The Sun-Times has just offered the best argument against using generative AI in journalism, publishing a recommended summer reading list filled with books that aren't actually real.
  • cygnus@lemmy.ca
    0·
    1 month ago

    Robinson Crusoe wasn’t a Mary Sue, and that’s the archetype of the genre. Andy is just not a very good writer. In his defence, though, at least he isn’t Ernest Cline.

    • Soleos@lemmy.world
      0·
      1 month ago

      Andy Weir found his genre niche and stuck to it. And within that genre niche, I find he’s a competent writer, both technically and I’d say artistically, with strengths and weaknesses. The combination has made his works genuinely enjoyable for me. Ernest Cline, while admittedly not for me, doesn’t seem to be in the same league.

      • cygnus@lemmy.ca
        0·
        1 month ago

        In addition to Ready Player One (and its sequel), he also wrote this poem. I don’t have the adjectives to describe it, so see for yourself:

        Nerd Porn Auteur

        I’ve noticed that there don’t seem to be any porno movies

        that are made for guys like me.

        All the porn I’ve come across

        was targeted at beer-swilling sports bar dwelling alpha-males

        Men who like their women stupid and submissive

        Men who can only get it up for monosyllabic cock-hungry nymphos

        with gargantuan breasts and a three-word vocabulary

        Adult films are populated with these collagen-injected

        liposuctioned women

        Many of whom have resorted to surgery and self-mutilation

        in an attempt to look the way they have been told to look.

        These aren’t real women. They’re objects.

        And these movies aren’t erotic. They’re pathetic.

        These vacuum-headed fuck bunnies don’t turn me on.

        They disgust me.

        And it’s not that I’m against pornography.

        I mean, I’m a guy. And guys need porn.

        Fact.

        “Like a preacher needs pain, like a needle needs a vein,”

        Guys need porn.

        But I don’t wanna watch this misogynist he-man woman-hater porn.

        I want porno movies that are made with guys like me in mind:

        Guys who know that the sexiest thing in the world

        is a woman who is smarter than you are.

        You can have the whole cheerleading squad,

        I want the girl in the tweed skirt and the horn-rimmed glasses:

        Betty Finnebowski, the valedictorian.

        Oh yes.

        First I want to copy her Trig homework,

        and then I want to make mad, passionate love to her

        for hours and hours

        until she reluctantly asks if we can stop

        because she doesn’t want to miss Battlestar Galactica.

        Summa cum laude, baby!

        That is what I call erotic.

        But do you ever see that kind of a woman in a contemporary adult film?

        No.

        Which is why I’m going to start writing and directing Geek Porno.

        I shall be the quintessential Nerd Porn Auteur.

        And the women in my porno movies will be the kind

        that drive nerds like me mad with desire.

        I’m talking about the girls that used to fuck up the grading curve.

        The girls in the Latin Club and the National Honor Society.

        Chicks with weird clothes, braces, four eyes, and 4.0 GPAs.

        Brainy articulate bookworms, with MENSA cards in their purses

        and chips on their shoulders.

        My porn starlets will come in all shapes and sizes.

        My porn starlets will be too busy working on their PhD to go to the gym.

        In my kind of porno movies the girls wouldn’t even have to get naked.

        They’d just take the guys down to the rec room and

        beat them repeatedly at chess

        and then talk to them for hours about Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle

        or the underlying social metaphors in the Aliens movies.

        Buy stock in some hand cream companies

        because there is about to be a major shortage.

        And I’m not just talking about straight porn. Oh no.

        There should be fuck films for my nerd brethren

        of all sexual orientations.

        Gay nerd porn flicks with titles like “Dungeons and Drag-queens.”

        This idea is a fucking gold mine.

        I am gonna make millions,

        because this country is full of database programmers

        and electronics engineers

        and they aren’t getting the loving they so desperately need.

        And you can help . . .

        If you’re an intelligent woman is interested in breaking into the adult film industry,

        and if you can tell me the name of Luke Skywalker’s home planet,

        then you are hired.

        It doesn’t matter if you think you’re overweight or unattractive.

        It doesn’t matter if you don’t think you’re beautiful.

        You are beautiful. . .

        And I will make you a star.