Hey, everybody! Not much to say today except to wish you all a happy Halloween and All Saints Day!
Cannon Cruisers put out a special Halloween episode like we do every year. Aside from that, keep warm and dry and I'll see you again in November for more weekend posts.
We've talked about the future of the publishing industry and how it's changed so much over even just the last few years. But while we go on and on about death of OldPub (and yes, it's done and finished) we also do not seem to have much of a plan for what NewPub's future will be. Not that one can "plan" a future for a large burgeoning industry like this, but more that there isn't many ideas been discussed about what should happen.
The above video by David V. Stewart is not one of complaining of the market itself, there is little to be done about the state of something you can't change, but more about the realities of how things currently are and the modern mentalities that prevent us from improving our station in any significant way. The truth might be that "indie" owns the publishing world right now, but it is a mess for discoverability and there is no real way to connect with a larger audience due to the sheer amount of Content being produced in lieu of actual stories.
As mentioned many times before, NewPub, as it is right now, is not the savior of reading or writing in the modern age, which is what it needs to be. The industry is currently a pit of rehashing late 20th century cliches and stereotypes into a void and getting as much return as those trying to reach audiences on any level other than those engaging in pure surface pandering. There is no real way for a writer, good or bad, to sift through the noise and reach a wider audience.
And the biggest problem is that the noise is getting louder and drowning out everything else while the base audience remains the same size, or continually shrinks.
One can argue and scream about AI until they are blue in the face but the side of the argument not discussed is its ability to flood the market with Content. This deluge of Content overwhelms and crowds out everything else to pander to the lowest common denominator. It takes away any sense of true selection and turns NewPub itself into a battle of who can advertise their Content better to a narrow audience instead of being about creating art to connect to a wider audience. It more or less turns the industry into a cynical cash grab, and the worst part is that the cash is barely there to begin with. It is not giving the audience more choice, it is telling them there is only limited Product that can be generated and that they would better use their time finding some other space where wringing dollars out of a half-interested customer base isn't so paramount.
This is why NewPub has had the growing pains it has had, and why it hasn't reached its potential. It is not the readers who caused this but a large segment of authors who merely wish to have their names on products and rehash their version on half a century old genre tropes to the void. There is no direction, no goal, and no cooperation, to anything bigger. All any onlooker will see is chaos and vapidity. Neither will grow any sort of scene, and that's why there hasn't been the audience explosion there should have been.
Of course one can't ever build a scene based on quality alone. Quality isn't as subjective as we like to think, but taste very much is, and the truth is that there is no real uniform taste in the wider culture anymore. Yes, this is mostly due to the destruction of the monoculture, but even alternative scenes once used to thrive when they had a unifying element to them. Simply put: there is still a whole alternative ecosystem missing. Everything is just as blown apart and atomized as audiences are from the mainstream industries.
Before the age of mass media it was much easier to have universal themes and connection with each other, but in the age where everyone's fetishes, preferences, and hyper specific niches almost become personality traits in themselves, there is little reason to find anything outside of our narrow worlds, especially less of one when the ultimate goal is Content Consuming. Even more so when you can automatically generate your own personal Content instead. Why would you go looking for any outside yourself at that point? As we can see from how things are, the audience doesn't see any reason to patronize creators when they can have the bare minimum for nothing.
There is a lot of doom and gloom in just about every artistic circle these days due to how much more fractured, unsteady, and broken, everything is. No one can really get a foothold unless they want to pump out algorithm defined Content into the ether, which is how we've been trained to treat entertainment and art our entire lives. But we also all know that this exact mentality is what led to this current state no one enjoys. It can't continue, and in order for it to stop we need to find other ways, and until we do it's only going to get worse and worse.
And it already is doing just that. We have not reached the bottom.
Just because OldPub is worse (as the above video shows), it does not mean it is okay for NewPub to kick back and rest as that implosion happens. It's really not going to do anything but chase even more readers away from the hobby at a time where we've already been hemorrhaging them for decades now. We need to grow, but we don't seem to want to do anything in order to actually do that. OldPub doesn't think its readers matter, but why do so many NewPub also think this same destructive way? Where are the conversations happening about this topic?
