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richardmurray

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  1. richardmurray
    Jet Dancer
    from Dual Mask
    https://store.steampowered.com/app/2084470/Jet_Dancer/
     
    ABOUT THIS GAME
    You are Jenna Delgado, also known as Jet Dancer.
    A nanomachine-infused synthetic being bred as part of a project to develop humanoid weapons, Jenna Delgado was the last in her series. When she learned the true scope of her reason for being--to be used as both bodyguard and concubine to the highest bidder--she managed to escape the project and vowed to use her superhuman abilities to protect the innocent, as the super heroine Jet Dancer.
    But the evil head of the project, Serin Drakonis, has found her, and, determined to take her back under his control, has unleashed his machine army--and Jenna's predecessors--to bring her to heel.
    Jet Dancer must now fight to protect her own quality of life, and put an end to the project once and for all.
    --
    Jet Dancer is a retro-inspired action platforming game featuring a strong and sexy heroine inspired by games and comics of the 80s and 90s. With an easy-to-learn, hard-to-master arsenal of kicks and dashes, Jet Dancer is a weapon bred for war, but living for fun.
    SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
    WindowsSteamOS + Linux
    MINIMUM:
    OS: Windows 7+
    Processor: Intel(R) Core i5
    Memory: 8 GB RAM
    Storage: 1 GB available space
    RECOMMENDED:
    OS: Windows 10+
    Processor: Intel(R) Core i7
    Memory: 16 GB RAM
    Storage: 1 GB available space
     
    IF YOU WANT TO SEE A DEVELOPMENT VIDEO VIEW BELOW
     
  2. richardmurray
    Imagine if we all made a firework with what we learn in this book referring to a game for juneteenth. 
    Fashion tech tutorials are linked later in the post, if you get any ideas share.

    Just put your email FREELY and in comes in your email 
    https://make.co/making-fireworks-premium-download/
     

     
    AND wearable tech tutorials, maybe make a game out of clothes, any ideas?
    Wearable tech tutorials
    https://www.wearabletutorials.com/
     
    and some others
    https://www.hackster.io/kitty-yeung/custom-wearable-organic-solar-films-asca-c9358d
    https://www.hackster.io/kitty-yeung/light-up-raincoat-no-code-no-solder-nliten-bekonix-a340a0
    https://www.hackster.io/anouk-wipprecht/light-up-kitty-ears-fee08d
    https://www.hackster.io/AmieDD/lego-dots-cyberpunk-belt-c52016
    https://www.hackster.io/AmieDD/revenge-of-the-sith-glow-pcb-necklace-6571be
    https://www.hackster.io/AmieDD/cyberpunk-3d-printed-fabric-light-up-corset-25c7bd
     
  4. richardmurray
    Yes, I am a creator. Yes, I write or draw. Yes, all the art in this post comes from the dreamup software by deviantart. Yes, if you want to see my work use the following link as I am a multimedia artist.  https://aalbc.com/tc/profile/6477-richardmurray/?tab=field_core_pfield_11
     
    The recent Mario Bros Movie is a financial hit, a commercial hit. Whether an artististic or creative hit... I don't know.
    But I realized a use for the uses of an imitative software, some call AI , and I placed as a prompt.
     
    African American Mario
    The following was returned
     
    I call this:) Graffit mario:) 

     
    I have to admit, I am stumped as to where the computer referenced for this. 

     
    The following was easy, it is white mario side black mario. The black mario has on green but has a fists up. Black mario has the same skin color as white mario though I did say African American and a minority in the African American community in the usa are phenotypically analogous to whites. 
     

     
    Then I used African American Mario Bros and the following came up
     
    I can see the skin tone has browned up a little. And I think the blue hat African American Luigi is a touch. But what bothers me is peach. I can't be sure , but I think the character top left is supposed to be peach. The facial expressions is caricature, it seems she is angry. The computer deduced that is african american peach. oh wow, its intelligence has a way to go:) 

     
    For me, I sense a more, Super MArio Hermanos. To paraphrase Richard Pryor, they are cue-ban!

     
    Here it seems the comuter deduced an African American Mario Bros will have the same Mario but Luigi is black. IS the computer racists? OR are the data entries into the computer... racists ? haha and I have no idea who the blue hat guy is in this one. The computer here has deduced that the African American MArio Bros will be three not two. Any ideas on the name of the third brother, the one with the blue hat? don't say Hakim!:) 
     

     
    And now!!!!
     
    African American PRincess PEach!!! After mentioning her I had to see.
     
    I get this a little.YOu can see the computer has been fed many various images and the multiversity in Black women's imagery is clearly evident. I don't know which is supposed to be peach but the one on the left to the viewer has a headwrap on. I think the one in the middle may be peach cause she has a crown and the mario colors. This is almost like a Cookie from empire version of PRincess Peach. TO the viewers's right, I don't know. And so I did a little search and then it hit me. The one on the viewers left is princess daisy. The viewer's right must be princess Rosalina. And I didn't realize that the princess in the first mario movie was daisy not peach so that was a luigi tale?:) 

     
     
    This is clearly a focus on PRincess PEach. Maybe the other two princesses are behind in bust. But I realize, the guy with the yellowish orange must be African American mushroom:) 

     
    Poor dreamup , it is clearly an ancient ancestor of the enterprise original series computer.  It doesn't know the difference between princess peach and barbie. So it gave both. The computer went the same way as the first director of the wizard of oz. He wanted The WIcked Witch to be sexy faced like the one in Wicked now. But he also wanted Dorothy to be... illusive:) Search "Early Costume Shot for Wizard of Oz Judy Garland" . I am waiting for that padre in V for Vendetta to have his last remittance. 
     

     
    and lastly ,  I thought, lets give the machine , deviantart's dreamup, another pass. This time, the prompt is: " african american princess peach, detailed, precision" 30% similarity and using as reference the image above with african american mushroom
     
    I can see the computer has deduced, bling with african american fashion and thus african american peach has these diamond sequences in her dress. Funny how the mushroom kingdom looks, it seems like a baby between the mushroom kingdom and wakanda but anyway.
     

     
    again, this computer system, Deviantart Dreamup, is clearly racists! hahaha , should I cancel this computer program? Why is so angry. 

