Month: August 2023

I’m Really Struggling With The Specifics Of My Heroine’s Appearance

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Oh boy. I know, in general, my heroine’s phenotype, but when it comes to her hair I’m having a real struggle. There is so much I can do with what she does with her hair that I find myself at a loss as to what I think would be the best option.

I vacillate widely from moment to the next about how she does her hair as the story opens. In this third draft, I’m really taking how I introduce my heroine a lot more seriously. I don’t want to sexualize her in any sort of gratuitous way because if I did anything like that there would be “woke” portions of the audience that would that would pitch a fucking fit.

They would say I’m just another horny CIS white male who is wants to fuck my heroine and is obsessed with boobs. As such, I am really self-conscious about how much I talk about my heroine’s appearance. And, yet, at the same time, I want to give readers a clear understanding in their mind’s eye of…her appearance.

My heroine kind of looks like this in my mind’s eye.

As a CIS white male writing from the POV of a female POC it’s kind of a no win situation. Woke people just want me to drop dead, not try to give them the representation they claim to want in their fiction. Only transgender, undocumented Mexicans can tell the type of stories I want to tell. Forgive me, I’m a bit grumpy and tipsy at the moment.

Anyway, you have to give me credit for at least understanding the sticky wicket I’m wading into. I get it. I’m a CIS white male, a member of the patriarchy and I should just shut up and let women and POC tell stories. But I’m an asshole and have a story to tell.

I’m trying to be as empathetic as possible, all things considered.

Is Miley Cyrus In A Cult?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Let me be clear, I’ve done absolutely no research on this and what little I know comes from half-viewed Tik-Toks. But, in general, it does seem as though we might need to worry about Miley Cyrus being in a cult.

There seems to be a lot of confusion over this situation. Apparently someone on Twitter tweeted that Cyrus had joined the Modern Mystery School cult or some such, but it’s since been debunked. Or something.

And, yet, SOMETHING is going on with Cyrus because she’s been noticeably absent from the public eye of late. And I say this as someone who isn’t some sort of Cyrus superfan. There is an ebb and flow to public celebrity life and it Cyrus being out of public view — even if that’s just background noise to me — is definitely odd.

But Cyrus does seem like the type of person who would be susceptible to a cult. She is so wide open all the time that it would make sense for her to succumb to the call of a freaky weirdo group.

And, yet, who knows.

It could be just a simple misunderstanding and we’ll wake up and everything will snap back into place.

I Tend To Overthink Things

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

One thing that is looming large in my mind these days is the fact that I’m a CIS white male author with a female POC heroine. I used to say that I was writing this novel for “woke Park Slope moms” but these days I just want to tell a good story for a general audience.

And YET because of how fucked up the world is, I am growing concerned that, by definition, there will be a sizable portion of the audience who will grow angry that a CIS white male is writing from the POV of a female POC. I can see it now. They’ll say, effectively, that I’m misguided or exploitive or engaging in cultural appropriation.

These squeaky wheels will totally ignore if the story is any good or that I may have given what they keep claiming to want in their fiction — representation. They’ll be mad because a CIS WHITE MALE is the one who thought up an interesting, assertive female POC heroine.

I don’t have a ready answer to this prospective complaints. I have my vision and I’m sticking to it. I had no idea how loaded me doing what I want to do was when I starting thinking up this six novel series. I just knew that I wanted to tell an interesting story and I didn’t want to just have a bunch of white people talking. Throw in how I find developing female characters an interesting challenge and, there you go — the pickle I find myself in.

Having said all fo that, I do think I may begin to develop a second novel that is a lot more in line with what I’m “allowed” to write as a CIS white male. I have a few interesting scifi novels rolling around in my head that I will probably white from a first person POV with a male hero. That is about as conservative and marketable as I can get, all things considered.

I’m At A Loss As To What To Expect In Late 2024, Early 2025

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The thing at the forefront of my mind is not any risk of a repeat of the January 6th Insurrection, but, rather something far more dire. The Republican Party has totally gone off the reservation — it’s now nothing short of fascist. As such, the two most likely scenarios for 2024 – 2025 are either Trump wins and we peacefully slip into autocracy or he loses and we have a civil war as Red State begin to leave the Union.

There is, of course, the very real — but far lesser — possibility that there might be something akin to a “Resistance Revolution” if it becomes clear that Trump’s incoming agenda is so radical that Blues simply won’t stand for it. But, in all honesty, I find such a notion dubious because smug Twitter liberals just don’t have it in them to stand up to Trump, no matter how radical and autocratic his vision for America might be.

They’ll just leave the country and setup up shop in the south of France.

As such, it seems what’s most likely to happen is Trump wins and we become an autocratic nation of blood and soil. Then, about 20 years form now, we’ll wake up and wonder why President MTG is invading Canada to “liberate it from the woke cancel culture mob.”

