New Stuff

Right now we're working on getting a Korean-language version of the Dabang Band website online. It's pending final check and tidbits of translation work by our bassist, Sung Hwan. In the meantime, I have kept myself busy with the following:

New Essays (On Writing Techniques, Science Fiction, and On Politics) @ gordsellar.com
Yes, that's right, yet another two essays have been posted to my website. The first is entitled Cathedral: The Death of Aspiration In the Modern West and it's about, well, the death of aspiration in the modern west, and more importantly the history of the process involved in our new ostensible pragmatism. It touches on the Medieval community project of the Cathedral, on aspiration, and on the question of the use of manned space programs.

The second essay to have been added is called Technique and Politics in Hard SF and it's based on a presentation I gave to a class on how SF uses a lot of the same writing techniques as mainstream literary fiction, but just uses them to different ends. I try to get into the political implications of this, and also get a little into the terrain covered by early Alvin Toffler.

I've also added a song to the songs subsection of the text page... it's my newest song, Deep End, which Dabang Band is currently working on; a funny-rhythmed tune about being a white foreigner learning to swim at a Korean YMCA, with a goofy unrequited love story fabricated and added in just to make it even funnier.

Korean Blog Online
I'm not officially launching this yet; that is, I am not emailing out a notice to all of my Korean friends about it, not until there is more content up and a native comment function anyway (so that I can learn from any corrections people are kind enough to offer me, meaning it probably won't happen for a while till I can get my blog hosted on my own site...), but it's amusing enough to mention here. I have created a blog online set to Korean language, and on it I will endeavour to write only in Korean. Unless you have Korean support installed on your computer, the text will simply show up as garbled characters, but in any case, if you are curious or happen to have it installed, you can see Gord's Korean Blog here. I am quite excited about this, though in some senses it is one more project to fill up my days. Argh! Ah well, it makes me happy.