linkdump

[queenlua]

Cleaned out my bookmarks. Some good ones I rediscovered:

• A letter of advice from Fitzgerald to a young writer. Excerpt:

  ...I've read the story carefully and, Frances, I'm afraid the price for doing professional work is a good deal higher than you are prepared to pay at present. You've got to sell your heart, your strongest reactions, not the little minor things that only touch you lightly, the little experiences that you might tell at dinner. This is especially true when you begin to write, when you have not yet developed the tricks of interesting people on paper, when you have none of the technique which it takes time to learn. When, in short, you have only your emotions to sell...

• Magic: the Gathering is Turing complete


• "Mrs. Sinclair Lewis to You". Heh.


• Harry Potter and the Doctrine of the Calvinists. Very interesting essay.


• Aisle, an interesting one-turn interactive fiction thing


• hey look yet more interactive fiction

Also, I briefly felt enough faith in the opinions of strangers on the internet to play To the Moon, a recently-hyped indie art game. It was disappointing and I do not recommend it. See also Passage, another overhyped indie art game that at least had the decency not to charge money for the experience, and the far-more-amusing parody of Passage on Kongregate.

Comments

[mark_asphodel]

That Potter essay covered a great deal of the things that bother me about the underlying philosophy of the books.

As for Passage, I remember having arguments with my spouse back in the day because he thought it was brilliant and I... didn't.

[amielleon]

I wouldn't be too hard on JKR for confusing her message. In at least one part of the Odyssey, Homer did too. (will tell you more about this if interested when I'm not in class)