Year: 2023

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Unusual Secular Celebrations to Beat Holiday Blues

Introduction

Secular Celebrations - Xmas bough

The holiday season can be stressful, and holiday blues are not imaginary. While the connection between holilday celebrations and suicide rate increases has been debunked as myth, a survey by the American Psychological Association found that “38% of people felt their stress levels increased during the holiday season.” Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a form of clinical depression known to increase during the winter months in the Northern hemisphere due to changes in the duration of sunlight. These changes affect our body rhythms, neurochemical balance, and mental outlook when darkness lasts longer and cold weather keeps us cooped up indoors.

Many factors contribute to our mental outlook during the holidays, isolation being one of them. Another can be the perceived discrepancy between the joy celebrating the holidays is supposed to bring and the reality of our personal and political lives. If the joy and peace on earth celebrating a deity’s alleged date of birth seem lacking, where does one turn to receive such comfort during the long, dreary, lonely days of winter? Other orgranized religious holidays such as Kwanasaa and Hanukkah are peculiar to the ethnic groups in which they originated. And, similar to the pagan holidays of Saturnalia and St. Lucy’s Day, they serve as calendrial placeholders in substiituting winter solstice celebrations for the Christmas holiday.

Atheists, agnostics, and undecideds should have some means of expressing and expunging their hopes and fears during the holidays. To meet that need, let’s go beyond the evolution of Father Christmas by identifying three unusual secular celebrations to beat those holiday blues:

Burning the Clocks

Secular Celebrations - Burning the Clocks

An “antidote to the commercializaation of Christmas,” the Burning of Clocks event parades willow-made clocks and lanterns through the streets of Brighton England down to the beach. Upon their arrival, a raging bonfire consumes them to the accompaniment of fireworks. Regarded as an investment of the participants’ “wishes, hopes and fears,” the festive burning of these symbols signals the passage of time and spiritual rejuvenation for the upcoming year.

Festivus

Arising from an episode of the Seinfeld TV sitcom, Festivus has grown into a secular holiday observed all across the nation. Celebrated on December 23rd as an “alternative to the pressures and commercialism of the Christmas season,” it spoofs traditional ceremonies with its bare aluminum pole stuck in a living room corner, wrestling competitions among household members and guests, a joyous feast, and “an airing of grievances” about disappointments suffered throughout the year. Building on its initial popularity, notables such as former Wisconsin governor Jim Doyle have helped promote its rituals and pageantry to such an extent that it has been recommended to become a formally-recognized national holiday.

Secular Celebrations -Festivus

HumanLight

Secular Celebrations -- HumanLight

HumanLight is a humanist holiday also celebrated on the 23rd of December. The New Jersey Humanist Network founded the day in 2001 to commemorate the holiday season without encroaching upon other religious and secular events occuring during the same timeframe. Its goal is to promote “positive, secular human values of reason, compassion, humanity and hope” Aside from the injunction not to use the event to criticise religion, celebrations can be as individual as its sponsors choose to make them.

Summation

More such secular celebrations of the December holidays exist. In fact, Midwinter Day destroys the confines of time and space by celebrating the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration during the continent’s southern winter solstice in July. But going to such extremes isn’t necessary. The examples above show that the spirit of winter solstice celebrations is not confined to religious spectacles alone. Atheists and agnostics need not feel isolated and depressed. They, too, can celebrate the holiday season in a way appropriate to their belief systems. And isn’t the human spirit that motivates all these festivals, secular and spiritual alike, the value most worth celebrating and sharing?

If you care to add to this list or feel differently about such events, tell us by clicking on the Leave a Comment link above to leave your reply.

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Why Shamans Are Important

Curandero shaman example of why shamans are important

You may not know it, but shamans are important to you. In fact, you encounter them every day without realizing it. Given the ascendancy of doctors and scientific practice in Western medicine, shamans and their therapies are dusmissed and/or ridiculed as so much pseudoscience like witches, faith healers, and the evil eye.

So, why pay any attention to them? What do they have to offer? What makes them so important? Before delving into that, it helps to know what they are.

Definitions

Shamans from different cultures
Examples of different types of shamans

There are as many definitions of shamans and shamanism as there are indigenoous pagan religions in the world.  Each has its own set of spiritual beliefs and practices that arise from them. Some form the basis of their community’s form of medical treatment; others constitute the basis of their religious practices, and some comprise a set of practices for leading a full and healthy life. A few even allow their practitioners to enter other people’s minds or the astral plane to communicate with their ancestors. Even the word “shaman” comes from the Russion word “saman” which derives from the Tangusic language of Eastern Siberia and has been applied by Western anthropologists as something of a catchall term for such practitioners.

To encompass the range of these differing philosopies is next to impossible. But for purposes of this blog piece, let’s borrow the relatively straightforward definition in the glossary of the second edition of my novel, Mission: Soul Rescue. It states there that a shaman is “a religious practitioner capable of entering the spirit world through altered states of consciousness to direct psychic energies into the physical world for healing, divination, or helping humans in some way.”

