Blog Author William Fietzer https://williamfietzer.com/blog/page/2/

Posted on April 29, 2024May 2, 2024 by William Fietzer

Has Moneyball Ruined Professional Baseball?

Opening Pitch

It’s just the end of April and fans already are lamenting the injuries to pitchers in the major leagues. Sports pundits like Michael Wilbon reported five starting pitchers have gone onto the injured reserve list from one team alone. He attributes these injuries to high school coaches emphasizing their teenage ptichers throw hard in every game. However, that symptom reflects an underlying truth. The actual reason these young pitchers throw hard is because that’s the only way to catch the attention of MLB scouts. And why do they want to reach the major leagues? Because that’s where the big money lies. And what determines who gets that big money? Moneyball!

What Is Moneyball?

The term originated in a 2003 book by Michael Lewis entitled, Moneyball: the Art of Winning an Unfair Game. In it, the author propounds his thesis that the traditional guideposts used to evaluate a player’s value are outdated, subjective, and flawed. Examples of such outmoded measures for hitters are batting average and runs batted in. For pitchers, such measures include complete games and earned run average.

Instead, Lewis advocated the use of sabermetrics, an empirical, detailed, and objective analysis of player performance. Judged by these criteria, a player’s on-base percentage and his slugging percentage provide superior indicators of a his value to his team.

For pitchers, concepts such as WHIP (Walks and Hits per Innings Pitched) and FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching statistics) replace earned run average (ERA) and strikeouts. Though these measures seem arcane, their objective remains the same. That means providing an objective determination of a pitcher’s effectiveness in mastering aspects over which he has complete control, i.e. strikeouts, home runs, hit batters, etc.

A refinement of this latter statistic is DIPS (Defense-Independent Pitching Statistics) developed by Voros McCracken. Using this method, Voros showed that w that there is little to no difference between pitchers in the number of hits they allow or balls put into play—regardless of their individual skill levels. Such a metric quantifies the independent value of each player. However, it also exposes their vulnerability. In short, they’re interchangeable. And expendable.

Why Moneyball Matters

At this point some readers might wonder what any of these metrics have to do with pitchers’ arm injuries. The key lies in the book’s subtitle: Winning an Unfair Game. Ever since the U. S. Supreme Court ruled in 1922 that baseball was an entertainment rather than a sport, the game was not subject to anti-trust constraints. Unlike other professional sport activities, teams based in large metropolitan areas, have enjoyed an unfair advantage in revenue and income. In light of this asymmetric competitive structure, teams based in smaller markets sought ways to erode the more populous’based teams’ competitive advantage.

Ways and Means

One way involves moving to cities and metropolitan areas willing to offer generous terms on stadiums, concessions, and the like. An alternative approach requires reducing overhead, more specifically, player-development. Rather than spend money on scouts and minor league farm systems, sabermetrics makes a convincing case for drafting players out of college. As professional football and basketball realized, college players developed the skills and maturity necessary to compete at the professional level with little cost to the teams that draft them.

Consequences

This development may seem a callous and self-serving way of controlling costs, and it is. But it also provides a way to level the economic playing field between the wealthier and poorer (comparatively) teams. It also factors into why the number of minor league divisions have dwindled from four (A,B, C, & D) to one: A.

Another consequence is fan support. Besides eroding baseball’s wellsprings for players and local fan involvement, it reduces the value of the individual performer. In seeking out those players that “are undervalued in the market,” the Oakland Athletics became baseball’s first team to embody what Lewis characterizes as “the ruthless drive for efficiency that capitalism demands.”

Costs

But at what price? If everyday players are measured by their power figures alone, it’s little wonder they strive only to hit homeruns regardless of their strength, size, or hitting ability. In regards to pitchers, it’s little wonder that they learn to throw as hard as they can for as long as they can. Why? Because another pitcher can be called in to replace him with the same effectiveness. If such is the case, how does management’s attitude toward its performers affect their morale and willingness to play?

