The outside world making books: interesting things people politics TV wasting time
by Harry Connolly
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Quick links.
Rejected book covers compared with their final versions, and how they got that way. I don’t know if anyone else finds this stuff fascinating, but just in case, here you go. I only wish they’d included larger files to click on and examine closely in my laptop window.
The Edge of the American West talks about LEVERAGE and making sense of plot. For those who don’t watch TV, Leverage is a con artist show about a pack of reformed criminals who go around scamming rich, powerful assholes. Powerful person exploits the poor/weak, Leverage team sets them up and ruins them with an elaborate con.
Show writer/producer John Rogers admitted that, according to his audience research data, a full 30% of the audience does not understand the con after having watched the show. They watch to see the rich and powerful humiliated, and never mind how it comes about.
I have some sympathy for those thirty percenters. I read mysteries, and I can almost never guess the killer. I don’t follow the clues, don’t care about them and never read them for the puzzle aspects. It’s the characters that really work for me. The Big Reveal is just a signal that I should start thinking what I should read next.
Investor’s Business Daily thinks the British health care system would have let Stephen Hawking die. Nevermind that Hawking is British, grew up in England and lives there right now. People, we’re past the point where the truth matters. The evidence is clear that lies are useful political tools–even after a lie has been corrected, the listener retains the negative feelings the lie created. The Investor’s Business Daily not only didn’t bother to fact check their editorial, they knew they wouldn’t need to. This is a problem.
