I don't want to spend any time on Foucalt or Barthes' theories that the author is merely a function of the text who melts into the many other functions of the text.  I am more curious about the idea of the Author as a Founder of discursivity.

Genre and Fields of Discourse

While in mainstream literature, we don't often name a style of text after the founder or primary evangelist of that type of writing, the same is not true within Genre fiction.

In Genre fiction, we talk about the Agatha Christie and the Doyle types of mystery.  We refer to Tolkienesque, Lovecraftian, and Roddenberry-like stories and settings.  Genre writers often have a pedigree, for example, Lovecraft is said to be a Dunsanian because of the similarity of his early works to those of Lord Dunsany.

Why is this true in genre fiction, while it is not true in mainstream literature?

Genre and Symbolic Schemes

One of the things that differentiates Genre from Mainstream fiction is the conventions of story necessary to fit within in its parameters, and the lens the genre overlays on reality.

Science Fiction, for example, is defined as a story in which the plot would not be possible without the science at its core.  Speculative Fiction requires the story be built around the question: "What if realty functioned in a certain way?" or "What if X happened?"  The Speculation take the stories out of our mundane world and into a different reality.

More over, Tolkienesque fiction requires a large amount of world building, large powers struggling against each other with a high contrast between good and evil.

Lovecraftian fiction exhibits the problem with genre more than any other.  Most fiction in this style has monsters, a strangeness or alienation in the world, and the defeat of the protagonist.  What they miss is the cosmosism and general misanthropy of the original, and thus look like poor knock offs.

The point is, these styles of fiction carry with them a world view that colors the nature of story that can be told, the manner in with we expect to discover the world and story, and certain conventions that highlight aspect of the real world through a mythologized lens.

Authors and Creativity

A big part of me feel like the difference between an author and a writer is a combination of whether or not they try to subvert conventions or expand their genre and the amount of success they have in doing it.

I am not sure the appellation can be adopted by the writer.  It is more of a title they earn, often posthumously.

Why care?

I have spent most of my life working on my craft as a writer, and I feel like it is important to understand what all the elements of the craft are, so I know what I should be working of.

It is pretentious to think I could ever start a genre or subgenre, but I love to mashup genres to see what will happen.

While thinking about what elements I as a writer bring to the fiction contrasts with what a reader brings to the story, hopefully, I will be able to craft a better story.

I think every writer should dissect their contribution to the work, and really focus on the elements they can improve.  We also need to understand that once the story enters the world, we loose control over how the story will be perceived and experienced.

Social Media and the Idea of the Author

I can't wait to see how social media and the internet will change the nature, effect, and perception of the author.

I have read many books because I met the writer on Twitter or Facebook.  I know more about many of the writers I read because of these sites.  I am sure it has affected the way I perceive their work, but I cannot quantify how much or in what way yet.

In the past, it was easy to forget the writer when reading a book.  Some people will choose to do that, but it will not continue to be that easy to do.

It way seem strange to think that Twitter and Facebook will have an effect of Literary Theory, but it inevitably will.

Hello all you dashPunk readers! It's that time of year again, when Emz gets to geek out on the Holiday windows, in my favorite city, San Francisco, California. I'll start by bringing you the pictures from Macy's Annual SPCA Holiday Windows. This year, they tripped it out steampunk. You may be thinking, really? Steampunk Christmas pets? Check out their windows and see if you can spot steampunk influence from the way the snowflakes seem like gears falling from the sky, to the way their mannequins are dressed.

You may be humming to yourself the "Just Glue Some Gears On It And Call It Steampunk" song, but you have to admit that thier sign stating 215 animals have found loving homes, is pretty rad. Since the Holidays are all about "gluing some something to something" and calling it festive, I'm going to have to give this design an enthusiastic thumbs up.

Every year, millions of people of all ages walk by and ogle these awesome homeless pet displays. The goal is to raise funds and awareness about the orphaned pets residing in the posh San Francisco Macy’s department store for the month of December. Donations can be given at the windows, online, and by text.