This throwaway style of thinking about art has made everything feel disposable and pointless. There is nothing being built on, only a race to the bottom whether it be in production itself or in a drive for artistic merit. What happened to striving for more? Not only just as artists or audiences, but as people? When do we stop living by moldy tropes and jangling keys and start looking for connection and meaning once more? When do we stop treating life as a beltline factory? The 20th century is dead. I keep saying it because we seem to not want that reality to sink in.
There is no individual or wider callout here. I am just as guilty of thinking this way about the world. It is only when witnessing the destruction of things I loved that I could take stock and realize not only how temporary they truly were but also what really mattered beyond the surface level. And yes, even the "trashiest" piece of entertainment can still house a spark of life in it that can affect anyone who comes across it. All the more reason to make it mean something in the greater scheme of things.
The video from the Second Story above shows how even plot structure and general story mechanics, even when Done Well, can be sued to peddle pure trash into the mind and soul. It isn't just a matter of Content, but intent. Why does your story exist? What does it exist to do? What is it for? While leisure and entertainment is a fine enough reason, it still has to give something edifying to the readers beyond checkbox lists, otherwise it's just clutter. Said clutter is what we need less of to truly set NewPub apart from the rotting old system, and that is absolutely not currently happening. In fact, it is the exact opposite that is going on.
NewPub or OldPub, the overall issue is that while everything has changed much on the surface and in the wider world, the biggest thing that hasn't is our mentality towards both creating and taking in entertainment and art really hasn't. We still want to replicate the exact tropes and styles from when we were kids without adding anything to them or giving new context. We just want to rehash into the void while expecting others to lap it all up. Even when replicating dead OldPub trends that were floated by mass media manipulation and friends in high places decades ago is now no longer selling because they were never actually popular to begin with. The entire framework we grew up under was fake and we still have yet to let that sink in, never mind affect what we make. The frame shift is a lot more jarring than we want to accept.
This fractured state of everything makes finding a universal touchstone even more difficult, and that's without even getting into quality at all. Everyone now has their own island and reaching them in the first is an overwhelmingly Herculean ask that no writer has ever had to worry about before. Art needs to connect, but finding common ground to connect today is a problem without even considering art at all. And using crusty formulas and AI models to pump Content out does not address this deep societal problem. In fact, that only makes it worse.
For example, think about what creating entertainment for a general audience entails today versus yesterday. No, I am not talking about vague mass media consumer demographics, I mean such as old family sitcoms or classic cartoons used to be able to reach. They were things meant not for kids or one group, but for everyone in the family to enjoy together. Can such an audience even be imagined today when making something? Even if it does exist, how would one even begin to approach them with their art? Can we even imagine spending time with our real life neighbor, never mind a stranger producing a piece of art for us? Those are the real questions.
If you wanted to make something for a kid audience, for instance, how would you go about it? Decades of bad standards from unelected busybodies like Peggy Charren combined with Christian Inc corporate approved standards have warped expectations of what a child can even take in. While we could agree that swearing or sexual content is off the table, what happens when we disagree what swearing or sexual content even consists of in the first place? Because this is the current state of things and you can find no shortage of arguments over this exact topic. You could always pick your own standards to operate off of, but then that also runs the risk of not reaching much of anyone and stranding yourself on an island. This is a serious problem with how things currently are.
How does this bridge get built? It probably involves going back to basics and finding common ground again. This isn't a negotiable, it's necessary for even beginning to connect again.
As the above video shows, stories and art have a defined purpose and until we even begin to agree on that again, nothing will improve. The people in charge of the dying old industries all look down on their entire audience (no, not just those they politically disagree with, even their fellow travelers) and the ones in new industries are using those failed old advertising methods to reach those disillusioned by those industries in the first place.
This is the true reason all these burgeoning alternative industries aren't growing as they should: they have yet to become true alternatives. They will not be able to do that until the old ways and mentalities are finally thrown away, and, unfortunately, we've made little progress in doing that. Until we do, the hard audience cap will not be removed.
