UPDATE 2: INTERVIEW WEEK
I am grateful that so many people choose to answer questions from me. I appreciate more than I can say that I am able to get first hand responses to various things I think about. This time around, Interview Week will present for you a best selling novelist, a cyberpunk novelist, a comic book consultant and publisher, 2 poets, a Minnesota comic book artist, a blind movie director/writer!, a fine artist, and a freaking awesome interview with a vocal talent, who is clearly a thoughtful talented writer as well. The answers have been amazing, and I hope you stick around to read all of them. I additionally hope readers then pursue the creative works by these people, as they are really special. Also, of note but with less form and shape, I also have the workings for the next event, appearing in December but nothing nearly so solid yet. There are fun times on Poplitiko ahead.
Upon Reviewing/Offerings
I have received several new books for "review" via digital means. I am reading each for consideration of review here. I have readers who send comments asking me to write articles about what review product I didn't like, or which item drives me mad in anger or disappointment. Some suggest that I seem to like everything, but I don't. I do not like everything. I'd like to remind people who read my "reviews"that my aim is not to read and write my responses to all I encounter. My point is to present works for you to consider buying and the reason I almost never write negatively it is because I find that there is well enough negativity in the world. I don't believe any publicity is good publicity, and I find that most negative reviews are essentially about taste rather than actual quality. That isn't always true, of course. Not because everything is good, but because I believe even in things I don't like there was likely an honest labor given, a sincere expression of the artist voice, and the effort alone deserves respect. If it helps to do so, please call what I write "offerings." I don't love every single thing I read, watch, play or listen to. In fact, I love about 5%, like about 20% and dislike or really dislike the remainder. If I dislike something it doesn't mean I need to or must share my disappointment, or outright dislike.
It surprises some people that when I can afford to do so, I might buy and read, listen to, watch, or play an item knowing it won't fit into my taste. I am of the opinion that if I only consume intellectually what I like I might stunt my ability to enjoy or know. I want to know all I am able to in this life. We live in a metaphorical art garden of plenty, within which the arts flourish and are ready to be experienced. Just as some people don't like tomatoes or bananas, others dislike apples and oranges. It is the reader's taste that determines much of the possible outcome of the encounter.
This isn't all to say, we must be nice to the creative talent. But I'd argue, if you get a burger from a restaurant and it isn't great, you still eat it, and you don't verbally or character assassinate them. I'm aware that taste is a powerful thing. I also am aware that I am a 57 year old fat, bald, white guy with more than one college degree. My personal and cultural experiences and education are very different than you the reader, and beyond that, far more different, obviously, than the creative talent and their intended audience. My goal is to share things that I have found to be good. I also try to support creatives with interviews and commentary. But that isn't the same as liking all that I encounter.
“The Three Laws of Robotics: 1: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm; 2: A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law; 3: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law; The Zeroth Law: A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.” Isaac Asimov: I, Robot
I need not explain too deeply, giant mechanical leviathans have long
posed as series villains or epic heroes in the science fiction and kaiju
media. They fascinate us, as if we are the Dr. Frankenstein and they
are our mechanical and sterile child. I am a fan of most of these
creatures, unbreathing, steel, and gigantic. I think my favorite work
of those presented, is Pacific Rim, but damn, I also love Neon Genesis
Evangelion, and all the Godzilla connected concepts/characters.
However, maybe no one needs to choose, and we can like it all. Damn. I
just realized that I could have added both Appleseed which I love with a
passion, and Starship Troopers. As I haven't made the header for this
article yet, I'll place a pic of Appleseed on that.
As great as all the various pieces I've shown are, the greatest ongoing work about the war of robots fighting monsters is found in the web comic that was reprinted in TPB form, is KILL ALL MONSTERS by my friends, the lovely and gifted writer Michael May and enormously talented Jason Copland. Below find some excellent images from the series. I hope if you like the images of the popular culture's imagination of robots and monsters that you'll give KILL ALL MONSTERS a look. You won't be disappointed.
THE COLLECTION IS FOUND HERE
BUY MY STUFF
As a result of not having conventions working for me, as well as world issues, I'll be selling more from home. Not only am I trying to sell my own works, but those I've read once and need to sell If you are interested in my books, poetry, prose or comics, write me@ AlexanderNess63@Gmail.Com and have a subject line of sales offers and books. I have a list of all of my credited published works at this link. Perhaps don't assume all books are print, but many are. I only send to US addresses, due to past issues with Canada post and the horrific costs of mailing to the EU and the UK, or elsewhere.
About Getting Reviews from MeFirst off, I can be found on Facebook, Twitter or through email at Alexanderness63@gmail.com. I accept hard copies, so when you inquire at any of these places, I'll follow through by telling you my street address. I no longer have a post box, although I regret that. It was a crushing defeat to no longer have a p.o. box, when I came to realize I was getting so little product it made no sense to pay for the privilege to not receive mail at both my home and at the post office. If you send hard copies for review I will always review them, but if you prefer to send pdf or ebooks to my email, I will review these at my discretion. I don't share my pdf/ebooks, so you can avoid worry that I'd dispense them for free to others.
MY LINKS:
My Poetry Blog AlexNessPoetry.Blogspot.Com
My Published Work AlexNessPoetry.Blogspot.Com/2007/01/My-Work.html
My Amazon Page Amazon.com/author/AlexNess
Lovecraft Styled Horror CthulhuDarkness.Blogspot.Com
Atlantis and other Lost Worlds AlexNessLostWorlds.Blogspot.Com
I have an email list for my poetry blog, AlexNessPoetry.Blogspot.Com If you are interested please send me an email asking to join the list. I have 3 new poems appearing daily. When or if I have new books, the first people to know will be on the list, and I offer deals there for new products. Send an email toAlexanderness63@gmail.com to join the list. I promise never to sell the list or share it.
I've received emails recently asking me why I consider so many works that seem to be different than my own moral center. Well, I don't see them as that different from my own world views. Why is that? I don't think you can know the world without being constantly curious, hungry to know what this world is composed of, what other cultures are about, and how other people and different worldviews create. However, there is an enormous difference between knowing of and knowing, in French the difference between the knowledge earned or known versus to know it exists. (Connaitre and savoir) At the same time, I know that there is an important distance one must take advantage of, to keep from falling into the whole, whatever the thing or the idea of it, is.
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