creativiti and greed

I can only call the scheme proposed by Quora to financially reward people for asking questions a remarkable way to study greed and creativity.
In the Quora Partner program, members make a little money based on how many people respond to their questions. More info here.
This should be a great way for creative people to make money simply by asking questions and learning stuff. And maybe this is happening.

Let's look at a question I like. What is the opposite word of cooking? I like it. Cooking is not only heating food so 'freezing' isn't the opposite. Fine. I answered the question: follow the link if you like. The thing is, the questioner also asked 148 other questions, all starting with, "What is the opposite word of ...?"
Here is a person who asked 21 questions about synonyms. Another person I cannot now find (perhaps s/he was banned or blocked) asked more than a thousand 'synonym' questions.

So there is a chance to make money pretty easily. All you have to do is ask questions. Ready? Go!

...
Huh, turns out thinking of good questions isn't easy. As Quora knows, it is also hard to police the questions they get. I have tried to ask useful, valuable (financially for me!) questions. I have asked a total of five, I think. And I have made $5.11! But that is American so that's something.

I love answering questions. How hard can it be to ask them? Turns out, pretty hard. But I want that money!

Stories of my youth: the disappointing elements of fantasy books.

I grew up reading Lord of the Rings, The Belgariad, and The Riddle Master of Hed. Riddle Master is probably the series I have most often reread. I just finished the first book an hour ago. I have reread it more than ten times. Beautiful writing but the hero, Morgon, seems more whiny with each reading.

All fantasy has wizards and magic and swords and royalty. Many such stories have ancient secretive races like elves and dwarves -or Earth Masters. I wanted in this post to dig into the other stuff common to these fantasy stories and focus on Riddle Master of Hed.

The things I note are:

• wine
• harps
• approachable royalty
• robes

In Lord of the Rings, I would add:

• other boozes
• tobacco
• healing plants

I guess I would add in general:

• capes
• swords

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Wine and booze. Tim Powers' Drawing of the Dark made beer magical. But Tolkien had already done this with wine. Maybe he was making his story less fantastic and more historic. Note what the Founding Fathers of the USA drank!

The Huffington Post reports, “In 1787, two days before they signed off on the Constitution, the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention partied at a tavern. According to the bill preserved from the evening, they drank 54 bottles of Madeira, 60 bottles of claret, eight of whiskey, 22 of porter, eight of hard cider, 12 of beer and seven bowls of alcoholic punch. That’s more than two bottles of fruit of the vine, plus a few shots and a lot of punch and beer, for every delegate.”

What I really want to get at here is my disappointment with booze. I was a nerdy kid; didn't smoke and wasn't even interested in alcohol. At age eighteen, I snuck into a bar. Not to drink, but to listen to the band playing that night (Doug and the Slugs, often featured here at Creativiti Project).
I finally became interested in alcohol and tried wine. It was okay and I could drink it out of politeness but none of the brands for sale listed medicinal or medical uses (for the latter, come to Korea where traditional liquors have remarkable claims of effects.)

I like beer now and have become something of a connoisseur. At least as far as my wallet allows. Rum and Coke is great. Gin and Tonic is refreshing and protects me from malaria. But none have the effects described of even house wine in Tolkien's stories.

Beer image from.

Morgon of Hed, in RMoH, is stubborn and frequently smashes a glass against a wall when he cannot do as he wishes. This makes more sense when you realize how often he is drinking wine. Maybe that description of drinking is accurate - though depressing. Morgon of Hed is a damn drunk?
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Everyone in the RMoH universe plays or loves to listen to the harp. In the first book, the two main characters both carry them. And they do so through difficult travel. I don't know how small a harp can be but even a small one would be annoying to drag around, I would guess.
Seventeen years ago, I decided I wanted to learn an instrument. I had played tuba and a few other brass instruments in high school but they were bulky and expensive. I didn't want to learn the piano due to its size. I didn't want any stringed instrument because I have a tin ear and would never be able to tune it. I was lucky to be able to take Danso lessons in Korea. The Danso is a small flute held forward and down rather than horizontally. I had a lot of fun learning it and still bust it out on occasion.
I can see professional musicians wanting a harp, but can;t imagine anyone else wanting to carry one around.
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I guess I don't have an actual problem with approachable royalty but it just seems weird.
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Robes. So many people in fantasy stories wear robes. I don't understand it. 'Nuff said.
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In addition to imagining myself drinking various fortifying alcohols, as a youth I also imagined myself smoking a pipe.  Maybe I would control the smoke with my mind or allow it transport my thoughts into other spheres... smoking is pretty nasty in real life.
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Aloe Vera is a great plant with medicinal properties. Touch-me-nots in Ontario have sap that relieves the itch of poison ivy. I am now done with my knowledge of medicinal plants.
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Capes. Capes look cool. You know, in the right situation, having a blanket hanging from your shoulders would be handy. I was very disappointed with the cape my mother made for me one Halloween as it barely reached down to my waist and everyone knows a good cape should reach the ground. My mother ruined Halloween that year! And capes forever after!
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In addition to learning an instrument, I have also learned swordfighting. This is another thing I am not disappointed with.
But glaives and bills and halberds have so many military uses. I don't understand why they aren't more common in fantasy stories.

