If you need a metric as to whether someone has an ear for language and reads a lot, ask them if they think automatic translation is good enough for fiction now. Anyone who answers yes has absolutely no idea what they're talking about.

#books #llm #ai #language #translation #fiction

If you need a metric as to whether someone has an ear for language and reads a lot, ask them if they think automatic translation is good enough for fiction now. Anyone who answers yes has absolutely no idea what they're talking about.

#books #llm #ai #language #translation #fiction

Today in Labor History February 11, 1938: BBC Television produced the world's first ever science fiction television program, an adaptation of a section of the Karel Čapek play R.U.R. Čapek coined the term "robot,” deriving it from the Czech word for forced labor by Serfs. R.U.R. is an archetype for many of the science fiction stories and films that followed, like Bladerunner, West World and Terminator, and others about robots, replicants and hosts that rebel against humans. However, “R.U.R.,” like Čapek’s 1936 novel “War with the Newts,” is also a satirical critique of totalitarianism, which was on the rise in Europe at the time he wrote the play.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #play #playwright #KarelCapek #robot #RUR #totalitarianism #fascism #antifascism #serf #slavery #sciencefiction #scifi #czech #bladerunner #books #fiction #playwright @bookstadon

Today in Labor History February 11, 1938: BBC Television produced the world's first ever science fiction television program, an adaptation of a section of the Karel Čapek play R.U.R. Čapek coined the term "robot,” deriving it from the Czech word for forced labor by Serfs. R.U.R. is an archetype for many of the science fiction stories and films that followed, like Bladerunner, West World and Terminator, and others about robots, replicants and hosts that rebel against humans. However, “R.U.R.,” like Čapek’s 1936 novel “War with the Newts,” is also a satirical critique of totalitarianism, which was on the rise in Europe at the time he wrote the play.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #play #playwright #KarelCapek #robot #RUR #totalitarianism #fascism #antifascism #serf #slavery #sciencefiction #scifi #czech #bladerunner #books #fiction #playwright @bookstadon

Just finished a new novella (short novel/ long short story) and looking forward to talking about #fiction # writing and handmade paperbacks tomorrow at the BCN Science Jam in #Groningen!

#QuestionOfTheDay you can re-experience a piece of media all over again as if you've never read/watched/etc it before, like you get to experience it for the first time again, what do you choose?

#fiction #comics #comicbooks #videogames #gaming #musicals #music #ttrpg #CCGs #books #TV #television #movies #film #manga #anime #poetry

#QuestionOfTheDay What's something (a trope, plot point, character type, twist, technology, magic, decision, conceit of the genre/world, whatever) in fiction that you just can't buy.

i.e. you get that it's fiction, & that it's a thing that happens, or that in the fictional world it's accepted, justified, or explained, or fans love it, etc. It's not that you don't understand it, it's just that you don't buy it, it doesn't work for you, you just can't accept it or take it seriously, etc...

This is a judgement free zone (at least from my end) so if you're like "when space magic shows up I can't take it seriously" or "ppl being able to fly makes no sense to me" etc that's totally fine.

#fiction #Television #TV #manga #anime #film #movies #books #CCGs #ttrpg #videogames #comics #comicbooks

#QuestionOfTheDay you can re-experience a piece of media all over again as if you've never read/watched/etc it before, like you get to experience it for the first time again, what do you choose?

#fiction #comics #comicbooks #videogames #gaming #musicals #music #ttrpg #CCGs #books #TV #television #movies #film #manga #anime #poetry

#QuestionOfTheDay who is a character that ruined a work of fiction you were otherwise enjoying and why?

bonus points if you actually stopped watching/playing/reading etc because of this character, so not just like an annoying character you hate but you still kept going

#fiction #movies #film #TV #Television #anime #manga #musicals #comics #comicbooks #ttrpg #CCGs #books #videogames

Today in Labor History February 1, 1912: The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) started the San Diego Free Speech Fight in response to a city ordinance preventing public speaking in and around the Stingaree neighborhood (now known as the Gaslamp Quarter). The authorities were trying to squelch labor and radical organizing in the multi-ethnic, working-class neighborhood, infamous for its houses of prostitution, gambling dens, opium dens and Chinese ghetto. Even as late as the 1980s, it still had a skid row feel, with its multitude of tattoo parlors, bars, sailors, junkies and fascination parlors. As a kid, I remember watching the con artists running games of 3-Card Monte on the sidewalks there.