This year, Sara Kuwabara volunteered her precious Sunday holiday shopping time to stand out in the cold and tell natives and tourists alike about the SPCA. To find out more about donating to the San Francisco SPCA, go to: www.sfspca.org 

Now on to the winners of this years Emz picks. 

1st pick: Anthropolgie

This retailer has quickly become my favorite Holiday display creator. Not only do they try to reuse and recycle items in their display, they have an innovative way of doing it. This year, I want to concentrate on the inner elements that I am going to call giant snowballs.

Suspended from the ceiling and hung on the wall are giant artsy clumps of packing plastic. The effect looks as if you are in the lair of the Abominable Snowman! Their front window display contained string balls commonly made from balloons and glue. Only these guys can take our garbage and make it look cool. 

2nd pick: Swarovski

This crystal art display was so awesome to look at in person. The picture shows what looks like a purple aurora borealis behind a white crystal swan, which is the companies logo. Beautiful.

Some of our old friends: 
Tiffany's windows were pretty, but nothing out of the ordinary. Unlike the last couple of years, where I have been awed by their paper cutting creativity, this year, the theme was carousel. Cute, but not very inventive. Saks Fifth Avenue, who used to have the most awesome windows on Union Square, have totally fallen off the radar. It's almost not worth making the trip across the square to see them.  

Although rather tame, I liked one element of the Nordstrom windows. Using the birdcage theme, they placed a mannequin inside wearing a garment looking much like a bird's feathers. Birdcages are one of my favorite motifs right now, so it struck a chord with me.

Not so hot: H&M

The display in itself isn't bad, it's cute even, but the ghastly SALESALESALE banner turned the display into a disaster. The mannequins had strange pink circles on their cheeks, perhaps to make them look like dolls? Could have been a cute idea, but it didn't come off right. Not only was it weird, some of the dots were crooked on the mannequin faces. Please, next year guys, try to be worth my time.

Japantown Christmas Explosion

The owners of this restaurant have the holiday decor cornered. If they were going for the "Christmas Just Exploded On Us" theme, they excelled fabulously. I mean no disrespect. I appreciate their enthusiasm!

Finally, my favorite non-retail decor this year goes to the Flood Building. Owned at one time by the San Francisco millionaire James Flood, and one of the only buildings downtown to survive the 1906 earthquake and fire, the Flood Building is awe-inspiring to walk through. Their decor is simple and traditional, but paired with the grandeur of the building, this is a must see.

I hope you all take little pieces of this article and incorporate the artistic spirit into your own works. And don't forget to show us here at dashPunk your pics when you're finished!

Happy Holidays! 

The new trailer for John Carter is here:

I have read a couple sad reviews of the trailer from people who have never read the books, so I  thought I would take a moment to respond.

While I am not yet convinced this is going to be a good or great movie, I take umbrage with the people who are saying that this movie is a knock off of Star Wars and Avatar...

The first Barsoom book was published in 1912.  That is all that needs to be said.  The books came first, and the movies that came after it inherited themes and imagery from it.  I know it is a lot to ask from internet folk to get their facts straight, but they need to do it.

I hope the film benefits from the technology used in Star Wars and Avatar, that will only make it a better movie, but that does not mean it copied them unless the filmmakers went off script.

O Sweet Anne, may the Harpers sing your song forever.

Our sweet Dragon Lady, Anne McCaffrey has died (Galley Cat).

Dragon Song was the first book I ever read on my own, not because someone bought it for me, not because it was assigned to me in school. I saw the book on the shelf, and bought it, read it, and fell in love.

I read through all of the Dragon Riders of Pern books, and to this day, I keep a canister of Klah in my kitchen and often have a cup of it instead of cocoa.

Anne's books were the first books that I ever read to feature strong female characters. Her stories are amazing, and should be read by anyone who loves relationship centric fiction.