     
    And finally,the lack of specificity on my part forced the computer program to design on its own and absent certainty or clarity, which it doesn't have, it produced this.  I have no idea. But the computer is convinced that african american peach will wear a lavender
     
     
    About A.I. and Copyright
     
     
  7. richardmurray

    Le Mulâtre from Victor Séjour

    By richardmurray,


    old literature entry
    Le Mulâtre
    Victor Séjour
    Revue des Colonies, mars 1837, pp. 376-392.
        Les premiers rayons de l’aurore blanchissaient à peine la cime noire des montagnes, quand je partis du Cap pour me rendre à Saint Marc, petite ville de St-Domingue, aujourd’hui la république d’Haïti. J’avais tant vu de belles campagnes, de forêts hautes et profondes, qu’en vérité je me croyais blasé de ces beautés mâles de la création. Mais, à l’aspect de cette dernière ville, avec sa végétation pittoresque, sa nature neuve et bizarre, je fus étonné et confondu devant la diversité sublime de l’ œuvre de Dieu. Aussitôt mon arrivée, je fus accosté par un vieillard nègre, déjà septuagénaire ; ses pas étaient fermes, sa tête haute, sa taille imposante et vigoureuse ; rien ne trahissait son grand âge, sinon la blancheur remarquable de ses cheveux crépus. Selon la coutume du pays, il était coiffé d’un grand chapeau de paille, et vêtu d’un large pantalon en toile grise et d’une espèce de camisole en batiste écrue 
        — Bonjour maître, me dit-il en se découvrant.
        — Ah ! vous voilà…, et je lui tendis la main, qu’il pressa avec reconnaissance.
        — Maître, dit-il, c’est d’un noble cœur ce que vous faites là… ; mais ne savez-vous pas qu’un nègre est aussi vil qu’un chien… ; la société le repousse ; les hommes le détestent ; les lois le maudissent… Ah ! c’est un être bien malheureux, qui n’a pas même la consolation d’ être toujours vertueux… Qu’il naisse bon, noble, généreux ; que Dieu lui donne une âme loyale et grande ; malgré cela, bien souvent il descend dans la tombe les mains teintes de sang, et le cœur avide encore de vengeance ; car plus d’une fois il a vu détruire ses rêves de jeune homme ; car l’expérience lui a appris que ses bonnes actions n’étaient pas comptées, et qu’il ne devait aimer ni sa femme, ni ses fils ; car un jour la première sera séduite par le maître, et son sang vendu au loin malgré son désespoir. Alors, que voulez-vous qu’il devienne ?… Se brisera-t-il le crâne contre le pavé de la rue ?… Tuera-t-il son bourreau ?… Ou croyez-vous que le cœur humain puisse se façonner à de telles infortunes ?…
        Le vieux nègre se tut un instant comme pour attendre ma réponse.
        Insensé qui le pense, reprit-il avec chaleur. S’il vit, c’est pour la vengeance ; car bientôt il se lève… et, du jour où il secoue sa servilité , il vaudrait mieux au maître entendre le tigre affamé hurler à ses côtés, que de le rencontrer face à face… Pendant que le vieillard parlait, son front s’illuminait, ses yeux étincelaient, et son cœur battait avec force. Je ne croyais pas trouver autant d’ énergie sous une aussi vieille enveloppe. Profitant de cette espèce d’exaltation :
        — Antoine, lui dis-je, vous m’aviez promis l’histoire de votre ami Georges.
        — Voulez-vous m’ écouter à cette heure ?
        — Volontiers… Nous nous assîmes, lui sur ma malle de voyage, et moi sur ma valise. Voici ce qu’il me raconta :
        « Voyez-vous cet édifice qui s’ élève si gracieusement vers le ciel, et qui semble se mirer dans la mer ; cet édifice qui ressemble, par son originalité , à un temple, et par sa coquetterie, à quelque palais, c’est la maison St-M*** . Dans une des pièces de ce bâtiment, se réunissent chaque jour les flâneurs, les rentiers et les grands planteurs. Les deux premiers jouent au billard, ou fument le délicieux cigare de la Havane ; tandis que les derniers achètent des nègres ; c’est-à -dire des hommes libres, arrachés par la ruse ou par la force de leur patrie, et devenus, par la violence, le bien, la propriété de leurs semblables… Ici, on livre le mari sans la femme ; là , la sœur sans le frère ; plus loin, la mère sans les enfans. Vous frémissez ? cependant ces ventes infâmes se renouvellent à toute heure. Mais bientôt on y propose une jeune sénégalaise, si belle qu’une même exclamation s’ échappe de toutes les bouches… 
        « Qu’elle est jolie ! » Chacun la voudrait pour en faire sa maîtresse ; mais nul n’ose lutter contre le jeune Alfred, un des plus riches planteurs de ce pays, âgé alors de vingt-deux ans.
        — Combien demandez-vous de cette femme ?
        — Quinze cents piastres, répondit le vendeur.
        — Quinze cents piastres, répéta machinalement Alfred.
        — Oui, Monsieur.
        — Au juste ?
        — Au juste.
        — C’est horriblement cher.
        — Cher… répartit le vendeur avec un signe d’ étonnement ; mais vous ne voyez donc pas comme elle est jolie, comme sa peau est luisante, comme sa chair est ferme. Elle a dix-huit ans au plus… Tout en parlant, il promenait ses mains impudiques sur les formes puissantes et demi-nues de la belle Africaine.