What Can Be Done?

It’s been over twenty years since Moneyball hit the market. In that time, numerous baseball general managers incorportated it into their operations with varying degrees of success. While it did enable the Oakland As to identify the value of players other teams overlooked, the impact of sabermetrics reduced performance quality and thus fan enjoyment. Teams like the Tampa Bay Rays and the Miami Marlins did break through to the World Series, but sold off their best players when they renegotiated their contracts for more money.

Recent Approaches

Rob Manfred, the current commissioner of major league baseball, implemented several proposals to upgrade the game’s quality. Most are cosmetic. The most effective of these, reducing the time between pitches, speeded up the game and reduced its duration overall. However, baseball with its defined innings and at bats was never a dynamic ebb-and-flo game like soccer.

Another factor is fan sophistication. Being around for as long as it has, hardcore baseball fans appreciate nuances like the sacrifice bunt or the inning-ending double-play. Such accomplishments require skill, self-sacrifice, and team spirit. Suck emotional and subjective qualities seem lacking in today’s ballplayer. And which are not encouraged by team management.

The best way to rectify the situation may require reemphasizing these finer points of the game. Measure player effectiveness in bunting situations to advance the runner, for example, and reward those sacrifices accordingly in player contracts.

As for pitchers, put an upper limit on the number a squad can carry at any one time. Ten seems a good cutoff figure. Then, reward those pitchers for their efforts to stay in games longer and pacing themselves. If manaagement encourages pitchers to pitch more innings, complete games may again be a useful meaure of a pitcher’s contribution to his team.

Moneyball’s Tenth Inning

In summary, Moneyball wielded a profound impact on major league baseball by providing the means to discover a few hidden or overlooked gems on the playing field. Its truly incisive metrics provided the objective means to value ballplayers by their individual capabilities alone. However, this viewpoint also proved pernicious. Pitchers in particular, suffered. Their careers shortened in many instances because of their combat with hitters striving to make that extra-base hit. Consequently, pitchers learned to throw faster and harder to get these hitters out. This effort put more strain on their arms which resulted in more injuries, removed them from participating, and reduced their value to the team that hired them.

Because pitchers are already in more danger of burnout or arm injury, each team needs more of them. However, more pitchers reduces the relative value of each one, particularly if each pitches fewer innings each season. Already devalued in baseball’s salary structure for not being everyday players, pitchers seen through the Moneyball lens tend to be the units that allow general managers to reduce a team’s salary structure overall. Unlike Filk music musicians of varying abiilities who are allowed to participate for the sheer joy in performing, Moneyball’s metrics provide the means for baseball’s general managers to weaponize sabremetrics for the reduction or elimination of players’ livelihoods. Accepting that fact is what professionalism has come to stand for in the twenty-first century.

What do you think? Write your thoughts and reactions in the Leave-A-Reply box below.

Posted on March 26, 2024May 2, 2024 by William Fietzer

Escape Rooms: Not for Faint of Heart

Fun and Fantasy of Escape Rooms

Most of us enjoy repeating pleasurable experiences. Whether they involve fishing in a favorite trout stream or reenacting a scene from a memortable movie, people enjoy imagining how they would act if they could single-handely land a giant tarpon or bring the fiendish Professor Moriarity to justice. Escape rooms offer a chance for engaging in such fantasies. At least, that’s what we thought when we signed up for one to celebrate my wife’s birthday. However, we discovered not everyone is comfortable with having the fantasticl come to life.

What Are Escape Rooms?

Before discussing our escape room experience, let’s examine the concept. Escape rooms are one or more rooms in which players engage in “live-action, team-based games [in which they] discover clues, solve puzles, and accomplish taskes.” Most often, the goal is, as the name implies, to escape the game site within a given time frame.

