What, if anything, would replace the written word? Perhaps telepathy--some form of direct mental communication. Or possibly, in a world where society has collapsed, it would be replaced with nothing. Maybe words will be upgraded to include more information. Maybe words could be invented that described such unique events and feelings that you could put …
Borned
When your viewpoint character is the least interesting character in the story, this might be a problem. I'd rather read about Borne. I'd rather read about Wick. I'd rather read about 'the Magician.' I'd rather read about Morde the giant bear. I'd rather read about the mysterious scientists in the Company building. I'd rather read …
I FINISHED IT
I got to the end of the Glass Bead Game, finally! And boy... did it disappoint. The final 20% of the book is several poems and three short stories written by the character whose life we just got a long, tired account of. Two of the three stories were actually really good and I thought …
Dependence on technology
My blog post yesterday was late because I set the posting time for 1130 PM instead of AM, and just trusted it to post at the usual time. I recently read that people who rely on GPS learn the streets of their area slower, and with less accuracy. I always have been a proponent of …
Nested narratives
I'm about 3/4 done with Cloud Atlas and am starting to see the design of it. And it's really great. At first I thought that the first three, maybe even four narratives had no relevance to the final two, where the action and interest really kicked off. But now, as I begin to see how …
Jonas David 