        — Elle est garantie, dit Alfred, après un moment de réflexion ?
        — Aussi pure que la rosée du ciel, répondit le vendeur ; mais, au reste, vous pouvez la faire...
        — Non, non… c’est inutile, reprit Alfred en l’interrompant, j’ai confiance en vous.
        — Je n’ai jamais vendu de mauvaises marchandises, répartit le vendeur, en relevant ses favoris d’un air triomphant. Quand l’acte de vente fut signé et toutes les formalités remplis, le vendeur s’approcha de la jeune esclave :
        — Cet homme est maintenant ton maître, lui dit-il, en désignant Alfred.
        — Je le sais, répondit froidement la négresse.
        — En es-tu contente ?
        — Que m’importe… lui ou un autre…
        — Mais cependant — balbutia le vendeur, en cherchant une réponse.
        — Mais cependant quoi ? reprit l’Africaine avec humeur, et s’il ne me convenait pas ?
        — Ma foi, ce serait un malheur ; car tout est terminé…
        — Alors, je garde ma pensée pour moi.
        Dix minutes après, la nouvelle esclave d’Alfred monta dans un tombereau qui prit le chemin des guêpes, route assez commode qui mène à ces délicieuses campagnes, groupées autour de Saint-Marc comme de jeunes vierges au pied de l’autel. Une sombre mélancolie enveloppait son âme ; elle pleurait. Le conducteur comprenait trop bien ce qui se passait en elle, pour essayer de la distraire ; mais quand il vit la blanche habitation d’Alfred se dessiner dans le lointain, il se pencha involontairement vers la pauvre infortunée, et d’une voix pleine de larmes, il lui dit :
        — Sœur, quel est ton nom ?
        — Laïsa, répondit-elle, sans lever la tête.
        — À ce nom, le conducteur frissonna, mais maîtrisant son émotion, il reprit :
        — Ta mère ?
        — Elle est morte…
        — Ton père ?
        — Il est mort…
        — Pauvre enfant, murmura-t-il…
        — De quel pays es-tu, Laïsa ?
        — Du Sénégal…
        Les larmes lui vinrent aux yeux ; il venait de rencontrer une compatriote.
        — Sœur, reprit-il, en s’essuyant les yeux, tu connais sans doute le vieux Chambo et sa fille…
        — Pourquoi, répondit la jeune fille en relevant vivement la tête ?
        — Pourquoi, continua le conducteur avec angoisse ; mais le vieux Chambo est mon père, et…
        — Mon Dieu, s’ écria l’orpheline, sans lui laisser le temps d’achever ; tu es ?…
        — Jacques Chambo.
        — Mon frère !
        — Laïsa !…
        Ils se jetèrent dans les bras l’un de l’autre. Ils étaient encore entrelacés, quand le tombereau entra dans la partie principale de l’habitation d’Alfred. Le gérant y était… Qu’est-ce que je vois, s’ écria-t-il, en déroulant un fouet immense, qu’il portait toujours pendu à sa ceinture, Jacques qui embrasse à mes yeux la nouvelle venue… quelle impertinence !… Sur ce, des coups de fouet tombèrent sur le malheureux, et des flots de sang jaillirent de son visage.
     II.
        Alfred était peut-être bon, humain, loyal avec ses égaux ; mais, à coup sûr, c’ était un homme dur, méchant, envers ses esclaves. Je ne vous dirai pas tout ce qu’il fit pour posséder Laïsa ; car celle-ci fut presque violée. Pendant près d’une année, elle partagea la couche de son maître ; mais déjà Alfred commençait à s’en lasser ; il la trouvait laide, froide, insolente. Vers ce temps, la pauvre femme accoucha d’un fils qu’elle nomma Georges. Alfred le méconnut, chassa la mère de sa présence, et la fit reléguer dans la plus mauvaise cabane de son habitation, quoique convaincu, autant qu’on peut l’ être, qu’il était le père de cet enfant. 
        Georges avait grandi sans jamais entendre nommer le nom de son père ; et s’il essayait parfois de percer le mystère qui enveloppait sa naissance, il trouvait sa mère inflexible et muette à ses questions. Une fois seulement elle lui dit :  
        — Mon fils, tu ne sauras son nom qu’ à ta vingt-cinquième année ; car alors tu seras un homme ; tu seras plus capable de garder un pareil secret. Tu ne sais donc pas qu’il m’a défendu de te parler de lui, sous peine de te haïr… et vois-tu, Georges… la haine de cet homme, c’est la mort. 
        — Qu’importe, s’ écriait impétueusement Georges ; je pourrais du moins lui reprocher sa conduite infâme… 
        — Tais-toi… tais-toi, Georges… les murs ont des oreilles, et les broussailles savent parler, murmurait la pauvre mère en tremblant… 
