Previously on Duck of Dystopia
Peeing drones in Honduras, Modi’s planning your next task,
Bernie’s quit, Biden’s through, tiger in the Bronx zoo
Varadkar’s a doc returned, Easter bunnies love Ardern
Krakatoa, goons in Goa, Mort Drucker's gone too
Hydroxychloroquine, spike in sales of love machines,
Magic fennel, nozzle tunnel, how to de-bigot a nation?
Isolation yogabods, Luckin coffee megafraud,
Balcony Balkanisation, PR prestigiditation!
This is fine
End-of-the-world preparation business is booming. Meanwhile, scientists have found a parallel universe that is moving backwards in time. So basically all the alt realities exist, starting with the Upside Down, and, spoiler alert, we’re in one of them. It is painfully evident that we’re on the wrong branch of reality, but let’s wait for the official announcement before going on any sort of murder/public coughing spree. I have meanwhile found a list I want to be on: TV and films that predicted the future. The problem is that Chosen Spirits has to be released and then made into a show before absolutely everything in it is spoilered by reality: a very challenging prospect, especially as most of the really ghastly predictions for the next decade have already happened. And the Other Project which could have made it on hasn’t gone into production yet. I ramble.
Others are occupied more usefully. College students are rebuilding their campuses on Minecraft. Ahead of schedule, dammit. Conan and Sansa are getting drunk at home. Other elites are forming exclusive faraway isolation communities. Expect murder mysteries in all these settings soon. Australians are dressing up for bin night. Great photographers are snapping inside their houses.
Meanwhile, that extremely smart Ted Chiang knows the truth behind the disaster novel we all live in, which reminds me, I have to go look up what progress they’ve made on Africa’s 8-country massive alien-hunting antenna-network because I need a ride out of here.
I cannot in all honesty ask you to buy more books today because I am still well behind on the TBRs I’ve been tossing at you over the last month. I do hope, though, that you’ve been watching John Krasinki’s good news: the second episode, featuring a lovely Zoom surprise is here
But do try out the first and third episodes as well. Cheryl Strayed is podcasting with George Saunders if that’s more your thing. Also here is Gary Shteyngart on post-corona life.
In other good news, Damon Lindelof, whose work I was swooning over the last issue, is doing a serial story at NextDraft, and also has a character called Kirin.
Lena Dunham is doing an interactive serial story for Vogue. It’s called Verified Strangers, which I like. Speaking of Vogue, I have to check whether the short story I once wrote for them, featuring Katrina Kaif repeatedly saving the world from a hellmouth in the comics-library basement of Leaping Windows, Versova, while her clones acted in movies, is still around. Will post it later if I can’t find the link.
What I do have the link to, though, is a short story by the magnificent Aliette de Bodard that you can read for free. The good people at Seagull Books are also giving books away.
Done? Now imagine these 37 top TV writers’ coronavirus episodes
Still have spare time? What were you doing before? Watch these animated series recommended by Tor. And try this which-fictional-character-are-you test, which is better than most, I say with great authority because I liked the answers I got.
My own fortnight was rendered amazing by this:
Please check out Alan LoB@akkcomics’ work: he does a gay psychedelic sci-fi comic called Full Spectrum Therapy and here’s his Etsy store.
Seriously, so good. It’s almost been two decades now but getting Simoqin art is still one of the happiest experiences I can have.
Disney + is in India! And in a grand alliance with Hotstar, which already has the biggest library and all the sports and awards. So expect things to get even more family-values, though I wonder if Star’s internal censorship standards are already a lot more stringent than Disney’s. I suspect they are.
Disney+ is also where the Artemis Fowl adaptation will be released, instead of in theatres. And it is now possible for Indian audiences to legally watch Pixar’s Onward, which was delightful and family-emotional and fantasy-questy and contemporary and classic in all the best ways, and definitely watch The Mandalorian, which is not only the best Star Wars thing but is also possibly the best show I’ve seen in quite a long time.
I have spoken.
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve taken on some students who have graciously volunteered to test-run a creative writing curriculum I’ve been building for a while, which spans prose, screenwriting and comics writing. Some of them are supremely good, and I look forward to bragging when their work is published/produced and pretending I had anything to do with.
I definitely intend to run the course again as soon as time permits, once I’ve removed as many of the many flaws in it as I can and figured out schedules and pricing. I do want to keep it one-on-one and practice-based because there are already so many teach-writing books and videos out there and while many of them are very good, I do think a learn-by-doing approach that’s as specific as possible helps most.
Meanwhile here is a duck I enjoyed really enjoying itself
Back in a bit
To support this newsletter, do buy one of my books, in India, the US or the UK. To start you off, may I recommend The Simoqin Prophecies, or Turbulence.
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Okay that’s all, time to dance.