Examples of Why Shamans Are Important

Mr. Natural
Mr. Natural–pop culture example of why shamans are important

Pretty heavy stuff, eh? But, as mentioned above, not as strange or exotic as you might think.  One example: the practice of pharmacy evolved out of the practices of apothecaries and druggists during the late middle ages. Pharmacy shops began to appear in Europe as early as the twelfth century. At that time herbalists concocted the nostrums and remedies that cured the sick and healed the injured. Much of their lore reappears today  distilled in the essences and formulas of our modern drugs and treatments. Atropine from atropa belladonna (deadly nightshade) is a prime example.

More to the point–examples of shamans pervade our culture through our books, TV, and our movies. If you’ve read the exploits of Marvel Comics First Flight (Shaman) or played the role of Nightwolf in Mortal Combat’s fighting game franchise, you’ve encountered a shaman. Rafiki (The Lion King) and Venus (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) are two more examples of shamans in popular culture.

Farther afield but within the realm of shamans-as–spiritual-mediums are the 1960s countercultural favorite, Mr. Natural and the 21st century’s Elsa from the movie Frozen. Even orthodox relgion has its share of fictional shamans. Father Joseph Dyer (Exorcist III) and DC Comics’ John Constantine come immediately to mind. Not all of these examples embody shamanism in the strictest sense defined above, but they indicate the depth to which shamanism pervades our cultural landscape.

What It Means

Example of neuroscientist investigatiing consciousness

“So What?” some of you might be thinking. All of the above examples are fictional fantasies; they have no counterparts in ordinary reality. Or do they? Elon Musk and the people at Meta Platforms are working feverishly to create what CEO Mark Ruckerberg calls the first metaverse to “help people connect, find communities, and grow businesses.” A number of scientists including notables such as Heather Berlin are exploring the neural basis of consciousness, dynamic unconscious processes, and creativity.  Science educator Isaac Arthur‘s YouTube videos focus on futurism, artificial intelligence, transhumanism and other related topics.

Now that the social stigma is gone, researchers are exploring the mental health benefits of mind-altering drugs such as Lysergic acid dimethylamide (LSD) and dimethyltryptamine (DMT), a compound commonly used by Shuar, curandero, and other shamans of Central and South America. in their spiritual rites and medical practices.

The accumulating evidence suggests that the divide between the explorations of material science and the spiritual journeyings of contemporary shamans is narrower than ever before. It took scientists over a half century to create the “magic” that imbued Spock’s tricoder and today’s smart phone. In similar fashion, today’s digital engineers are creating entryways that blend  the material  reality of the body with the unconscious reality of the mind into one cohesive fabric. With their history of venturing into the spiritual realm of the unconscious, shamans have a major role to play in shaping that integration for everyone’s benefit.

What do you think?

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Fast Writing: Ten Step Process

Fast Writing
Ten Tips To Fast Writing

One panel on which I’m participating at the Multiverse Convention in Atlanta (Oct. 20-22)is titled Fast Writing. Though uncertain what the panel topic originators mean by this term (maybe the panelists will define it), here is my ten-step process for overcoming the greatest fear of most writers–the tyranny of the blank page.

Outline before you begin

Fast Writing: Outline
Outline Before Starting to Write

Whether writing a novel, creating a procedure to accomplish a task, or responding to a question on a blue-book written exam final, preparing even a simple outline takes only a few minutes. Organizing your thoughts this way keeps you on task and enables you to meet your deadlines, whether 30 minutes or six months.

Decide whether you are an organic or architectural writer

Particularly in writing fiction, understanding your creative style can save time and effort. Architectural writers, such as many mystery writers, work from detailed outlines They need to know the plot points to place the clues for their readers. Organic writers take a more fluid approach. They start with a basic concept or conflict and build their stories from there. Discovering which type of writing style suits you best takes time and practice, but results in less time and dissatisfaction overall.

Don’t Fret Over Deadlines

Fast Writing: Deadlines
Deadlines Can Be Our Friends

Consider them your friends instead. Without meeting deadlines, most projects never would get done and stories would never get written. There’s always one more fact to research or another way to write a scene. It’s called procrastination.

The secret to keeping the deadline monkey off your back is having a plan. Break the interval between when you receive the assignment (now) and the time the assignment comes due (future). Once you know how much time you have, you can break it into its component parts. For example–to write a 60,000 word novel, give yourself six months timeframe. That means writing ten thousand words a month spread over thirty days, or prodlucing three hundred thirty words a day. That’s roughly one and a third pages assuming you’re writing a standard double-spaced mss. using 12-point arial or Times Roman font face. Taking off weekends, (more on that below) would leave approximately twenty workdays per month, which stretches daily production to 500 words per day., roughly two type-written pages–a very achievable goal–IF you stick to it.

Write Freely.

Free Writing: Let It Fly!
Let It Fly!

