By Glacier Nester
The podcast currently has 126 episodes available.
Now that we're properly underway on our journey to mars, let's get distracted by the moon real quick! Let's be entirely fair, though, if I were handed a ticket to wander around space carte blanche, even in the here and now, if I had the time before my intended destination, I would definitely check out what's going on on the moon before heading anywhere else. I mean, it's right there! It's been a good bit since we've been there! (Notwithstanding the incoming Artemis 2 mission, but that hasn't happened yet, from my perspective! Darn you, inexorable passage of time) That's not the only tangent we go on, either. The heavy focus on existing, real world scientists easily activates my tendency to go "wait, when was this happening? I forget the context, give me a moment..", so if you like the fun facts that come up as we go along, the sort of "real time english class footnotes", there's plenty of that here!
Unfortunately, the particular focus on real world people lends to some... Particularly Aged spots in the book. As such, here's the disclaimer!
TL;DR up front: Paper Cuts is almost all public domain stuff, and some of it hasn't aged well. I'll be doing my best to warn you, but I'm not changing any of it, I don't believe censorship is the path forward here.
Paper Cuts, by necessity, has to be a majority books that are in the US public domain. That means it's almost exclusively going to be content produced in the 1920s, or earlier. These works may have aspects that have not aged well to a modern viewer/listener. Now, I'm never one for censorship, but I do believe we are entitled to being able to filter the leisure content we don't want to see. So, this results in the following policy:
All that said, I'm gonna cover my bases with some common warnings that have come up often in books I've read before:
Generally speaking, if something I'm reading is on the page? Don't expect me to have opinions aligning with it. We're here to have fun, not disparage people!
Want to grab the book to read along with us? check it out here, free of charge!
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19141 (Astounding Stories, August 1930)
Have a book to request? Maybe some chats to chit? Finally interested in that bread I bake? drop by the discord!
https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn
Want to listen live? Come drop by, Fridays night, on twitch!
https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/
This book really occupies a fascinating niche, to me. In the day and age we're in, the role of unauthorized sequel, if only for copyright law reasons, is most often firmly filled by a fanfiction author. You've got to file the serial numbers if you wanna publish that, buddy! However, in the realm of the public domain (and, by extension, the relatively loosey goosey copyright rules of the late 1800s), you've got free roam to write whatever you like.
Didn't like how war of the worlds was set in Britain? Boom, now the martians are invading New York! Didn't think the aliens got their proper walloping after attempting to take over the land of the brave and true? Well, by jove, you're the one who wrote that story about them invading NYC, never you mind that Wells guy, you can just write that tale yourself! Hum? Publisher says you need a recognizable main character for the papers to tell folks about? Howsabout that Thomas Edison guy, he invented the electric light, after all!
What's especially fascinating to me is, beneath all this work building on other's work, we've got the debut of an inarguably iconic science fiction weapon: the disintigrator pistol! Bit of an odd origin for something so widely used (and broadly parodied, besides), if you ask me. I'd always figured the disintigrator was from something like a pulp magazine, or maybe one of those Tom Swift stories. to be fair, I'm not too far off, those are Edisonades as well, but nope, this, the originator of that genre name, is where it comes from! Gotta give Daffy Duck a reason to have his pistol dissolve somehow, I suppose.
This book is also a great example of why we need the disclaimer! It goes like this:
TL;DR up front: Paper Cuts is almost all public domain stuff, and some of it hasn't aged well. I'll be doing my best to warn you, but I'm not changing any of it, I don't believe censorship is the path forward here.
Paper Cuts, by necessity, has to be a majority books that are in the US public domain. That means it's almost exclusively going to be content produced in the 1920s, or earlier. These works may have aspects that have not aged well to a modern viewer/listener. Now, I'm never one for censorship, but I do believe we are entitled to being able to filter the leisure content we don't want to see. So, this results in the following policy:
All that said, I'm gonna cover my bases with some common warnings that have come up often in books I've read before:
Generally speaking, if something I'm reading is on the page? Don't expect me to have opinions aligning with it. We're here to have fun, not disparage people!
Want to grab the book to read along with us? check it out here, free of charge!