All these moving parts we're building have to come together to form a new system: a mechanism to produce art and entertainment better than the failing ones behind us. The old industries broke down because they were always going to end eventually. The only reason anything is even operating still is because of the men who built these systems long ago being much more skilled than those of us left today. However, no one can patch this leaky ship, and everyone knows it. Time is running out to be build true alternatives, and we aren't doing a great job of that.
The question then becomes a game of chicken wondering who is going to make the first real move to build. It won't be those in charge of the old systems: they're too busy being in the looting stage of the decline. They're going to wring every dollar they can on the way out. This is why even humoring their attempts at milking dead IP is a terrible idea, ironic or not. It will not encourage anything positive except to delay what is inevitable. Everything ends eventually, and we can't stop the tide forever.
However, it isn't just about accepting that reality, it is also about building a proper escape shelter when it does, and we have not done that. Until we do, we deserve to be where we are and, unfortunately, it is the audience that will continue to pay for it. We don't want to connect with them and so they don't want to connect with us, and on and on this goes. At some point we have to do Something Else before we lose these forms and hobbies we purportedly love so much.
The divisiveness also won't last forever. Whatever solves that problem, I can't say, but it will have to happen. When it does we need to have something better built than what came before, something meant to last and not run by those who desire nothing more than bottom of the barrel "Content" to fill narrow gaps in their schedule. We're human beings: we both need and desire something more than that.
And soon enough, we're going to fix that problem. We just have to address it in the first place. Only then can the big shift finally happen. Until then, we remain in this neutral state, waiting. What else can we do?
That's all for this week. Have yourself a good end of October and I'll see you on Halloween!
We're halfway through October and close to spooky season. That said, some topics are a bit spooky without even really trying, especially when talking about the entertainment landscape. For anyone who is paying attention, they know how bad things truly are.
For a bit of a change, today we're going to dive back into the pop cult world, but not for criticism or easy shots at it, but more to point out that there isn't really anything left to talk about. Years ago, I mentioned that Pop Culture was dead, a topic that took people by surprise and which I still stand by, and nothing has changed on that front t change my opinion.
In fact, it's considerably worse than it was when I wrote that post eight years ago.
All the crusty corpos can do now is recycle IP, hope for a few minutes in the current fickle meme cycle, and then wait for the audience to inevitably forget everything they had just consumed mere moments earlier. Nothing sticks anymore.
Consider the original versions of Silent Hill 2 and Resident Evil 4 were huge in the gaming scene for years after their initial release, and in Current Year the remakes were forgotten in mere months for the next IP cash grab. It doesn't even matter if the product well made anymore, the audience no longer cares or has any investment. The normal audience has moved on from caring, and those remaining are doing so hoping for a few minutes of potential watercooler talk (or whatever they call it on social media these days) before moving on to whatever they are told is the next thing to care about. We all know this is how it works now, even if we can't express it.
It's dead.
This isn't even a shot at the consumers, this is just how it objectively is now. A consuming content checklist is all anyone aspires to be a part of, not a scene or part of a wider connected cultural landscape. The above video shows us that this is where the pop cult has lead to, much as we said it would years back, and it will not get better. The only solution is finally putting this entire mindset out to pasture. Pop culture is dead, and we need to stop pretending it's not. Perhaps it was always dead to begin with. Regardless, there's nothing there now.
Those old, ancient IPs are now novelties, they have no greater meaning to the wider audience except as cheap references to long dead days, and jangling keys to distract their attention from reality for a few hours. There is no higher meaning, no daring ideas, and nothing vital in any of them except safe messaging for a sick society currently eating itself. These rickety properties are tired and need of eternal rest. Nothing lasts forever, especially not all this corporate IP.
What we're currently looking at is a near-future of isolated pockets of artists, entertainers, and creators, all working together to find shared ground and connection with each other and audiences they might not have expected. This won't be the permanent state of things, it never is, but it is the way it will have to be before said audiences are able to find those they can trust again who will not decay the way the mainstream has. We're going to be here for a while to come.
In the meantime, take one last look at the pop cult wasteland and remember how mighty it once was, before taking what is necessary to moving on to fertile grounds. There is nothing left here, and we need to start admitting it. The dead is to buried.