This injunction is the one  I violate most frequently. And one I expect the panel will address. In other words, don’t pause to correct spelling and grammar errors while writing. Allow the prose to flow out of your fingers onto your word-processing keys as you compose. Even in this simple sentence I violated this rule twice to correct for spelling and word usage. On the other hand, exchanging word-processing for handwriting is more applicable to today’s writers. Corrections made  at the moment words are placed on a page helps set up the verbiage and verbiage to follow (Remember organic vs. architectural writing).

Stop mid-scene.

Fast Writing: Stop Mid-Scene
Stop in Mid-Scene

The next several steps apply more to fiction rather than non-fiction writing, but they’re applicable in the second instance, too. In this instance, mid-scene means concluding your narrative at a point where the action has built in intensity and you’ve reached your word and emotional quotas for the day. Ernest Hemingway advised this point in the story was a good place to quit and resume the action the following day. In my experience, few things in writing are more difficult than restoring interest in the next scene after you’ve reached an emotional climax in the one preceding it.

To remedy the mid-story tyranny of the blank page, i.e. a new chapter, end your day’s writing in mid-climax. Or, if you’ve reached a determining plot point, end the scene with a question or problem your protagonist needs to resolve in the next scene or chapter. If all else fails, take Raymond Chandler‘s advice and have the villain come through the door with guns blazing.  That keeps the reader turning pages and forces you, the writer, to figure out what happens next (See Step one–the need for a good outline).

Revise What You Wrote the Previous Day

Fast Writing: Revise
First Revision

The guidebooks say most writingis rewriting. Revising the day after gets you staDrted on that process  to a polished final manuscrpt. It also helps get you into the emotional flow of what you plan to write today. Think of the following day’s revision as a mental warmup for the current day’s writing.

Take Breaks Every So Often.

The ergonomic specialists at HealthCentral.com recommend standing up and getting away from the desk every 30-60 minutes.  Taking a break refreshes the mind and relieves body stress as well as renews your energy to continue writing. The creative meenergy of your prose flows from the critical and emotional energies of your mind, so recharge by taking a break  on a regular basis.

Meet Your Quotas

Though this seems to contradict the previous step, it reinforces the point expressed in Step 2. Take breaks, but organize your time. If you adhere to the writing schedule outlined in Step 3 on a daily basis, you’ll meet your weekly, monthly, and overall objectives based on the timeframe you set.

Allow Ideas to Percolate

Fast Writing: Subconsious
Let Ideas Percolate

Perhaps you do end a scene on an emotional downturn and don’t know how to continue. Or you don’t know how to get your protagonist out of a complicated or dangerous situation. Take a break, take a shower, go for a walk, do anything that takes your focus off the problem that vexes you. It’s not for nothing life advisors recommend you sleep on an idea before making a decision. Allow your subconscious to work on the problem while you devote your time and attention to other issues. You’d be surprised how many problems can be solved this way.

Live!

Enjoy life as much as possible. To fuel your writing, your creative self must have raw material from which to draw. This, to me, seems the underlying injunction to much method acting. In order to embody the emotion, they must experience it first. And that means living. It holds true for writers as well. Beginning writers often are advised to write what they know. Thinking they don’t have sufficient life experiences, they make something up. But their narratives ring hollow because they haven’t experienced the emotion or situation themselves.

Of course, taken to extreme, this means crime writers need to commit the crimes about which they write. But, rather than commit some illegal or immoral act, they can research or interview those people who have experienced or committed such acts. Those instances aside, a writer can share those experiences all of us feel: love, friendship, betrayal, hatred–the list goes on.  The importaint point is that in order to make your writing genuine, you need to experience those emotions yourself. And that takes time. And organization.  Something, hopefully, this list has imparted.

The Upshot

All ten of these steps are recommendations. Like my advice in “Five Steps for Power Panelists,” they are most honored in the breech more often than not. But adhering to them most of the time should result in the outcome(s) you desire–a completed first draft ready for substantive revisions should they be necessary.

Which of these steps do y ou employ? Do you have other fast writing you employ that help meet your goals? Tell us in the Leave A Reply section.

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Five Tips for Power Panelists

One fantasy convention down and another to go (Multiverse in Atlanta, Oct. 20-22)! As another part of an informal series on authorship and writing hacks, here are five tips for power panelists that make panels work for them and their audiences.

1. Be Prepared

Five Tips for Power PanelistsThis one seems obvious, but involves more than mere familiarity with the subject. Too often, fantasy writers view a topic through their individual lens.  That can be illustrative, but such a narrow focus may not apply to all varieties of fantasy or science fiction. Power panelists realize the differences between writing low or high fantasy, for example, or young adult and middle-grade, are quite distinctive and engender differing perspectives on the nature and focus of writing fiction for their audiences.

How to address this? Acquire some familiarity with the work of your fellow panel members breeds respect and cooperation in your discussions. Cultivate some knowledge of your fellow panelists’ perspectives by checking out their website or emailing them for their opinions before the event.