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19141 (Astounding Stories, August 1930)
Have a book to request? Maybe some chats to chit? Finally interested in that bread I bake? drop by the discord!
https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn
Want to listen live? Come drop by, Fridays night, on twitch!
https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/
Well then! Dana learned quite a powerful lesson from this book, I'd say. I suggest you take some of what we've heard to heart, too, yknow? The planet will thank you, even if some of that thanking will have to be done indirectly. I really loved reading this book on stream, and re-hearing the story as I was editing the episodes down for the podcast was quite the delight. It's got me motivated in a major way to keep trying my best to bring some small mote of what's on display here into my own life. I actually have a little garden going out in the backyard (in a series of little pots, with varying success), I've been having an absolute blast embroidering cute little this'n'thats on my clothes to keep them in good repair, I've even been searching for ways to repair the tech I've got around (or, when it needs replacing, getting fixable options!). The solarpunk movement is one made up of what feels like a thousand little decisions, which, I feel, makes it easier to get started. Don't sit there and fuss about what's most optimal, that'll get you all locked up! Start with the choices that seem simple, and remember, it's not a 4-H project, you can enjoy the journey more than the end result!
As for this little chunk of astounding, well... it's good, but it's much better when we read more of it later, y'know?
Want to read the book? Go check it out here: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/wheelers/36444581/#edition=64297035&idiq=56656333
Want the book in a nutshell first? Check out Miles Past Xanadu: https://matt-stephens.blogspot.com/2020/07/miles-past-xanadu-complete-for-later.html
Have things to say, books to suggest, or just want to join another discord? Come check out mine!
https://discord.gg/PBZNsjn/
Last but not least, you want to catch stories live, well before they hit the podcast feed? Check us out, friday evenings, over on twitch!
https://www.twitch.tv/Glacier_Nester/
To be honest with you, this final act that's going on in this week's episode and the next really nails home how crushing it can feel to know there could be solutions to the sort of problems we've been experiencing of late. Well, that, and the commentary being made about the ins and outs of copyright and the importance of using that carefully! (Unstartlingly, the author is quite an advocate for Open Source, but it's also got a lot to say about corporations using the DMCA as a bludgeon)
I'm really trying to not have this description come out as dire, but the happy ending is coming in next week's episode! The return to the city is not exactly a joyous omen. I promise, it's a vital part of the story, and really makes the finale coming up super good!
Want to read the book? Go check it out here: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/wheelers/36444581/#edition=64297035&idiq=56656333
Want the book in a nutshell first? Check out Miles Past Xanadu: https://matt-stephens.blogspot.com/2020/07/miles-past-xanadu-complete-for-later.html
Have things to say, books to suggest, or just want to join another discord? Come check out mine!
https://discord.gg/PBZNsjn/
Last but not least, you want to catch stories live, well before they hit the podcast feed? Check us out, friday evenings, over on twitch!
https://www.twitch.tv/Glacier_Nester/
We inch ever closer to the answer of WHY the city does things like this in this episode, and man, does Stephens really nail the sheer confusion of someone introduced to these concepts from step one just right with the way Dana does things. There's a pervading sense of "Well if there's a better way, why aren't we bothering?" throughout this section of the book, sometimes to the point of almost feeling like we're the ones being talked to. (Which, don't get me started on how that's such a thin line to tread, between preaching to the reader, staring down the camera, in comparison to getting your point across in the tone of the story and its dialogue) (That's a major known weak point of my writing, actually) (Well that, and all these asides)
Speaking of asides, I've got things to promote!
Want to read the book? Go check it out here: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/wheelers/36444581/#edition=64297035&idiq=56656333
Want the book in a nutshell first? Check out Miles Past Xanadu: https://matt-stephens.blogspot.com/2020/07/miles-past-xanadu-complete-for-later.html
Have things to say, books to suggest, or just want to join another discord? Come check out mine!
https://discord.gg/PBZNsjn/
Last but not least, you want to catch stories live, well before they hit the podcast feed? Check us out, friday evenings, over on twitch!