Hafted weapons Image from.

Halberd image from.


Okay, reader(s). What do you see in fantasy that affected your childhood imagination but was ruined as you matured?

Why do I write?

This question appeared on Quora recently:

Why do you write fiction?

My response was:

On the one hand, I have a simple answer ready: I write the stories I want to experience.
On the other hand, I can’t really answer why I, or people in general, write fiction.
I’m in an uncertain place employment-wise. Don’t worry about me; I don’t think I’m in a desperate place, but it has made me think about different levels of production. My background in ecology might have something to do with it.
I could look up the proper terms, but the first level of production involves making solid, important things. Food might be first on the list, followed by clothing and housing and so on. The first levels are all tangible. You can touch them; they are not abstract.
Middle levels might involve repair or medicine.
Eventually, you get to more abstract levels. Cynically, religion might fit here. Writing definitely does.
I don’t live in Canada now, but I am from there and I worry about the Canadian economy. Canada isn’t producing much of those lower level things right now. The thing is, you can’t eat books or movies or TV shows.
I want to remind any reader that I am trying to write books myself. I am not against fiction writing at all.
I just look at a question like, “Why do you write fiction?” and it makes me think I really should think more about growing crops or raising chickens or building those peddle-powered generators I have long been thinking about.
Writing fiction is not easy, but the act of doing so is comfortable in the sense that one is not outside and burning or freezing, or getting injured from a farming implement or soldering iron…
I hope that I am not writing fiction (and spending too much time here rather than actually writing fiction) because it is merely comfortable.
I hope that, not my current book, but some book of mine will have the value of Madeleine L'Engle’s or Ursula K. Le Guin’s or, in a very important but different way, George Orwell’s. 

See the link at the top for more answers.

The Muses

In Our Time on BBC radio recently looked at The Muses. It was online on May 19 and BBC sometimes deletes or locks away their content after some time has passed. The link above probably has a time limit.

I realized that although I had heard of Erato, I didn't know much about these mythical fonts of creativity. Some research - not all that much was needed after Melvin and his Crew discussed the subject, led to details and images.

From Tales Beyond Belief:

Calliope is normally the patroness of writers, although there are several that carry a book or scroll symbol.

Urania is the patroness of astronomy, although today, this field is considered to have expanded to include all of science.  Ah considered by those who care about such stuff. At some point in this post, I'm going to have to discuss what value I think the muses have.

Wikipedia discusses the Muses.

I enjoy this description given at Greekmyths-greekmythology. The language is just enough off to make me think this is second language writing and to emphasize the dreamlike or non rational quality of the subject matter. They" were similar to everything." Uh, okay.

According to the Greek Myths, God Zeus bewildered the young woman Mnemosyne and slept with her for nine consecutive nights. The result of their encounter was the Nine Muses, who were similar to everything.
Μnemosyne gave the babies to Nymph Eufime and God Apollo. When they grew up they showed their tendency to the arts, taught by God Apollo himself.
They were not interested in anything of the regular human everyday life and they wanted to dedicate their lives to the Arts. Apollo brought them to the big and beautiful Mount Elikonas, where the older Temple of Zeus used to be. Ever since, the Muses supported and encouraged creation, enhancing imagination and inspiration of the artists.
Muses and Arts
According to the Greek Mythology, two Muses invented theory and practice in learning, three Muses invented the musical vibrations in Lyre, four Muses invented the four known dialects in the language – Attica, Ionian, Aeolian and Dorian – and five muses the five human senses. Seven muses invented the seven chords of the lyre, the seven celestial zones, the seven planets and the seven vocals of the Greek Alphabet.

Ancient History Encyclopedia has an article about the Muses by Mark Cartwright who I think is one of the speakers in the In Our Time podcast.
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Alright.  Why do I care?  I am a man trained in science and a dedicated skeptic so I am not planning any sacrifices or offerings.  I think I am fascinated by the Muses in precisely the same way I am fascinated by creativity.  They, or it, are magical, even today.  Poorly understood and maddening.

