The disease of optimism

[Mythsaje]

It's easy to get stuck in a negative spiral with everything that's going on in the world. We've got this insane war, threats of a nuclear attack on Iran, NSA and Pentagon spying, a compliant corporate media, global warming, peak oil, an impending economic collapse, and a host of other things I'm probably forgetting about.

But, you know, negativity has never helped any matters. Thinking that we are somehow doomed doesn't make anyone want to go forward. I'm concerned about all these things, but, if I allowed them to weigh on me all the time, I'd be paralyzed.

I post a lot of messages here, most of them with a positive message. I have a lot of faith in humanity, believe it or not. Just the fact that so many of us are here trying to gain knowledge with which to face the future gives me hope.

I guess I can't help it. Even in the face of impending disaster I write essays, novels, and stories that celebrate hope and the conquest of human will over catastrophe.

My Infinity: Earth series is about the struggle against a ruthless alien invader that works behind the scenes by manipulating religion and politics to weaken the target. The first book is already out...the second and third are being released in June and December respectively. My contention is that these fundies and world destroyers we're dealing with in real life are the pawns of a race of beings that see us as little more than fodder, and have made a long career out of using our fears and prejudices against us on various alternate Earths.

My serial, which launches today, involves a fight against a monolithic church on a distant world that attempts to criminalize the very tool that threatens their power. This serial is an old idea made new for the electronic age--a new installment of the saga is available each week as a continuance of the overall story.

http://www.seronserials.com/swordandshadow/

I'm just a tale-spinner, I'll admit. One who consistently gets great reviews and is still building a following. But I'm a loud, opinionated, LIBERAL tale-spinner, who enjoys nothing more than shaking his fist at the Powers-That-Be and tweaking their noses whenever possible.

So, I guess if the world's going to hell in a handbasket, I'm going to be the one scribbling in a notebook or typing on my laptop, describing our descent and making wry jokes along the way. Oh, and snatching a few pitchforks from the hands of our devilish entourage and jabbing a few butts with them too.

All we can do is keep fighting the good fight, telling it straight, and hope for the best. If we don't, what use is drawing another breath?

I write about heroes that are at once conflicted, confident, and occasionally scary as hell. But none of them believe in surrender.

And neither do I.

[Igel]

1. Optimism is good.

It provides a reason for going on that simple realism doesn't. Pessimism is the disease.

Skepticism isn't bad as an adjunct to realism. Even cynicism, in small doses, can add spice to an otherwise bland present.

On the otherhand, pollyannaism, *that* is the real disease (and I don't mean the technical diagnosis, just the insistance that only the good and positive spin can be true and worth acknowledging). It's optimism with elephantiasis and on steroids.

[Mythsaje]

2. Optimism is worthless

without understanding the mountain one must climb.

Take Iraq, for example. The administration was optimistic (or sounded optimistic) going in, even though anyone with any sense was saying..."Umm, not going to be that easy."

[Igel]

7. Realism and optimism aren't

contradictory, IMHO.

I didn't focus on realism because there was no reason to, IMHO, and dissing it is something I'm not likely to do. But focusing entirely on the here-and-now leaves no room for envisioning a better future, or positing the better one that optimism wants. It's up to people to find a way between what realism dictates and what optimism desires. I take optimism to say things may be better, and to lead us to think they can be better; not that they obligatorily will be better.

"Reality" has often found to be wrong by people that wanted something better; they've gone into the labs or the fields, found new facts that denied the previous conception of 'reality' to produce a new understanding of reality, frequently with ways to improve it.

Reality a few years ago for my wife was that she had suffered from endometriosis as a teenager and was told she had considerable scarring to her reproductive tract; children were essentially ruled out. She was looking to change disciplines because a multi-year job search in her field had led nowhere, her research was stalled in a pointless post-doc in which she had a grant whose purpose was unachievable given the staff mentoring her.

Reality now is that we have a kid, and she believes she can have more. She's tenure track in her discipline. The glue between the two realities was hard work, rooted in optimism that set goals that didn't seem realistic (but with a realism as to what she and I needed to do to achieve those goals if they could be achieved).

[oscar111]

3. Optimism is superb. List of reasons for hope ...

World language society.
Progressives.
Increasing GDP, even if wages are not up yet... Progressives in gov will someday help wages so they rise too.
Bush at thirty three percent.
Orbiting sunshade can fix warming, even cool the planet to below warming began.
Three promising leads in bilogical research into immortality.. physical, not spiritual.
.. see my thread in Health forum.
Superconductivity.
Norway.
Metric system.
better batteries.
More science labs than any time in history.
Enough food for all, ... we just need to distribute it.

