Blessed Be The Dunecat

March 11, 2010 in Art, Fandom, Posters by Brian Logee

Blessed be the Dunecat and all His cuteness. Bless the coming and going of Him, May His passing ease the world. May He keep the world smiling for all his people.

(via Dark Vision Hardware)

What Improvement Could a Dune Remake Bring?

February 10, 2010 in Books, Movies by Brian Logee

I love the Dune series, read the books and yes even own the David Lynch movie that has some loose references to the books. I even share with many the desire to “erase the image that David Lynch did.” That is what Frank Herbert’s Dune a 2002 mini-series remake did.

What benefit could a Dune remake bring to make it worth doing another one so soon?

“I’d love it to be 3D, of course. It’s the kind of movie that has the scope to be 3D. Will they do it in 3D? I’d push for that, but I don’t know. As a viewer, I’ve just been watching Avatar with my kids twice in the theater already and had a blast. It’s an amazing experience.”

We would all love to experience Shai-Hulud in all it’s greatness. If 3-D is all that can be brought to the project please don’t waste our time. A visual ride without all of the depth that dune brings would be as empty as pouring our water out on the sands.

There are so many other books that could enjoy a good remake or to be made into a movie and some that would serve far better for a hyper visual trippy 3-D experience. Take for instance many of Piers Anthony’s works.

(via SCI FI Wire)

Brian’s Top 10 Movies

June 23, 2009 in Movies by Brian Logee

It’s very hard to pick only 10 movies so I went with the top 10 but at the moment that I would pick:

Star Wars all of them: Big fan of the setting, story, and myth.
The Matrix Collection: The great way this series gets one to give a second look at the systems that they exist in, how to bend the rules and evolve.
Transformers: (80’s animated and the live action one) Giant Robots Fun
Harry Potter films: what a wonderful story arc, the books are better
Star Trek in particular Star Trek 2 The Wrath of Khan
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Serenity
V for Vendetta: the political exploration and the exploration of the power of symbolism and symbols.
Planet of the Apes: the 1968 version it’s a great social exploration.
Frank Herbert’s Dune: kind of a fudge because it aired on TV but I watch all of them as a long movie

What are your top 10 movies at this moment?

See John The Rogue Demon Hunter’s top 10 picks here

The John Hodgman SF Fan Test

June 22, 2009 in Culture, Fandom by Brian Logee

I really enjoyed John Hodgman’s speech at the Radio & TV Correspondent’s dinner for the jokes but mostly for the use of Speculative Fiction to communicate complex and emotionally charged political ideas. Before we get into that let us take The John Hodgman are you a SF fan test, are you more of an SF fan then the President? Watch the Video below.

What are the name of all 3 types of hobbits?
Who is the Father of Superman?
Do you have a particular technology addiction?
Do you have a picture of yourself in Cosplay or on a pilgrimage to a SF place?
Can you flash the Vulcan solute?
What was the name of the God that Conan the Barbarian worshiped?
Do you know what the Kwisatz Haderach is?
1. Bonus points if you know which version of dune the picture is from?
What is the name of the giant sandworm?
What is the name of the machine to summon such a sandworm?
What is the name of the fluid that they expunge from the sandworm?

I love his comment on the Constitution as a big faq for the U.S. and the founding fathers perspective of God as a distant Dungeon Master.

The beauty of John Hodgman’s speech is the use of SF to communicate complex and emotionally charged political ideas in an approachable manner. He was able to reach out to both sides of the political spectrum and get them to think about ideals like

Consensus
Eagerly looking forward to the future
Appreciating our diversity, EDIC

(via Huffington Post)

What makes a fan a fan?

February 17, 2009 in Fandom by Eric

This entry is part 3 of 10 in the series Fandom

In August last year had a bit of back and forth over the definition of a Fan with Eoghann Irving from Solar Flare:

Eoghann Irving has posted an interesting rebuttal to my post, Fandom v The Scifi Channel, where he tackles the question What makes a fan? The critique of my position is an interesting one, and I have to say, I agree with his assertion that it sounds like I am trying to say that fans define themselves by their interest in SF.

