in alphabetical order

Here are various comments and updates, in alphabetical order:

Artificial Intelligence: I’m still not paying much attention to this, but I did find this article interesting: “AI Can’t Gaslight Me if I Write by Hand”

It’s really too bad that, apparently, people can’t imagine a computer except as a box that connects them to the web. As I’ve said before (probably many times) when I bought my first computer, it was because it meant I’d never again have to retype things in order to edit them.

Other stuff came later (BBSs, email, the web), but that was all gravy. Still is.

Now, I do think there’s a difference between “writing on a computer” (which has, as the writer says, advantages over pen and paper) and “writing on a computer that’s connected to the internet” (which means endless distractions and nonsense, of which AI is only the most recent example), but those are not the only two options.

Turn off your wifi, silence your phone, and then write with whatever tools you prefer. Write description longhand and write dialogue on a keyboard, as Hemingway used to.

 
Lorde: I do like Lorde’s new album, Virgin. I’m not sure how it stacks up against her first two albums (that will clarify itself over time, or not), but I’ve already listened to it more times than I ever listened to Solar Power (album #3). In fact, I may never have listened to Solar Power all the way through even once. I remember a few times thinking that I really should listen to it, so I’d put it on, and then an hour later I’d realize it wasn’t playing any more, but no part of it (except sometimes the song of the same name) had actually captured my attention.

I also like the clips I’ve seen of her performance at Glastonbury.

 
Thomas Pynchon: Still looking forward to Shadow Ticket, and I did enjoy this article: “(Don’t Fear) Thomas Pynchon.”

I do feel shamed by the fact that the fact that the writer of the article is rereading Against the Day. I really do have to read that one (I’ve read the rest, multiple times).

 
Writing: I’m still writing what I’m writing. Sort of the third novel, sort of the next chunk of the second novel, maybe it has a title and maybe it doesn’t — who cares. It’s a story. It has a beginning and a middle and a (pretty open-ended) end. It has a ton of characters.

It’s fun to work on for two reasons. One is that the plot is all set, so I can just tweak punctuation and word choice. Some writers complain about editing, but it can be really fun. Also, since it’s been many years since I’ve read the older novels, I sometimes surprise myself. In one scene, Character One warns Character Two about getting involved with Character Three, based on personal experience, and I had no idea that Character One and Character Three had ever even met. So, that’s fun.

The second fun part of that when I was originally writing it, I apparently felt the need to explain a lot of things about the characters and their history and their abilities and their complex family entanglements. I’m taking most of that out.

Why is Vicki a tiny teenage girl with high, pointed ears, and superhuman strength and speed? Are the Golden mutants, or aliens, or three manifestations of the same person?

I know the answers to some of those questions (I have no idea what’s going on with Vicki’s ears), but dumping those answers into the text doesn’t exactly move things along. That’s not what makes a story (or a movie or TV show) compelling to me.