This was such an informative stream, I wanted other creators to catch it. I don’t advise sitting around watching streams for hours instead of being productive, but you can listen to this this while you’re working out, drawing, making supper, playing your instrument, etc.
One of the many takeaways is the dubious value of book trailers. Like so much I’ve done over time to provide something cool for readers/fans/followers, it takes a lot of time and effort, without earning you sales/ratings/reviews. The ROI is awful for probably 99% of authors. Something to think about.
Yeah, I know: harsh generalization. But I bet the statistics would back it up. I would also bet there’s a strong correlation (if not causation) between recreational reading and independent/critical thinking.
When Did the Slide Begin?
Some sources suggest America’s decline in literacy began in the 1920s. I consider it more likely that significant decline can be traced to 1947, when television began to proliferate in middle class homes across America. But whatever.
Two boys reading reading comics at a news stand, USA, circa 1955. (Photo by FPG/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
What we do know is that the popularity of comic books exploded in 1938 and lasted into the 1950s (the superhero craze lasted from 1938 until about 1945). Comic books have never been as popular as they were during the Golden Age. And the comic-reading demographic during that time was mostly boys. A lot of teenagers read them, some old enough to serve in uniform overseas, but the scale tipped significantly to pre-teen boys. Specifically, these were late-cohort GI Generation, Silent Generation, and early-cohort Boomers.
Changing of the Guard
Many from the latter generation would continue reading comics into adulthood. Some from that generation would take over the industry, and shift their sights to an audience of their own peers, turning their backs on the following generations.
Fast-forward to today. With some exceptions, the Millennials and Homelanders* are functionally illiterate and incapable of independent/critical thought. Lots of factors have converged to handicap them this way. One factor is there have effectively no comic books that excited them as boys and led them to a transition to “more serious” prose books.
I listened to one of Chuck Dixon’s podcasts recently, He mentioned that Manga has attracted the young audience that comics lost over the course of the Pozzed Age.**
What Manga Proves
If Manga can win back that young demographic, then why couldn’t American comics, too? After all, American comics are the original gangsta that first won that audience, anyway.
Here is a windmill worth tipping at. I have begun some research, starting with Demon Slayer, which a librarian says is one of the more popular titles with teenagers. So far as drawing and writing style, it is more refined than most of the Golden Age comics. But I don’t see the story quality as an improvement. I’m sure there is better Manga out there (and hopefully I’ll find some), but take note, my fellow creators: we can do better than this stuff!
We don’t have the equivalent of Anime to market comics to kids, but we should think of something. The Boomers will begin dying off, soon, and American comics will die with them as a medium, unless we crack the code for finding a young audience.
Share your thoughts in the comments.
* I use Generational Theory, as codified by William Strauss & Neil Howe, not the MPAI terms like “Gen Y,” “Gen Z,” “Zoomers,” etc.
** IMO this age began in the 1990s and is still in effect, at least when it comes to mainstream entertainment. Some of us are hard at work trying to usher in an Iron Age…history will determine if we’re successful.
(This post was originally scheduled for a couple weeks ago, but stuff happened and it had to get shuffled around. Apologies if you were expecting it earlier.)
Why do we consistently lose, politically? (And even when we supposedly win, we still lose.)
You’ve probably already figured it out. If not, you likely will soon: the GOP always sells us out. They are controlled opposition. Or the “good cop” LARPing as our champion while the Uniparty they belong to commands them to continually betray us.
Lucy: the GOP Establishment. Charlie Brown: Republican voters.
Nobody truly committed to liberty, national sovereignty, or even sanity will ever be allowed to rise to prominence in the Uniparty Machine. Real change (change for the better, I mean) is what the MSM and Establishment gatekeepers exist to prevent.
This post applies to the Dissident Right writ large, but I intend to specifically address the creative/artistic “community” within this faction.