While there are some who have adopted the fan culture for themselves, cultural adoption is not a requirement to be a fan.

What is a Fan?

We are fans.

We love music, stories, characters, settings, and images.
We know about what we love.
We participate in what we love.
We support what we love.
What we love supports us.

Fans are special. We are more than just enthusiasts who enjoy a piece of work, fans connect with the work. We feel it.

Fans love

Fans share a bond with the works they love and with one another. Fans’ passion is infectious, spreading the the works they love to others.

The love of a fan is a blessing to a responsible creator, but it is a curse to the reckless.

Farscape fans kept the series alive despite the many attempts by the network to cancel it.
Star Trek fans helped kept the series alive until the death of Gene Roddenberry when studio pushed the franchise away from its heart.
Heroes and X-files fans fell in love with disparate aspects of their respective franchises, but when the series lost their way through a lack of focus on the part of the studios.

If a fan’s love is scorned or goes unappreciated, the fan reacts in the same way a jilted lover would. If a fan’s heart turns cold, it is almost impossible to rekindle it.

Fans Know

: Image via Wikipedia

Fans know things about the things they love and enthusiasts don’t.

Anyone can quote Star Trek or Star Wars because many of the aphorisms have gone mainstream, but a Star Wars Fan knows who Ulic Qel-Droma and Exar Kun are. They have become such an important part of the Saga. They know the Chewbacca died on Sernpidal during the Yuuzhan Vong war trying to save Han Solo’s youngest son.

Fandom is not defined by obscure knowledge. On the contrary, a fans love for a franchise causes them to seek out everything they can from that franchise. We read the books and watch the OVAs. A fan remembers the details and more often than not knows the minutia.

Fans participate

Fans create and enjoy filk, fanfiction, fan films, fan art, costumes and conventions. We often play role playing games, video games and MMOs in the settings we love.

Fan participation is the most commonly mocked aspects of SF fandom. No one mocks a music fan’s attendance of a concert or a sport fan attending a game. They don’t even mock the wearing of band shirts or sports jerseys, or fantasy football or rock and roll camp. These are not different from conventions, or filk, or role playing, or cosplay.

Fans support

Fans support what we love. We buy the books, DVDs, and games.

This is where modern fandom is in the most trouble. The studios and publishers have not offered fans the options they want for media they consume. DRM (digital rights management) and region codes restrict how and where media can me viewed.

International fans often have few options for obtaining media other than piracy.

Media companies have to listen to the fans and make media available in as many ways as possible to they do not drive money away. They also must learn that they are not owners of their franchises, they are caretakers and conservators. The tighter they hold on to outdated and outmoded concepts of ownership, the smaller market they will have and the most desperate they will become.

What we love supports us.

: Image by barcanna via Flickr

Fans often gather insight and inspiration from the franchises they love. In moments of fear, I have found myself reciting the Bene Geseret prayer from Dune. It is also not uncommon for fans to quote dialogue to make a point.

These franchises are not just shows or books we like. More than we realize they are the myths that help us:

talk about the aspects of life that are impossible to discuss straight on.
see the connections between our lives and the transcendent mysteries.
develop a pattern of living with honor, integrity, and purpose.
react the trial, tribulations, and joyful moments of life.

This is why fans embraced the movie Galaxy Quest. It is a love letter to fandom, showing at its most extreme, but also showing it for what it is. A culture that gives hope and inspiration to millions.

Are you a fan?

Here are a few questions to ask yourself. The more times you answer yes, the better the likelihood you are a fan.

Have you ever connected with a work on a deep level?
Have you ever enjoyed something so much you rushed to tell someone?
Have you ever played a game, watched an OVA, or read a book that is part of the extended universe of a franchise you love?
Have you ever debated or conversed with someone about an aspect of a franchise’s setting or the minutia of a setting?
Have you ever dressed up as one of your favorite characters?
Have you ever attended an SF convention?
Have you ever bought a boxset?
Have you ever quoted SF to make a point?