BTW, being on time and staying on topic helps, too!

2. Consider Your Audience

Five Tips for Power PanelistsThis tip elaborates on what appears above. Just as writers slant their stories to the values, interests, and expectations of their readerships, power panelists direct their responses toward the topic at hand with their audience in mind. Does it consist primarily of writers or academics? Or is it composed primarily of readers and fantasy fans?

In most instances, it combines both. Therefore, power panelists keep their participation in the discussion on a level available to everyone. Don’t delve into fantasy trivia or writing esoterica unless the audience indicates they wish to pursue the topic more deeply. Most importantly, power panelists aren’t condescending to them or their fellow panelists.

3. Encourage Audience Participation

Five Tips for Power PanelistsFor some panel members, this tip may contradict the concept of a panel discussion, i.e. a discussion among the members of a panel. Regardless of that, some of the best discussions I’ve witnessed resulted from questions or observations contributed by the audience. If a topic is provocative enough in itself, or if the panel discussion of it is sufficiently free-flowing and involving, such discussion conduces a dialog between the panel and its listeners. Not only does such involvement measure a power panelist and a panel’s success as entertainers, it liberates creative ideas panel members may never have considered.

4. Set Limits to the Discussion

Five Tips for Power PanelistsThis point may be in the convention guidelines, but it bears repeating. Power panelists respect the ideas and beliefs of all participants, panelists and audience members alike. To facilitate that respect, the moderator should lay out the ground rules before the start of discussion. Most often, that means reigning in those individuals whose enthusiasm for a particular topic overwhelms their inhibitions and consideration for others.

One method to establish control: agree upon an absurb or nonthreatening safe word like “sandwich” at the beginning of the discussion.  tactfully subdues an overzealous panelist or audience member who overextends his or her say on the topic under discussion.

5. Keep Things Short and Simple

This last tip harkens back to the first. Kristen Arnold of “Panelist Do’s and Don’ts” recommends introducing yourself in two or three sentences. She advises to “Be ready to support your points with concrete examples and crisp, concise stories that humanize your message and drive it home.” Easier said than done, but striving for brevity this way enables power panelists to set the conversational tone and identifies themas someone whose contributions are worth a listen or writing them down!

Summing It Up

Serving on a panel or being a moderator can be a tricky thing. Power panelists know having a discussion with people they meet just before taking their seat at the podium can be nerve-wracking. Such unfamiliarity makes having a natural and free-flowing discussion difficult, much less informative or entertaining. However, following these five tips should make involvement in such discussions an enjoyable and rewarding experience.

What are some power tips you employ when you are a panel member? Have you witnessed or participated in some panels where these tips failed or backfired? Tell us in the Comments section below.

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Rule of Seven Hack for Authors

Rule of Seven in Marketing
Rule of Seven Hack for Authors to Reach Target Market

One of the new concepts discussed at the  2023 Imaginarium Convention this past July was how the Rule of Seven affects promoting author fiction. Originally coined by American movie moguls in the 1930s, the concept states that potential customers, i.e. theater-goers, must see or hear about a film at least seven times before commiting to watch it. While this rule-of-thumb may have worked back then, does it still hold true for marketing in the digital age? If so, how does it work for authors?

Then And Now

Drawing public attention to a new Ruitem or service was more difficult in the 1930s. Fewer advertising outlets existed, and promotional techniques were less sophisticated. Radio, newspapers, and magazines acted as the prime purveyors of information and promotion. Consequently, movie studios flooded the few media outlets available with theatrical movie previews and stories about the stars in those movies in magazines such as Star and the Hollywood Reporter.  Such activities still go on today with promotional budgets far beyond the cost of creating 1930s films devoted to alerting and (for the most expensive films) deluging the movie-going public with information about the latest cinematic releases.

Paradigm Shift
Rule of Seven Hack for Authors

However, today’s fiction-readers receive information about new and favorite writers from a firehose of media outlets. Advertising and promotions inundate them to such an extent that repeated exposures to the same message or brand may have a counter-productive effect. Research from the University of Sussex suggests that “being presented with the same message over and again could actually do more damage than good.” In short, people tune out.

An Antidote

Rule of Seven Remedy
Remedy–Rule of Seven Hack for Authors

Rather than continue to hammer the promotional message to an increasingly resistant buying public, the answer may lie in less repetition and more diversity. Results from that same study indicate repeating a strong promotional message may be counter-productive. As a result, the target audience becomes saturated with the message and “they gravitate toward novelty.”

But not just to anything new or different. People enjoy a blend of the new with the familiar. Repeated exposure to the new product or service remains key so long as it is interlaced with more customary concepts and ideas.  As the researchers concluded, “What appears to be key is variety.”