Whatever awaits ahead is not this, and there is nothing ahead like what we are leaving behind us. And there is nothing wrong with that.
We just need to be able to finally accept the way things are. The old world is dead, the old corpo IPs are done, and none of it is ever coming back. Clinging to it while not saving anything, or making the cultural landscape grow or become any better, is just lying to yourself about where we are and where we're going. We simply aren't there anymore.
And that's all there is to say about it. There isn't anything left but corpses in that old graveyard, and the only purpose of corpses is to bury them, remembering who they once were, and moving on.
We made it to October and the weather finally shifting to something seasonal, so let's really get into something eerie for the spooky season. Once again, we're going to go into today's creative climate, a horror unto itself.
Much has been said and written about how terrible the education system has been for fostering creativity and imagination, but in the end it's still not enough for the simple reason that it's frankly not good enough. We are all hungry for more.
This isn't just about the US, either, but a worldwide phenomenon of machinery designed to turn both the individual and the collective into a machine meant to churn out whatever the top of the chain desires. This mentality has turned all mainstream entertainment into pure swill bailed together by tired 20th century tropes and franchises meant to educate the ignorant masses into worldviews and behaviors that might have felt fresh 100 years ago but are clearly outdated today. We've gone over that before, so there's no sense rehashing it. Artificiality has always been valued over creativity.
As the above video shows, the system itself is not designed to stir the imagination, no matter how many TV shows or movies you see or remember that told you how important "Creativity" was, in the end it was never about that. It was only ever pretty words meant to boost the ego and coax all potential creatives to follow the same path to deliver the same Content. And looking at the modern climate today, it feels like a joke from a '90s animated sitcom. That is because it is.
And that was made in the '90s. Nothing has improved since then, but clearly it was an issue even back then. In Current Year, the film industry now is on its last legs.
So how do we create a system that incentivizes creativity over slop? Humanity over artificialness? Excitement over formula? How do we overhaul the 20th century machinery that has ground to a stop here in the 21st?
Many complain about how the AI explosion fosters an environment of lowest common denominator storytelling to churn out product, but the truth of the matter is the industry has been incentivizing it themselves over decades now. The above video from the '90s highlights the mentality as it already existed back then, and it's much worse today.
The problem has always been the artificialness has been baked into the education artists receive themselves. One cannot explore outside the socially acceptable ideologies of today. One cannot look beyond the genres the mainstream has decided are all that is, even as their stores empty and their sales crater. One cannot experiment because safety is incentivized and mass produced to blot out anything else coming up.
As the below thread shows, the issue with artificiality is not the lowering of the bar, that is already on the floor and has been for decades. The problem has always been that the education system has always desired it end there. Blaming AI for it is missing the forest for the trees. The system was always going to lead here, and it is the root of all this.
The biggest problem with all of this is that there is no easy solution. There is no switch one can flip to making everything better. In order to even begin to fix if requires an honest reflection and reassessment of a lot of bad ideas that have come since the industrial revolution kicked into high gear and became a religion for materialists. We simply aren't there anymore, no one thinks that way or believes it, and yet we float on rehashing it to diminishing returns. Now there are no returns at all.
We know the education system does not produce creative people. It also does not produce writers, filmmakers, musicians, artists, or critics. Yes, people go into these schools and come out in those professions, but next to none are actually made into those things from what they learn. Kids are instead turned into automatons and widgets for the crumbling machine, meant fulfill roles no audience wants and job positions that are quickly fading away. It is detached from reality, and we all know it.
So why are we still operating in this way?
As I said, blaming AI at this juncture is stopping well short of the problem. Even if it went away tomorrow, it wouldn't stop how the audience has been trained to Consume Content and expect beltline product pumped out indefinitely. That isn't going away. All this AI stuff is simply doing exactly what those in charge want. (Which is why they are already using it without saying anything at all, and audiences will eventually accept it. Anything to keep the flood of Product going forever.)
The only way out is reorienting of systems and thought processes. The 20th century is done, as been said countless times, so why are we still clinging to it? What advantage do we have clinging to dying systems and ideas that have proven to be dead ends?