What is Progressive Speculative Fiction?

February 11, 2009 in Books, Movies, Speculative Fiction, Writing, tv/series by Eric

This entry is part 1 of 2 in the series Defining Speculative Fiction

“Progressive Speculative Fiction is a story told in any medium which has a “What if” at its core and is filled with hope for the future and promotes a sense of community (Project: Shadow Manifesto).”

Of all the things I wrote in the Project: Shadow Manifesto, that one sentence has proven to be the most controversial. Writers have emailed me asking if their work is Progressive SF or not. Let’s approach the question slowly.

What is Speculative Fiction?

Speculative Fiction is any fiction that has at its core a “What if?” There are five main subgenres of Speculative Fiction:

Science Fiction
Scifi
Fantasy
Horror
Alternative History

What sets these stories apart from the mainstream?

All fiction asks the question, “Suppose X happened to this character, what would happen?” Speculative Fiction asks, “What if X were true about the universe, how would this character react?” For example:

Harry Potter: “What if magic existed in the world and it could do anything but bring people back from the dead?”
Lord of the Rings: “What is the prehistory of Europe where a mystic struggle between the powers of light and darkness over the nature of the world to come?”
Dune: “What if it were possible to alter consciousness enough for people to see the interconnectedness of all things”
Cthulu Mythos: “What if there were beings in the universe as powerful and incomprehensible as we are to an ant?”

The question is the heart of the story. You cannot have a ghost story unless you ask, “What if ghosts interfered with the lives of people?”

That is why it is called Speculative Fiction. It speculates about a world that is different from ours in some way.

What makes Speculative Fiction Progressive?

Hope for the future and promotes a sense of community. Some have taken this to mean that dark fiction cannot be Progressive. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Heroes and Battlestar Galactica

: Image by Mostly Lisa via Flickr

Heroes is not progressive, but Battlestar Galactica is. Both of these stories are dark, and at times bleak. Why is one Progressive and the other not?

There is no hope in Heroes. Nothing inspires the characters forward. They looked into Kierkegaard’s void and could not take their eyes off of the fact that the world is free from purpose and meaning. They embrace their meaninglessness, and robs the series of any lasting merit it could have.

Battlestar Galactica looked into the same void, and the characters chose to carve out their own meaning in the cosmos. They have hope for the future, even if it is challenged often, and they are continually struggling to build a viable community.

Hope for the Future

Hope is a necessary element of fiction that many post-modern writes/producers neglect.

Without hope, the characters have nothing to loose.
With nothing to loose, there is no tension.
Without tension, there is no reason to care about the characters.
If you don’t care about the characters, there is nothing left but spectacle.

That is the primary problem with shows like Lost, Heroes, and Fringe. All they have is spectacle and shock value. They have no depth, and there is no reason for people to care about them. People watch simply to see what crazy thing happens next. They will be forgotten quickly.

Community

A side effect of the hopelessness and ennui that fills post-modern SF is the focus on the individual to the detriment of the community. This factor alone was able to change my opinion of Battlestar Galactica. I didn’t used to like the show, but after I marathoned the boxsets, I could see and better still feel the communities that were trying to maintain themselves.

A sense of community is integral to Speculative Fiction because most if not all stories present a world that is different from our own, and without a sense of community it is hard if not impossible to understand the nature of the setting. For example look at Legend of the Seeker:

The levels of mistrust amid Darken Rahl’s soldiers
The submissive population of Brennidon
The reverence of the Confessors for each other and their outrage at sacrelige
The prevelence of hidden valleys and islands

All these and more add up to a better understanding of the world under Darken Rahl’s control. Through these communities and the relationships between Richard, Zedd, and Kahlan defines the setting.

Hope and community are part of what Progressive Speculative Fiction is, but they are also Why Progressive Speculative Fiction is important, which we will talk about in the next post in this series.