There are plenty of squabbles on the Left: Should we commit infanticide only before birth, or is any time hunky-dory? Should we incessantly ram sodomy down people’s throats, or Islam? Who deserves our support more–macho chicks who think they’re as good or better than dudes, or dudes who pretend to be chicks and shatter those fantasies?
But whenever there’s a significant battle to be fought, the leftards put aside their differences, present a united front, and dogpile on anyone with the audacity to question their Big Tent Agenda.
On the Right, we are too busy backbiting each other to even entertain the idea of unity. Chances are (if you’re not a well-known influencer of some kind), you’ve been wounded more and deeper by potential allies than the enemy.
When I dusted off my Twatter account and began spending time there again, I couldn’t help but notice all the bickering about some “conservative calendar” with photos of attractive women in it. Most of the mudslinging and name-calling was between right-of-center folks. And that was just a blip compared to an ongoing feud between the respective supporters of Eric July and Ethan Van Sciver.
People supposedly on our end of the political spectrum will sabotage others’ marketing efforts, assassinate their character with flimsy or no evidence, copy stuff others have written and use it for their own purposes without giving credit…and that only scratches the surface.
A lot of you just won’t quit feeding the Beast, even when there are alternatives. You keep using Google, Wikipedia, Facebook; drinking Coke/Pepsi, eating at McDonalds/Burger King and buying Hersheys/Kellogs, etc. Same with Marvel/DC, Disney, Netflix, etc.
Unity comes natural to collectivists. They fear independent thought, so naturally fit the role of obedient drones in the Hive Mind. Their largest demographic is Millennial–one of the most cooperative and conformist generations alive today.
By our nature, liberty enthusiasts are independent thinkers. Getting us to unify for any cause is like herding cats. And the dominant demographic in the creative “community” on our side is Generation X. We don’t play well together. We are the most competitive of the living generations.
So, spoiler alert: extreme individualism and a hyper-competitive instinct don’t naturally gravitate toward unity, or even solidarity.
What is needed for us to build a parallel economy/culture that succeeds? I probably can’t provide a comprehensive list, but I know we’re gonna need an online bookstore. Arkhaven is already on its way to scooping up the audience that the pozzed comic sites are chasing away. We may see an online drop-shipper rise up out of the Gab Marketplace to compete with Amazon in the realm of all the other stuff they peddle, but we are gonna need a bookstore that will sell the books they ban, and design algorithms that allow readers to decide what succeeds, instead of woketard gatekeepers.
But no matter what platforms are built on our side, and how good the quality of the products, they can’t and won’t succeed if you keep using your voting dollars to enrich the businesses that hate you. Those woke, pozzed businesses have the deck stacked in their favor. While small (and non-woke) businesses have been targeted for destruction, anointed favorites like Amazon get special deals that make them immune to most of our totalitarian overlords’ poison.
This is one battlefield of many where we need solidarity to have any chance of success.
Back when I first published Hell and Gone (paid link), it got a good review. I say good because the reviewer was a combat veteran who appreciated what I had injected into the men’s fiction/action-adventure/military thriller genre(s). I spent a lot of time on a forum for Kindle authors in those days, and evidently he did, too. He sent me a DM there identifying himself as the reviewer, and went on to say he bought/read my book to check out the competition. This was Jack Murphy, a Mack Bolan fan and former Army Ranger, who was, at the time, writing his own first novel–also a paramilitary adventure.
I don’t have any copies of our first correspondence (or even remember the name of that forum), but my response was along these lines: “Nobody is writing this kind of stuff anymore, so there’s plenty of room for competition. In fact, it could use some good solid competition.”
We became online buddies after that, helping readers discover each others’ work, commenting on each others’ blogs, and giving signal boosts whenever possible. We gave each other crossover business, intentionally and unintentionally. He was one of the guys who convinced me to write a sequel (paid link) to what I had not myself considered more than a stand-alone novel. As it turned out, Jack made better choices than I did and had me beat on the right time/right place dynamic as well. His novels got hundreds of reviews. He was a founding member of SOFREP, became an investigative reporter, and went on to write some non-fiction, including a New York Times Bestseller.