Importance of Branding

Of course, The Walt Disney Company (Disney) has millions of dollars to flood the media with their variety of products. Most authors, including myself, have little or none. Yet authors can take a page out of the Disney playbook and hone it to scale. Disney’s theme parks and merchandise still serve to promote its movies and cartoons, the bedrock of Disney’s various enterprises.

Branding to Sell Your Novels
Branding as Applied to Rule of Seven Hack for Authors

Authors and writers can do the same. They may not have the resources or exposure of the Disney Corporation, but even its founder started out with pen and paper and an idea from which he sought to tell stories. Fiction writers have their own ideas and imagination to draw upon. And unlike the writers and artists for Disney, they can intersperse the promotions for their books and stories with narratives of their own unique experiences–promotional branding in written form. In fact, such product promotions may be stronger on an individual level because they can take a more personal and familiar approach.

What It All Means

Promoting one’s fictional works in the information age needn’t be as daunting as it first appears. The Rule of Seven still applies. Yet applying that rule must ssume a different form. Due to the multitude of advertising outlets and competitors, authors, particularly fiction writers, must know their brand and the audience(s) to which their brand appeals. More important than appearing on a dozen social media platforms like Facebook or Tik-Tok, they must develop their brand. Why? Because their books are projections of who and what they are as artists. And knowing that, hacking deep inside themselves, they can project their ideas through personal interactions with readerships (and buyers) receptive to who they are and what they have to sell.

What do you think? Let us know in the Leave a Reply section below.

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Is Russia Trolling Walt Disney?

First Inkling

Indiana Jones 5Like other film goers of the Boomer generation, I cut my movie-going teeth on adventure films like the Star Wars trilogy and (especially) Indiana Jones. Though they basically contain B-movie plots given A-list treatments, their over-the-top audacity and sheer enthusiasm made up for any shortcomings in probability or plot construction.

When Disney announced the premiere of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (IJ5), I welcomed the fan reviews despite rumors of rewrites, production delays, and on-set ego conflicts. After all, what business endeavor, particularly an artistic ones, doesn’t have its share of creative differences?

However, the overwhelming negativity of many reviews, particularly those appearing on YouTube, surprised me. Titles like “How Could Indy Flop This Badly?” and “Indiana Jones Is a Total Disaster for Disney” hyperbolized the film’s failure while providing little basis for their declarations. Many reviewers’ analyses seemed totally specious. Some ascribed the movie’s failure to Phoebe Waller-Bridge‘s inadequate performance.  Others blamed Harrison Ford as being too old for playing the role. A few perceived deeper, managerial forces at work which forced director James Mangold to reshoot scenes and alternative endings for various audiences.

Due Diligence

Due DiligenceNone of these criticisms made a lot of sense to me. If the film was this bad, mainstream media critics would roast it as well. However, most assessments tended to resemble the one provided by Inverse‘s Alex Welch which concluded the film “offers a surprisingly nuanced take on the power and utility of nostalgia.”

Reserving our judgments on that evaluation alone, my wife and I attended a Monday matinee performance and were enthralled the entire 142 minutes of run time. We left the theater shaking our heads. What gives?

Common Assessment

At first glance, It appears many of the film’s most negative critics have their own political and social axes to grind. Some, like Midnight’s Edge, berate Disney films in general for imposing a “forced diversity” component upon the audience.  Others, like Ryan Kinel, creator of RK Outpost, go further, blasting Disney films for promoting what they consider “sjw (social justice warrior)/woke content.”

All of this type of negativity John Mangold and Quora commentator, Chris Walters, dismiss as part of a growing yet grudging fandom menace.  Walters encapsulates the group’s feelings this way, “many who are unhappy with anything after the original three [Star Wars]  movies, they don’t like Lucas tinkering with the original three movies. They don’t like the three prequel movies, although some of the dialog and Jar Jar Binks are terrible. And they definitely don’t like the three movies that Disney released to finish the Skywalker saga.”

Could It Be Something Else?

Russian Troll FarmsBut is this “fandom menace” comfined to Disney alone? Or is it more widespread and insidious? Finding reliable sources disscussing this topic is difficult. However, in one critical response toward The Last Jedi, researcher Morten Bay declared the backlash to that film should be regarded with more than a grain of salt. His study, “Weaponizing the Haters,” discovered 50.9 % of the negative reviews were “politically motivated or not even human.” In actuality, these fan base disagreements are “deliberate, organized political influence measures in disguise.” Their purpose–“increasing media coverage of the fandom conflict, thereby adding to and further propagating a narrative of widespread discord and dysfunction in American society.”

Unfortunately, Morten is not so precise as to identify or give the number of Russian websites involved in such trolling activities. He also dismisses the total involvement by these trolls to no more than 21 per cent of the total online discussion. Still, provoking such dust-ups and amplifying discord through local and national media offers a tremendous return on sowing doubt and cultural uncertainty.