Project: Shadow Manifesto

January 5, 2009 in Art, Books, Convention, Fandom, Fanfilm, Games, Movies, Music, Mythology, Philosophy, Primers, Speculative Fiction, Writing, tv/series by Eric

To mark the 10 year anniversary of the Project: Shadow Manifesto, we thought it was time to overhaul it again, but this time to open up the project to all of the like-minded fans out there who are tired of the status quo, and who are hungry for something new.

Brian and I drafted the original Project: Shadow Manifesto in 1999 as an outline we saw in professional publishing. The original draft was heavy on problems, light on vision, and even lighter on solutions. We took years investigating the limited options available at the time, built the original Project: Shadow, and I started writing.

In 2004, we revised the manifesto, and re-launched Project: Shadow. The new draft focused on the solutions possible through new technologies. The world/culture presented us with newer challenges.

We are fans.

We love our music, stories, characters, and settings.
We know about what we love.
We participate in what we love.
We support what we love.
What we love supports us.

At heart, a fan is not someone who enjoys a movie, a song, a band, a book, or a show. A fan feels an intense connection with the object of their love. Fans decorate their homes, offices, and desktops with items that announce their allegiance with their favorite bands, movies, shows, and books.

The problem with our popular culture is that it doesn’t blink at a sports fan wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with their favorite team, or even a replica jersey, but wear a Star Wars shirt or dress like a goth and they think they have the right to mock you.

What is the difference between a fan wearing a jersey to a game or fan bringing a light saber to a movie? Or for that matter, what is the difference between a sports fan painting themselves up to go tailgating or a fan dressing as their favorite character at a convention?

Perception. Pop Culture has classified sports fans as acceptable and speculative fiction fans as geeky. I have to say, it is just as geeky to now all of the stats for everyone who has ever played for a particular sports franchise as it is to know the stats for every creature in the Monster Manual. The only real difference is one fan accepts they are a geek, and the other pretends their geekiness is proof they are a jock.

The disapproval is the least of the problems facing today’s fan.

From Storytellers to Copyright

Problem: People are natural storytellers. We hear a story, embellish it, and pass it on.

Solution: We tell each other stories, sing songs, write books, make videos, and create art to share these stories with each other.

Every story we tell is not original. We like to tell the same stories over and over. We borrow stories from any where and retell them in our own vernacular. It is intrinsic to who and what we are to share stories with each other.

Problem: The only constant in the world is change.

Solution: We ask ourselves the question, “What if,” and share the answer with each other.

Problem: Artists and Writers need to make a living singing their songs, writing their books, making their videos, and creating their art.

Solution: We establish systems of Copyright.

The Cultural Cycle

mythos Project: Shadow Manifesto Before the era of Copyright, stories, heroes, melodies, and lyrics belonged to the people. Stories were told, and retold. Numerous visions of each story competed against each other. The best were remembered, collected, retold, embellished, and built upon. The rest were forgotten.

Who told the first story about Hercules? Or Jason? or Troy? Who started the legends of King Arthur? or Beowulf? The first tales and their countless reiterations have been lost, but the best, most iconic stories survived.

Of all of Shakespeare’s plays, only a few comedies have no obvious sources, and even they rely upon well established patterns and archetypes.

This is the Cultural Cycle that keeps important stories alive. Each generation must retell the tales of the preceding generations in their own context to keep them relevant. This cycle has been broken.

Problem: Companies lobby to prevent Intellectual Property from reentering the commons of the culture.
Problem: Companies control the instruments of culture, making it harder to engage culture creatively.
Solution: Fans retell these stories as not for profit tales, films, and songs.
Solution: Fans organize themselves into clubs and conventions.

These solutions are are not enough. Fanfiction and film relies on the good will of the copyright holders and the fact that the fans do not make money from their works to slip through the thinnest of loop hole in copyright. As a result, pop culture is unaware of the cultural developments and retelling of these new stories. The subculture may be enriched by them, but the culture as a whole is not.

