The Point of Patreon

Cory Doctorow of BoingBoing.net makes a good point here about Patreon's real role in connecting artists to audiences. Succinct and driving a fine point.

Corresponding attire not included

Reimagining The Simpsons’ Home in 8 Popular Architectural Styles by HomeAdvisor

Required reading, this right here.

Enjoyed reading this, even if everything came clear only towards the end.

Have some Ambiguous Grammar.

Recommended that you read it to the end also.

Old School Revolutionary

"Up from the ocean depths comes the jet-black caucasian transvestite champion. Resplendent in warpaint, wampum beads and silk suit by Cardin, armed only with a tomahawk and vibragun, he returns to the napalmed ruins of London to resurrect his sister and wrest from the disgusting Bishop Beesley and his formidable henchwomen the black box which has diffracted the cosmos and set the world spinning at super-speed towards its own final solution. Lock up your daughters, hide your stash, keep to the shadows."

-Michael Moorcock , A Cure for Cancer

Coming to a Famous Roof Garden near you.

HHH

Spooky spooky come to me

Mars Rover looks out across the plains and... there's a light.

Bang bang

Here's what Jerry Cornelius' needle gun might look like in the real world, courtesy of SockGardener. Honestly I've never been comfortable with the needle gun; I'm more of a vibragun person myself. But check out that whammy bar!

Along those lines, five years ago...

Jerry Cornelius and the rest of his milieu (his mother, Frank and Catherine, Una Persson, Bishop Beesley, Miss Brunner, and all the others) all seem to be 20th century archetypes of one kind or another, and I think their relevance hasn't dimmed as time has marched on (asFiring the Cathedral demonstrates). I'd like to hear a bit more about how the Cornelius characters function as mirrors of the times, both in the 1960s and 1970s when they were born, and now.

Well, Modem Times has come out since Firing the Cathedral, in which I try to address changing times since I first started doing the Cornelius stories. As some readers have suggested, the method (and Cornelius is as much a method as a character) seems to be just as relevant to current problems as when Jerry first made his appearance in 1965. I think we need to add an extra character or two, to symbolise this particular period of history, and I'm at present trying to find a good 'useless liberal' character. It's possible that I can turn Frank into this. I've been going back to base as much as possible in recent months to see how I can do this. My anger has to be cut by plenty of humour or it just becomes a rant. I need to be able to keep balance and focus and find the right locations which best symbolise what I want to say. It gets somewhat harder all the time. I think I also need an American character to add to the troupe, since I'm seeing so much these days from an American perspective. They function as mirrors to the times by at once, of course, reflecting what's going on and offering a commentary. The reason for using newspaper reports and other quotes is not because I approve of those quotes but because they replace exposition and show the 'subject' speaking for itself. Readers aren't asked to agree or disagree with the quotes. The quotes demonstrate what I'm trying to get at. By setting a story about, say, the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Russia (from The Tank Trapeze, 1968) against a cricket match in Mandalay, I can make comparisons between various forms of imperialism and authoritarianism while also achieving a particular kind of distance. I used the now dead Robert Maxwell, himself a Jewish Czech, in that story, too, as an aggressor. Over the years the stories have become more complex and increasingly subtle, since I've set myself harder tasks, higher standards, which also means I have to do a lot more thinking over of the ideas, frequently rejecting stories before I complete them. Its more a hall of mirrors, I suppose, than simply a glass held up to the world, but since I'm using absurdism only as one element of the mix and can't indulge myself by being simply that -- I take the themes very seriously, of course -- I have to be able to provide the reader with a map and a compass, without being obvious about it. I do this, often, by describing relationships and referring to internal, often autobiographical traumas (as, say, in The Delhi Division). Takes a long time to turn one of the buggers out, I have to say.