From Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture : Media Education for the 21st Century. What does it mean to live in a world where 1 in 5 people are bloggers? That’s the world we are entering according to a report of the MacArthur foundation. And it certainly tallies with my own experience of working withContinue reading “57% of American teenagers are media makers”
Author Archives: Damien Walter
The rise of the artisan author
The community of SF writers has reason to dislike digital copying, or “piracy” as it’s commonly labelled in the tabloid press. Genre writers exist, by and large, in the publishing mid-list, where mediocre sales might seem most easily eroded by the spectre of illegitimate downloads. SF, fantasy and horror are also the literature of choiceContinue reading “The rise of the artisan author”
Closed to Print Editions
I am closed to print editions of books to review for the time being. Read on for more information why. At some point after I started writing for the Guardian books blog, people started sending me books. When I started writing my own column, more people started sending me books. A couple of years on,Continue reading “Closed to Print Editions”
70’s era J G Ballard on the X-Factor
Previously unseen archival footage, or Jim Worrad buggering around in his front room? You tell me.
Selling Out is about trust not money
Imagine you are a doctor. The population you treat are sick. You have two medicines. One tastes bad and has some horrendous side effects but will over time make your patients better. The other tastes like honey and gets you high as a kite but has no real medical value, unless you count dying withContinue reading “Selling Out is about trust not money”
Writing and the attention economy
As a writer you are asking for the most valuable commodity your readers have. Time. Each of us gets a finite portion. No sum of money can buy us any more. And the demands on it are ever greater. The novel evolved at a period in history when the constituency of its readers had muchContinue reading “Writing and the attention economy”
Damo’s Sci-Fi prophecies for 2013
2012 has been a year of transition for science fiction and fantasy literature. SF’s reputation as home of the Bearded White Male hides a more interesting story. SF is the literature of geeks, and today, geeks run the world. Geek culture isn’t infiltrating the mainstream: it is the mainstream. And geeks come in all ages,Continue reading “Damo’s Sci-Fi prophecies for 2013”
A Scanner Darkly by Philip K Dick
Philip K Dick’s partially autobiographical chronicle of 70s hippie drug culture takes place under the eternal sunshine of southern California. Even the book’s nighttime is saturated with the electric glare of strip mall lighting and the glow of the television screen. And in a society that never switches off the lights, the dark has becomeContinue reading “A Scanner Darkly by Philip K Dick”
Alif the Unseen
It is significant that all of our great religions were born in the face of oppression. Moses led the Israelites from slavery under the Egyptians. Jesus challenged the power of Rome. The Islamic calendar begins with the migration of Muhammad and his followers to escape the persecution of Meccan tribes. Even the awakening of GautamaContinue reading “Alif the Unseen”
Why Standard Manuscript Format matters more than ever
For the last few days I’ve been following the editorial pains of friend and fellow British Fantasy Award judge Hal Duncan on Twitter. I don’t know what it is Hall is editing, I’m just glad its not me having to do it! Like, actually, I think the Turkey City Lexicon should start with the GuessingContinue reading “Why Standard Manuscript Format matters more than ever”
Do you know why you write fantasy?
In his 1916 essay (not published until 1956) The Transcendent Function the psychologist Carl Jung describes his system of ‘active imagination’, the technique at the heart of the psychological process he named individuation. Put very simply, active imagination means to dive down in to our imagination and to bring back from it visions, dreams andContinue reading “Do you know why you write fantasy?”
London Gothic
Mystery is the doorway to fantasy. Dark forests, far away galaxies, roads that wind into the distance: any space that allows our imagination to play without the interference of mundane reality can be a portal. And there are few places more expectant with mystery than cities. Every road, building and doorway is a new unknown.Continue reading “London Gothic”
Damien Walter 