The Creative Commons and the Cult of the Dollar

Problem: Publishers and producers focus more on the commercial and popular value of a work, and the creative energy of the work suffers. Readers/viewers will not become fans, and fans will not continue to accept passionless works of Speculative Fiction.

Solution: Placing honesty over consumerism, we fans must stake out our own home to create and share the works we love. We must stand between the darkness and the light: This is the purpose of Project: Shadow.

Problem: The Companies and Rights holders lashed out against the fair use of their properties.

Problem: Some Rights Holders have lulled fandom into a false sense of security by not suing and even encouraging those who produce fanworks

Creative Commons is one of many proposed solutions to this problem. Others have lobbied for copyright reform. Neither of these is a solution to the problems.

Copyright reform is a doomed enterprise while corporate lobbyists have the power they do over the congress. While it is a goal to work for, it is just not realistic in the short term.

Creative Commons is closer to a solution, but the adoption rate has not been sufficient to even start chipping away at the problem.

The reason Creative Commons is an uphill battle is that it is a major evolution in the way rights holders handle permissions to use their work, and exists without an intermediary form. Existing rights holders have not adopted it because they are unwilling to give up all the rights entailed under Creative Commons.

I approached the Creative Commons Foundation with a proposal for a Fan Works License:

Some of the rights holders I have talked to are reluctant to use the CC because they are concerned they are giving up too many rights to their works. A Fan Works License would allow rights holders to clearly state what they will allow others to do with their characters, content, and settings.

It would be a bit more complicated than a standard CC, stating whether others may make original text, video, music, or art projects based on their works. It would also allow them to set the content rating they would allow fan works to have. This could be aligned with the MPAA ratings or the ESRB ratings system or an original system. The reason for this is so a young adult novelist could set a max rating of PG-13, allowing others to know what standards they would apply to determine whether a fan work is legitimate or not.

The other terms would be the same as in the standard CC.

You may not think something like this is necessary, but the current state of fan works is hazy. While few have been sued in the last couple years, at any time, rights holders could decide to start suing again. By creating a license that covers works with the same characters and settings rather than a particular book or movie, I believe we could get more rights holders to use the license to allow for the creation of fan works, which is a step on the road to open up works to the commons.

They responded with a simple, “CC probably isn’t going to be expanding the license offerings, and in fact, over the past few years CC has been reducing the number of licenses.”

I do not believe that a fanwork or Creative Commons license is the ultimate solution, but as a possible stepping stone toward an open culture.

Progressive Speculative Fiction

Problem: Modern and Post-modern fiction is antithetical to hope, imagination, and community
Problem: Success is easier through snark, hate, and discrimination.
Solution: We will promote, support and create Progressive Speculative Fiction.

What is Progressive Speculative Fiction?

Progressive Speculative Fiction is a story told in any medium which has a “What if” at its core and is filled with hope for the future and promotes a sense of community.

How can disaster fiction be progressive?

Watch a Godzilla movie or either The Day the Earth Stood Stills. If there is nothing worth saving, then there is no tragedy. The heroes must at least try to save someone or something worth saving.

How can horror be progressive?

Watch nearly any horror film made prior to 1990 or for the best example read The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker or anything by Anne Rice. If life is not worth living or there is nothing worth defending, where is the horror. If life is worthless, then death is merely a release from a nightmare. There is nothing scary about it. If there is no free will, nothing is lost by imprisonment or possession. If sanity is not worth preserving, why bother.

What works are Progressive Speculative Fiction?

There are too many to mention all of them, but to offer a spectrum:

Just to name a few.

Mythos

Problem: The word “Myth” has become a marketing term.

Homogenized works are released more often by the industry every year. Focus groups and market analysis have replaced quality work, but since the cultural cycle is broken, industry has no alternative. It is safer to release works like the ones that sold last year than it is to seek out new talent/ideas that would be more of a risk.