The themes of these games originate from popular culture such as the exploits of Sherlock Holmes or the writings of Edgar Alan Poe. These two luminaries formed two of the offerings in the escape room we contacted. However, because of my wife’s interests in medicinal herbs and J.R.R. Tolkien, we chose to escape from a magic apothecary’s shop, perhaps echoing the tribulations suffered by Charles Dickens‘ heroine Nell Trent in The Old Curiosity Shop.

History of Escape Rooms

Origins

Although escape rooms seem a relatively new concept, the idea of escaping from a room or situation occurred as early as the 1970s. The advent of point-and-click adventure games led to the development of interactive in-game objects. The earliest of these, Planet Mephius, came out in Japan in 1983. Its popularity led to the first interactive trapped-in-a-room scenario with John Wilson’s Behind Closed Doors in 1988.

From Video Game to Physical Reality

These and other virtual reality games prompted Takao Kato to wonder in 2007 “why interesting things didn’t happen in my life, like they do in books.” The result: the Real Escape Game, the first experiential entertaintment game created in 2007. From there, the number of real life escape rooms proliferated throughout Asia and Europe, reaching the United States in 2014. As of 2022, gaming experts estimate escape rooms number over 600 sites in the U.S. alone.

Escape Room Overview

As the name implies, the “rules” are (deceptively) simple. Find clues leading to escaping the room within the allotted time, usually 45-60 minutes. Anywhere from two to ten players participate at any one time, and the challenges are usually more mental than physical. Depending on the theme, different games require different skill sets although expert knowledge in any field is not required. Any information required to solve a puzzle should be provided within the room’s contents.

Since the overall goal of the experience is entertainment, well-designed rooms contain provisions to insure a successful escape. Hints in the form of written notes, audio clues, and video instructions help players along in their pursuit of escape. In our game, the gamemaster provided helpful suggestions through messages that appeared in a “magic mirror.” As our allotted time dwindled, these hints grew more and more direct. Fortunately, we managed to escape and win the game with a little under three minutes to spare.

Escape Room Strategies

Exiting an escape room requires the employment of several basic skills. problem-solving, lateral thinking (thinking outside the box), and teamwork. The group must direct its efforts to solve a sequence of challenges or puzzles to unlock the door and leave the room within the allotted time. Puzzles may include word games, cyphers, riddles, and basic mathematical problems. Physical activity may include searching for physical objects, navigating mazes, or assembling clues.

Escaping our room involved all of these skills and activities. The six adults broke up into pairs. One pair investigated and activated the alchemical and pharmaceutical equipment in the room, another pair assembled and interpreted clues, while a third monitored the time limit and hints provided by the dungeon master. None of this activity was planned or formally agreed upon beforehand; to our our relief and surpose it just happened.

Cautions and Controversies

Adult Impressions

Our reactions seemed to typify those following the adult escape room experience. No one coordinated our activities, but we surmounted the challenges and obstacles within the room and escaped. Despite the lack of direction and low-level anxiety, the adults employed teamwork and crisis management to solve the puzzles.

Reservations

Though the adults said they had fun and enjoyed the experience, some expressed qualms about deriving enjoyment from artificial entrapment. Granted our confinement was voluntary, but what if we had failed? In all likelihood, the gamemaster would have granted us extra time. But what if we were actually trapped? What if the door remained closed, the gamemaster had a stroke, and we remained sealed in the room like Boris Karlov in The Mummy?

Empathy

My August 2022 post on reading to one another seems relevant here. It mentions Neil Postman‘s 1984 prediction from his book Amusing Ourselves to Death. There he discusses how television’s sacrifice of quality information for corporate profit could become boring reality. Moreover, such entertainment desensitizes those who watch it. Similarly, interactive real-life games advances people’s detachment from the emotional information in physical reality one step further. If they derive enjoyment from physical entrapment, does escaping that reality desentitize them from the plights of people trapped in real-world predicaments? How empathetic can we be to the victims of human trafficking or enslavement, for example, when our escape is just minutes or a safeword away ?