[Mythsaje]

4. We are amazing creatures...

I'll add the possibility of FTL travel to your list...which, in my opinion, is going to be a necessity if the immortality thing pans out.

As someone who writes about immortals on a regular basis, I'm a bit fascinated by that science as well.

And nanotech.

[darkmaestro019]

5. Can I ask how the fk you ever got published? (no offense!)

That's meant to be a dig at our terrible, ridiculous, mostly-garbage-shovelling mainstream publishing industry.......

The sample you sent me is still in my inbox, I admit--insane amounts of real-life interference lately--but the fact that I invariably click on your subjects without noticing you are the poster, and the fact that I consistently get joy and value out of the post I find behind it tells me that it'll be well, well worth the time when I finally manage to settle down with it...

I'm interested in how ANYONE gets around the be-published-to-get-published thang. Based on the books I see getting bestseller numbers TALENT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH IT in most cases. I was strung along by an agency once for SIX MONTHS wanting increasingly odd formats of sample, outline, then finally an entire edited copy of the MS--only to be told that while I met their "literary standards" what I had wasn't "marketable"

(Isn't that THEIR job? And I could see how it could be marketed and that isn't even the part I'm supposed to do!)

I'm not fixated on being the next Clive Barker, though that would be nice--just getting someone to PRINT the things so my tiny but dedicated fan base doesn't have to use a scrollbar to read them. And not doing my own copyediting (impossible, imo!) would be nice, too...

Just looking for tips, or who you held at laser-pistol-point to get the bastard to read the thing. Gardner's stomping in with full riding leathers and a sackful of MS is probably too retro to work in this day and age, when they reject without ever SEEING even a tiny piece of the actual novel. And there really isn't a market for short stories (even if I could write them, which I cannot) since magazines seem to be dead or dying and e-zines are not yet taken seriously. That's how writers seem to have gotten their feet wet/in the door in the past, but now what?

It seems to be either your-parents-write-bestsellers or right place, right time......(sigh)


: )

[Mythsaje]

6. Honestly?

Small Press and e-presses are the wave of the future. They're more interested in quality than what some perceive as "marketability." The Big Houses are terribly behind the curve on marketability... They rarely notice growing trends in readership until it suddenly takes off in a direction they weren't expecting. They'll turn down authors at a surprising rate, then goggle in horrified fascination when they realize that something they weren't expecting turns out to be wildly popular. Some of the small and electronic press houses are starting to gain a lot of attention for this very reason. Some of the big houses (and Hollywood, in fact) are starting to troll their sites to look for new talent.

A lot of the fantasy and sci-fi out there right now is just rehashed ideas...nothing new to be found anywhere, just variations on a theme. The big houses spend a LOT of money to push their books on the market, even going so far as to buy up copies of their own books to increase sales to bestseller standards.

Believe it or not, the hottest stuff on the market right now is paranormal, futuristic, and fantasy romance. Mercedes Lackey damn near started this sub-genre with her "Diana Tregarde" books and abandoned it when it wasn't selling as well as she would've liked. She was about ten years ahead of the curve and no one knew it at the time. Least of all herself.

The downside of this method is that promotion tends to be weak in comparison to the big houses. A lot of effort is required on the part of the authors to let people know they even exist.

Then there's the prejudice associated with confusing small and e-press publishers with the "vanity" presses, which simply print anyone's work for the cost of doing it plus a little profit. There's no submission process, editing process, or anything but the exchange of money. You want to put a book out, you write it, you pay your fee, and voila! you're an author.

This contaminates the whole process because the big houses are doing just about anything they can to marginalize the small pub and e-pub part of the industry. And they've got the money and influence to do it.

My wife runs one of the largest on-line review sites...she took it over last month. They have contracts with not only small press and e-publishers, but a lot of mainstream publishers are starting to send them books to review. As more people are made aware of this end of the business, and how honest this site is with regards to their reviews, the more influential it will become. My wife's attitude is that she doesn't review for the authors or publishers, but as a service to the readers.

I'd actually recommend checking out the site for more info on the small press and e-publishers. It's http://www.loveromances.com (soon to be "Love Romances and More)."

Hope this helps a little.