Miscellaneous Chatter > General Misc.
So, where's Scott?
What Came Before:
--- Quote from: WillemB ---I've spent a fair bit of time looking over old posts from the old Three Seas forum. Perhaps the best thing about the old forum was Scott's participation.
Having spent so much time reading stuff on Three Pound Brain, I'm amazed by how easy to understand and seemingly enthusiastic to talk about his creative work he was back on the old forum. The effective death of that site, and the lack of his participation on this one, makes me wonder: what happened? It seems clear that he is contemptuous of commercial motives, but somewhere along the way it feels like he became contemptuous of this fans; the people who his story is aimed at, the folks who need to care about stories before they can care about the ideas in them.
Initially, I imagined that he was here, lurking. Perhaps he was one of the regular posters and just operating incognito. It seems clear that most of the regulars are here to speculate, and no one speaks with the omniscient voice of Cu'jara Cinmoi from the old forum. So, I'm assuming he doesn't darken these halls. Why his commitment to TPB and BBT and his seeming abandonment of his "average-Joe" fans? For someone with so much to say about the problem of "in-group" dialogues he is surprisingly silent with folks not in the TPB group.
Did something happen? Sales weren't cutting it, so he began to turn back to academia and felt compelled to toughen up his street cred for the ivory tower set? Or the inverse: proud of the story until it became popular, and then felt cheapened by the whole transactional relationship of author and fan? I'm stumped. It's like two different people. Stone-wallin' Scott on TPB and sweet ol' loveable Cu'jara Cinmoi who can easily manage an explanation without lapsing into ists, isms, or ologisms (unless, again, one of the regular posters here is Scott, pretending to be just another fan, in which case all the speculation is a posture and there is a whole different class of transaction happening... easy to return to the notion.)
I'm stumped, because anecdotally it sounds like he is a great guy. Gracious, accessible, outgoing. How do I interpret the change, if there indeed was one? What is the understanding of the folks here?
Where's Scott?
--- End quote ---
What Came Before:
--- Quote from: Madness ---Lol, I'm terrible. I need to take a camping trip or technology fast - remove the Second Apocalypse IV.
Two things, Willem, unfortunate consequences of Bakker being the amicable and challenging guy he is.
Off the hop, we're too crazy for him. From what I've heard, we have too many good ideas - I don't buy it ;) - which was also his reasoning for never participating in the Westeros threads. I'd hazard the Bakker & Woman/Sockpuppeting instance caught him waxing a certain mood?
Also, the spilt e-ink. As an aspiring novelist, not to mention academic, I think he'd abhor the amount of the words I've put on Second Apocalypse. There was a certain instance of internet usage, which destroyed his working laptop - for which reason, he apparently writes his work in progress on something not connected to the internet since - and it curbed his activities severely in the years after as you can tell from Zombie Three Seas.
I, for one, support both reasons. While I advocate interacting with him in any form - the novels being one of the most noteworthy ways - I actually hope he stays away for both reasons. I wouldn't want the quality conceptions of Second Apocalypse members spoiling his stories and I also want him writing as much as possible - blogs and forum posts just aren't quite as inspiring as his novels have been.
But those are just my thoughts...
--- End quote ---
What Came Before:
--- Quote from: bbaztek ---it's me, i'm scott bakker. kellhus is marching the new empire's armed might into the shadow of golgotterath for the greatest dance party ever. the inchoroi are like the universe's rock stars. it's all coke and hookers in there. shae is t-pain.
the ancient nonmen empires realized too late what partying 24/7 did to productivity, and so crumbled. now Man must step up and discipline himself to not snort lines off hooker ass all day.
the inverse fire is just a look into the hangover the collective inchoroi race is in for. and it's bad. real bad.
ask me anything
(seriously, I'm torn between wanting Bakker here to give us some tantalizing TUC info, and just writing the damn book. Gonna have to go with Madness on this one.)
--- End quote ---
What Came Before:
--- Quote from: WillemB ---@madness
He must use a different computer than his laptop to write and post those novella length TPB entries! Must type them up on his smart phone...
EDIT TO ADD: I only worry about his absence in as much as it affects the potential popularity of his books. Setting philosophy aside, this series is a head better than 95% of the crap I gleefully consume every year, and I'm just talking about out and out storytelling. Add the deeper resonances into the mix, and we're getting into potential classic of the genre territory.
But for this forum, Scott's fans would be squatting over on Westeros and occasionally pounding on the door over at TPB. Not a great way to grow a non-academic audience. The home site at rscottbakker.com is a move in the right direction, but a bit like an empty museum; the map of Three Seas is cool, til you realize it is non-interactive. The beautiful posterboards of his books loom, but link nowhere. The whole thing gives a reluctant, shuttered feel.
If he were to crack the door here, mutter a monthly "hey fans, it's me, this is how things are going with the book" to the sad-sacks who lurk this forum, it would go a long way. If TPB is for an in-group, then but for occasional updates on TUC I'm out. I want him to write, I want him to keep cranking out the books, but if TPB is any indication, it isn't a question of him having the time or willingness to address an audience, but rather which audience he deigns to address. That seems incongruous with the big-hearted person that can speak forth the thoughts of someone irascible yet compassionate like Akka or Mimara. Maybe a bit more like Kellhus, less the pragmatism.
I dunno, I guess the only reason I even care to make noise about this is out of hoping I can provoke a reaction. Maybe if we utter his name three times fast (a la Beetlejuice) he'll show up here, and we'll all marvel: holy shit, it's Bakker. He's got halos around his hands... and fur on his palms.
Whore after all.
--- End quote ---
What Came Before:
--- Quote from: WillemB ---
--- Quote from: bbaztek ---it's me, i'm scott bakker. kellhus is marching the new empire's armed might into the shadow of golgotterath for the greatest dance party ever.
--- End quote ---
Tell me that Neo and the rest of the inhabitants of Zion are hitting that club and I am so THERE!
--- End quote ---
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version