From Pern, to the Ship who Sang, to Crystalsinger, Rowan, and the Doona books, her work covers so many topics and worlds. She will be missed.

O Master Harper sing:

"Work continues on my writing project, which despite my best effort looks like I am going to be writing it in November, so maybe I should turn it into a NaNoWriMo project. Marathon writing is fun, but at any rate it looks like I will have a new book out next year.

It has engendered a new debate in me about about how much to share about my creative process. As usual, I have a lot of inspirations feeding into this project, and I feel like they will be obscured in the final version so that the story and its elements are uniquely mine, but with some of the more recent copyright claims going around, I am seriously waiting for someone to claim a right to inspiration.

You might think that I am being overly cautious about this, but after the recent Rhianna S&M case, I don't think that is too far fetched. I might share them, just because that is my instinct, but I'm curious to see how it will all play out.

The Wand and Weaver mini-series is in editing, so hopefully you will all get to see it soon. If you are interested in beta-reading it, let me know. I am really looking for notes on the stories. I like them, but they are very different from the kind of stories I already write."

Most Zombie shows are boring excuses to do terribly violent things to our neighbors.  I suppose just writing this will bring the wrath of Zombie fans down on me like a crowd of walkers after a gunshot in Atlanta, but season 1 left me with such mixed feelings.

This show was a different experience for me than most genre series. Usually, I am only moderately interested in the first episode and then with each passing episode my interest grows.

With Walking Dead I loved the first episode. It was everything I wanted in a series, and reminded me of everything I loved about Romero's Night of the Living Dead. It was suspenseful and thrilling and introduced interesting characters.  

But after the first episode, everything changed. I am not sure if the quality went down or if I was immunized to the techniques they used to engender suspense.

Don't get me wrong, there were scenes that I liked in the later episodes, but the magic of the first episode never returned. I found the plots to be overly predictable. They foreshadowed every event so well, I knew when everything was going to happen, and each event happened right on queue.

As a cord-cutter, it will be a while before I can watch season 2. Hopefully, they will focus more on the characters, which is the strength of the series, and less on the plot devices and obvious story models they did in season 1.

Need I say more?

Ninja from Olivier Trudeau on Vimeo.

The art styling is amazing.  This is a great short film that shows how to convey a sense of place in a short amount of time.

Chistina Kelly put together this great presentation on what makes a gaming community, and it really made me think:

I think the problem that we are all facing an issue about how to bring in people in a way that they contribute to the project, without clouding the issue of copyright and ownership to the point where no one can make money off it.  This presentation is a great start.

What is Random House up to?

"Random House has a team that already does "bible" development for hire. If, for instance, a video game company has an idea for a game -- but hasn't fully broadened out the storyline or storylines -- it can hire Random House to develop an entire world for the game." (Blacklight Transmedia partners with Random House - Yahoo! News)

That's interesting work if you can get it. Their new partnership will help them translate their novels into other media. Does this mean that they see the death of the novel coming? Or are they just hedging their bets to try to find a way to make more money.

I have always set my goal to do more "Transmedia Story Telling," or simply to tell the same story in various media types, but to see a major publishing company going this way makes me feel like the end is nigh for the traditional publishers as we know them.

Good riddance to unnecessary companies. You are out! Auf wiedersehen.

"The grand disruptors..."

Jeff Jarvis just called Steve Jobs that on the TWiT network, and it is a great word, a powerful word. Someone like Jobs was a disruptor, and that is the message of the moment. We need to ask ourselves are we disrupting the status quo or are we moving down the stream with the rest of the herd.

Steve Jobs didn't invent anything. He was not the first to bring most of the products to market but we will remember him because he made them better. He focused on what on what people needed and wanted, and made products that people would want to use.

He is role model for us all, and though no one will ever replace him, we have to pick up the slack. The genius has left the room and we have a lot of learning to do."