The IWW had been active in San Diego since 1906. They organized timber workers and cigar makers, as well as workers at San Diego Consolidated Gas and Electric Company. Their strike at the power company led to the formation of a public service union, which disbanded in 1911, when many Wobblies flocked to Tijuana to join the anarchist Magonista revolution there. For more on this, read “The Desert Revolution,” by Lowell Blaisdell.

As the Free Speech fight progressed, anarchists, socialists and liberals joined the struggle, deliberately speaking in the restricted zone so that the jails would overflow. And they all demanded individual trials in order to clog up the legal system. Jail conditions were horrendous. Prisoners were crowded into the drunk tanks and forced to sleep on vermin-infested floors. Beatings were routine. 63-year-old Michael Hoy died from a police beating in jail. The IWW called on members from across the country to ride the rails to San Diego to join the fight. At least 5,000 heeded the call.

The local papers, of course, ran countless editorials attacking the radicals and glorifying the police. This encouraged vigilantes, who’d patrol the rail yards looking for incoming Wobblies. They deported many across county lines where they forced them to kiss the flag and run through gauntlets of men who beat them with pick axe handles. On May 7, the cops killed another Wobbly, Joseph Mikolash. And on May 15, vigilantes kidnapped Emma Goldman and her companion Ben Reitman, who had come to show their support. However, before deporting them, the vigilantes tarred and feathered Reitman and raped him with a cane. Ben Reitman was a physician who focused his practice on providing treatment for tramps, hobos, prostitutes and the most marginalized members of society. He also wrote the book “Boxcar Bertha.” The July 11, 1912 edition of the IWW’s “Little Red Songbook” included the song: “We’re Bound for San Diego:”

In that town called San Diego, when the workers try to talk,
The cops will smash them with a sap and tell them “take a walk.”
They throw them in a bull pen and they feed them rotten beans.
And they call that “law and order” in the city, so it seems.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #sandiego #freespeech #policebrutality #prison #IWW #anarchism #Revolution #socialism #strike #magonista #Tijuana #vigilantes #EmmaGoldman #acab #mexico #books #author #writer #fiction #nonfiction @bookstadon

#QuestionOfTheDay the single greatest scene in any fictional work you've enjoyed (describe it, spoiler tags if necessary, and why you love it)

#fiction #videogames #gaming #TTRPG #CCGs #musicals #books #comicbooks #comics #anime #manga #film #movies #TV #television

Today in Labor History February 1, 1912: The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) started the San Diego Free Speech Fight in response to a city ordinance preventing public speaking in and around the Stingaree neighborhood (now known as the Gaslamp Quarter). The authorities were trying to squelch labor and radical organizing in the multi-ethnic, working-class neighborhood, infamous for its houses of prostitution, gambling dens, opium dens and Chinese ghetto. Even as late as the 1980s, it still had a skid row feel, with its multitude of tattoo parlors, bars, sailors, junkies and fascination parlors. As a kid, I remember watching the con artists running games of 3-Card Monte on the sidewalks there.

The IWW had been active in San Diego since 1906. They organized timber workers and cigar makers, as well as workers at San Diego Consolidated Gas and Electric Company. Their strike at the power company led to the formation of a public service union, which disbanded in 1911, when many Wobblies flocked to Tijuana to join the anarchist Magonista revolution there. For more on this, read “The Desert Revolution,” by Lowell Blaisdell.

As the Free Speech fight progressed, anarchists, socialists and liberals joined the struggle, deliberately speaking in the restricted zone so that the jails would overflow. And they all demanded individual trials in order to clog up the legal system. Jail conditions were horrendous. Prisoners were crowded into the drunk tanks and forced to sleep on vermin-infested floors. Beatings were routine. 63-year-old Michael Hoy died from a police beating in jail. The IWW called on members from across the country to ride the rails to San Diego to join the fight. At least 5,000 heeded the call.