Even now, we mostly understand why people have creative insight only when they are in laboratory conditions.  For example, the 1931 swinging ropes experiment. A researcher would bring subjects into a room with two hanging ropes, then ask the subjects to hold them both or tie them together.  But the ropes were too far apart to simply hold one and walk to the other.  If subjects appeared stuck or if a set amount of time had passed, the researcher would bump into a rope *accidentally* and the subject would quickly figure out the solution - swing one rope, then walk to the other rope, approach the swinging rope and wait for it to swing into reach.  But when subjects were questioned on what led them to inspiration,  they didn't know, or they told stories that were themselves quite creative.  The timing however showed the real causation.

Is creativity only understandable in situations where researchers have staged a problem? Could asking the Muses for help offer any benefit?  Urania, please help me study and understand!

What would you build? Where would you go?

Ever Blocks are the fullsize version of LEGO.

From Wired (via Boingboing):

EverBlocks assemble more or less like any other modular building blocks, but on a larger scale. But as the blocks get bigger, building with them gets more complicated. “When we first started, I envisioned that people would know instinctively how to build with them,” Rosan says.
That wasn’t the case. In miniature scale, it’s easy to gain perspective on how blocks fit together. At life-size scale, it gets more challenging. “People start to worry about stability,” he says. It’s no big deal if your 3-inch wall topples, but it is a problem if your 15-foot wall does. The key is to take lessons from Lego, and stack the blocks like bricks, staggering them so a brick covers the seam of the two below it. Each block also has at least one channel that allows power cables, reinforcing wooden dowels, or LED strips to snake through as a means of illuminating or stabilizing larger structures.

It is neat that the blocks come with channels for cables and the like.  I had imagined leaving a gap between blocks as communication points but they are already there.

I also like the idea of spaces for re-rod.  When I think about building with such materials (which happens surprisingly often), I plan buttresses as well.  Maybe they aren't necessary.

The limited variety of blocks appeals to this old-school LEGO architect.  The incredible number of options available with modern LEGO mostly confuses me.  I would have trouble designing something like this, for instance (but I do plan to buy it, at almost any cost, when it comes out).

(A beautiful combination of my two obsessions!)

But what would I build?

Well, with the regular, small bricks, I made a house for my guinea pig that was sufficiently roomy and stylish for it.  Otherwise, I mostly made animals and other decorative pieces.

At the EverBlock website - topmost link - they have examples of shelves, walls and furniture. My favorite is the wall to hide behind in a waterfight - the brilliant color and gaps make it outdoorsy and fun.  The pure-white wall, very transportable, for use as a projection screen is nice.  But none jump out at me as LEGO-whimsical.

I guess I would build a castle-bed or-testing those wooden dowels for strength - an elephant bed with a large open space under the sleeping area.  EverBlock comes with a 3D building application but I found it challenging to use.  I tried to make my elephant bed but became frustrated in ways I don't remember getting with the actual blocks in my hands.

Anyway, I would like to make a colorful bookshelf or a desk system that fits my idiosyncrasies.  For example, I would like an 'L' or even 'U' shape.  I like the ones I see here with one side built into shelving.  With blocks, I should be easily able to convert to standing height and back as desired.

If it came with enough blocks, playing Creationary might be fun.

What would you build?
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Now, if you built a subway - out of LEGO or Everblock, if you wish - where would it go?  Subway Adventure is a game by Increpare that offers its own answers to this questions.

The game is free to download, but, again, what would your subway connect you to?  The various places I've called home are obvious stops.  There are some temples here in Korea that the addition of a subway stop of this sort would not seem too out of place.

Would I want a line that jumped from Earth (possibly from a wardrobe) to Narnia, Fillory, The Land, Middle Earth and Leigh Brackett's Mars?  What would the tolls be? Or trolls?  I was never a fan of the Shannara books as they were too derivative of Tolkien although I hear they have grown in their own ways since. Fianovar might be another good stopping point.

Ah, I'd have to play the game; linking any location to another seems to easy without constraints.

good and bad advice and deciding what to follow

Instead of hunting for writing advice, this person simply asked for it on Quora: How do I write a spy novel?
A lot of the advice is to read Ian Fleming.  I guess.  I sure like the movies but not so much the books and here is why.  Bond succeeds but often not from his own actions.  I suppose that is more like real life, but dissatisfying in a novel.
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Ignoring (bad) advice.

Be More Specific!

—Dimitra Xidous

I used to be part of a writer’s group back in Canada—myself, four other women and one man. One evening, I brought in a poem, ending on the lines:
I confess that I laid myself down then
like a dog, for love
The women ‘got’ it. Understood what I meant by ‘like a dog’. The man kept asking ‘how, like a dog’ exactly? He wanted me to make it explicit, to take away all the ambiguity—which, to my mind, and to the other members’ minds—was the reason the poem worked. He went on—‘was it salivating’, was it ‘hungry’ etc. And everything he suggested only served to lessen the impact.