Jack was a stand-up guy, but is not a member of the Dissident Right. He chose a different path than I did. And he is far more successful as an author than I am. But I don’t regret helping him out in those early days. I don’t resent his success. Not at all. Even if he goes back to writing men’s fiction, I still want him to succeed (continue succeeding, that is). There is room enough for both of us, and plenty more.
Like all the arts, literature is not a zero-sum game. When somebody buys Reflexive Fire or Target Deck, (paid links) odds are, they’re not going to stop reading books for the rest of their lives after reading those. Plenty of readers bought both my books and his.
I personally think it’s economically crazy for CVS to build a store at every single intersection where a Walgreens sits, as they seem to in every Florida city. Yet I’ve never seen one of them capture 100% of the customers and force the other one out of business by doing so. Both are doing fine, so far as I can tell.
I was a huge Batman fan as a boy, and bought his titles whenever I had money. But that didn’t stop me from buying Spiderman, too. Neither of them decreased in popularity just because the other was also popular.
It is not going to hurt you if somebody buys a book written by somebody else you consider competition. It is not going to hurt your blog or review site if an Internet user (or two, or 10, or 10,000) also visit a different blog. Same deal with comic buyers, social media followers, whatever. You should want them to succeed, if they are also in favor of liberty, Christianity, and the nuclear family–or even just not trying to help Globohomo destroy all of the above.
Will this turn out to become the Iron Age, or will it remain the Pozzed Age? Without a little bit of solidarity throughout the Right, and not-so-common sense, the enemy will win this battle, too.
Share your thoughts in the comments. And if you like what we’re doing at Virtual Pulp, share our posts on social media (those convenient buttons on the right sidebar are one way to do it).
UPDATE: I’m backing up the site now, will update the PHP afterwards, then see if I can get the subscription widget working. Thanks for your patience!
You would have to be Boss Level oblivious right now to not be aware of the struggle taking place for the fate of our country, and our culture. Sane, decent people have not put up much of a fight in the former, but they finally are making their presence known in the latter.
In both struggles, the Establishment is fully on board with the other side’s agenda.
In the culture war, the Establishment is controlled by Homowood; the New York Publishing Cartel (“tradpub”); the Big Diseased Two (in comics); similar Globohomo tools in the music business; and of course all the MSM propagandists who publicize all the fake news about all the above.
The Dissident Right has been waging a guerrilla campaign on the culture front. Now, maybe-just-maybe, the guerrillas are ready to join forces and engage the enemy in decisive battle. Force-on-force action has begun to demonstrate that (at least to some extent) Globohomo is being outfought by the Resistance, whether it be Gab in social media, Infogalactic in web research, FundMyComic or GiveSendGo in crowdfunding, or Arkhaven in webcomics. Gabpay might soon be a match for Paypal. Let’s hope so.
However, two weapons we are sorely lacking is a non-woke search engine (some come along, but never stay non-woke for long), and a non-converged online bookstore.
Comicsgate and other phenomena are evidence that our side might be capable of concentrating force on the cultural battlefield. I recently shared some of my thoughts on this topic in a group on Gab. One of the commenters opined that the cultural epoch we’ve been stuck in so far could best be titled “the Pozzed Age.”
And right there in that comment is a simple, rhetorical indicator of what we are fighting for: Will this be the Iron Age, or the Pozzed Age?
Drop a comment to let us know what you think, and don’t forget to subscribe so you won’t miss any new content.
Paradox Book 3 is ready for download–and discounted to $2.99 for a limited time.
Ike has ventured out on his own, now. He’s got a great head start, but still a lot to learn. A good deal of his college years are spent helping Coach Stauchel transform the Pumas into a winning team, but he still finds time to juggle love interests (“spinning plates”), begin designing a small warp generator, and prepare to fight in WWII. Unfortunately, some of those preparations will propel him into a future conflict on American soil.
