“That’s What I Know, That’s What I Am”

Ethan Gach

I write about comics, video games and American politics. I fear death above all things. Just below that is waking up in the morning to go to work. You can follow me on Twitter at @ethangach or at my blog, gamingvulture.tumblr.com. And though my opinions aren’t for hire, my virtue is.

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36 Responses

  1. North says:

    Welcome and congrats!Report

  2. Jaybird says:

    Excellent! Welcome aboard!Report

  3. Shawn Gude says:

    Really happy to have you on board, Ethan. (Side note: I think I’m the only Leaguer who doesn’t love sci-fi.)Report

  4. Patrick Cahalan says:

    Greetings and salutations, by the way!

    Will you be subblogging?Report

  5. Plinko says:

    Welcome, I look forward to seeing your posts, I always liked your comments!Report

  6. James K says:

    Welcome to the League.Report

  7. greginak says:

    Great…welcome.Report

  8. Burt Likko says:

    In a real sense, Farenheit 451 is a precursor to Brave New World. Remember Beatty’s speech to Montag about why the firemen exist: books made people sad, so they had to go. In both cases, society chooses ignorance, distraction, and pleasures over the ambiguities of humanism.Report

  9. boegiboe says:

    Welcome, welcome!

    If any fiction could embody the future I wanted to live in and the principles it would be based on, Star Trek was and remains its closest approximation.

    If you haven’t read Iain M. Banks’ Culture series, you really need to. I was a big ST:TNG fan for much the same reasons as yourself, and I bet the Culture will give Star Trek a run for its money in your opinion of the best future to live in. The first book in the series is Consider Phlebas, but the series is mostly disjoint, so you don’t absolutely have to read them in order.Report

  10. MFarmer says:

    Good deal!

    ” In the end, what I fear most isn’t forced assimilation into inorganic collectives, but humanity voluntarily racing en masse to see how fast we can “Amuse Ourselves to Death“, and become enlistees in the ongoing iBorg revolution.”

    Can you explain this a little better? Are you saying you don’t fear forced assimilation because you don’t think it will happen, but rather the latter will happen, or because you’d prefer the forced assimilation to the voluntary race to “Amuse Ourselves to Death”?Report

    • Ethan Gach in reply to MFarmer says:

      On both counts really. I think forced assimilation is less likely, AND much easier to spot/be vigilant against.

      That’s not to say that it’s easily fought in all circumstances to fight totalitarianism. In addition, the revolution won’t be televised as they say, either for better or for worse, so the more people have been lured into Soma-like existences, the more easily they (we) succumb to totalitarianism (in any form and to any degree).Report

      • Rufus F. in reply to Ethan Gach says:

        I actually just read that book. Have you read it? How much of what he’s saying about TV do you think applies to the Internet? It occurred to me today that the net is closer to television broadcasting than publishing. Everyone’s doing their own little episodic show now.Report

        • Ethan Gach in reply to Rufus F. says:

          I read it several years ago and just picked it up again recently after I realized how much TV (or TV-like media) I’ve been consuming.

          I think in some ways it applies and others not as much. Certainly, a lot of the web, and the blogosphere in particular seems awash in typography to me, but could just be the little segment of the web that I happen to engage with.

          On the whole, I think a lot of the web functions much more like “channels,” than discrete books or newspapers/magazines. For the very reason of how easy it is to “surf” the web, I think it lends itself to a lot of the same critiques.

          At the very least, the whole thing is fragmentation, or “Now…this” on steroids. One thing I wish the blogosphere was better at was was spending longer periods of time, say a month, on really delving into a particular topic. As much as I love the Dish, I think it’s a perfect example of blogo-tainment created in the image of television.

          As it is, web discourse is still strongly driven by the cable news cycle, or at least what the cable news cycle and TV-ified print publications reinforce and define together as important.Report

  11. David Ryan says:

    “and seek ways to help slow down and balance international capital flows.”

    I always on the lookout for the deployment water/liquid metaphors. Have you ever made note of the use of baffles in the tankage on boats and aircraft?Report

  12. Ethan Gach says:

    By the way, no takers on the Game of Thrones (television series) reference?Report

  13. Damn. I really enjoyed that post. Welcome.Report