        Quelques années après, cette malheureuse mourut, laissant pour tout héritage à Georges, son fils unique, un petit sac en peau de daim, dans lequel se trouvait le portrait de son père ; mais à la seule promesse de ne l’ouvrir qu’ à sa vingt-cinquième année. Puis elle l’embrassa, et sa tête retomba sur l’oreiller… elle était morte… Le cri de douleur que jeta l’orphelin attira les autres esclaves… Ils se mirent à pleurer, à frapper leur poitrine, à arracher leurs cheveux de désespoir. Après ces premières marques de douleur, ils lavèrent le corps de la défunte, et l’exposèrent sur une espèce de table longue, soutenue par les tréteaux. La morte est couchée sur le dos, le visage tourné vers l’Orient, vêtue de ses meilleurs habits, et les mains croisées sur sa poitrine. À ses pieds se trouve une petite coupe pleine d’eau bénite, sur laquelle surnage une branche de jasmin ; enfin, aux quatre coins de la couche mortuaire, s’ élèvent des flambeaux… Chacun, après avoir béni les restes de la défunte, s’agenouille et prie car la plupart des races nègres, malgré leur fétichisme, croient profondément à l’existence de Dieu. Cette première cérémonie terminée, une autre non moins singulière commence… ce sont des cris, des pleurs, des chants ; puis des danses funèbres !…
    III.
        Georges avait toutes les dispositions nécessaires à devenir un très honnête homme ; mais c’ était une de ces volontés hautaines et tenaces, une de ces organisations orientales qui, poussées loin du chemin de la vertu, marchent sans s’effrayer dans la route du crime. Il aurait donné dix ans de sa vie pour connaître le nom de son père ; mais il n’osait violer la promesse solennelle faite à sa mère mourante. Comme si la nature le poussait vers Alfred ; il l’aimait, autant que l’on puisse aimer un homme : tandis que celui-ci l’estimait, mais de cette estime que l’ écuyer porte au plus beau et au plus vigoureux de ses coursiers. À cette époque, une horde de brigands portaient la désolation dans ces lieux ; déjà plus d’un colon avait été leur victime. Une nuit, je ne sais par quel hasard, Georges fut instruit de leur projet. Ils avaient juré d’assassiner Alfred. Aussitôt l’esclave court chez son maître.
        — Maître, maître, s’ écria-t-il… au nom du ciel, suivez-moi.
        Alfred fronça les sourcils.
        — Oh ! venez, venez, maître, continua le mulâtre avec intérêt.
        — Par le ciel, répondit Alfred ; je crois que tu me commandes.
        — Pardon, maître… pardon… je suis si troublé… je ne sais ce que je dis… mais, au nom du ciel, venez, suivez-moi… car…
        — T’expliqueras-tu, dit Alfred, d’un ton colère…
        Le mulâtre hésita.
        — Je le veux ; je l’ordonne, reprit Alfred, en se levant d’un air menaçant.
        — Maître, on doit vous assassiner cette nuit.
        — Sainte Vierge, tu mens…
        — Maître, ils en veulent à votre vie.
        — Qui ?
        — Les bandits.
        — Qui te l’a dit ?
        — Maître, c’est mon secret… dit le mulâtre d’une voix soumise.
        — Es-tu armé , reprit Alfred, après un moment de silence ?
        Le mulâtre repoussa quelques haillons qui le couvraient, et laissa voir une hache et une paire de pistolets.
        — C’est bien, dit Alfred en s’armant précipitamment.
        — Maître, êtes-vous prêt ?
        — Partons…
        — Partons, répéta le mulâtre en faisant un pas vers la porte…
        Alfred le retint par le bras.
        — Mais, où allons-nous ?
        — Chez le plus près de vos amis, M. Arthur.
        Ils allaient sortir, lorsque la porte cria sur ses gonds.
        — Enfer, murmura le mulâtre, il est trop tard…
        — Que dis-tu ?
        Ils sont là , répondit Georges en montrant la porte…
        — Ah !…
        — Maître, qu’avez-vous ?
        — Rien… un malaise…
        — Ne craignez rien, maître, avant d’arriver à vous, ils me marcheront sur le corps, dit l’esclave d’un air calme et résigné .
        Cet air calme, ce noble dévouement étaient susceptibles de rassurer le mortel le plus lâche. Cependant, à ces dernières paroles, Alfred trembla davantage ; car une horrible idée l’accablait : il se figurait que le généreux Georges était le complice de ses assassins. Tels sont les tyrans ; ils croient le reste des hommes incapables d’un sentiment élevé , d’un dévouement sans bornes ; car leurs âmes sont étroites et perfides… C’est une terre inculte, où ne croissent que la ronce et le lierre. La porte trembla violemment… Cette fois, Alfred ne put maîtriser sa lâcheté , il venait de voir sourire le mulâtre ; était-ce de joie ou de colère ? Il ne se fit pas cette question.
        — Misérable ! s’ écria-t-il, en s’ élançant dans une pièce voisine ; tu voulais me faire assassiner ; mais ton attente sera trompée, et il disparut... Georges se mordait les lèvres de rage ; mais il ne put faire aucune réflexion, car la porte s’ouvrit tout à coup, et quatre hommes se dressèrent sur le seuil. Aussi prompt que l’ éclair, le mulâtre arma ses pistolets, et s’accola contre le mur, en criant d’une voix de stentor :
        — Infâmes ! que voulez-vous ?
        — Nous voulons te parler en face, répondit l’un d’eux, en tirant Georges à bout portant.
        — Bien tiré , murmura convulsivement celui-ci.