Conclusion

Given the rate of return, trolling a cultural icon like Disney by criticizing the movies they produce seems like a soft power weapon whose use is difficult to resist. As Vitaly Bespalov, a former operative for the St. Petersburg troll farm says, “Putin doesn’t see any conflict in such operations. He sees trolling of any kind as ‘an equivalent step to the so-called ‘negative actions’ that the West is doing against Russia.” Regarding the West’s reaction, he concludes “I think they are not used to these black games. They are more naive.”

What do you think? Let us know in the Leave a Reply section below.

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AI Threatens Publishers & Writers

AI in Book PublishingArtificial Intelligence (AI) already affects writers and the publishing industry. However, the recent release of ChatGPT threatens authors’ livelihoods on a whole new level.  In a Publisher’s Weekly opinion piece, electronics publisher Thad McElroy calls the recent innovations in AI a “game changer.” He believes “every function in trade book publishing today can be automated with the help of generative AI.” And if this assertion is true, “the trade book publishing industry as we know it will soon be obsolete. We will need to move on.”

Death knells for the publishing industry have sounded before. Remember word processors, automated printing, and “Print Is Dead”?  McElroy does, and other writer/publishers seem to agree with him. For example, Dave Chesson at Kindlepreneur gmailed that the cost for Amazon’s print-on-demand service is schedeuled  to increase on June 20th. This decision affects writers and publishers alike. If the industry’s need to move  on is real, the question becomes “To What?”

Alternatives

To thwart the apocalypse before it happens, McElroy offers a nuanced analysis of the problem with a pragmatic solution. Since AI promises to take over all the production aspects of publishing, it’s best for everyone involved to accept that fact and discover the opportunities ChatGPT and its kindred programs provide. In terms of the book-production process, for example, McElroy equates the current situation to 1988 when publishers linked the MacIntosh computer to the Linotype printer.  Dramatic increases in output resulted in exchange for increased editorial errors and mediocre page design. But readers accepted this “good enough” product quality in exchange for easier access and wider availability of resources.

Acceptable Quid Pro Quo?

Whether this exchange was equitable remains debatable. For his part, McElroy Definition of Quid Pro Quo itemizes the opportunities AI offers in terms of acquisitiion, production, and marketing. In his view, AI could depose Amazon, the over-charging, 800-pound gorilla in the publishing industry. While independent publishers like him might welcome the overthrow of their competition, individual entrepreneurs, writers, and artists could find themselves shoved further down down the publicity and marketing chain.  McElroy’s  analysis is astute, but relies heavily on his approach of book publishing being an information-dispensing industry.

Making a Choice

For authors, particularly fiction writers, the question boils down to what inspired them to become writers in the first place? Was their decision based on the promise of fame and fortune? Or because they needed to express themselves, to write something no one had ever said or thought before? Was their choice inspired by images carefully crafted on the page or by graphs and equations neatly presented on an I-pad?

George Bernard Shaw in 1911As individuals, people respond to differIent stimuli differently. George Bernard Shaw once claimed “It is the mark of the truly intelligent person to be moved by statistics.” Most of us, however, are not so swayed nor sympathetic to their impact. To impel action, people need the emotional stimulus that well-honed words on the page provide. Most of us, writers and readers included, remember a favorite book or story that stimulated our imaginations, one that prompted us to write something as good, as beautiful, as true.

A Personal Note

For me, that story was Walter Farley‘s The Black Stallion. In its honor I created a coverThe Black Stallion binder for my proposed work, Black Phantom. The binder remained empty for years, however, because I had no access to horses of any kind. Finally, when the chance to ride one did happen, I clung to the saddle horn for all I was worth while the horse galloped back to its stall for a fresh bucket of oats. However, the action, the adventure, the thrill of that incident stayed with me. Like Farley’s narrative of a boy’s enduring love for his horse, these qualities inspired the path I’ve chosen these many decades later.

This is not to say others of a more analytical bent cannot be inspired by facts and figures derived out of the multiverse of mental calculations. One of my favorite scientific authors, Carl Sagan, was at home in the professional realms of astrophysics and education. His respect for science and logical thinking came through in every book he wrote. But, his  passion did, too. In his most popular book, Cosmos, Sagan’s awe for the universe and its mysteries flies off every page, stimulating and resonating his audience with its own.

The Decision

Pros & Cons of a DecisionFor these individuals and the people inspired by them, “good enough” is not acceptable.  Publishing information remains limited to the quality and accuracy of its sources. The 1960s adage, “Garbage In, Garbage Out” (GIGO), still holds true. Currently, Chatbot writing, no matter how proficient or well-supported, cannot be as affective as human writing because it has no soul, no sense of self to be inspired by directed words on a page. To be certain, it can define the word “metaphor” and provide examples of one, but it can’t deliver one that moves human readers because it has no feelings of its own to be moved.

The reading public already drowns at the firehose of information provided by the predecessors of artificial intelligence. Do they wish to be inundated by the information tsunami that ChatGPT threatens to unleash? Probably not. Yet, the answers to such questions remain to be answered. As participants in the publishing world, everyone must decide which choice will insure our survival. As with so many other issues in this uncertain world, make your best informed decision, then wait and see.

