Question of the Day
- Thread starter kwilson
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I read a lot.
Right now I'm reading Rainbow Six by Tom Clancy. Really long book...
Right now I'm reading Rainbow Six by Tom Clancy. Really long book...
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I don't know what it is, but I am not a fan of reading fictional books--at least at this time. I think it has a lot do with the fact that I'd rather play a game or watch a movie and be able to actually see the visions and ideas of other people rather than read something and generate images from my own mind. Because I'm familiar with my own images. Even this explanation doesn't satisfy me personally.
Last book was probably... a mandatory read of To Kill A Mockingbird my junior year of high school. I liked it enough. Not enough to seek out more fictional reading, but yeah. Well, actually, I've been reading a biography of Orson Welles. It's more or less fiction given the way it's written. But I postponed that for a bit until I finally watch Citizen Kane soon.
Last book was probably... a mandatory read of To Kill A Mockingbird my junior year of high school. I liked it enough. Not enough to seek out more fictional reading, but yeah. Well, actually, I've been reading a biography of Orson Welles. It's more or less fiction given the way it's written. But I postponed that for a bit until I finally watch Citizen Kane soon.
Roach, I thought you were a writer? Writers NEED to read, man! It's not just imagery and aural effects that the written word gets across. The depth of emotions, the complexity that only language can convey in the written form, the play on words that just can't be seen or comprehended when spoken aloud, the details of a scene that a 20 second clip on a screen just can't get across, etc.
Fiction takes a leisurely stick and stirs up the muddy bottom of your own philosophies, smiles, terrors, pleasures and depressions. You may think you know yourself deeply, but your mind will surprise you with how often it can come up with something new and shiny. I can't avoid the unrelenting, and two-dimensional negativity that Peter Jackson laid on Lord Denethor in the Return of the King who should have been a character of tragic nobility and pride that was more to be pitied than despised...the book got it across, however.
Fictional literature is an entertainment that typically lasts longer than a 2 hour movie or a 12 hour video game.
To that end, I most recently read an elegantly simple, fantasy-adventure story called The Name of the Wind most recently (first in a *sigh* trilogy). Before that, it was Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer.
Fiction takes a leisurely stick and stirs up the muddy bottom of your own philosophies, smiles, terrors, pleasures and depressions. You may think you know yourself deeply, but your mind will surprise you with how often it can come up with something new and shiny. I can't avoid the unrelenting, and two-dimensional negativity that Peter Jackson laid on Lord Denethor in the Return of the King who should have been a character of tragic nobility and pride that was more to be pitied than despised...the book got it across, however.
Fictional literature is an entertainment that typically lasts longer than a 2 hour movie or a 12 hour video game.
To that end, I most recently read an elegantly simple, fantasy-adventure story called The Name of the Wind most recently (first in a *sigh* trilogy). Before that, it was Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer.
Question of the Day:
In your rich and famous fantasies, what profession do you have?
Writer - it's something I can visualize more easily. After all, I don't have much of a grasp on what a movie star's life is really like. But I can picture a writer's lifestyle easily. And it's one that suits me - up all night writing, sleeping in, lucrative book deals. All that good stuff. And plenty of money to pay the attractive pool boys. Mmmm - eye candy.
In your rich and famous fantasies, what profession do you have?
Writer - it's something I can visualize more easily. After all, I don't have much of a grasp on what a movie star's life is really like. But I can picture a writer's lifestyle easily. And it's one that suits me - up all night writing, sleeping in, lucrative book deals. All that good stuff. And plenty of money to pay the attractive pool boys. Mmmm - eye candy.
Journalist. Preferably a game journalist. Hopefully by then game journalism will have become recognized as a profession, and I can write for an intelligent game magazine/publication/whatever (and still contribute to MyGamer, of course 
)
Unfortunately, a lot of the magazine's out there are guys talking like hyped-up 13-year-olds. I have seen a few that talk like an actual person (i.e. Edge, a UK publication), and with any luck, that kind of writing will grow. Until then, I await a video game journalist position as the token female on staff. Yay!