This promotion is not without its hiccups already. Some folks I was hoping would help spread the word have ghosted me. There is a mix-up with one of the promoters. And, despite the early success of the first two books in the series, getting reviews has been like getting RSVPs for a Joe Biden rally.
Nevertheless, I expect good things. The hero is an adult, now, as are my loyal readers. And there’s a nubile blonde on the cover (which I’m revealing for the first time here…I think). If Defying Fate does really well, I’ll save screenshots and share the news once the numbers are in.
Thanks to everybody who buys my books, and extra-special thanks to those who rate and/or review.
The issue with the “Subscribe” feature still isn’t resolved yet. To put it briefly: i’s not as easy as a few mouse clicks. Because of my schedule, it might be a week or two before I can dedicate enough time to fix the underlying problems, then this particular problem itself.
Once again, I apologize to everyone who attempted to subscribe but couldn’t. Hopefully this problem won’t exist too much longer.
This post was originally written on June 5 of 2021 and sat unedited, unpublished, and forgotten until February of 2024. Several paragraphs are deleted, a couple added, and a couple sentences tweaked. Other than that, it’s a reflection of my mental state after an extremely bad year on multiple levels. More importantly, it represents a reevaluation and rededication of Virtual Pulp.
Neither this blog, nor the Two-Fisted Blog, were originally intended to be political. But I don’t subscribe to the typical center and center-right attitude of ignoring problems in hopes they will go away; and that the power of positive thinking will fix everything. (That’s probably a Boomer and Silent Generation subset of center-right, specifically.)
All that it takes for evil to prosper is for good men to do nothing. My parents and grandparents, plus their peers, did nothing, and here we are.
“Cancel culture” isn’t new. It’s just at the point now where it can no longer be ignored. It was there when I was young. It was worse when I finally got into the book biz. I self-censored to an extent. When I did get political, I watered it down. Also, I was colorblind in those days and had an outlook on race that was more wishful-thinking than the cynical (brutally honest?) observations I now make.
But it became obvious that the dominant ideology was not even content to let people like me simply exist, harboring different opinions we avoided expressing. If we didn’t adopt their Narrative and Agenda, they intended to silence us. And since our parents and grandparents allowed them to hijack the reins of power, they have the means to silence us. If we didn’t become active sellers of their perversion; their disinformation; misinformation; deception ; and outright lies, they would take our voices away. They started doing it in a subtle fashion, with their thumb on the scale of algorithms to ensure nobody could stumble upon what we had to say. For those of us who outflanked them and found an audience anyway…well, they had to step up their efforts, to censorship, banishment, and beyond. And center/center right people, it turns out, don’t care about losing the culture, as long as as bread, circuses, and convenience are doled out on demand. Long-term oblivion for the culture and civilization as a whole is nothing to worry about, as long as their immediate gratification is catered to.
So anyway, the middle of the road was no viable option.
I could take the ticket and hope the Machine cut me some slack. Join the echo chamber about how racist America is; how we need more sexual degeneracy; how gender confusion, in all its forms, is psychologically healthy. Maybe if I put enough of that into a novel, they’d take their thumb off the scale and let it find an audience. Amazon reviews in the thousands! My book cover on the “also bought” lists! Parity with the talentless hacks who have “made it” because the thumb on the scale benefits them. Maybe, in fact, it would hit the NYT Bestseller list. A million-dollar book deal. Maybe it would get made into a movie. I could quit my day job and write for a living…
And then, overwhelmed with shame and disgust at myself, I’d probably look for some quick, painless means of death.
Obviously, none of that was gonna happen. So if I’m gonna get the raw end of the stick no matter what, other than bowing to Mammon, then why am I showing restraint? That’s when I started letting it all hang out–in my books, and on this blog.
The last however-many-posts I had written were all political–probably going back a year or two…or more. On the one hand, what’s happening to my country is too serious to ignore. On the other hand, all my ranting is just futile screaming into the void. Aside from the satisfaction of getting stuff off my chest, what good has it done? What good can it do?