        La balle lui avait fracassé le bras gauche. Il lâcha son coup. Le brigand tourna trois fois sur lui-même et tomba raide mort. Un second le suivit de près. Alors, comme un lion furieux harcelé par des chasseurs, Georges, la hache au poing et le poignard entre les dents, se précipite sur ses adversaires… Une lutte affreuse s’engage… Les combattants se pressent… se heurtent… s’entrelacent… La hache brille… le sang coule… le poignard, fidèle à la main qui le pousse, laboure la poitrine de l’ennemi… Mais pas un cri… pas un mot… pas un souffle ne s’ échappe de ces trois bouches d’hommes qui se ruent entre des cadavres comme au sein d’une enivrante orgie… À les voir ainsi, pâles et sanglants, muets et désespérés, on se figure trois fantômes qui se heurtent et s’entre-déchirent au fond d’un tombeau… Cependant Georges est couvert de blessures ; il se soutient à peine… Oh ! c’en est fait de l’intrépide mulâtre ; la hache tranchante se lève sur sa tête… Tout à coup deux détonations se font entendre, et les deux brigands tombent en blasphémant Dieu. Au même moment, Alfred rentre, suivi d’un jeune nègre. Il fait transporter le blessé dans sa cabane, et ordonne de lui amener son médecin. Pendant ce temps, apprenez comment Georges fut sauvé par le même homme qui l’accusait de trahison. À peine éloigné, Alfred entend le bruit d’une arme à feu, et le cliquetis du fer ; rougissant de sa lâcheté , il réveille son valet de chambre, et vole au secours de son libérateur. — J’avais oublié de vous dire que Georges avait une femme, nommée Zélie, qu’il aimait de toute la puissance de son âme ; c’ était une mulâtresse de dix-huit à vingt ans, à la taille cambrée, aux cheveux noirs, au regard plein d’amour et de volupté . Georges resta douze jours entre la vie et la mort. Alfred l’allait voir souvent ; poussé par je ne sais quelle fatalité , il s’ éprit de Zélie ; mais, malheureusement pour lui, ce n’ était pas une de ces femmes qui vendent leur amour, ou qui en font hommage à leur maître. Elle repoussa avec une humble dignité les propositions d’Alfred ; car elle n’oubliait pas que c’ était le maître qui parlait à l’esclave. — Au lieu d’en être touché de cette vertu si rare parmi les femmes, surtout parmi celles qui, comme Zélie, sont esclaves, et qui voient chaque jour leurs impudiques compagnes se prostituer aux colons, et alimenter leur libertinage ; au lieu d’en être; touché, dis-je, Alfred s’irrita… Quoi ! lui, le despote, le bey, le sultan des Antilles, se voir méprisé par une esclave… quelle ironie !… Aussi a-t-il fait le serment de la posséder… Quelques jours avant la convalescence de Georges, Alfred fit demander Zélie dans sa chambre. Alors, n’écoutant que ses désirs criminels, il l’enlace de ses bras, et dépose sur sa joue un brûlant baiser ; la jeune esclave prie, supplie, résiste ; mais en vain… Déjà il l’entraîne vers la couche adultère ; déjà… Alors, la vertueuse esclave, pleine d’une noble indignation, le repousse par un dernier effort, mais si brusque, mais si puissant, qu’Alfred perdit l’ équilibre et se fracassa la tête en tombant. À cette vue, Zélie s’arracha les cheveux de désespoir, et pleura de rage, car elle avait compris, la malheureuse, que la mort l’attendait pour avoir fait couler le sang d’un être aussi vil. Quand elle eut bien pleuré , elle se rendit près de son mari. — Celui-ci rêvait sans doute d’elle ; car il avait le sourire sur les lèvres.
        — Georges… Georges… s’ écria-t-elle avec angoisse.
        Le mulâtre ouvrit les yeux ; le premier besoin qu’il sentit fut de sourire à sa bien aimée. Zélie lui conta ce qui vient de se passer. Il ne voulut rien y croire ; mais bientôt il fut convaincu de son malheur ; car des hommes entrèrent dans sa cabane et garrottèrent sa femme qui pleurait… Georges fit un effort pour se lever ; mais trop faible encore, il retomba sur la couche, les yeux hagards, les mains crispées, la bouche haletante.
    IV.
        Dix jours après deux petits créoles blancs jouaient au milieu de la rue.
        — Charles, disait l’un d’eux : on dit que cette mulâtresse qui voulait tuer son maître sera pendue demain ?
        — À huit heures, répondit l’autre.
        — Iras-tu ?
        — Sans doute.
        — Ce sera gentil de la voir pirouetter entre ciel et terre reprit le premier, et ils s’ éloignèrent en riant.
        Cela vous étonne d’entendre deux enfants de dix ans s’entretenir si gaiement de la mort d’autrui ; c’est une conséquence peut-être fatale de leur éducation. Dès leur bas-âge on leur répète que nous sommes nés pour les servir, cré és pour leurs caprices, et qu’ils ne doivent nous considérer ni plus ni moins qu’un chien… Or que leur importent notre agonie, et nos souffrances ? ne voient-ils pas souvent mourir leurs meilleurs chevaux ? Ils ne les pleurent pas, car ils sont riches, demain ils en achèteront d’autres… Pendant que ces deux enfants parlaient, Georges était aux genoux de son maître.
        — Maître, grâce… grâce… s’ écria-t-il en pleurant… ayez pitié d’elle… maître, sauvez-la… Oh ! oui sauvez-la, car vous le pouvez… oh ! parlez… vous n’avez qu’un mot à dire… un seul… et elle vivra. Alfred ne répondit pas.
