Please wait...
A lot of it may be in your head. Drinking Bud says something about who you are, just like smoking Marlboro - and it is kind of hard coded into our society. I'd like to have a C8 Corvette - but my wife has this mental image of what kind of person drives a Vette. She isn't entirely *wrong* in that assumption either. Bud is another American brand that does strongly telegraph who you are and what your values are.
I'm always amazed at locals in London watching young working class dudes with their mates, wife and kid, all slamming back buds that cost £8 when they could get a Bud for £4.
I mean - there is a difference. Stella feels a little lighter and more sparkling, with a crisper flavor. It can also be a bit skunkier than Bud - so it has more body and character for its *type* of beer. But, it is basically a mass produced commercial lager. I had to just go confirm that I was right about this, and Budweiser too. I'm not a beer snob - but I was right. It is similar to comparing Pepsi to Coke, vs. craft sodas or homebrews.
I'll drink either if I'm in the mood, but avoid both of them because I don't like giving money to companies who are politically active against my best interests. Compared to the range of beers you might drink, Bud and Stella are virtually interchangeable - like Spirte and Sierra Mist as sodas.
Well, Bud is made with rice, Stella I think is not, being a more standard pilsner. Big difference; makes Bud lighter/crisper/refreshing but less flavorful.
Pilsers *can* be made with rice, I think, but Bud is somewhat uniquely... ricey
They're both commercial consumer grade lemon lime carbonated drinks.
They're both commercial consumer grade beers that are basically lemon lime carbonated drinks.
The defense rests.
I think literary magazines are a lost cause. The industry has become a massive orgy of circlejerkers. Smith gives your magazine a literary award, then your magazine buys some stories from Smith so he can claim he has published more than a dozen stories in an prize winning magazine. When everybody is doing it for long enough you have an endogamic elite of literates paying favors to each other while letting no new materia go in ever.
I was reading a blog from some guy who ran some interviews with magazine editors. In this context, that would be editors from magazines that publish short speculative fiction tales. Apparently, most magazines don't pay their editorial teams because they just don't turn a profit.
That's right. People works unpaid because there are no readers enough to sustain the business model, or when the publication has readers (see electronic magazines) they don't pay a cent.
The upside of the article and the interviews was that the idea that only authors buy the magazines is a myth - a given magazine has more subscribers than potential authors in waiting. I used to think that to be the case since if you check social media, websites etc. dedicated to literature, you only find authors in there trying to promote their work...
A common theme in the interviews was that short stories had devalued too badly. Since so much is published for free on the Internet, and Internet users want everythign for cheap or free, there is no way to charge prices that allow publications to stay afloat withotu artificial cost reduction.
This pisses me off no end because speculative fiction is one of the few things I do right, and it is obviously a lost cause from an economic point of view. It looks like I am trapped writing profitable stuff instead. Some of the profitable stuff I write is quite fine, but geeze, I wish I could make science-fiction or fantasy work. I have been thinking of this a lot as of late and I see no way of getting the ball rolloing because nobody cares for this stuff anymore unless it is attatched to a successful IP already.
I donno about not being a market. Sure, in general people are lazy and cheap, but i think good books still have a place in life and still sell.
Sort of like music, most of it is cheap crap, but the good stuff is still there, and there are people that still want it. Just finding the match is the trick i guess.
2023-02-05 16:14 from Nurb432
I donno about not being a market. Sure, in general people are
lazy and cheap, but i think good books still have a place in life and
still sell.
Books are a different beast, entirely.
Still, in my country most novels published are from foreign authors and local publishers won't bother much with local authors out of certain niches. The fun part is I have never signed a publishing contract here but I have achieved some deals with American publishers. Go figure.
Here is the thing. If you want to read short stories, what do you do? You are likely to walk up to your newstand and browse for a magazine, of use a Internet Search Engine for a magazine. That's right, the primary sources are exactly the ones that have to skip paying their staff becausethey don't make a dime. Hardly a good thing.
Not sure we have any of those around here anymore. Local gas station or grocery has a couple of shelves, but dedicated news stands died in the 90s. For news papers, even those little metal boxes on street corners are gone. We have 2 in my building, neither has been touched since 2019..
Down to 2 bookstores, and one is for used books. Well i guess 3 if you go further into the other town north, there is a comic store, but only 2 "locally".
Sun Feb 05 2023 05:11:28 PM EST from darknetuserYou are likely to walk up to your newstand and browse for a magazine,
The deeper thing that I alluded to is the saturation of every marketplace and devaluing of all products. I have always considered myself a free market capitalist, but this is the one thing that I have never had a satisfactory answer to: when automation devalues everything, then how do people continue to make a living except by reducing population? The usual answer is that automation brings about new jobs (creating or maintaining automation), but I've seen first hand what happens when you take people who aren't skilled at automation and put them in a role working with automation. Now even the automation or software trade is saturated with lesser skilled workers and the thing as a whole has become devalued.
Anyway, I don't know where I was going with that. What were we talking about, again?
At some point that wont even work.
Either have 'free' everything, as in zero cost and the infrastructure now takes care of its self, think classic ( socialist ) star trek.. infrastructure was mostly magic by that point so everyone just went out and did what they wanted to better themselves. which of course is not reality. Or we dissolve into chaos as it all burns to the ground due to lack of up keep and those that cant resist taking control of others, which is more likely.
Wed Feb 08 2023 11:58:20 AM EST from zelgomer: when automation devalues everything, then how do people continue to make a living except by reducing population?
The deeper thing that I alluded to is the saturation of every
marketplace and devaluing of all products. I have always considered
myself a free market capitalist, but this is the one thing that I have
never had a satisfactory answer to: when automation devalues
everything, then how do people continue to make a living except by
reducing population? The usual answer is that automation brings about
new jobs (creating or maintaining automation), but I've seen first hand
what happens when you take people who aren't skilled at automation and
put them in a role working with automation. Now even the automation or
software trade is saturated with lesser skilled workers and the thing
as a whole has become devalued.
Actually I am all in for an organic reduction of the population, because people sucks.
But it also sucks when the things you like are rendered worthless.
2023-02-08 13:44 from Nurb432
At some point that wont even work.
Either have 'free' everything, as in zero cost and the infrastructure
now takes care of its self, think classic ( socialist ) star trek..
infrastructure was mostly magic by that point so everyone just went
out and did what they wanted to better themselves. which of course is
not reality. Or we dissolve into chaos as it all burns to the ground
due to lack of up keep and those that cant resist taking control of
others, which is more likely.Wed Feb 08 2023 11:58:20 AM EST from zelgomer
: when automation devalues everything, then how do people continue
to make a living except by reducing population?
To be honest, I don't buy into post- scarcity scenarios.
There is already a resource in the west which is running very very low: emotional support. By this, I mean I know lots of people who are finding themselves with jobs etc. but without the ability to spend time with people that matters to them. Often, they lack anybody that matters to them.
That isn't always a bad thing.
Wed Feb 15 2023 05:36:04 PM EST from darknetuserOften, they lack anybody that matters to them.
2023-02-15 17:52 from Nurb432
That isn't always a bad thing.Wed Feb 15 2023 05:36:04 PM EST from darknetuserOften, they lack anybody that matters to them.
Yes and no.
You many not need an emotional connection with people, but you sure do need friends to push your projects forward. If you don't have people you can make plans with you are in for a very hard life.