What do you think? Put your response in the Leave a Reply section below.

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Does Being A Melungeon Matter?

Melungeon familyMelungeon–a particular yet ominous-sounding word which happens to rhyme with dungeon in English. Sometimes spelled malungeon or melongeon, the term has several meanings. The broadest of these, according to Merriam-Webster, is “one of a group of people of uncertain ancestry in the southern Appalachians, especially of eastern Tennessee.” They are said to have particular identifying  physical characteristics and possess certain magical powers. Many people want to be melungeons; others fear the identification. And certain celebrities are accused of it. What is the truth? Why does it matter?

Origins

To begin with, the origin of the term is uncertain. It originally applied to a number of families of mixed ancestries, primarily European, Native American, and Sub-Saharan African, who practiced endogamy(mating within a specific social group, caste, religious denomination, or ethnic group). In the first half of the 19th century, some Caucasians used the term to denigrate anyone with certain physical characteristics that distinguished them from the rest of the white population. After the American Civil War, racial stratification became incorporated into America’s laws and mores. As a result, the term’s application broadened to include anyone with dark hair, brown eyes, and swarthy complexion.

History

Many people who had some or all of these alleged Melungeon characteristics consequently adopted  coping strategies to avoid the social, legal, and economic stigmas associated with the designation. Some claimed Portuguese descent; others claimed Native American ancestry, Cherokee being a favored tribal affiliation. By the mid-20th century, many had assimilated into their communities or moved, but terms such as “Black Dutch” and “Black Irish” still persisted.

Personal Context

Waylon Jennings performing in 1976The reason for my interest in the appelation is two-fold. First, my father’s side of the family perpetuated the notion that our dark complections and brown eyes stemmed from our Cherokee heritage. Second, my research into the background of country-western singer Waylon Jennings uncovered the fact that his family line descended from the Shipley line of eastern Tennessee with “a lot of Indian blood mixed in.” This included Cherokee and Commanche, which he accepted as part of his Black Dutch heritage.

Importance

Whether this slur contributed to Jennings’ outlaw persona remains open to question. Having grown up within yet apart from an endogamous community, it factors into my feelings of being an outsider. Such feelings may or may not matter depending on what you want our society to be. My post on Black History Month could be a good place to start your involvement.

Whatever your feelings about this topic, words do have impact.  In a world where a person’s features are scrutinized to determine which side of the cultural divide they’re on, an outmoded, exclusionary, yet stubbornly persistent designation should have no place in a free and truly liberated society.

What do you think? Let me know in the Comments box below.

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Discover Media You Can Trust

Discover Media You Can TrustIn your reading, did you discover media you can trust? Do they cite their sources and check their facts? Or do such constraints seem to get in the way of a good story, convincing opinion, or solid argument?

Reading Reservations

These reservations among others occurred to me while following the links in a story about Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems that appeared in the Science & Technology section of the news website 1440.  The snippet contained two articles which contained stories about artificial intelligence ChatGPT programs creating biased narratives about a conservative American professor and an Australian shire mayor. The programs falsely accused the former of sexually harassing his students and the latter of accepting bribes before he ran for office. Two tawdry instances among many others that show artificial intelligence programs cannot be trusted–right?

Following the reference trailDown the Rabbit Hole

Perhaps. But dig a little deeper and it turns out that the updated bersion of the bot story correctly identified the mayor as a whistle blower who “was not involved in the payment of bribes.” As for the professor’s implication that the reason why a ChatGPT made up a quote, cited a non-existent article, and referenced a false claim against him is because “the algorithms are no less biased and flawed than the people who program them.”  However, his claim that  “recent research has shown ChatGPT’s poltical bias” fails to stand up against even casual scrutiny. Following the link to his source reveals that quote comes from an article, “Danger in the Machine: The Perils of Political and Demographic Biases Embedded in AI Systems” which appears on the website for MI, an abbreviation for the Manhattan Institute.

More Sleuthing

Detective workOK. At this point, case closed. Or is it? One instance appears on the BBC News web page, the other on the web page of a “leading free market think tank.” Both sources for these links appear reliable, but consider the context in which these articles appear. The BBC is government-owned entity renowned for being “the world’s oldest newscaster” according to Wikipedia;  MI or the Manhattan Institute, formerly the Manhattan Iinstitute for Policy Research, formerly the International Center for Economic Policy Studies, is a conservative think tank originally founded in support of supply-side economics and privitization of government services during president Reagan’s administration. Two less-in-common resources would seem likely to be paired in the same article.