        — Oh ! par pitié… maître… par pitié dites-moi que vous lui pardonnez… oh ! parlez… répondez-moi, maître… n’est-ce pas que vous lui pardonnez… et le malheureux se tordait de douleur…
        Alfred, toujours impassible, détourna la tête…
        — Oh ! reprit Georges en suppliant, répondez-moi… un seul mot… mais répondez donc ; vous ne voyez pas que votre silence me torture le cœur… me tue…
        — Je ne puis rien y faire, répondit enfin Alfred d’un ton glacé .
        Le mulâtre essuya ses pleurs, et se releva de toute sa hauteur.
        — Maître, continua-t-il d’une voix creuse, vous souvenez-vous de ce que vous me disiez, quand je me tordais sur mon lit d’agonie.
        — Non…
        — Eh bien ! moi je m’en souviens… le maître dit à l’esclave : tu m’as sauvé la vie, que veux-tu pour récompense ? veux-tu ta liberté… ? maître, répondit l’esclave, je ne puis être libre, quand mon fils et ma femme sont esclaves. Alors le maître reprit : si jamais tu me pries, je jure que tes vœux seront exaucés ; et l’esclave ne pria point, car il était heureux d’avoir sauvé la vie à son maître… mais aujourd’hui qu’il sait que dans dix-huit heures sa femme ne vivra plus, il court se jeter à vos pieds, et vous crier : maître, au nom de Dieu, sauvez ma femme. Et le mulâtre, les mains jointes, le regard suppliant, se remit à genoux et pleura des flots de larmes…
        Alfred détourna la tête…
        — Maître… maître… par pitié répondez-moi… oh ! dites que vous voulez qu’elle vive… au nom de Dieu… de votre mère… grâce… miséricorde… et le mulâtre baisait la poussière de ses pieds.
        Alfred garda le silence.
        — Mais parlez au moins à ce pauvre homme qui vous supplie, reprit-il en sanglotant.
        Alfred ne répondit rien.
        — Mon Dieu… mon Dieu ! que je suis malheureux… et il se roulait sur le plancher, et s’arrachait les cheveux de désespoir.
        Enfin Alfred se décida à parler :
        — Je vous ai déjà dit que ce n’ était plus à moi à pardonner.
        — Maître, murmura Georges toujours en pleurant, elle sera probablement condamnée ; car vous et moi, seuls, savons qu’elle est innocente.
        À cette dernière parole du mulâtre, le rouge monta à la figure d’Alfred et la colère à son cœur…
        Georges comprit qu’il n’ était plus temps de prier, car il avait soulevé le voile qui cachait le crime de son maître ; or, il se leva d’un air résolu. 
        — Sortez… va-t-en, lui cria Alfred.
        Au lieu de sortir le mulâtre se croisa les bras sur la poitrine, et d’un regard farouche, il toisa son maître du pied à la tête.
        — Va-t-en… va-t-en, te dis-je, reprit Alfred dont la colère croissait.
        — Je ne sortirai pas, répondit Georges :
        — Tu me braves, misérable. Il fit un mouvement pour le frapper, mais sa main resta collée à sa cuisse, tant il y avait de fierté et de haine dans le regard de Georges.
        — Quoi ! vous pourrez la laisser tuer, égorger, assassiner, dit le mulâtre, quand vous la savez innocente… quand vous avez voulu lâchement la séduire.
        — Insolent, que dis-tu ?
        — Je dis que ce serait une infamie de la laisser mourir…
        — Georges… Georges…
        — Je dis que tu es un scélérat, hurla Georges en laissant cours à sa colère, et en saisissant Alfred par le bras… ah ! elle mourra… elle mourra parce qu’elle ne s’est pas prostituée à toi… à toi parce que tu es blanc… à toi parce que tu es son maître… infâme suborneur…
        — Georges, prends garde, répondit Alfred en essayant de prendre un ton assuré . Prends garde qu’au lieu d’une victime demain le bourreau en trouve deux.
        — Tu parles de victime et de bourreau, misérable, hurla Georges… cela veut donc dire qu’elle mourra… elle… ma Zélie… mais tu ne sais pas que ta vie est attachée à la sienne.
        — Georges !
        — Mais tu ne sais pas que ta tête ne tiendra sur tes épaules qu’autant qu’elle vivra.
        — Georges… Georges !
        — Mais tu ne sais pas que je te tuerai… que je boirai ton sang si jamais on arrache un cheveux de sa tête.
        Et pendant tout ce temps le mulâtre secouait Alfred de toute la force de son bras.
        — Lâchez-moi, criait Alfred.
        — Ah ! elle mourra… elle mourra, hurla le mulâtre en délire.
        — Georges, lâchez-moi !
        — Tais-toi… tais-toi, misérable… ah ! elle mourra… eh bien, que le bourreau touche aux jours de ma femme… continua-t-il avec un sourire affreux.
        Alfred était si troublé , qu’il ne vit point sortir Georges. Celui-ci se rendit aussitôt à sa cabane, où , dans un léger berceau en liane dormait un jeune enfant de deux ans, il le prit et disparut. Pour bien comprendre ce qui va suivre, sachez que de l’habitation d’Alfred on n’avait qu’une petite rivière à traverser pour se trouver au milieu de ces forêts épaisses, qui semblent étreindre le nouveau-monde.