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David Foster Wallace on grammar.
There are only five grammar points - probably good ones for me to review but above the level of most of my students - but there is a lot of other information about DFW that makes me want to know more about the man.
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Rules vs Guidelines in Fantasy.

One of these rules is that all fantasies shall be quests; another is that no fantasy world shall ever approach the Industrial Revolution.
Obviously, these rules get broken all the time, which is a good thing. But they remain in the background, like the ceiling in “The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb” that could lower and squash you at any time. And it can be very hard to think around them.
The Goblin Emperor was an attempt to contravene both rules. There is no quest, and this is a world with both magic and a lively technological and scientific community. (I never have understood why magic would negate technology, even though many stories I love take that as a guiding principle.) And the technology turned out to be decidedly steampunk.

November 6 morning productivity report

Have you ever used the word 'placket'?  Is there a more common term?  Details somewhere below.

A busy day at home.  I wrote around 2400 words for InNoWriMo and am nearly on track for where I want to be and should be.

I also had time for some carving.  Discussion below the images.

I am still having trouble accepting how thin this slab of wood is.  The original image is here and translating it basically into bas-relief is hard work for me.  Oh, the giraffe is now done.

One thing I am learning is how these art-forms are so different.  In InNoWriMo, I am practically vomiting words into the word processor and am both aware of, and concerned with, how much feels like placeholders; A sort of  "This is the general idea.  Fix it later."  Some material is good but a lot just isn't.

A lot of that is the result of my personality and observational skills.  Like any red-blooded male, I can describe a woman's sexy apparel, but my eye and memory seem to have simply drifted past women in comfortable clothes.  Further, I have never been interested in fashion and am now struggling with my vocabulary limitations.  I wanted to describe a woman's button-down shirt with some frills on the, uh, button-down part and didn't know what to call it.  Apparently, it is a 'placket'.  Is this a term in common use?

I read and noted somewhere on this blog (oh right, here) that Wodehouse would tape his pages under revision to the wall and place them higher or lower on the wall according to their quality.  As he edited and improved pages, up they went.  Experiencing it and imagining wading through 50,000 words is troubling, but necessary.

In contrast, my carving needs to be error-free.  If I dig in too far, I either have to cover it up, adjust the whole shape to accept the missing chip or throw my hands in the air in disgust and get a new piece of wood.  By this criteria, writers have it easy.  Up until publishing, huge revisions are possible.

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Wordpress's Freshly Pressed is promoting a post complaining about NaNoWriMo.

In January, everyone should try and choreograph a ballet. In March we should all write an opera, and in June everyone should paint a fresco. Sounds ludicrous, doesn’t it? And yet the idea that everyone could write a novel in November gets a good deal more acceptance. Why do we assume that, while these other forms would require skills, knowledge and practice beyond most people’s experience, anyone can write a book? It drives me round the bend.

I really do get that there will be a lot of trash out there in December.  I've been pretty open that large portions of my novel will need to be gutted and replaced.  I am also aware that 50,000 words is short for a book.  And yet...

Firstly, I would like to compare two forms of physical fitness training: swimming and running.  Most people have walked and ran at some point in their lives.  Relatively few people have swum (If it matters, I have lived in South Korea where only a small minority can swim.  Things are different here in Canada).  Yes, there is some technical skill involved in running but most people can finish a 1,500 m or 3,000 m run however slowly.  Few people could complete such a distance in swimming and their lives might be at risk in the attempt.

So too, with the attempt to compare writing with choreography, opera writing and painting.   Everyone can write to some poor extent while most have never even tried the latter three art-forms.

Secondly, writing 50,000 words in a month is an achievable but very challenging goal for most people.  I will be proud of myself for simply finishing the 50,000 words.  I have run a twenty-six k, swam a twelve k, and cycled across the country.  These acts did not make me a professional runner, swimmer or cyclist but I am proud of the accomplishments nonetheless.  If Nimue Brown completes a three k swim or a 100 k ride, I will not chide her for trying to become a professional, I will compliment her on the accomplishment.  If she completes a run, swim or ride entirely on her own, I might be more impressed than if she completes a Terry Fox Run  or the like that is organized to assist her, but I'll be impressed either way.

Nextly*, it might make me, or any of the hundreds of thousands, a capable writer.  The last line I quoted mentions experience.  Well, how does one get that experience?  On the other hand, I find that I have forgotten how to properly use punctuation in and out of quoted speech and have included comma in, comma out, period in-but- comma out, and more trying to decide which one looks right.

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There are some other science fiction authors who approve of Nanowrimo (video at link).

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The mustache is coming in great.  Time to start rubbing lotion into it to soften it and avoid the itching.

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*I figured this word would drive Brown mad, should she have any reason to visit, if the other errors I made and missed do not.