They know what the fans want. We want myths, stories that speak to us on a deep level while entertaining us. Myths are hard to make. It is easy to add in a wizard or a starship and call it mythology. Fans see through it, but the masses are looking for little more than sex, violence, and humor. Speculative Fiction has been watered down to little more than:

imitation space opera
knock-off cyberpunk
repackaging of the rings
martial arts boom-boom
torture porn

They, then, wrap it in a shiny box, slap the word myth, saga, legend, or reboot on it, and wait for the masses to spend their money on it… and they usually do.

We do not need another company driven by profit margins, or another author whose self-important propaganda obscures the art.

We need writers and artists that love what they are doing.

We need fans who are not afraid to speak their minds.

We need places in our towns/cities and online where we can meet and share the few gems that we find from the industry and from the independent artist, writers, and filmmakers who are still following their bliss rather than the dollar.

That is why we are here. Project: Shadow and dashPunk will provide a platform for writers, artists, filmmakers and fans to “follow their bliss.” We are dedicated to finding and promoting the best Speculative Fiction out there: the little/well known writers, filmmakers, artists and works, fostering their talents, and helping them to not only follow their hearts, but to share that vision with others.

But we cannot do it alone!

Fandom Strikes Back

Solution: We must seek out and support the writers, artists, and producers that encourage and support fan works.
Solution: We must get writers, artists, and producers on the record about their position regarding fan works.
Solution: We must live according to our values of hope, imagination, and community.
Solution: We must build a community around hope, imagination, and community, and reject the rote cynicism that defines the faux-fandom that loves to tear things down rather than build things up.
Solution: We must spread the stories, videos, songs, and art that speak to us.

Together, We can make dashPunk and Project: Shadow more than an idea or a website, but a vibrant community of fans who share the things we love with each other.

Together, we can make it easier to find and share the things we love and find new things to love.

Together, we can build a community of fans who support and engage one another for our mutual benefit.

Alone, none of us can stand up to the corporate powers who control the music, video, text, and art that we love, but together, our voice will be heard.

Fandom is a vibrant culture with its own music (filk), events (conventions), games, and myths. Until now, we have gathered periodically, or in disparate groups.

Now is the time to bring the great multitude of fan bases together.

Now is your time! Copy this Manifesto. Print it, post it, email it, share it! Tell a friend, and most importantly Make your voice heard.

Download

Project: Shadow Manifesto by Project: Shadow is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at dashpunk.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://dashpunk.com/about/.

P:SI #218 "Harry Potter and the Phantom Of The Diary"

August 22, 2008 in Project: Shadow Informant Show Notes by Brian Logee

Culture

Happy Birthday Ray Bradbury! 88
Conventions added to the HQ (P:S HQ)
- City of Heroes Bay Area “Hero-Con ‘08″ (City of Heroes)
- The California Steampunk Convention (Emerian Rich)
Cybertek Wings (dashPunk)

Movie

Jon Favreau Working On Iron Man 2 (via Filmonic)
Star Wars Dark Empire looking for animators (via Star Wars Dark Empire)
Star Trek: Phase II News (via Star Trek Phase II)

TV / Series

The Guild – You’ve Got a Friend (P:S HQ)
The Guild In-Game Fan Art (dashPunk)
Legend of Neil, Episode 5 (P:S HQ)
Knight’s K.I.T.T. Cave Revealed (via Sci Fi Wire)
Atlantis Fall-Out (via GateGeek)
- Atlantis Movie Green-Lighted (via Sci Fi wire)
- Stargate Universe Coming (via Sci Fi Wire)

Music

Vixen – Give Me Away (P:S HQ)
Harry Potter – The Musical(s) (via Harry Potter The Musicals)

Books

Star Wars: Visions of the Blade Online Comic (dashPunk)
Dune Wikia help (Dune wiki)

Webcomic

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zunepodcastgf6 P:SI #218 "Harry Potter and the Phantom Of The Diary"

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