Not that I’m done ranting about “politics.” My worldview has changed since I was a boy; but my Quixotic nature never has. But for now, I’m weary. I’m exhausted from having the Globohomo Narrative rammed down my throat whichever way I turn. I’m exhausted from scouring the alternative niche sources of information to find the truth, so that I can be outraged and infuriated by the extent of injustice, hypocrisy and downright evil that is encroaching on everything that was once good.
Over the years, there have been a few different contributors to this blog. Until Gio came on board, I was the only one still contributing with any modicum of consistency (sporadic consistency, you might call it). I don’t blame my fellow bloggers. I’ve considered closing up shop several times in the last few years.
Blogs were becoming passe` right about the time I got mine. I don’t know what the latest secret sauce format is now. The Internet gatekeepers make it nearly impossible to find any information not twisted or fabricated by Globohomo and its army of obedient useful idiots.
I can’t save the world. Can’t stop any of the idiocy or perversion going on around me. But I’m gonna do something for my remaining time in this world. And some of it I’ll do right here at Virtual Pulp. It’s not gonna be ranting about politics every time something infuriates me, or that’s all I’ll wind up doing…again.
God willing, I’m gonna write more books. And graphic novels. And, with Gio’s help, review some good books by other authors. And blog about other stuff, that will perhaps give me and you both some escape from the dystopian shitshow we live in.
And maybe (if I can find a payment processor that won’t eliminate my ability to buy or sell due to wrongthink) I will finally turn my “Books” page into that online bookstore I’ve long wanted to start.
Here’s my unilateral covenant with my readers & followers: I plan to speak the truth as I see it, judiciously, but I’m not gonna engage in the backbiting, pissing contests, and character assassination you may have noticed happening among non-woke creators, lately. In fact, I plan to write my next post on that very subject.
I hope to provide consistent, relevant content for my original audience, and grow that audience. I encourage you to post comments, ask questions, join discussions, and contend with us, if you feel it’s important. Use the comment form to suggest reviews, or inform us of relevant new developments on our side of the pop cultural divide.
If you like the sound of all this, subscribe to the blog. The subscribe widget is on the upper right of this site. If you like what we’re doing, why not click that button?
– Hank
UPDATE: The Subscribe widget is not functioning right now. My apologies to everybody frustrated by this. It will be repaired or replaced as soon as possible.
First of all, what is “Iron Age,” besides a hashtag and keyword?
Since (I think) it began after one of Razorfist’s rants, primarily among independent comics creators, let’s look at it through the lens of comics for a moment.
Action Comics #1, introducing the very first comic book superhero, is where I place the start of the Golden Age. I think all agree that it ended before 1956. I would place it more toward 1949, when all but a handful of superheroes disappeared from circulation. Because of the crude (sometimes downright childish) art and writing, few are as fascinated with it as I am. Still, that period is universally recognized as “The Golden Age.”
Experts identify the “reimagining” of the Flash, in 1956, as the beginning of the Silver Age. And though the Flash is a DC character, it was Marvel that made the biggest splash during this era.
The first comic book I ever laid my hands on. I think it’s from the Bronze Age.
Near as I can figure, the Bronze Age was when I first discovered comic books. It was the ’70s-80s, when comics could still be found on spinner racks in drug stores and gas stations, kids still read them, and the politics weren’t nearly as unbearable as they would become later. There were no cultural Marxist screeds yet–the writers usually conducted a Gene Roddenberry charade of balance, where those accursed right-wingers also had a right to their opinions.
Below is the Razorfist rant in which I believe the term “Iron Age” (as it applies to entertainment) may have been coined (as with all Razorfist rants, I apologize for the profanity but accept your gratitude for the humor):
Usually, “ages” of this, that, or the other are determined retroactively. If nothing else, The Iron Age is unique in that it has been named while it is ongoing.