One might argue that voluntary participation makes all the difference. Choosing one’s entrapment negates any guilt that might accrie about people stuck in real-life situations not of their choosing. However, the thrill one feels about being trapped in a situation seems cheap knowing one can escape at any time. Just say the safe word, and the catharsis derivied from achieving that objective diminishes as well.

Children’s Response

My grandsons’ reactions to the escape room experience seem instructive at this point. Aged seven and four, both boys went willingly into the apothecary room and explored the phials, bottles, and rudimentary pharmacy equipment within. But when the youngest spotted a small, hissing dragon painted in a corner of the room, he retreated to his mother’s arms for the rest of the hour. The older boy coped by hunching down in an out-of-way corner and played Mario Cart on his cellphone. After our escape, neither boy expressed enjoyment of the experience until the astute gamemaster rewarded with magic wands for their courage and perseverance.

Escape Room Takeaways

Caregiver Options

Critics might say the boys’ uneasiness could have been avoided if the adults had practiced due diligence in choosing the theme. Child-oriented versions of escape rooms do exist. However, the magic apothecary theme seemed least threatening among the choices available at this particular escape room.Other options include disignating one of the adults to stay with the boys, leaving them with a sitter, or having them stay home altogether. But since they too wanted to engage in their grandmother’s birthday celebration, that didn’t seem a viable alternative.

Silver Linings

On the other hand, the boys’ witnessed trusted adults coping as best they could in a mad scramble for clues to free themselves. They could regard this in years to come as a learning experience, enlightening if not enriching. Perhaps if more precautions had been taken, the youngsters’ apprehensions would have diminished. At the same time, it’s also true that their fears were more genuine than the adults’ satisfaction in achieving their make-believe goal. Given the proliferation of these establishments throughout the United States, caring parents and grandparents should review these establishments beforehand and ask questions. Some horror-themed escape rooms, for example, employ escaping from physical restraints like handcuffs or zip ties, so be careful. Make certain to keep the mental and emotional demands of the escape room experience age-appropriate. That applies to kids and adults alike.

Empathy

Regarding the desensitization aspect, how many kidnap victims seek to relive their experiences watching movies like Saw? Time and distance may lessen the psychological impact of what they felt, but reliving the experience, even in make-believe, dulls the emotional sensitivities of those who play such games and disrespects the legacies of those who endured, suffered, or died in real-life bondage.

What do you think? Write your thoughts and reactions in the Leave-A-Reply box below.

Posted on February 14, 2024February 27, 2024 by William Fietzer — 1 Comment

Geek Out with Filk Music

Discovering the Soundtrack of Fandom

One of the most enjoyable aspects of attending a professional convention is discovering a new fact, idea, or way of thinking. Waiting to do an author reading at the Boskone 61 convention (where I’d power-performed twice already as a panelist), I decided to attend the {Song Circle) Celestial Bodies concert. After all, I reasoned, wouldn’t hearing some classical music, say Gustav Holst‘s The Planets, ease my performance anxieties?

Little did I suspect that this decision would provide my first encounter with a different form of geekdom–filk music. Everyone knows (or thinks they do) what a geek is–an expert or enthusiast obsessed with a hobby or intellectual pursuit. However, how many know what a filk enthusiast is? I was about to find out.

History and Etymology of Filk Music

Part of my surprise about filk music stemmed from the uncertainty of what it is. The primary definition for Filk comes from aeroscientist Jordan Kare’s article in Sing Out magazine where he quotes musician Nick Smith of the Los Angeles Filkharmonics describing filk as “a mixture of song parodies and original music, humorous and serious, about subjects like science fiction, fantasy, computers, cats, politics, [etc.}” with the conclusion “almost anything goes at a Filksing.”