The crux of the matter is late 2024, early 2025 is when the United States decides, one way or another, what the fuck it’s going to do about MAGA and Trump. I suppose it’s at least possible that we might punt things down the road another four years, but I have my doubts. Given how old Biden is, how fascist Republicans are on a structural basis, it definite seems as though late 2024, early 2025 Will Be It.

We’re going to lurch forward in a big way into a uncertain and potentially very dark future. What’s more, the entire world order established after WW2 could be upended, with the United States leaving NATO and pulling troops out of South Korea.

And all of this will happen in the context of the DPRK lurking in the shadows, ready to lob a few nukes in the direction of the United States if it thinks it can get away with it.

But, as I always say — I’m always wrong. I just can’t predict the future. All I got is a general sense of the macro trends a play in American political history at the moment and then extrapolating the into the future. But just like 2020, it’s absolutely possible that something weird will happen and we’ll manage to go a third way that doesn’t involve either autocracy or violence.

Because the thing you have to remember is — Republicans, on a structural basis, are primed and ready to demand a National Divorce if Trump loses in 2024. That’s the thing we have to take seriously. So, you can tell me all you like how Trump will have problems winning the general giving everything going on, that doesn’t stop the fact that Trump and MAGA could see such a loss as a cue to start a civil war.

So, I just don’t know. It could go any number of different ways. I just, in general, don’t believe we can assume that we’re going to just “muddle through.” All the metrics are aligning such that Something Big And Bad may happen in late 2024, early 2025.

Well, America Definitely *Seems* To Continue to Careen Towards Disaster In Late 2024, Early 2025

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m a strong believer in no fate but what we make so I suppose it’s at least possible that someway, somehow, America is going to manage to punt some pretty severe structural problems down the road another four years. But I have my doubts.

The reason I have my doubts is the bolt continue to pop off the United States at an alarming rate. It definitely seems as though the passions of the 2024 election will simply be too much stress on the system and everything will collapse — either by us becoming a Russian-style autocracy or by us having a revolution / civil war.

I am well aware that such talk sounds like “hysterical doom shit” but there is one metric that alarms me to no end and that’s how radical and fascist the Republican Party is now on a structural basis. So, it’s not a repeat of January 6th we have to worry about it’s fucking Republican states leaving the Union if Trump doesn’t win.

Of course, on the other end of the spectrum, there is at least a possibility of something akin to a coup or revolution if Trump wins (or steals the election.) But I have serious doubts about the gumption of Blues in that regard. It’s just not in the nature of Blues to do something so dramatic. What’s more likely to happen is about 1 million smug, wealthy Twitter liberals will simply decamp to Europe — or wherever.

As such, given that Trump is 60,000 votes in five swing states away from being POTUS again….we’re pretty much fucked. Barring something I can’t predict, Trump will become president and he will turn us into a Russian-style autocracy based on the concept of blood and soil.

And, if we’re really unlucky, MAGA Republicans will transition into Nazis Republicans and….oh boy. Millions upon millions of people will be at risk of dying in camps. I know how hysterical that sounds, but once we cross the Rubicon into autocracy, the dynamics of the country will change rather dramatically.

The logical conclusion of MAGA will be to weaponize the existing ICE camp system and begin to eliminate whomever the Qanon freaks believe should be gotten rid of.

I hope I’ve got this one wrong, I really do. Only time will tell, I suppose.

Is LK-99 ‘Woke?’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have a close relative — whom I love dearly — who doesn’t believe in global climate change and he kind of slipped up recently. After I pressed him on the potential gravity of global climate change he said, “well, technology will take care of it.”

If that’s the case, then why can’t we use the power of markets to actually begin to use technology to ameliorate the effects of global climate change? But whenever we actually attempt to do this, Fox News screams at the top of their lungs that it’s “woke.”

Which makes me wonder if LK-99 comes to fruition if, by definition, the Right will see the use of it as “woke.” It definitely seems, sometimes, that the Right has a death wish when it comes to global climate change. Their need to “own the libs” is so absolute, so existential that they would rather let us all cook than do anything about it.

From what I understand, if LK-99 actually becomes a practical superconductor then we might be able to make great progress towards stopping global climate change in its tracks. I just worry that because of the amount of investment that will be needed to adopt LK-99 should it become practical that that, by definition will cause bonkers MAGA people to poo-poo it as just another “woke” wild goose chase.

Or something.

The fact that I have to worry about shit like this is yet another reason why I’m very alarmed about our potential future. All macro trends seem to indicate that we’re totally and completely fucked. Something Big is going to happen very soon, probably associated with the 2024 election.

What that Something Big thing is, I don’t know. But, whatever it is, it will be very dramatic.

AI-Generated Celebrity Images Are Getting Good Enough That We May Soon Seen A Deluge Of AI Celebrity Porn

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

They say that every new technological advancement is always used to make porn first and I think we’re careening towards a moment when we’re going to be flooded by AI-generated celebrity porn. We aren’t quite there yet — AI still can’t handle fingers — but I would say in about 18 months AI-generated celebrity porn will be every fucking where.