In this video, Katie Roome gives an educational introduction to the Iron Age:
Even though there is a website called “Iron Age Media,” the Iron Age isn’t a publisher or an organization. It’s the age of entertainment we’re living through. More than that, according to many: it’s a movement by independent creators. The nature of the creations is outlined by Katie Roome fairly well.
Some of my readers might ask if I’m a part of this movement. Well, I started blogging, and published my first novel (independently) approximately a decade before the Wu Flu lockdowns. That alone might disqualify my work, depending on how rigidly one wants to define the Iron Age. My primary goal has always been to tell good stories and entertain, but I have offended many a leftist snowflake by pushing back against the woketard agendas and narratives that dominate pop culture so far. I do this increasingly in my bestselling Retreads series, for instance.
Along with the Detective Comics title above, this represents my very first comic book purchase–with change given me by whatever adult I lived with at the time. I can’t remember if there was added tax, so let’s say 50 cents for both.
However, my fantasy shorts and retro-pulpy boxing novella are exclusively entertainment, devoid of any contemporary politics.
So am I part of the movement? I am still publishing work, in the post-lockdown era, so maybe. In any case, I certainly sympathize with it (as I understand it) and applaud the intentions of the creators who are part of it. There is no single authority on, leader of, or governing body over Iron Age (setting it apart from “Comicsgate,” perhaps) so it’s academic, if not moot.
When I am finished with my current time travel series, I plan to shift my efforts from prose over to sequential art. My first graphic novel, a sort of pulpy space opera, will resume once I find a dependable artist with integrity. For now, a black & white “false start” (not intentionally such) is available for free on Arkhaven.
If the Iron Age is a movement, I’m looking forward to what is produced from within it.
Alan Moore’s Watchmen, along with Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns, are probably the most influential comic miniseries ever published so far. Both were published in the mid-1980s and were milestones for comic books as a medium, and for superhero comics in particular.
Comic books, which started as a medium for young boys, had already been drifting away from its original audience, and with these two series, fully embraced the new adult nerd audience. Some aficionados will tell you this marks the point at which comics became serious. Others might suggest this is when comic creators began taking themselves too seriously. Though not at the toxic levels of woketardery we see today, after the success of these titles, the creators at Marvel and DC were unleashed to inject their cultural Marxist opinions into commercial sequential art, in increasing doses.
For whatever reason, somebody on X brought up the character of Rorschach recently, and whatever comment was initially made, it ignited multiple threads of debate about the character.
Moore Fanbois Miss the Point
I analyzed Watchmen 13-14 years ago, including the ironies involved in Alan Moore’s Rorschach character. Others have also noticed the ironies, and have been pontificating about them on X for the last few days. Rather than revisit what I and others have already noted, let’s look first at something Moore said:
The fact that Moore chose to depict Rorschach as a smelly incel is the evidence de jour Woketards regurgitate in order to claim that Rorschach is not a hero, but a fascist, psychopath, murderer, etc.
Moore did indeed depict him as a smelly incel. Also a freeloader, socially awkward, an apologist for atrocities committed by the Comedian character, etc. One thing this proves is that Moore was fighting the culture war long before most of his enemies even knew a culture war was underway. (A lot of people are still amazingly oblivious to the culture war being waged against them.)
It’s quite simple. All Moore did was present a literary version of a debate strategy the leftists/SJWs/woketards have been employing for generations. They’re still using it today.
Ad-Hominem Revenge by a Gamma Writer Against a Fictional Stand-In for an Ideological Nemesis
Try criticizing the invasion in public (whether you call it “illegal immigration,” “crisis at the border,” or some more watered-down, sugar-coated term). You will be called “racist,” “white supremacist,” “xenophobe,” “conspiracy theorist,” etc.