https://www.twitch.tv/Glacier_Nester/
We're finally getting some resolution on what was set up out front, and hoo boy, it's getting TENSE in a MAJOR WAY this time, folks! I mean, you knew it was gonna be difficult the second she decided to keep the Particular Item from the Fringers, but wow, we really have that drop at perhaps the worst possible time, not to mention just how difficult things are getting with the general conflict between the two major players here, y'know? Honestly, I could really wax on for a long time about the beautiful use of the climate as an antagonistic force in stories like this, too! It really reminds you that the world is a character, alongside the ways the humans have shaped the world. Sure, any good solarpunk story uses the infrastructure as a character, you've got to drive home that we can use technology for the betterment of the world somehow, but when the climate rears its head, like a cow prodded into the defense of the calf, that's a valuable opportunity for the story to REALLY get cooking! (I am once again tempted to get some writing done myself, there's just something about this genre that's inspiring to me beyond what it's normally aiming for, the inspiration of small action to better the world, from the reader)
Want to read the book? Go check it out here: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/wheelers/36444581/#edition=64297035&idiq=56656333
Want the book in a nutshell first? Check out Miles Past Xanadu: https://matt-stephens.blogspot.com/2020/07/miles-past-xanadu-complete-for-later.html
Have things to say, books to suggest, or just want to join another discord? Come check out mine!
https://discord.gg/PBZNsjn/
Last but not least, you want to catch stories live, well before they hit the podcast feed? Check us out, friday evenings, over on twitch!
https://www.twitch.tv/Glacier_Nester/
It's really interesting, especially from my perspective, the real glory given to what amounts to subsistence farming in solarpunk tales like this. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm a known enjoyer of that sort of thing, I have a garden in my backyard for a reason (and it's not just that I have a mighty need for the best feasible tomato for my various tomato needs)! But in my humble opinion, the angle that's going to really return a much more fruitful crop in regards to inspiration is the process of mending things that you've already got on hand. Plants are infamously fickle, and there's a reason a pretty broad spectrum of people's ancestors did absolutely everything possible to claw their way out of that lifestyle (it asks a TON of you, in the line of how much work you've got to get done). However, I've had great success for FAR less time in mending my own clothes, for example. Or, depending on your luck finding good instructions, you can get pretty far fixing up old technology that should be working, but isn't, for some reason! For example, I managed to resurrect a kindle that had a completely depleted battery, with nothing but a simple screwdriver, a battery I snagged on the page that explained how to do it, and maybe 30, 40 minutes? This book kinda leans in that direction, talking about the (genuinely very clever) idea of urban mining, but beyond a passing mention of doing some hand sewing on that kite material, and some (well-deserved!) lauding of the use of color to aid in creativity of the fashion, but lean in! Make visible mending a vital part of the fashion movements! Tell me all about how the screws and easily-acessible batteries make the tech repairable by anyone! It's solarpunk, we're supposed to make the infrastructure a main character after all.
(Yes, I should just write my own solarpunk stories that focus on these things)
(Yes, I may or may not have written some already)
(No, I haven't posted them anywhere... yet!)
Want to read the book? Go check it out here: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/wheelers/36444581/#edition=64297035&idiq=56656333
Want the book in a nutshell first? Check out Miles Past Xanadu: https://matt-stephens.blogspot.com/2020/07/miles-past-xanadu-complete-for-later.html
Have things to say, books to suggest, or just want to join another discord? Come check out mine!
https://discord.gg/PBZNsjn/
Last but not least, you want to catch stories live, well before they hit the podcast feed? Check us out, friday evenings, over on twitch!
https://www.twitch.tv/Glacier_Nester/
The kite generator mentioned here is actually some really neat tech! I kinda accidentally hit on how they work when we're talking over the potential approaches to a turbine in the kite generation system, essentially, these things take pre-established data on how the windspeed changes based on altitude, and then autonomously pilots it in a neat-looking figure eight pattern, in order to pull a tether out to spin a turbine where the windspeed is high, then move it back down to where the windspeed is low, pulling the kite back in. Interestingly, the article that I found the explanation of the mechanics in noted that the initial pitch for that company's idea was a sort of kite based sail for container ships, but that wasn't exactly an easy sell, (despite being a great idea to lean into in a solarpunk setting, I mean, the less fuel you have to burn to make those big barges go, the better, yknow?) so they pivoted to the kite generator. Anyway, if it's not obvious, there's a lot that you can really sink your teeth into in regards to learning neat stuff that's mentioned in passing in the story, even outside the things that get footnotes. Most of the technology and techniques are either actively being used, or only a few simple steps away from being actively used! Of particular note in my realm of expertise thus far in the story, the use of fractalline encryption, and mesh-based networking, are real processes that can be used. The mesh network in particular would be super handy for communicating through many smaller micronetworks, rather than the way the standard internet browsing experience focuses on a server that needs to be centrally managed. I actually wasn't very surprised to see the callout of that technique, it's a great way to handle a decentralized internet system that works in a similar fashion to those microgrids we're seeing. Anyway, book good! More next week!
