Knygatin Wrote:
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> The English Assassin Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > the web . . .
>
> The most insidious drug mankind has ever got
> caught in so far.

As someone who long held that attitude himself (and still holds it in certain respects), I won't go too much into that argument, save to say that it has made it possible for me to find a number of people who share my interests in literature and the arts, many of whom I have become quite close to -- people I'd never possibly have known otherwise, as they are scattered all over the globe. Add to this the various resources for reading long out-of-print books which are difficult to get even via interlibrary loan, and it becomes a very useful resource indeed.

As for good new writers... we have quite a crop, actually. Many of them, too, would not have made it were it not for such a resource, as they certainly don't fit the mainstream, even with the weird field. (Some do, but a fair number are outside that "charmed circle".) Writers such as Caitlin R. Kiernan, Ann K. Schwader, Michael Cisco, Thomas Ligotti, W. H. Pugmire, Joe Pulver, Sr., Laird Barron, Cody Goodfellow, Jonathan Thomas, etc., etc., etc. A variety of talents, but I think it is the internet which has allowed them to find their audience so readily in many cases, rather than having their opportunities wither because of mainstream marketing not knowing what to do with them.

Writers today have so many oppurtunities availble to themwith the advent of the internet. Anyone can create an online blog, outsource their matrtial to numerous webzines, from critical film, sport,book and travel online sources and investment (The Motely fool). Social websites like Youtube,Facebook,blogs, I could go on and on, all a writer needs is some attention from one of these numerous online sources to give them their, "15 minutes".

The invention of the steam-powered printing press in the 1850's? allowed writers to publish material on a Industrial scale. This was the beginning of the information age, a mere drop in the bucket compared to current technology. Writers could now dream of reaping the benifets of their gift, instead of waiting to immortalized after death, like so many unknown authors before. Now the power of WORD was out of the Churches grasp, who controlled all printing before, with monks, block lettering and expensive binding, ink and parchment. This lead to severe censorship and writers were now looked down upon as threats to political and social dogma. Writers had to appease only their publisher who were forced to look to the writer as a number,or dollar sign, units sold and political, social,and religous pressures who held the money and owned the factories. Writers like Poe lived from one story to the next and msny became paranoid and nuerotic. The circumstances surronding Poe's death are still unknown. A great fictional auto biography of Poe is writer, Matthrw Pearl's "The Poe Shadow".

I will end with one example, I used before Nikolia Gogol, a Russian writer in the early mid
18th century. Very few writers have been documented to go through so much madness and illness just to finish his sequel to the Russian satire novel "Dead
Souls". His previous work wrote about vengeance of the common man against society norms. Wanting to make his work an art of protection he traveled to Italy and France. He finally drove himself mad and sick from fatigue. Confessing to Russian preist about his p
unfinished manuscript and confessing his homosexualality, he was ordered to burn the manuscript and starve himself for 5 days. This destroyed any will to live and he died a
painfull death.

He was buried in a church cemetary and his grave was ordered to be. moved, his corpse was found lying face down, another source of indignity. A statue was built upon his gravesite and then destroyed and replaced with a statue of the Czar.
So yes I think writers today have it so much easier than those before them. These horrors and tribulations of history's forgotten writers.must be ressurected and not forgotten, which is a reason I joined this site.

I wrote this on my smart phone and the cursor jumps around and erases previous material but I have tried to correct myself. I do not propose to be a historical accurate event of all the above material, the reader can take what he wants.
Thank you.



ternet writers had to appease publishers, Weird Fiction, Readers
Digest.

Jdworth, those are of course wonderful opportunities the Internet contributes. Many marvellous writers I would not have known today, and not had their books, if it wasn't for the Internet (and informed fellows like yourself spinning the net).

In controlled doses the Internet is excellent. And will enrich life.

Some people can enjoy a fine wine in a civilized manner, but many others eventually become slaves under the alcohol. The problem with Internet is that it's an endless source of second-hand information. Available at the klick of a button. It's easy for the soul to drown in this virtual reality. Where exactly do you draw the line between what is important, significant information for you, and what is not? Why, there may be "something else" around the next corner, and something around the next, and the next, and the next, . . . I admit I am not very good at handling it myself, and spend much too much time before the screen, eager to see "what's going on" and to "stay tuned". In fact, I consider it a very serious personal problem, if not outright catastrophic.

gesturestear: To add to your comment about Poe... it wasn't only living from story to story; he had to write enormous amounts of reviews and articles in which he had little or no interest, simply to stay alive. When Virginia was ill, of course, things got considerably worse. It is no wonder Poe suffered a breakdown shortly following her death (his writings, including his letters of the period, make both heartbreaking and horrifying reading). This sort of thing is largely why he virtually stopped writing poetry, which was his true passion. (I wish, however, to make a distinction between this sort of review work and his more substantial critical works, such as "The Philosophy of Composition", which he did seem to enjoy writing, and which often contributed a great deal to the discussion of the nature of art. I am speaking here of the interminable run of reviews of now-long-forgotten works of his day.)

Kyngatin: Yes, I agree that there is certainly that risk, and that for some it proves too great. I have occasions when I fall into that trap but, fortunately, they are few and far between. Mostly it is a case of simply not having time to even do those things I wish to do online, such as discussions like this. I always seem to have more going on than I can fit into a single day, week, month, or year... a good thing, in some ways, but at times a distinct pain in the neck. It does, however, keep me from frittering away my time on aspects of the web which benefit me little or not at all.... All that aside, however, your point is quite valid; it is a matter of finding that balance; not an easy thing, especially for a generation which seems to not have had any training in such skills whatsoever....

I totally agree, balance is the key to the internet. I too find it a useful resource (if I didn't I wouldn't be here) and I think there is a lot of excellent creativity to be found on it, but it is also an insidious time waster and I increasingly believe it is altering the way we think and what we think. I'm certainly not about to ditch the internet, but I want to make sure I maintain control of what information I allow to feed into my brain these days, so that means not subscribing to news feeds, podcasts and YouTube channels - even if they're good. Of course that'll mean I will miss stuff that I might enjoy, but it'll also mean that I'm the one who is choosing what I access (and when I do).