        Depuis six bonnes heures Georges marchait sans relâche ; enfin il s’arrêta à quelques pas d’une cabane, bâtie au plus épais de la forêt ; vous comprendrez cette espèce de joie qui brille dans ses yeux quand vous saurez que cette cabane toute petite, tout isolée, qu’elle est, est le camp des nègres marrons, c’est-à -dire des esclaves qui fuient la tyrannie de leurs maîtres. En ce moment toute la cabane était en rumeur, on venait d’entendre la forêt tressaillir, et le chef avait juré que ce bruit n’ était causé par aucun animal, or il arma son fusil et sortit… Tout à coup les broussailles se courbent devant lui, et il se trouve face à face avec un étranger. 
        — Par ma liberté , s’ écria-t-il, en ajustant l’inconnu, tu connaissais trop bien notre niche.
        — Afrique et liberté , répondit Georges sans s’ émouvoir, mais en repoussant de côté le canon du fusil… je suis des vôtres.
        — Ton nom.
        — Georges, esclave d’Alfred.
        Ils se tendirent la main, et s’embrassèrent.
        Le lendemain la foule se pressait autour d’une potence, à laquelle était suspendu le corps d’une jeune mulâtresse… Lorsqu’elle fut bien morte, le bourreau descendit son cadavre dans un cercueil en sapin et dix minutes après on jeta corps et cercueil dans une fosse creusée à l’entrée de la forêt.
        Ainsi cette femme pour avoir été trop vertueuse est morte du supplice des infâmes ; croyez-vous que ce seul fait ne suffit pas à rendre l’homme le plus doux, méchant et sanguinaire ?
    V.
         Trois ans s’ étaient écoulés depuis la mort de la vertueuse Zélie. Alfred dans les premiers temps fut très tourmenté  ; le jour, il croyait voir à toute heure une main vengeresse s’abaisser sur son front, il tremblait la nuit, car elle lui apportait des songes affreux et terribles ; mais bientôt chassant de son âme, et le souvenir pénible de la martyre, et la terrible menace de Georges, il se maria, devint père… Oh ! qu’il fut heureux, quand on vint lui dire que ses vœux étaient exaucés, lui qui chaque soir baisait humblement le pavé du temple, en priant la Sainte Vierge de douleur de lui accorder un fils.
        Georges eut aussi sa part de bonheur de la venue au monde de cet enfant ; car s’il avait espéré trois ans sans savoir frapper le bourreau de sa femme ; s’il avait passé tant de nuits sans sommeil, la fureur dans le cœur, et la main sur son poignard, c’est qu’il attendait qu’Alfred eût, comme lui, une femme et un fils ; c’est qu’il ne voulait le tuer qu’au moment où des liens chers et précieux le retiendraient en ce monde… Georges avait toujours entretenu des relations intimes avec un des esclaves d’Alfred, il l’allait même voir toutes les semaines ; or cet esclave n’eut rien de plus pressé que de lui annoncer l’existence du nouveau-né… Aussitôt il vole vers la demeure de son ennemi, rencontre sur son chemin une négresse qui portait une tasse de bouillon à madame Alfred ; il l’arrête, lui dit quelques paroles insignifiantes, et s’ éloigne… Après bien des difficultés, il parvient à se glisser comme une couleuvre dans la chambre à coucher d’Alfred… là , caché derrière la ruelle du lit, il attendit son maître… Alfred rentra un instant après en chantant ; il ouvrit son secrétaire, y prit un superbe écrin en diamant qu’il avait promis à sa femme, si celle-ci lui donnait un fils ; mais pénétré de joie et de bonheur, il s’assit la tête entre les deux mains, comme un homme qui ne peut croire à un bonheur inattendu ; mais quand il releva la tête, il vit devant lui une espèce d’ombre immobile, les bras croisés sur la poitrine, et deux yeux ardents qui avaient toute la férocité du tigre qui s’apprête à déchirer sa proie. Alfred fit un mouvement pour se lever, mais une main puissante le retint sur la chaise.
        — Que me voulez-vous, accentua Alfred d’une voix tremblante.
        — Te complimenter de la naissance de ton fils, répondit une voix qui semblait sortir de la tombe.
        Alfred frissonna du pied à la tête, ses cheveux se hérissèrent, et une sueur froide inonda ses membres.
        — Je ne vous connais pas, murmura faiblement Alfred…
        — Je m’appelle Georges.
        — Vous…
        — Tu me croyais mort n’est-ce pas, dit le mulâtre avec un rire convulsif.
        — Au secours…au secours, cria Alfred…
        — Qui te secourra, reprit le mulâtre… n’as-tu pas renvoyé tes domestiques, fermé toutes tes portes, pour être plus seul avec ta femme… tu vois donc que tes cris sont inutiles… ainsi recommande ton âme à Dieu.
        Alfred s’ était peu à peu relevé de sa chaise, mais à cette dernière parole, il y retomba pâle et tremblant.
        — Oh ! pitié , Georges… ne me tuez pas aujourd’hui.
        Georges haussa les épaules. — Maître, n’est-ce pas que c’est horrible de mourir quand on est heureux ; de se coucher dans la tombe au moment où l’on voit ses rêves les plus chers se réaliser… oh ! n’est-ce pas que c’est affreux, dit le mulâtre avec un rire infernal…
        — Grâce, Georges…
        — Cependant, reprit-il, telle est ta destinée… tu mourras aujourd’hui, à cette heure, dans une minute, sans dire à ta femme un dernier adieu…
        — Pitié…pitié…
