A.I. Art 4

Anti-A.I. Astroturf

As I mentioned last time, the upsurge in anti-A.I. art sentiment doesn't seem entirely organic to me. People had been talking about art algorithms like Midjourney and Stable Diffusion for a while. My friend, author David V. Stewart, even did some videos on A.I. book cover design. Sure, these algos…
December 19, 20228 Comments
A.I. 2001

The Great A.I. Art Debate

As you read this post, a debate is raging on author Twitter about A.I.-generated book covers. Some are hailing these art algorithms as the best publishing innovation since Gutenberg. Others are ... denouncing A.I. as demonic? Or something. To be honest, I can't get a read on the most emphatic…
December 16, 202246 Comments
AI Writing

A.I. Writing

The same eggheads who said the internet would end censorship, Bitcoin would end state coercion, and Google thermostats would end global warming have also been telling us the A.I. revolution is 10 years away for 50 years now. But the advent of A.I. drawing algorithms like MidJourney and Stable Diffusion…
October 17, 202211 Comments
Newpub Talk

Return of Newpub Talk

Until a little over a decade ago, you couldn't go online without being inundated by talking points from the popularly called New Atheists. In contrast to past popularizers of godlessness like Russell, Shaw, or even Sagan, the New Atheists largely dispensed with the genteel intellectual routine and waged constant rhetorical…
September 26, 202212 Comments
oldpub warehouse

Oldpub Cope

A viral tweet that made the rounds over the weekend caused quite a stir in oldpub circles. Family festivities kept me from covering the story yesterday, so we'll dive in now. The background is that two of the big New York publishers are embroiled in antitrust litigation. An oldpub author…
September 6, 20225 Comments
book ban

Outsourcing Censorship

Among the most frustrating aspects of being involved in dissident politics these days is the pushback that often comes from one's nominal allies. Perhaps the most common form of this internecine resistance is the refusal of many older Conservatives and Libertarians to acknowledge that their own side is being censored…
August 2, 20225 Comments
The Last Fanatics

The Last Fanatics

Author J.D. Cowan returns with a new volume that gives readers the autopsy report on what - or who - killed the pulps. Once upon a time, there was a tradition of storytelling that went back into the Gothic romances all the way through the fairy tales into the classics. It…
July 7, 20225 Comments
Airplaine! Soviet Newscaster

Moral Extortion

The Mafia remains a fixture of American movies and television, long after the peak of its power. That's because for a span of 50 years in the early-to-late 20th century, the mob exerted tremendous influence - not just on the street - but in unions, legitimate businesses, and even government.…
June 17, 202215 Comments
Sanderson's Neopatronage Masterclass

Sanderson’s Neopatronage Masterclass

Back in March, this blog reported on rock star author Brandon Sanderson's all-time number one Kickstarter campaign. At the time of that writing, Sanderson's crowdfunder had amassed over $35 million, an unprecedented sum not only for a book project, but for the crowdfunding site itself. But in a recent update…
June 14, 20225 Comments
Nepatron Brandon

Neopatron Brandon

Longtime readers of this blog will know that a core theme here is charting the death of oldpub and trying to envision what comes next. I predicted oldpub's demise years ago, not that it takes a prophet to foresee that a business locked into expanding its share of a contracting…
March 28, 202210 Comments