The future that liberals want only looks great for the Alphas who can buy a place in the techno-corporate hierarchy. Maybe it’s because of how much Donald Trump resembles Baron Vladimir Harkkonen. It’s hard to have a conversation about the weird landscape of politics today, without referencing at least one scifi dystopia. “a much moreContinue reading “Liberals have to do better than Brave New World”
Category Archives: Writing Journal
A Neuromancer movie in 2017 will look a lot like a documentary
It’s well documented that William Gibson started out writing science fiction, and book by book progressed towards the future he had once predicted. By Pattern Recognition in 2003 Gibson was writing about a London that seemed to come into existence even as the book was published. I know, I was living and working in theContinue reading “A Neuromancer movie in 2017 will look a lot like a documentary”
Your Voice Is In The Sentences You Write
20 years into making my living as a writer, I’m neccessarily a sentence obsessive. I chose to spend my weekend revising sentence structure, a task I undertook with the help of Brooks Landons’ Building Great Sentences, my favorite text on the subject. Sentence revision filled my Saturday and Sunday for two reasons; I’m planning aContinue reading “Your Voice Is In The Sentences You Write”
Why teach writing? To learn of course.
There’s a story of a lazy Buddhist adept, whose name escapes me, who was made to teach a lesson by his master. The student never paid attention in class, or did his chores around the monastery. But when made to teach, he gave a long lecture on compassion, that remains a high Buddhist teaching toContinue reading “Why teach writing? To learn of course.”
Game of Thrones is epic fantasy for social justice warriors
Game of Thrones and Hilary Mantell’s Wolf Hall offer two different takes on how social justice overpowers aristocratic elites. In the age of Trump, we need these social justice metaphors more than ever. The cosmetic similarities between Game of Thrones and Wolf Hall are not hard to list. Both occupy a similar period in history,Continue reading “Game of Thrones is epic fantasy for social justice warriors”
How do stories work?
The Rhetoric of Story isn’t a writing a course. It’s the answer to a question that has fascinated me for over a decade. How do stories work? How do a few words on a page, some flickering images on a screen, convince us for a time that we are a different person, living a differentContinue reading “How do stories work?”
Game of Thrones: 6 predictions for season 7
Just watched episode one of season 7 and RAWWWWR that’s some powerful storytelling. George has been skillfully setting up these epic conflicts, getting us emotionally invested in every one, and now they’re all about to pay off. Ice and Fire are ready to clash at last. The only question now is, what twists will GRRMContinue reading “Game of Thrones: 6 predictions for season 7”
The poetics of SF
Science fiction is scared of language. It’s practitioners come, in bulk, from the numbered disciplines. Physicists. Engineers. Coders. The number is absolute. Seven is seven is seven is seven. It’s not six and it’s not eight. This is the whole point of whole numbers.
Is another world possible?
I grew up with these words, “another world is possible”. On the two council estates I lived on until I was 18. At the radical bookshops I found in my late teens. In the ant-capitalist protests I joined in my 20s. Working for New Internationalist, then Amnesty. And now, I see the idea has madeContinue reading “Is another world possible?”
DAMO: Rebranded
My general approach to productivity is: if I don’t remember to do it, it’s probably better undone. But I do handwrite a ToDo list every couple of weeks. Not to remember things, but to forget them. A swirl of tasks in the mind gets in the way of more creative thinking. Writing them out asContinue reading “DAMO: Rebranded”
Rhetoric of Story weekend sale!
A year ago I began recording a set of 7 talks for the Rhetoric of Story. This week I recorded the seventh. The large gap between the 6th talk, recorded last September, and the 7th talk, came for a simple reason. I got very sick in January. I’m fine now, but while I was recoveringContinue reading “Rhetoric of Story weekend sale!”
Yes, I will be at WorldCon 75 in Helsinki
I’ve never done a WorldCon, and I’ve never been to Helsinki, so damn it I’m going to tick off both these ambitions in a single weekend! I’ll be at WorldCon 75 in Helsinki, 9-13 August of 2017. And I’d like you to be there also. So if you’re hesitating (I know it’s a reasonably majorContinue reading “Yes, I will be at WorldCon 75 in Helsinki”
Damien Walter 