The local papers, of course, ran countless editorials attacking the radicals and glorifying the police. This encouraged vigilantes, who’d patrol the rail yards looking for incoming Wobblies. They deported many across county lines where they forced them to kiss the flag and run through gauntlets of men who beat them with pick axe handles. On May 7, the cops killed another Wobbly, Joseph Mikolash. And on May 15, vigilantes kidnapped Emma Goldman and her companion Ben Reitman, who had come to show their support. However, before deporting them, the vigilantes tarred and feathered Reitman and raped him with a cane. Ben Reitman was a physician who focused his practice on providing treatment for tramps, hobos, prostitutes and the most marginalized members of society. He also wrote the book “Boxcar Bertha.” The July 11, 1912 edition of the IWW’s “Little Red Songbook” included the song: “We’re Bound for San Diego:”

In that town called San Diego, when the workers try to talk,
The cops will smash them with a sap and tell them “take a walk.”
They throw them in a bull pen and they feed them rotten beans.
And they call that “law and order” in the city, so it seems.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #sandiego #freespeech #policebrutality #prison #IWW #anarchism #Revolution #socialism #strike #magonista #Tijuana #vigilantes #EmmaGoldman #acab #mexico #books #author #writer #fiction #nonfiction @bookstadon

#QuestionOfTheDay what's a piece of fiction that really blew your mind/impacted/changed your perspective/taught you an important value as a child/teen where that impact/perspective/lesson isn't particularly unique or groundbreaking but it was your first encounter with it and it's meaningful to you?

everybody has to have their first encounter with a concept, no matter how obvious/tropey/overplayed etc, at some point in their life. So don't be ashamed if your answer is like "this episode of a cartoon show taught me not to hate ugly people" or something. This is a safe space for sharing. At least I will try my best to keep it as one.

#fiction #TV #television #movies #film #books #comics #comicbooks #anime #manga #videogames #TTRPG #CCGs #musicals #poetry #music

#QuestionOfTheDay what's a piece of fiction that really blew your mind/impacted/changed your perspective/taught you an important value as a child/teen where that impact/perspective/lesson isn't particularly unique or groundbreaking but it was your first encounter with it and it's meaningful to you?

everybody has to have their first encounter with a concept, no matter how obvious/tropey/overplayed etc, at some point in their life. So don't be ashamed if your answer is like "this episode of a cartoon show taught me not to hate ugly people" or something. This is a safe space for sharing. At least I will try my best to keep it as one.

#fiction #TV #television #movies #film #books #comics #comicbooks #anime #manga #videogames #TTRPG #CCGs #musicals #poetry #music

A new #Introduction for my 1-year anniversary on Mastodon. I find Mastodon much more welcoming than those corporate owned social media platforms. Currently living in beautiful #France with my lovely wife. I mostly share my love of #Movies and #Photography . I also love #Reading #Fiction (one of my 2026 projects is a slow re-read of Les Miserables) and #NonFiction and I do some #Writing on #Creativity and pop culture. Basically if you’re a decent person, I’m happy to connect here.

A new #Introduction for my 1-year anniversary on Mastodon. I find Mastodon much more welcoming than those corporate owned social media platforms. Currently living in beautiful #France with my lovely wife. I mostly share my love of #Movies and #Photography . I also love #Reading #Fiction (one of my 2026 projects is a slow re-read of Les Miserables) and #NonFiction and I do some #Writing on #Creativity and pop culture. Basically if you’re a decent person, I’m happy to connect here.

#QuestionOfTheDay a situation/fight/conflict in a work of fiction where the hero/protagonist won but, in your opinion, should have lost, this can be for whatever reason you think but explain your reason why you think they should have lost (it would be more dramatic, it would have been more interesting, it would have made more sense, it would have thematically made more sense, logically they should have lost except plot contrivance, it would have led to a more interesting story progression, etc).

#fiction #videogames #gaming #superheroes #comics #comicbooks #anime #manga #TTRPG #CCGs #books #poetry #musicals #movies #film #TV #television

I really want to start #writing #fiction again (and regularly). But my main problem is I really don't know in what language to write.
Nowadays, 99% of my non-fiction writing is in English, but non-fiction is easy. I really feel that my English is not good enough when I try to write fiction in it.
So, French, right? After all, it's my native language. Well, that's the thing. I haven't really written anything in French in a very long time and when I try, it shows. 🤔

#QuestionOfTheDay what's an experience with a piece of media or work that felt interminably long. Not necessarily something that is long but that felt exceeding long or tedious, like it would never end and/or just kept going going and going.

#anime #manga #videogames #fiction #books #theater #musicals #music #comics #comicbooks #Boardgames #ttrpg #CCGs #TV #Television #movies #film #poetry #writing #gaming