DrBloodmoney1
March 18th, 2003, 01:39 PM
To pimp a new webzine I will post the philosophy. Many on this board would be interested in this so check it out. s1ngularity (http://www.sfsite.com/singularity)
I don't mean to steal Gabe's thunder here:
S1ngularity is the literary equivalent of a heroin spike in the eye.
They have said the novel is dead. They have said the short story is dead. They have said reading is dead, techno-progress taking it out with glam imagery and fancy slithering style.
Bullshit.
Literature -- all literature -- is alive and well. There is no death, there is no decay, and there is no shortage of either writers or readers. The problem does not come from this end. The problem comes from shortsighted publishers controlled by media giants that couldn’t give a staggering f**k about what gets published. Literature is in a state of flux; on the one hand devastating as editors jump around like fools in motley, taking no stance on what gets published and watching passively as cartload after cartload of inane crap gets pushed onto the shelves in the hope that something will Make It Big; on the other hand, more and more writers are being published every day, producing not only a glut of short-lived product, but also the hope of good writers being available to the masses -- if the masses know where to look.
It is an exciting time in publishing, no matter what the doomsayers blather.
Still, there is an air of defeat in publishing these days. Tired writers, tired editors, and tired readers overwhelmed by uncaring publishers.
Welcome to the new literature.
S1ngularity is our guerrilla attack on the corporate drones that do not care about literature. It is a shot in the dark, a reflection and recombination of traditional Editorial Interference and new media. It's a middle finger aimed straight at the major corporate publishers, proving that literature drips vitality.
Slapping labels on books and shuffling them off to overflowing bookshelves isn’t going to work. That will kill the novel and bury the short story. Readers are overwhelmed by the selection available, and are pissed off that they cannot find the Good Stuff. At heart, all readers are the same, and are all seeking the Good Stuff.
Categorization is an attempt by the uncaring conglomerates to direct readers toward what they supposedly ‘like’.
So what can we accomplish with a single ezine?
A cry in the dark.
A call for help.
A place to find good writing.
That is what we are doing. We are not out to redefine fantastic fiction; we are out to shove a stick up the collective ass of corporate publishing; the success of singularity will break the stick off and lodge it in for the duration.
We do not like labels. We are not looking for ‘fantasy’ or ‘science fiction’ or ‘mainstream’ or ‘horror’ fiction. We’re looking for GOOD fiction.
This is not a stance. This is a belief. This is not an attitude. This is a way of life. Publishing should be a reflection and a compliment to writing; if a writer eschews genre labels, so should the publishers. It is a hand-in-hand relationship, not a category management system. That is precisely what mainstream publishing is missing, and that is precisely what we can offer as our cry in the dark.
That is what singularity means to us. Not avoiding genre labels, but revoking their importance. Not attacking publishers in a rebellious fit of adolescent anger, but slithering in under the radar in a guerrilla anti-category performance of quality and vitality.
That is what S1ngularity is all about.
Mod Note: Hard core profanity is not tolerated at SFF World ~Cadfael~
I don't mean to steal Gabe's thunder here:
S1ngularity is the literary equivalent of a heroin spike in the eye.
They have said the novel is dead. They have said the short story is dead. They have said reading is dead, techno-progress taking it out with glam imagery and fancy slithering style.
Bullshit.
Literature -- all literature -- is alive and well. There is no death, there is no decay, and there is no shortage of either writers or readers. The problem does not come from this end. The problem comes from shortsighted publishers controlled by media giants that couldn’t give a staggering f**k about what gets published. Literature is in a state of flux; on the one hand devastating as editors jump around like fools in motley, taking no stance on what gets published and watching passively as cartload after cartload of inane crap gets pushed onto the shelves in the hope that something will Make It Big; on the other hand, more and more writers are being published every day, producing not only a glut of short-lived product, but also the hope of good writers being available to the masses -- if the masses know where to look.
It is an exciting time in publishing, no matter what the doomsayers blather.
Still, there is an air of defeat in publishing these days. Tired writers, tired editors, and tired readers overwhelmed by uncaring publishers.
Welcome to the new literature.
S1ngularity is our guerrilla attack on the corporate drones that do not care about literature. It is a shot in the dark, a reflection and recombination of traditional Editorial Interference and new media. It's a middle finger aimed straight at the major corporate publishers, proving that literature drips vitality.
Slapping labels on books and shuffling them off to overflowing bookshelves isn’t going to work. That will kill the novel and bury the short story. Readers are overwhelmed by the selection available, and are pissed off that they cannot find the Good Stuff. At heart, all readers are the same, and are all seeking the Good Stuff.
Categorization is an attempt by the uncaring conglomerates to direct readers toward what they supposedly ‘like’.
So what can we accomplish with a single ezine?
A cry in the dark.
A call for help.
A place to find good writing.
That is what we are doing. We are not out to redefine fantastic fiction; we are out to shove a stick up the collective ass of corporate publishing; the success of singularity will break the stick off and lodge it in for the duration.
We do not like labels. We are not looking for ‘fantasy’ or ‘science fiction’ or ‘mainstream’ or ‘horror’ fiction. We’re looking for GOOD fiction.
This is not a stance. This is a belief. This is not an attitude. This is a way of life. Publishing should be a reflection and a compliment to writing; if a writer eschews genre labels, so should the publishers. It is a hand-in-hand relationship, not a category management system. That is precisely what mainstream publishing is missing, and that is precisely what we can offer as our cry in the dark.
That is what singularity means to us. Not avoiding genre labels, but revoking their importance. Not attacking publishers in a rebellious fit of adolescent anger, but slithering in under the radar in a guerrilla anti-category performance of quality and vitality.
That is what S1ngularity is all about.
Mod Note: Hard core profanity is not tolerated at SFF World ~Cadfael~