You probably never even alluded to race, national origins, or any conspiracy. But leftists want others to believe you did. They couldn’t care less what is true or represents reality, but they know others do, and Marxists do care what those others believe. Left-wingers will always care what others believe, whether they are celebrating their 35th birthday in their mother’s basement or manning a machinegun in the guard tower of a gulag. It is precisely because they care what you believe that they will gleefully herd your family into a boxcar when the time comes.
They have no affinity for the truth.
They obsess about what others believe.
They want others to hate and fear you.
Others won’t hate you (or hate you enough) based on anything you’ve actually said or done.
They must provide reasons you should be hated and feared.
Name-calling, insults, and false accusations historically have instigated the hate and fear they desire.
Those whose beliefs can’t be controlled deserve humiliation and death.
Who did Alan Moore hate? I suggest you examine the characteristics which cause so many Watchmen readers to recognize Rorschach as the hero of the story: integrity, determination, conviction in his beliefs, and veneration for what is true.
Moore recognized these traits in the right-wingers he hates so much. These qualities probably made him hate them even worse. For his cultural Marxist, deconstructive narrative, he wanted a right-wing voodoo doll to stab. He took several superhero characters who he associated with the aforementioned right-wing ideals (Steve Ditko’s Charleton characters The Question and Mr. A in particular), blended them together, and formed that voodoo doll into who we know as Rorschach.
The Secret God-King Wins Again!
Since Moore is the writer, he has control over every character and what happens in the “grim, gritty” universe he fashioned for this narrative. His objective is to make you hate and fear those who believe in objective truth, who don’t compromise with evil, and who are willing to sacrifice themselves, if necessary, to speak the truth. Hence the passive-aggressive ad hominem attacks on this voodoo doll of his own making.
Joe McCarthy might be a great example of the archetype Moore loathes so deeply. It turns out that McCarthy was right all along, but hardly anybody will admit to it because they’re still so invested in a narrative with him in the villain role. That’s how effective the character assassination of McCarthy was–and the emotional reasoning everyone was lured into. This is why Moore wrote Rorschach as a smelly, freeloading incel whose commentary triggers normies and NPCs.
Rorschach is the only character who didn’t take the ticket. Nightowl, Silk Specter and even Dr. Manhattan compromised with evil. Moore, the manipulative god of that perverse world, allowed them to live because they sold their souls. Rorschach had to die for his “sin.”
Since it is so important to Moore and other authoritarian Marxists to control what others believe, it infuriates them when we recognize the ironies, and Rorschach’s heroic attributes, despite how angrily they keep stabbing the voodoo doll.
UPDATE: Looks like other bloggers also figured this drama was worth weighing in on. Dark Herald probably cross-posted this on Arkhaven, but here’s his take on Fandom Pulse. And here’s yet another article on the topic, possibly by the very person who ignited this row. Both are worth reading. However, I was blocked from commenting and flagged as spam. Interesting.
Getting another promotion together for the first book in the Paradox Series. Hope to get some reviews, increase visibility, get readers to invest in the series–all the usual stuff. Anyway, the outfit I’m working with rewrote my blurb, as part of their services.
To be honest, the existing blurb could be better. I didn’t slip in the time machine as smoothly as I should have, for instance:
Pete Bedauern began his life as a latchkey kid in a run-down trailer park with a single mom, living on stale hot dog buns and bleak prospects. Those were the cards Fate had dealt him, and Pete was on his way to becoming an angry young man. Then Pete’s estranged uncle burst on the scene to punch Fate in the mouth.
Uncle Si is scarred inside and out; he’s a hard drinker; painfully blunt; a little mysterious and maybe even scary, but takes an interest in his nephew that Pete’s father never took. Most of Uncle Si’s life is a secret, but through the part of it he shares, Pete undergoes a master course on life, love, and full-contact sports.
As it turns out, Uncle Si not only has tons of money, multiple businesses, and a fleet of fast cars–he also owns a time machine.
Paradox is one good-hearted-but-alienated boy’s odyssey into manhood, and Escaping Fate is the opening leg of that journey. Before it’s complete, Pete will learn the guarded secrets of history, take on a pan-continuum conspiracy, contend for a world championship, crack the code for success with women…and even save the world.