On the other hand, critics such as Jeff Suwak in Rawckus magazine credit filk as being more than a muscial genre but as a bona fide subculture. Like a band of ragtag heroes in a fantasy novel, Filkers challenge the suppression of the human creaative impulse. They may dress up as wookies and pirates to sing about their favorite sci-fi and fantasy films, but “Breaking the restraints of the imagination and embracing one’s true self, no matter how silly or socially-questionable that self may be, is the whole point.”

Given this lack of precision, it’s unsurprising that the term originated as a misprint in Lee Jacobs‘ essay “”The Influence of Science Fiction on Modern American Filk Music.” Cited repeatedly for amusement by the editor of the Amateur Press Society, the term became associated with the genre while still an informal occurrence at sci-fi and fantasy conventions. Only when writer Karen Anderson used it to describe a song written by her husband, sci-fi novelist Poul Anderson, did the term become formally recognized.

Filk Music--Mr. Spock — Leonard Nimoy–an honorary filker

Filk Music Structure and Types

From those humble beginnings, filk music evolved into the more formal and systematic performances I witnessed at the Boskone convention on Sunday. Rather than impromptu sessions on hotel stairwells or out-of-the way nooks, filk music now serves as a designated feature in conention schedules. Its musicians play a variety of insturments, the acoustic guitar and keyboard predominating, and they perform in filk circles. Though loosely organized, this arrangement permits egalitarian access with each performer politely awaiting his or her turn to perform.

The most common types of performance are these three: Bardic, Chaos, and Token Bardic. Bardic structure permits each participant to perform in turn around the circle. Chaos provides no sequential structure; performers shout out to play after the previous perfromer has finished. Token Bardic combines the previous two by doling out poker chips to the performers which they can toss into the center of the circle to claim the next turn.

Regardless of structure, filk music emphasizes respect for all music and all performers, whatever their expertise or proficiency. Everyone can participate; tips and suggestions are the only criticism.

Cultural Impact of Filk Music

Over the years, filk has matured from ad hoc performances played and enjoyed by sci-fi fans to a distinctive genre with its own jargon (filkspeak, a subcategory of fanspeak) and subgenres. Some examples are hymnal speak (group singing from a hymnal), filkhogs (performers who sing more than their fair share of songs), and found filk (songs not written as filk but show a folkish love of incongruities). Filkers even have an award for the best example of their music–the Pegasus Award–given annually at the Ohio Valley Filk Fest.

Despite all the above, filk’s sense of ingenuousness and gentle satire remains. Amy Kucharik, the moderator of the song circle I attended, stated during our Messenger dialog that she remained “uncertain whether my music qualifies as ‘filk’ per se (vs music with nerdy concepts and pop culture references) but it was so much fun to be at Boskone.” Performers and listeners still do it for the enjoyment of the music and the rebelliousness of their self-expression. As ethnomusicologist Sally Childs-Helton puts it, “We have taken our right to be creative and to literally ‘play’ in the best sense of that word.” Given the recent political and sociological excesses attributed to overzealous fans, aren’t the orderly and egalitarian actions of devoted musical geeks something to celebrate?

What do you think? Write a comment in the Leave a Reply box beowl.

Posted on January 6, 2024February 24, 2024 by William Fietzer

Memorable Days Not Honored as Holidays

Introduction

Some days are so significant they are remembered despite the fact they are not celebrated nationally, unlike Christmas or the Fourth of July. Nor are such days designated to provide secular alternatives to holidays most people celebrate such as Festivus. The days in question are those where people recall exactly what we were doing on the date the days occurred. Based on the discussion on my Facebook feed, January 6th, 2021, the date of the insurrection against the peaceful transfer of power in the federal government, constitutes one of those memorable days.

Yet, however significant the events that occurred on that particular day may be, today’s discussion focuses on what you were doing or feeling when you heard or saw the event. How did learning the news make you feel? Angry? Elated? Disheartened? All three?