The Conundrum

Does this mean both viewpoints are equally valid? Or do both contain biases of their own that mitigate anyMBFC logo objective evaluation of the issue? My procedure: when in doubt in the 21st century, conduct a Google search. The first result of a “media bias” search turned up Media Bias Fact Check (MBFC) whose first menu item contains a list of nine bias categories in a continuum ranging from Least Biased to Left Biased to Right Biased to Conspiraacy-Pseudoscience.  Each of these categories identifies media outlets, newspapers, websites, and social platforms in alphabetical order from around the world. Each entry is measured and evaluated against a system of standards designed to measure the source’s objectivity, honesty, and reliability.

Site Evaluations

How did the two web sites measure up? About as expected. The BBC ranked slightly left of center on the bias scale, their credibility  marred only by their occasional use of emotion-laden headlines and some questionable. left-leaning sources.  The Manhattan Institute received a Right bias rating that almost reached Extreme due to their lack of transparency about their funding, their use of poor sources, and one failed fact check. The overall result showed the BBC wavered very slightly to the left of the center point denoting complete objectivity on the MBFC continuum while MI landed on the Extreme right of the MBFC continuum because of its blatant promotion of right-leaning philosophies and causes.

Take-aways

What does this investigation show?

  1. Tracking down the credibility of content and its sources can be a time-consuming rabbit-hole of a search.
  2. Even the most reliable sources can fall victim to sensationalized claims and headlines.
  3. Some news outlets (Radio Free Europe and Al-Jazeera come to mind) are not the biased sources their detractors claim them to be.
  4. Many impostor sites, both human and AI-written, dispense false information under such banal titles such as the Southwest Minnesota Herald (Metric Media alone drives over a thousand of such impostor web sites that look like legitimate local news sources).
  5. Though alphabetical, MBFC’s listings tend to cluster around T and A because initial articles are included as part of the title.

Note of Warning

Chatbot logoMBFC is only one of several sites devoted to information objectivity and bias-identification. Many media experts regard Snopes as the gold standard in this area. MBFC has its flaws to be sure, e.g. its founder admits that its grading scale is by no means rigorous or scienfific. Still, it does identify and evaluate unexpected and unknown sources which contextualizes the information you and I read and base our opinions/decisions. If an article or website tells a good story or promotes a strong opinion, MSFC is one place you can consult to evaluate the quality and reliabity of the content these media sources use in telling it.

What do you think? Tell us in the Leave a Reply section below.

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Writing Tips: Rule Of Three

Last month we identified the five best love poems to honor St. Patrick’s Day. This month, we examine the Rule of Three in celebration of good writing.

Rule of ThreeWhat Is the Rule of Three?

The Rule of Three is a writer’s guideline for conveying the most information in the briefest amount of space in the most effective way possible.  The rule applies to characters in a story, words in a title, or adjectives in front of an idea. Advertisers use it for its brevity, poets for its rhythm, and comedians for their wit. Growing out of the oral tradition of story-telling, the Rule of Three possesses something of a mythic quality by enabling audiences to comprehend and remember concepts in a train of thought.

Examples

The Rule of Three appears everywhere:

  • In folklore: The Three Little pigs, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Three Billy Goats Gruff
  • In literature: The Three Musketeers, the three ghosts which visit Scrooge in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol,  the Three Witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
  • In religion: the Three Wise Men who visited Jesus after his birth, the three gods (Vishnu, Shiva, and Brahma) of the Hindu religion,  the three aspects of god in the Christian trinity.
  • Expressions and Catchphrases: Tom, Dick, & Harry–a phrase used to describe anyone or people of little consequence; “Turn on, tune in, drop out” phrase of the 1960s counter-culture movement; “Veni, vidi, Vici (I came, I saw, I conquered)” attributed to Julius Caesar.

Special Instances

The last set of examples above exemplifies the use of the tricolon in good writing. They achieve a symmetry  of expression through the parallelism in their number of words or syllables and in the likeness of their concepts. Those progressions whose concepts increase in weight or magnitude are called ascending tricolons; those expressions that do the opposite are called descending tricolons. Bicolon (two) and Tetracolon (four) are other forms of this type of parallel expression.

Words of Warning

Enjoyable and succinct as these forms of expression are, an author should be careful in employing them in his/her writing. So many of this type of expression, the bicolon in particular, have crept into common usage that using them in an original text is considered lazy or unimaginative writing. Describing a story as “cloak and dagger” or a character as “tall, dark, and handsome” is as much a writing faux pas as opening a story with Snoopy’s sendup of Edward Bulwer Lytton‘s “It was a dark and stormy night.” And reversing the order of a common binomial expression like “law and order” or “bride and groom” is a particularly egregious errror unless intended for comedic effect.

What It All Comes Down To

Writing should be fun. For me as for most writers, nothing is so satisfying as stating our themes and ideas in a way that was “ne’er so well-expressed,”  to borrow from the poet Alexander Pope. If you can compress a theme or idea into a rhythmic paralielism like the examples above–great. If knowing the concepts behind such constructions aids your writing so much the better. The measure of a writer is in doing so wisely and well. Not every Tom, Dick, or Harry can do it.

Are you up for that challenge? Tell us why or why not in the Leave a Reply section below.