings. Compost. Deal with it.”
I Post These Kinds of Things Because You’re Slacking Off
The problem with self-pub? Whole HERDS of 20-something illiterate liberal arts graduates “writing” books for a “readership” of their peers. The sheer depth of their cultural, historical and LITERARY illiteracy (grammar atrocities, word misuse, COMPLETE misunderstanding of background and usage of common expressions, etc., etc.) is mind-boggling. It’s too late to lobotomize them. They’ve already done such a good job on themselves, already.
(Yes, there are a few who actually either know how to use a dictionary and form moderately coherent sentences. . . or else have gone outside their cohort and enlisted the aid of the rare literate proofreader/editor to clean up their glurge.)
Yeh, yeh. Dylan Thomas said it best (though about a different kind of death): “Rage, rage against the dying of the light. . . ” *heh*
The Reality-Based Fantasies of Anti-GMO
Anti-GMOers have this fantasy that some plant foods are “pure,” unmodified genetically. They are are to be pitied for their illiteracy. Almost ALL plants consumed by humans as food today have been genetically modified from their original forms, most of which ranged from mildly toxic to only marginally nutritious. Without a history (and prehistory) of human genetic modification of plants, we’d all still be carnivores.