The first song (to be track 2 on the EP) is tracked but for the main vocal part. I have an adequate vocal in there, but I think I can do better. The second song (track 3) is tracked but for a vocal. And a third song (track 4) is in progress. I have to re-record two guitar parts cos they sound rubbish. Despite not a massive level of productivity and going drinking at lunchtime on Monday* the EP is well on its way after less than a week of recording.
I've been reading some earlyish Phillip K Dick short stories - you know the type, the ones printed in 50s magazines called "Interzone" and "Starshine" and that, rooted firmly in the atomic age. But it's amazing how politicized it is. You have a parody of Scientology (The Turning Wheel), a critique of pure reason, Buddhism and violence (!) (Null-O), the insidiousness of [anti-communist] paranoia and xenophobia (Shell Game and The Crawlers), all in the course of one collection. I can't imagine he was the only one (Ray Bradbury certainly did the same). This really suprised me, because I've always thought of science fiction writing as quite socialogically concerned, but never really about how that extends from generalisations to specific political point-making. This all seems rather obvious in the light of H G Wells' The Time Machine, and drifting increasingly close to mainstream political novels, we get Yevgeny Zamyatin's We, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and George Orwell's 1984. But most people would argue that these aren't science fiction, rather pointlessly, in my opinion.
What I do find interesting is the way that science fiction has been marginalized for the best part of fifty years, and how that ties into its politicization. The nay-sayer will say that majority of science fiction is crap; however, "99 percent of science fiction is rubbish, but then 99 percent of everything is rubbish". (Theodore Sturgeon - Science Fiction author). It's also dichotomic how a perfectly escapist medium can be heavily politicized; it seems almost equivalent to the traditional understanding of the terms "myths" and "fables"; allegorical tales with fantastic events illustrating a moral truth of the society.
People have written PhDs on this shit, and here I am, rattling on.
*following my shopping trip for percussion. I got wood claves, a guiro, a set of drumsticks and a shakey egg. Some of these have made an appearance on the EP, some will not.
I've been reading some earlyish Phillip K Dick short stories - you know the type, the ones printed in 50s magazines called "Interzone" and "Starshine" and that, rooted firmly in the atomic age. But it's amazing how politicized it is. You have a parody of Scientology (The Turning Wheel), a critique of pure reason, Buddhism and violence (!) (Null-O), the insidiousness of [anti-communist] paranoia and xenophobia (Shell Game and The Crawlers), all in the course of one collection. I can't imagine he was the only one (Ray Bradbury certainly did the same). This really suprised me, because I've always thought of science fiction writing as quite socialogically concerned, but never really about how that extends from generalisations to specific political point-making. This all seems rather obvious in the light of H G Wells' The Time Machine, and drifting increasingly close to mainstream political novels, we get Yevgeny Zamyatin's We, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and George Orwell's 1984. But most people would argue that these aren't science fiction, rather pointlessly, in my opinion.
What I do find interesting is the way that science fiction has been marginalized for the best part of fifty years, and how that ties into its politicization. The nay-sayer will say that majority of science fiction is crap; however, "99 percent of science fiction is rubbish, but then 99 percent of everything is rubbish". (Theodore Sturgeon - Science Fiction author). It's also dichotomic how a perfectly escapist medium can be heavily politicized; it seems almost equivalent to the traditional understanding of the terms "myths" and "fables"; allegorical tales with fantastic events illustrating a moral truth of the society.
People have written PhDs on this shit, and here I am, rattling on.
*following my shopping trip for percussion. I got wood claves, a guiro, a set of drumsticks and a shakey egg. Some of these have made an appearance on the EP, some will not.
posted by Freshvictims at 7:56 AM
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