We don't train creatives. Arguments could be made that we never have, but we certainly do not do it today. We have Content Creators, not artists or creatives. All we want is nothing and everything at the same time, and that is why we have no need to educate or train anyone. And that is how you get today's dead culture. Nothing is being made: it's being produced.
We require a re-enchantment of the world, a detachment of cynicism, subversion, and emptiness. The only way to get that is to admit where we are now was a mistake and won't lead anywhere else. We have to move on.
Let's not worry too much about a dead past, but work to build a living future. It's going to happen eventually so there's no sense wasting time. We can start today.
We're finally in the autumn season, the season of change, so let's look back at a past that has long since been left behind.
I apologize for the lack of a post last week. Things merely got out of hand. Hopefully it'll happen less and less as we get out of the warmer season. I can only hope.
Today's subject is particularly niche, so I don't blame you if you find it hard to understand. That said, it is quite an interesting topic to look over, especially with the passage of time.
Anime's explosion in the West was a strange one. First slipping into the fringe underground in the '80s before becoming a part of alternative culture in the '90s, and then finally achieving mainstream recognition in the '00s, it was a bizarre series of events to get it to its current worldwide dominance that would arrive in the decades to come. No one would have imagined its gigantic size way back when passing around old badly subtitled episodes of Dragon Ball Z in class and school clubs. It was a much different world.
Speaking of a much different world, I wanted to highlight exactly one that sprang out of this subculture. During that odd transition between underground alternative culture to mainstream in the '90s and '00s came this odd era of the '00s when young audiences tried their own hand at actually making anime. Yes, we are talking about the strange world of Fanime that you have missed entirely. It was a niche of a niche, so it's very possible you never encountered it.
This short era, in retrospect, is an interesting glimpse into how a niche subculture affects a generation growing up entirely on the internet increasingly separated from the mainstream. At the same time, one can see which tropes, styles, and ideas resonated with younger audiences of the time period. Interestingly enough, most of these projects were made by girls, not guys, giving a very different idea of one might expect from such a thing. Few of them were also ever completed, which, again, in retrospect is not all that surprising for the generation in question.
The kids who grew up in this time related more to this foreign art form than they did anything in their own, and it's obvious why they connected to it more at the same time the artificial Geek Culture was at its cultural high. This stuff was simply more honest. It's also why anime would eventually overtake culture entirely. Everything else at the time was dying.
Looking back on it, where we are today was the obvious endpoint of that time, and those raging against it simply aren't trying to understand how it came about. We can't wish away reality, it simply is what it is. And this is how we got to where we are today.
The above video goes much more in depth showing many of these projects, what happened to them and their creators, and the sorts of things that would come out of it later on. Fanime still exists and still gets made, but the priority of the creators is much different in the scene than it once was. In fact, it wasn't long after the initial growth period that it would change entirely. It is funny however to see this scene contrasted with the fanfiction one from the same era. The Fanime one clearly contained those with more creative drive and potential, yet its the fanfiction one that spilled into the professional writing industry and helped drive it into the current ditch its in.
That aside, the entire subculture is much smaller than it was back in the day, splintering like every subculture has over the last two decades into a niche of a niche, but it's still an interesting subject to look over. It's something that could only have happened at one point in time in one age demographic, and it did. We will never see something similar arise again.
In a sense, Fanime still exists beyond its niche, it has just moved into other spaces. The amount of independent creators who work in other mediums from comics to animation inspired by anime only grows by the day and does not seem to be stopping anytime soon. You can see it everywhere, especially considering how anemic the mainstream western industry became pandering to fangirl shipping and trends from angry urbanites who hate their audiences, the alternative would always be much more appealing.
So take a look for yourself and see just what it was all about, and what this time period was like. Maybe you'll even be a little inspired yourself. Who knows? Things aren't always as simple as we might think they are, and this subject is one such topic.
Inspiration can strike anywhere at anytime, and it ways you might never expect. Let's just hope the next bout lasts a little longer and finally shifts this culture into better directions, and hopefully finally brings us back together again.