) Unfortunately, a lot of the magazine's out there are guys talking like hyped-up 13-year-olds. I have seen a few that talk like an actual person (i.e. Edge, a UK publication), and with any luck, that kind of writing will grow. Until then, I await a video game journalist position as the token female on staff. Yay!
Meggo the Eggo said:Journalist. Preferably a game journalist. Hopefully by then game journalism will have become recognized as a profession, and I can write for an intelligent game magazine/publication/whatever (and still contribute to MyGamer, of course
Unfortunately, a lot of the magazine's out there are guys talking like hyped-up 13-year-olds. I have seen a few that talk like an actual person (i.e. Edge, a UK publication), and with any luck, that kind of writing will grow. Until then, I await a video game journalist position as the token female on staff. Yay!
Don't forget, Meggo, that many print publications are struggling right now. It's tough to break in to the racket. Having done the online thing for a while, I can say that it's probably a better bet that the Internet is the future of gaming journalism...unless you want to work for Sessler and Webb at G4TV. But, of course, that has it's own perils.
Personally, if I was rich and famous, I think I'd really want to put a lot of time into philanthropy...don't get me wrong, there'd be a lot of investments and properties to keep me up-to-date financially, but I really wouldn't mind working on large scale problems for humankind...as obtuse, superstitious and ignorant as we can be sometimes, I think we have great potential.
Scribe: To be general, I read, just not fictional works. I can foresee myself in some future time reading more fiction and stuff, just not right now. As for me being a writer, I don't consider myself that advanced. I mean, I haven't studied the specific methods writers use, but I know of general things that artists use no matter what. I'm more interested in the structure of things and ideas anyway, so words are just... details until you put them into the structure of the whole thing in some intelligent way I suppose. Besides, my capacities as a writer are currently employed only in video game journalism. It's not like I'm trying to write slick and intelligent creative short stories. Movies and games are my specialty.
I realize that each form of entertainment or art has its own intrinsic substance or properties that it works with. Usually everything created in that form is informed by these fundamental properties. That's why it's pointless to compare works across mediums, specifically books adapted from movies and movies adapted from books (unless the writing is inherently cinematic or vice-versa). Their concerns are not the same, so they don't translate seamlessly. You have to look at that context.
Finnegan's Wake... there's a book I've heard about that interests me on a few levels, although no actionable interest right now.
I realize that each form of entertainment or art has its own intrinsic substance or properties that it works with. Usually everything created in that form is informed by these fundamental properties. That's why it's pointless to compare works across mediums, specifically books adapted from movies and movies adapted from books (unless the writing is inherently cinematic or vice-versa). Their concerns are not the same, so they don't translate seamlessly. You have to look at that context.
Finnegan's Wake... there's a book I've heard about that interests me on a few levels, although no actionable interest right now.
In my rich and famous scenario, I have myself owning and actively involved in an independent video game studio making two types of games: 1) awesome games that are fun (without massive production values), and 2) experimental/artistic games that seek to establish video games as having the potential to be truly life-altering or meaningful in ways video games haven't been (without sacrificing all joy of playing/interacting of course).
I dunno maybe the "what's your drug of choice" question. It gives me a chance to say Junior Mints again. :biggrin:
Cuz emos can't help themselves.
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Because you've garduated Katie. You're no longer my #2 minion, now you're #1! Congrats! Now go celebrate ya crazy kid!
My god, what a day for celebration. Mistress is rising in the ranks. Oh the places she'll go.
Question of the Day:
What is your current favorite band or music artist?
Me, The White Stripes. They have been for about 3-4 months now. And they got a new CD coming out in half a month.
Honorable mention goes to Feist, a Canadian folk-pop artist.
What is your current favorite band or music artist?
Me, The White Stripes. They have been for about 3-4 months now. And they got a new CD coming out in half a month.
Honorable mention goes to Feist, a Canadian folk-pop artist.