jmcgready’s misc universe

Turkey City Lexicon:

From Bruce Sterling’s foreword:

We now come to the core of this piece, the SF Workshop Lexicon. This lexicon was compiled by Mr Lewis Shiner and myself

from the work of many writers and critics over many years of genre history, and it contains buzzwords, notions and critical terms of direct use to SF workshops.

The first version, known as the “Turkey City Lexicon” after the Austin, Texas writers’ workshop that was a cradle of cyberpunk, appeared in 1988.

In proper ideologically-correct cyberpunk fashion, the Turkey City Lexicon was distributed unCopyrighted and free-of-charge:

a decommodified, photocopied chunk of free literary software.

Lewis Shiner still thinks that this was the best deployment of an effort of this sort, and thinks I should stop fooling around with this fait accompli.

After all, the original Lexicon remains unCopyrighted, and it has been floating around in fanzines, prozines and computer networks for seven years now.

I respect Lew’s opinion, and in fact I kind of agree with him. But I’m an ideologue, congenitally unable to leave well-enough alone.

In September 1990 I re-wrote the Lexicon as an installment in my critical column for the British magazine INTERZONE.

When Robin Wilson asked me to refurbish the Lexicon yet again for PARAGONS, I couldn’t resist the temptation.

I’m always open to improvements and amendments for the Lexicon.

It seems to me that if a document of this sort fails to grow it will surely become a literary monument, and, well, heaven forbid.

For what it’s worth, I plan to re-release this latest edition to the Internet at the first opportunity.

You can email me about it: I’m “mailto:bruces@well.com”.

Some Lexicon terms are attributed to their originators, when I could find them; others are not, and I apologize for my ignorance.

Science fiction boasts many specialized critical terms.

You can find a passel of these in Gary K Wolfe’s CRITICAL TERMS FOR SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY: A GLOSSARY AND GUIDE TO SCHOLARSHIP

(Greenwood Press, 1986). But you won’t find them in here.

This lexicon is not a guide to scholarship. The Workshop Lexicon is a guide (of sorts) for down-and-dirty hairy-knuckled sci-fi writers,

the kind of ambitious subliterate guttersnipes who actually write and sell professional genre material.

It’s rough, rollicking, rule-of-thumb stuff suitable for shouting aloud while pounding the table.

sample entries:

And plot

Picaresque plot in which this happens, and then that happens, and then something else happens, and it all adds up to nothing in particular

Plot Coupons

The basic building blocks of the quest-type fantasy plot. The “hero” collects sufficient plot coupons (magic sword, magic book, magic cat)

to send off to the author for the ending. Note that “the author” can be substituted for “the Gods” in such a work:

“The Gods decreed he would pursue this quest.”

Right, mate. The author decreed he would pursue this quest until sufficient pages were filled to procure an advance. (Dave Langford)

{tags, life, Literary}

Technorati Tags: Bruce Sterling, essays

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EFF: Spread the Word: Stop the Surveillance Bills!:

EFF has sued AT&T for violating the law and the privacy of its customers by collaborating with the National Security Agency (NSA)

in its massive and illegal spying program. On July 20, 2006, a federal judge denied the government’s and AT&T’s motions to dismiss the case,

and, in doing so, demonstrated that the conventional court system is perfectly capable of handling challenges related to illegal spying.

But now the White House and Senator Arlen Specter are scheming to sweep all legal challenges related to government spying under the rug,

moving cases to a secret court with no procedures for hearing argument from anyone but the government.

This sham “compromise” bill will help the government continue to break the law,

vastly expanding the president’s power to spy on you without any meaningful oversight from Congress or the courts.

The bill:

* Stacks the deck against anyone challenging illegal surveillance programs in court,

sweeping legal challenges into the shadowy Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) courts.

* Guts long-standing statutory limits on secret surveillance by the government,

threatening to make search warrants for national security wiretaps optional rather than mandatory.

* Permits even more dragnet surveillance, creating a secret approval process for electronic fishing expeditions

that could sweep up the communications of millions of Americans.

Here’s what the press is saying:

* Washington Post:

“Mr. Specter’s bill … has been turned into a green light for domestic spying. It must not pass….

This bill is not a compromise but a full-fledged capitulation on the part of the legislative branch to executive claims of power.”

* Los Angeles Times:

“[Specter's] compromise solution is too much of a compromise and not enough of a solution.”

* New York Times:

“The bill the president has agreed to accept would allow him to go on ignoring the eavesdropping law….

[The FISA court] is not the right court to make the determination [about the domestic spying program's constitutionality].”

stop this bill and others like it:

* Take action now by visiting http://action.eff.org/fisa

* Spread the word to friends and family –

send along information on this page and link to EFF’s Action Center.

{strange stuff, life, Politics}

Technorati Tags: annoying, blind, corruption, frustrating, politics, security, stupid

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and definitely don’t do it wearing a jacket with your name on it…

KIROTV.com - News - Resourceful Mom Tracks Down Pranksters Who Destroyed Yard:

Resourceful Mom Tracks Down Pranksters Who Destroyed Yard

POSTED: 10:56 am PDT August 1, 2006

NORCO, Calif. — The teenagers who toilet-papered Katja Base’s home may now be regretting it.

Base, a mother of six, was unwilling to let the teens get away with it,

saying she began trying to track them down to teach her kids about accountability.

At 7:30 p.m. Feb. 17, someone bought 144 rolls of toilet paper, cheese, dog food, flour and plastic forks –

the same items found on her lawn and house. It was a cash transaction, making it difficult to trace the purchaser,

but the store had video surveillance.

The video showed four teens making the purchase,

one of them wearing a Norco High School letterman’s jacket with a name stitched across the back.

Base then borrowed a Norco High yearbook and went online to get the name and addresses of the teens on the tape.

{life, strange stuff}

Technorati Tags: stupid human tricks, security, stupid, teen vandals, tp

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