All of those emotions surged through me on January 6th. And they still do three years later. But it wasn’t the first time I felt those emotions. Reflecting back on my experiences, there have been a number of times events beyond my control made me remember exactly where I was, what I was doing, and how I felt on those fateful days.

The List

December 6, 1941

Well before my birthday, but this is the date that launched the paradigm. Everyone alive then says they know exactly where they were when they heard the Japanese military had bombed Pearl Harbor. The date is not celebrated formally, but everyone recognizes it as the original Day of Infamy.

August 6, 1945

This date marks the dropping of the first atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima, Japan. A second bomb destroyed Nagasaki three days later, and the Japanese government surrendered several weeks after that. Neither bombing marks the official end of World War II, but their consequent impact on world events never has been more significant.

February 3, 1945

The Day the Music Died according to singer Don McLean had significant impact for a generation including many of my older friends. For me this time marked the verge of my teenage years which included listening to rock and roll on the radio. Iowa is close to my home state of Wisconsin, and I remember how cold and snowy it was that night as it was during most winters back then. The-conditions were so terrible that Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens should never have climbed into that small aircraft which they plummeted them to their deaths.

November 22, 1963

The news of Kennedy’s assassination dumbfounded me. How was it possible? Who did it? A million more questions popped into my head when the news of the shooting came over the school loudspeakers. Neither the frog I was dissecting in my introductory biology class nor not much else got done the rest of that day. Our last classes ended a few minutes early–small consolation for dealing with such an earth-shattering news.

November 15, 1969

the largest anti-war protest march in our nation’s history occurred on this date. Over a half-million protesters filled the Wasington Mall to demand an end to the Vietnam War. I and three of my college dormitory friends took turns driving across the country to participate in the march and its ceremonies. Proud, exultant, and inspired as all of us felt then, it still seems impossible that it could take six more years before the war ended and I’d get drafted in the process.

August 9, 1974

Not only was this the day President Richard Nixon resigned from office, but it also marks the day of our wedding anniversary. Living in Boston at the time, it was tempting to think all the cheering everywhere was for our nuptials. In truth, however, it expressed how grateful the people of the only state who voted for Nixon’s opponent, George McGovern, were for Nixon leaving office.

September 11, 2001

The collapse of the World Trade Center is not a day most New Yorkers are likely to forget. At the time, my wife and I lived in Minneapolis and I had surgery the previous day to repair a torn cruciate cartilege in my left knee. Confinement to the davenport forced me to witness the nightmarish repetition of the two planes crashing into the buildings and their horrifying collapse.

Conclusion

The above entries identify some of the events that changed my life during the past seventy years. You may quibble over the stature of some of the entries or point out others that I have omitted. You may even wonder as I did about the twenty-year gap between the last entry and January 6, 2021. It’s not that few significant events occurred during that time; rather, many of those peak events like the Wall Street collapse or the Crimean invasion served as precursors to the insurrection three years ago. Consequently, many of us feel an ongoing anguish in its aftermath and for our prospects in the days ahead. But what I’ve learned over that time tells me that such feelings never last. And if that assessment is not significant or memorable, little else is.

What do you think? Click on the Leave a Comment link above to leave your reply.

Posted on December 10, 2023February 24, 2024 by William Fietzer

Unusual Secular Celebrations to Beat Holiday Blues

Introduction

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

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.

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.

Posted on November 10, 2023November 13, 2023 by William Fietzer

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–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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Posted on October 6, 2023November 13, 2023 by William Fietzer

Fast Writing: Ten Step Process

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.

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.

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

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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Posted on September 10, 2023September 11, 2023 by William Fietzer

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 Panelists This 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 Panelists This 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 Panelists For 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 Panelists This 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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Posted on August 11, 2023August 15, 2023 by William Fietzer

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 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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Posted on July 6, 2023July 6, 2023 by William Fietzer

Is Russia Trolling Walt Disney?

First Inkling

Indiana Jones 5 Like 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 Diligence None 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 Farms But 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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