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Johnny Rotten reviews Katy Perry.
Cenk Uygar interviews Reza Aslan.
Science Fiction University: Table of contents to Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories.
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To your readers comment that VFX gets no respect, I think it is more than just a lack of unions. Ask anyone who works in IT.
ReplyDeleteOur society has a long history of disparaging anyone who works with computers, because it is sorcery that frightens the commoners. To deal with this fear, the mythology created is that the sorcery is actually very very simple to manifest, and only known by lonely people who will use their sorcery for a moment of attention from a normal person. (And, yes, I've had someone use the phrase "you people" and "normal" people" together.)
So, people's belief is that the sorcery, be it remove a virus or make a 3D rendering of Godzilla, is enacted by typing really really fast. This particularly hurts anyone involved in any sort of digital art. I do some rather humble photo touch-ups and digital art. People have been very blunt and derisive with me that "you're just doing that on the 'puter!". When people bask in front of their Glowing Rectangular God, it shows them images of the good-looking protagonists telling an attention-starved sorcerer-nerd, "Generate for me a picture of a koala wearing a sombrero climbing the Eiffel Tower surrounded by a swarm of angry tea cups with a SharkNado approaching the city. Do it now!!!". The geek will start banging his fingers on the keyboard, say the obligatory, "Lesser sorcerer geeks can do it in thirty seconds, but I'll get it done in twenty! Because a normal person is speaking to me!"
And, with banking of stunted flipper-hands on the keyboard, a wireframe appears on the screen (and the monitor makes noise for some reason), when then gets skin, which then gets color, which then gets 3D rendering. Lo, in 20 seconds of keyboard-beating, a picture of a koala wearing a sombrero climbing the Eiffel Tower surrounded by a swarm of angry tea cups with a SharkNado approaching the city appears. The sorcerer-geek then waddles off with the warmth that he made a normal person happy.
Because it is revealed by the Glowing Rectangular God, it must be TRUTH.
This is why I can't watch any TV show or movie involving technology.
Anyway, a lot of people genuinely believe that is this actual truth. Trust me, I've had people pull this crap on me. They believe that it is genuinely easy if you have the sorcery, and therefore it has no real value. They don't know how the VFX artist does his work or the IT person gets rid of the computer virus, just as they don't know how the janitor gets the toilet to a brilliant shine: It's beneath them and done by lesser people, therefore they don't have to know it, they can simply demand it.
Mike.K.