It is interesting that Emma Watson seems to be someone that all the horny nerds want to see with realistic, yet exaggerated proportions. In fact, to date, that has been one way I have been able to tell for sure that celebrity porn is fake — they all look like what some fucking horny nerd would like this or that female celebrity to look like.

A lot of female celebrities are popular because of their personality, just as much as they are for the size of of their bosom. And, yet, I keep seeing image after image on Twitter of Gal Gadot far more voluptuous than she is in real life. It will be interesting to see if, in 18 months when there is an obscene amount of AI-generated celebrity porn online, if the people generating it even try to stick to the actual dimensions of the women they so admire.

I have my doubts. Horny nerds can’t be stopped.

Of course, at some point in the near future, the law is going to step in. It seems clear that what to do about AI-generated celebrity porn is going to be one of the biggest tests of the courts. It definitely seems as though we’re careening towards a Petite Singularity just as The Fourth Turning is about to happen to us as well.

Good luck.

I’m Please With How The Third Draft Of This Novel Is Shaping Up

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

While I continue to drift towards my goal like always, I definitely feel pretty good about the current state of the third draft of my first novel. I’ve come up with a unique, interesting protagonist that I feel readers will want to spend 100,000 words worth of time with.

The more I think about it, the more I see my heroine as looking something like a mixture of Olivia Munn and Nicole Scherzinger, only in her early 30s. I am trying so fucking hard to be as empathetic as possible to the female experience to the point that I, in a very self-conscious manner, try to find every opportunity to pass the fucking Bechdel Test — a test I fucking hate.

My dream is that the women in the audience of this novel will be taken aback that a smelly boy of all people managed to write from a female point of view without making a fool out of himself. This is an issue that I really weighs a great deal on me.

And, yet, I know that, by definition, there will be Tik-Tok influencers who will get the “ick” from my novel simply because I’m a man writing from a female POV — no matter how well I may ultimately show my understanding of the concerns of women.

We can’t all be transgender undocumented Mexicans, you know. Some of us are just white CIS men who want to tell a good story to an audience, regardless of what your gender might be. But that’s not how the woke cancel culture mob sees thing.

They seem me as a white CIS-gendered male who drinks too much and occasionally doesn’t follow the media narrative. Excuse me, I’m tipsy and a little annoyed.

Anyway, things are going really well. I *think* I may have figured out the structure of the first chapter of the third draft after about two weeks of struggle.

I’m At A Loss As To What To Think About Google Scraping Google Docs To Train AI

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

There is nothing short of panic on Tik-Tok from writers like me who use Google Docs. A number of people have Tik-Tok have urgently suggested that all writers take all of their writing off of Google Docs immediately and use Word instead (or whatever.)

I find this very curious for a number of reasons.

I understand where these writers are coming from, and, yet, I’ve actually looked into the scraping Google is doing and it seems a little too late to worry about such things. Now only is AI everywhere now, but I just don’t know how much my writing is going to make a difference if Google is scraping the entirety of Google Docs to train their LLMs.

Some of the hysterical talk on Tik-Tok seems just that — hysterical doom shit that assumes there’s some way to prevent, completely one’s words from somehow, someway being used to train LLMs.

But I will at amit that I just don’t know. Maybe I’m missing something. Maybe if I just turn to Word I can somehow, magically, prevent anything I write from finding itself in the maw of AI.

At the moment, I’m taking a very measured wait-and-see approach. While I understand that if I keep my writing on Google Docs that it may, in some way, influence Google’s LLMs, it’s not like my, specific writing and ideas are going to magically pop up somewhere and be produced by Google Movies.

Or maybe I’m wrong. Maybe that’s exactly what is going to happen. I just don’t know at the moment.

A Brief Wargaming Of A Second Russian Civil War

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

First, let me be clear — this is silly. Please ignore what I’m about to write. This says more about my personality than any insight I might have about the subject. But I feel like returning to this topic because it’s intriguing.

The key thing to remember about modern Russia is I believe the current regime is a lot weaker than any of us might believe. It’s a corrupt, poorly managed regime that is propped up by fear and greed. What’s more, there is one key thing that is lacking with Russia these days — it seems to me that Russia, to this day, still lacks a strong sense of national identity.

As such, it seems at least plausible to me that a small, dedicated group of people with a clear vision for Russia’s future could topple the Putin regime with a lot less difficulty than you might otherwise imagine. To me, it seems as though adopting the accoutrements of the Whites from the Russian Civil War would be just the thing to paved the way to victory.

You have instant symbols and ideology to tap into, for people to rally around. The vision for a New Russia would be a constitutional monarchy like found in various nations across Western Europe.

But there are some pretty big obstacles to any of this happening. There just aren’t any leaders who serve as the “vanguard of the proletariat” (wink) when it comes to this overthrow. That’s why the Wagner Group uprising got as far as it did — it is clear that the Russian populace would be very receptive to an uprising of some sort . But you would need leadership.

So, for the time being, this is just an idle summer daydream. I hate violence and don’t want anyone to get hurt, so this is just a bit of idle mental masturbation.