Well, one world, maybe…
And here’s the rewrite:
Plunge into the gritty reality of Pete Bedauern, a boy marooned in the desolation of a decrepit trailer park, his life a monotonous echo of neglect under the care of a beleaguered single mother.
His days, a blend of stale sustenance and dwindling hopes, seem destined to mold him into a resentful youth. But destiny takes an unexpected turn with the explosive arrival of Uncle Si, a figure as enigmatic as he is transformative.
Uncle Si, marked by life’s brutal trials with scars both visible and hidden, emerges as an unlikely mentor. He is unapologetically raw, a man who’s tasted life’s extremes, from the depths of pain to the peaks of success. Beneath his gruff exterior and shrouded past, he harbors a profound interest in Pete, offering the paternal attention Pete has long been starved of. Through Uncle Si’s guidance, Pete embarks on a profound journey, a masterclass in the nuances of life, the complexities of love, and the adrenaline of full-contact sports.
But Uncle Si is more than just a mentor with worldly possessions and wisdom. He possesses a staggering secret – a time machine. As Pete steps into the realm of the impossible, he is catapulted into a thrilling odyssey. “Paradox” is not just a journey through time; it is Pete’s voyage into the heart of manhood. Along this electrifying path, he unravels history’s hidden truths, confronts a sinister pan-continuum conspiracy, vies for a world championship, and deciphers the elusive art of winning hearts.
As Pete navigates this labyrinth of adventures, he stands on the precipice of not just changing his own fate, but the destiny of an entire world.
This is more than a story of growth; it’s an exhilarating ride through time and transformation, where a boy emerges not just as a man, but as a savior of worlds – at least one, perhaps more.
Me personally, I don’t see this as much of an improvement. Seems like they just jammed in as many SEO keywords, adjectives an “strong action verbs” as possible, without even knowing what happens in the book. In fact, I wonder if they used AI to come up with this.
“Plunge into the gritty reality of…”
“He possesses a staggering secret…”
“…labyrinth of adventures…”
Holy purple prose, Batman.
“…the nuances of life, the complexities of love, and the adrenaline of full-contact sports.”
Is that really better than simply “life, love, and full contact sports”?
Seems like change for the sake of change. When you look at something objectively, there is prose that works and prose that doesn’t work. The assumption here is apparently that absolutely nothing in the existing blurb works…that every single sentence needs to be cram-packed with adjectives and over-the-top verbs.
I don’t buy it.
Does this writing style really sell books?
With some changes, they’re trying to cast a wider net and attract every kind of reader. Note how they changed this line to avoid offending feminists, white knights and manginas:
My words: “…crack the code for success with women…”
Their words: “…deciphers the elusive art of winning hearts.”
But, see, my books are not for every kind of reader–especially feminists, white knights and manginas. This version of the blurb may not offend them, but what’s in the book still will. I learned from experience to intentionally put trigger words/phrases in product descriptions to scare the woketard Thought Police away. These folks are trying to undo that. And frankly, their version sounds lame.
“…beleaguered single mother”? Beleaguered by who or what? Why do they say that? I’ll tell you why: once again, they’re trying to avoid offending the Karens in our gynocentric culture. “See here, Henry! Single mothers are heroes and victims! In the problematic way you wrote it, you leave room for people to assume that being raised by a single mother might be less than ideal. You have to make it clear that any shortcomings of a mother raising a child in that scenario must obviously be somebody else’s fault!”
Maybe I should go ahead and run it close to how they wrote it, and see if it has an effect on sales. They may not know much about the book they’re trying to describe (in a voice completely unlike the voice of the narrator), but it might be a safe assumption that they know a lot more about SEO than I do.
If I were a reader/shopper, the existing blurb would have a much better chance of piquing my interest than the the version the professionals (or AI) came up with. But I also know not everybody thinks like I do.
