Familiar tales, like Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid or The Snow Queen, have been reused and retold countless times. Sometimes the result is a mindless rip-off, and sometimes the familiarity of the structure lets a writer riff on the story in creative and surprising ways. It’s a […]
In World of Warcraft (Blizzard, 2004), I am a night elf hunter. I have a wolf named Meadow (named after my dog in real life). We journey the neighboring continents of Azeroth together, in search of new gear, more quests to complete, and raw meat to keep her […]
“Google Robots are our human-like machines that walk the earth to record information. They do no harm, and they do not invade your privacy.” This satiric FAQ from 2030 nails the GoogleTone: reassuring, occasionally witty, and not above the occasional exclamation mark.
Joe Haldeman on Syriana: “I saw it as a kind of modern interpretation of the James Bond film… I don’t think the viewer is supposed to totally understand it, either; you sort of absorb it.”
Orson Scott Card’s alternate history of the American frontier, Red Prophet, is soon a graphic novel (preview at Newsarama): “We felt that a book set in history like Red Prophet should have a ‘Great Illustrated Classics’ kind of feel to it.”
It’s an idea whose time has come: Ninjas vs. Pirates! Sounds homebrew too: “Almost all scenes in NVP were shot in front of 9 sheets of 30-cent green posterboard in a 12’x13′ apartment living room, lit with $12 Wal-Mart halogen work lights.”
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The Cultural Gutter 