16516--Welcome to New America

Once upon a time, the world around us was dominated by entrenched dynasties and wealthy economic powers.  The masses worked and worked to the benefit of the ruling class, catching what crumbs they were given, praying for improvement in their status in life. A few managed to work their way up the status ladder through the right marriage or successful business dealings. Then, revolution came and the look of the world changed.

In our time period, the publishing world’s entrenched dynasties and traditional economic powerhouses are in trouble. The masses are tired of their crumbs and have begun questioning the standards they’ve long been told to accept as unquestionable. The revolution is underway in a virtual landscape and the masses are winning. Even though the dust of the revolution has yet to settle, a lot of people consider that the masses have already won. Whatever the case, the traditional publishing houses know (they have to know) that they’re in trouble.

The virtual battlefield is being shaped by entrepreneurial drive, by ambition, by trial and error. It is New America. It’s a place of Freedom of action and thought and commerce. It’s a place where new ideas are still welcome and have impact. It’s a place where the decrees of the old regime are being ignored by the upstarts who are remaking things for the future.

It’s not a flying car and it hasn‘t toppled any governments, but this revolution that has come as a result of fusions of new technologies put into the hands of writers may be one of the most exciting changes since Johannes Gutenberg got his printing press going. I’m glad to be a part of it and I’m eager to see what it does in 2012.

16511--The Ghost Story that Will Not Die

Released in December 1843, while not generally considered a supernatural tale of horror, A Christmas Carol did use horror as a tool (a big, blunt hammer) upon its central character: the famed Ebeneezer Scrooge.  When you break this one down by genre, though...alright, when I do it.  Most other people have apparently found in it an uplifting holiday story.  I suppose that's a good thing since it's what Charles Dickens was aiming to deliver.  It was well-received when it came out and still sees frequent adaptation and updating over 170 years later.

OK, so it's a staggering success, especially for a secular (non-religious) Christmas story.  Still, it seems weird that Dickens got there the way he did.  He paid for the publishing himself (he wasn't happy with his publisher's payout on their previous deal), he gave us a protagonist who was utterly unlikable and let the antagonists torment him.  Scrooge unleashed his rants and tried to resist, but he was up against ghosts who had decided to target the cranky old guy.  He was outmatched and in the end he caved.  Scrooge became what the ghosts apparently wanted him to be.  The headstrong loner gave in to popular opinion.

That's an atypical hero in an atypical story pattern and people are still eating it up almost two centuries later.  Wow.

Dickens was bad-ass.