Want to read the book? Go check it out here: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/wheelers/36444581/#edition=64297035&idiq=56656333
Want the book in a nutshell first? Check out Miles Past Xanadu: https://matt-stephens.blogspot.com/2020/07/miles-past-xanadu-complete-for-later.html
Have things to say, books to suggest, or just want to join another discord? Come check out mine!
https://discord.gg/PBZNsjn/
Last but not least, you want to catch stories live, well before they hit the podcast feed? Check us out, friday evenings, over on twitch!
https://www.twitch.tv/Glacier_Nester/
Phew! We made it out of the city! Luckily, now that we've got that place well behind us, we're able to see the true thrust of the world that made me fall in love with the genre as a whole, and Arcadia in specific. The technology on display being so, so close to what we've got these days is remarkably motivating, at least, in my humble opinion. I do go on in the show itself about it, most especially appealing to me being the building of aeroponic gardens in the spare storage space of the Rigs. If I ever do wind up back in the rv, you know I'm FULLY invested in building that out. I mean, I could manage to cram my stuff into the other cabinets to have the space! Sure, I don't exactly have the CRISPR knowhow to build new varieties of plants well-suited to the tightly enclosed environment, but there's plenty of things that would work just fine in that small of a space, you know? I actually wouldn't hate to try to build a sort of trellised system, where the runners from various "main" plants extend upward and diagonally to let the plants have that space to stretch their feet out, you know? Maybe this is worth trying out in the backyard... I better go get planning!
Want to read the book? Go check it out here: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/wheelers/36444581/#edition=64297035&idiq=56656333
Want the book in a nutshell first? Check out Miles Past Xanadu: https://matt-stephens.blogspot.com/2020/07/miles-past-xanadu-complete-for-later.html
Have things to say, books to suggest, or just want to join another discord? Come check out mine!
https://discord.gg/PBZNsjn/
Last but not least, you want to catch stories live, well before they hit the podcast feed? Check us out, friday evenings, over on twitch!
https://www.twitch.tv/Glacier_Nester/
The return of author permission happens pretty quickly, turns out! Welcome to Arcadia, a world in which the years and years of using copyright law as a bludgeon to stop people from doing the easy solutions to save the planet has been taken to its logical extreme. Well, that's the perspective of our protagonist, Dana, intially anyway. However, when she can't afford the utility rates on her inherited house any longer, she's taken to an infringement center and summarily jailed. Surprise surprise, though, her brother's some kind of wild-man revolutionary, who lives outside the city. The cops (better known as Fringers, since they handle the result of Infringements) want to learn more about how her brother's surviving in the wastes outside the city, so they hand her a radio, and let a representative of the people outside come get her, in hopes that Dana will snitch. What Dana finds, however, immediately makes her hesitate, and reconsider the shape of the world around her!
That's right, this is the solarpunk novel I was rattling on about being excited to read earlier in the season! Don't worry, if you don't know what solarpunk is, I explain it relatively thoroughly, and this book is a superb example of what the genre can do, when written solidly. If you like this first episode, I'd also heartily suggest looking at Miles Past Xanadu, the short story that this novel was expanded out from. That one even has citations in the relevant footnotes, believe it or not! I really love this fledgeling genre, there's a lot to enjoy in it, and like I say in the episode, it's young enough to still have some teeth, y'know? Doesn't just use the punk as a suffix to denote a vibe, it means punk, and has some words for those in power who've been obliterating our climate. Many thanks to Matt Stephens, who was kind enough to let us read the book, I really love the tale, and here's hoping you do, too!
Want to read the book? Go check it out here: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/wheelers/36444581/#edition=64297035&idiq=56656333
Want the book in a nutshell first? Check out Miles Past Xanadu: https://matt-stephens.blogspot.com/2020/07/miles-past-xanadu-complete-for-later.html
Have things to say, books to suggest, or just want to join another discord? Come check out mine!
https://discord.gg/PBZNsjn/
Last but not least, you want to catch stories live, well before they hit the podcast feed? Check us out, friday evenings, over on twitch!
https://www.twitch.tv/Glacier_Nester/
The podcast currently has 126 episodes available.