About the librarian…

I went to the library this week.

Yea, this isn’t a very sideways way to start a post. In fact, if this post was about a trip to the library, I’d skip reading it, and I’m the one who wrote it. Then again, I could say the librarian was very cute, and asked me out on a hot date. It’s not what happened, but I could say it. You have to admit, smokey times with a pretty librarian, would certainly spice up my postings. I might even get me some additional followers. Not the kind of followers I want, but followers nonetheless.

For these reasons and several others, this post is not about a trip to the library. It’s a study on newly published books. I found these books at the library. Hence the start of the post. Gee, I’ve gone full circle and still haven’t said anything. Therefore, in an attempt to keep folks from shutting this post off, I will state categorically, the librarian was very cute. There, that ought to hold you all for a while. At least until I get to the next sentence.

I was perusing the new library books this week, and I noticed something disturbing. There, that’s a better start for the post. It wasn’t the fact some kid barfed on my shoes. Although that was quite disturbing. It was because every book I was interested in, was a sequel of one sort or another. I asked the previously mentioned cute librarian if she knew of a new genre book which wasn’t in a larger series of books. She couldn’t name a single one.

She looks for a trite detective

All the mystery novels were labeled as “Another Trite Detective Mystery. And while I like Trite Detective, I don’t need to read three-hundred-thirty-seven novels with the same few characters: Trite, Inspector So & So of the local police, and Benny Bookie, the loyal sidekick who works both sides of the law. I’ve had enough of these stories.

The Sci-Fi and Fantasy novels were the same. All were number something or other in a well-known series. The thing is, by book eight we pretty much know everything about the Magic Kingdom of Someplace, or the Whatever Space Station. There’s no need to cover all that same stuff in thirty-six more novels. Write something new people!!

You can say that again, and again, and again

Of course, the trouble isn’t with the writers. They’re just doing what the publishers want, so they can keep making money. I’m all for making money writing. In fact, I’ve written three novels, in the hope of making money. Sadly, this is not to be. Publishers, even online ones seem to refuse to publish anything that’s not tried and true. Hence, they only publish the next one in an established series.

Some authors aren’t even writing these novels anymore. Usually this is because they died. I’ve learned that dead writers really lose quality, and seriously lower their output after death. But somehow the series and characters they’ve created continue for years. When this whole death thing happens, the publishers just print the original author in bold type across the cover, and the new writer in a lessor font. All well and fine for the new guy, but the stories are still Trite Detective, or Nero Wolfe as the case may be. This is no lie. Last year I saw a new Phillip Marlowe novel, and Raymond Chandler’s been dead for sixty-five years.

It ain’t me, I ain’t no publisher’s son

I personally have sent my novels to over twenty-five publishers and agents and I’ve yet to receive an acknowledgement they got them, let alone a rejection letter. Now this could be because I’m really bad, but I don’t think so. Frankly I’m a legend in my own mind. Therefore, in the spirit of social media users everywhere, I’ll blame everyone else. It certainly couldn’t possibly be my fault.

It’s not only books that keep series running long after their time. Look at how many Star Wars, Star Trek, and comic book hero movies there are. Spiderman alone has four origin movies. Seriously, how many ways can you say the kid was bitten by a radioactive spider? In point of fact, it’s only one. The thing is they say it that way over and over with different casting. Then again, as long as Spiderman sells, they’ll keep doing it. I guess commercialism just took a great big dump on creativity.

I don’t want to see that again

This isn’t even the worst of it. Disney studios have been remaking their animated classics with some live-action characters for years. A while back the did The Lion King. There’s no people in that. They made an animated remake of an animated movie. Sounds a bit ambiguous, if you ask me.

Of course, in an effort to avoid pushing the envelope as much as possible, they’ve now remade Lilo and Stitch. Yes, the people are likely to be real actual actors, but this is not guaranteed. The animated characters however, will undoubtedly be animated, just like they were in the animated feature.

Lilo is less than twenty-five years old, and they’re remaking it. In contrast, Snow White was released ten times in its original format in its first fifty-seven years of existence. Sure, the rereleases where an effort to make more money. But they didn’t spend fifty-million dollars to copy it every time. I guess stupidity didn’t come into its own before the twenty-first century.

Not to be outdone, DreamWorks has made a word-for-word remake of How to Train Your Dragon. The computer animated dragons will have to be re-computer animated. In other words, those folks are doing all the same work all over again. Talk about job security. “Hey Bob, remember that dragon you animated a few years back. Well, the front office wants you to do it again. No, they aren’t complaining about your previous work. In fact, it was so good they want you to do the exact same thing all over again.” I’ve heard the saying; Don’t create, Imitate. But this isn’t imitation, it’s making a copy. They’re plagiarizing their own work. I got banned from Facebook for doing that, and they’re likely to make several million dollars. What’s wrong with this picture?

Repitition for fun and profit

Look, I’m all for making a profit. What I don’t understand is why we have to copy every successful thing to do it. However, if that’s what it takes, I’m ready to jump on the bandwagon. You see, I’ve written over four-hundred posts, on many, many different topics. Then I’ve wondered, why my popularity isn’t growing. Well, now I know. Creativity is to be frowned upon. Look how uncreative AI is, and everyone seems to love that. The world wants repetition.

I’ve decided to give the world what it wants. In fact, I’m going to jump ahead of the pack. Instead of being like Disney and remaking the same sixty movies over and over, I’m going to create one single amazing post. Then I’ll release it over and over again. I won’t even rewrite or edit it. The sameness will be astounding.

I’m working on that post right now. Rest assured I’ll keep trying until I find it. Wait a second. Isn’t that called creativity.

Drat, I Blew It!!