Cory Doctorow must be stopped!

[Howard Alan Treesong]

His stupid goddamned story "When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth" won the Locus award for Best Novella. This is his third Locus award in three years. His short fiction has also been winning about half the Hugos of the past five years.

His stuff is mostly harmless, but his stories are amateurishly written and oh-so Slashdot in-jokey. Basically forum post parody fic that's been printed on nice paper stock. For his works to be canonized at the expense of emotionally moving stories with original ideas and stunning prose is completely disheartening. Future generations are going to look back at the early 21st century and be all, "what is this? I don't get this. This is stupid."

HE MUST BE STOPPED. STOP VOTING FOR HIM.

[Ichirou]

I know a guy who spooges over anything Cory Doctorow writes.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

I know a guy who spooges over anything Cory Doctorow writes.

KILL THAT GUY

[TVC15]

Just remember that if the internet didn't exist, the dude wouldn't have a career!

[TVC15]

Just remember that if the internet didn't exist, the dude wouldn't have a career!

(Image removed from quote.)

[Ichirou]

He also loves some dude named Scott Sigler (my Doctorow-loving friend, I mean).

The only Doctorow I like is E.L. - Billy Bathgate and Hard Times, FTW.

[TVC15]

I love John Simm 

Me too.  Those Camberwick Green-style Life on Mars puppets are the shit.  Like, what can they do for the equivalent in the US version?  Will they make a John Stamos muppet or something (because we all know someone distinguished mentally-challenged like Stamos will get the role)?

[Van Cruncheon]

http://dir.salon.com/story/tech/feature/2002/08/28/0wnz0red/index.html -- yuck! I like how he namedrops the Gutenberg Project in casual conversation.

Thanks for nothing, Patel! I haven't read such aggrandizing wank from a non-developer since, uh, since Douglas Coupland! Programming = not special, fuckwits. Just because a discipline is entrenched in its own burgeoning jargon doesn't make it deep or difficult. Then again, the average outsider sci-fi author tends to hero worship those folks who exist where linguistics and engineering intersect -- it's kinda in the blood, like herpes. I should write a novella about a pop-couture open-source internetizen who textually hero worships a prominent software developer-cum-blogger only to find he's a mediocre mind with a yen for scat pornography and a collection of Transformers large enough to fill a Bellevue split-level.

[Van Cruncheon]

Drinky says:
it's pretty awful
Drinky says:
you wanna bitch about exposition
Drinky says:
there ya go!
Drinky says:
it's like a primer for DRM wrapped in a very thin narrative
Drinky says:
with occasional banner ads for open source projects
TVC-15 says:
Jekyll is really hot!

[Cyanista]

What.The.F.

The internet is ruining written communication.

[bluemax]

http://dir.salon.com/story/tech/feature/2002/08/28/0wnz0red/index.html -- yuck! I like how he namedrops the Gutenberg Project in casual conversation.

Thanks for nothing, Patel! I haven't read such aggrandizing wank from a non-developer since, uh, since Douglas Coupland! Programming = not special, fuckwits. Just because it's entrenched in its own burgeoning jargon doesn't make it deep or difficult. Then again, the average outsider sci-fi author tends to hero worship those folks who exist where linguistics and engineering intersect -- it's kinda in the blood, like herpes. I should write a novella about a pop-couture open-source internetizen who textually hero worships a prominent software developer-cum-blogger only to find he's a mediocre mind with a yen for scat pornography and a collection of Transformers large enough to fill a Bellevue split-level.

This would probably be better written but I think most people would miss the point.

I read the linked short story for about two paragraphs. I can't take a piece of fiction that uses fratmosphere and pron in it seriously.

Firefox spell check is okay with pron but not okay?

"Even the number-two chair in Tomas Vanya's office kicked major ergonomic azz"

Azz? Really?

[Howard Alan Treesong]

Here is a really good story that Cory Doctorow unfairly defeated. Read it and be happy with fiction once more:

http://www.bradleydenton.net/sgtchipcomplete.htm

[Flannel Boy]

Descartes' "Meditations" are some heavy shiznit.

[tiesto]

I love John Simm 

(because we all know someone distinguished mentally-challenged like Stamos will get the role)?

Dem's fightin' words, boy.

I'd turn gay for Stamos!

[GilloD]

His writing always seemed to be just a step or two above fan fic.

"Dana came over the hill and ducked as a cyber tracer whizzed by her head. "HOLY DEFRAG!" she shouted. But it was only her Second Life that was in danger".

[The Fake Shemp]

Fuck, this makes me feel good about my writing and that's just depressing.

[Tauntaun]

If it makes you feel any better Synth, I've never heard of this guy you speak of.

[bluemax]

I read through more of it yesterday and the dialog its just painful.

I mean, I'm a nerd. I'm a CS major. I spent most of the last few years hanging around with other nerdy CS majors. No one I know uses all that stupid 1337 speak terminology casually in conversation. I feel like he's trying to appeal to me, the young, geeky, software engineer and yet I find his writing stupid and insulting. Its like he doesn't actually know any of the type of person he is trying to write about so he's guessing based upon third hand internet knowledge.

He's like the poser, 1337 speak version of Neal Stephenson.