        — Sans embrasser une seconde fois ton fils qui vient de naître…
        — Oh ! grâce… grâce.
        — Je crois ma vengeance digne de la tienne… j’aurais vendu mon âme à Satan, s’il m’avait promis cet instant.
        — Oh ! grâce… miséricorde, dit Alfred en se jetant aux genoux du mulâtre.
        Georges haussa les épaules, et leva sa hache.
        — Oh !… une heure encore de vie !
        — Pour embrasser ta femme n’est-ce pas ?
        — Une minute…
        — Pour revoir ton fils, n’est-ce pas ?
        — Oh ! par pitié…
        — Il vaudrait mieux prier le tigre affamé de lâcher sa proie.
        — Au nom de Dieu, Georges.
        — Je n’y crois plus.
        — Au nom de votre père…
        À ce mot la colère de Georges tomba. — Mon père…mon père, dit le mulâtre la larme à l’ œil, vous le connaissez… oh ! dites-moi son nom… comment s’appelle-t-il… oh ! dites, dites-moi son nom… je vous bénirai… je vous pardonnerai.
        Et le mulâtre était prêt à se mettre à genoux devant son maître. Mais tout à coup des cris aigus se font entendre…
        — Juste ciel… c’est la voix de ma femme, s’ écria Alfred en s’ élançant du côté d’où partaient les cris…
        Comme rappelé à lui-même, le mulâtre se souvint qu’il était venu chez son maître, non pour savoir le nom de son père, mais pour lui demander compte du sang de sa femme. Retenant aussitôt Alfred, il lui dit avec un ricanement horrible :
        — Arrête, maître, ce n’est rien.
        — Jésus-Maria, tu n’entends pas qu’elle demande du secours.
        — Ce n’est rien, te dis-je.
        — Lâchez-moi… lâchez-moi… c’est la voix de ma femme.
        — Non… c’est le râle d’une mourante.
        — Misérable, tu mens.
        — Je l’ai empoisonnée.
        — Oh !…
        — Entends-tu ces plaintes… ce sont les siennes.
        — Enfer…
        — Entends-tu ces cris… ce sont les siens…
        — Malédiction…
        Et pendant tout ce temps, Alfred s’efforçait d’ échapper des mains du mulâtre ; mais celui-ci l’ étreignait de plus en plus ; car lui aussi sa tête s’exaltait, son cœur bondissait ; il se faisait à son terrible rôle.
        — Alfred… au secours… de l’eau… je m’ étouffe… cria une femme en s’ élançant au milieu de la chambre. Elle était pâle et défaite, ses yeux sortaient de sa tête, ses cheveux étaient en désordre.
        — Alfred, Alfred… au nom du ciel, secourez-moi… un peu d’eau… un peu d’eau… mon sang me brûle… mon cœur se crispe, oh ! de l’eau, de l’eau…
        Alfred faisait des efforts inouïs pour la secourir ; mais Georges le retenait de son poignet de fer, et ricanant comme un damné , il lui criait : non pas, maître…non pas…je veux que cette femme meure… là… à tes yeux… devant toi… comprends-tu, maître, devant toi, te disant de l’eau, de l’air, sans que tu puisses la secourir.
        — O malheur… malheur à toi, hurlait Alfred en se débattant comme un forcené .
        — Tu auras beau maudire, blasphémer, répondit le mulâtre, il faut que cela soit ainsi.
        — Alfred, murmura de nouveau la mourante, adieu… adieu… je meurs…
        — Regarde, reprit le mulâtre toujours en ricanant… regarde… elle râle… eh bien ! une seule goutte de cette eau la ramènerait à la vie. Il lui montrait un petit flacon.
        — Toute ma fortune pour cette goutte d’eau… cria Alfred.
        — Es-tu fou, maître…
        — Ah ! cette eau… cette eau… ne vois-tu pas qu’elle se meurt… Donnez… donnez donc…
        — Tiens… et le mulâtre brisa le flacon contre le mur.
        — Soyez maudit, hurla Alfred, en saisissant Georges par le cou… oh ! ma vie entière, mon âme pour un poignard…
        Georges se débarrassa des mains d’Alfred.
        — Maintenant qu’elle est morte, à ton tour, maître, dit-il en levant sa hache. Frappe, bourreau… frappe… après l’avoir empoisonnée, tu peux bien tuer ton pè…  La hache s’abaissa, et la tête d’Alfred roula sur le plancher, mais la tête en roulant murmura distinctement la dernière syllabe re… Georges croyait avoir mal entendu, mais le mot père. comme le glas funèbre, tintait à son oreille ; or pour s’en assurer, il ouvrit le sac fatal…ah ! s’écria-t-il, je suis maudit… une détonation se fit entendre ; le lendemain on trouva près du cadavre d’Alfred celui du malheureux Georges.
  8. richardmurray
    Someone I love shared a titty tuesday photo to me, and it made me think. When did Titty Tuesday begin. Can we find out the origins?  The oldest social message.
    Who doesn't want to know...how many bare naked titties have been shown on titty tuesday, which has been going on for a while.  Who knows right?  I searched google and bing and yahoo, "first titty tuesday post and I" couldn't get anything. 
     
    Then i thought let me go back:) i will use twitter, and search from jan 1st 2066 to february 1st 2006 for hashtag tittytuesday 
    < (#tittytuesday) until:2006-02-01 since:2006-01-01 >
    and saw nothing until I get to 2010
    <(#tittytuesday) until:2010-02-01 since:2010-01-01 >
    so then I said to myself go back a little
    < (#tittytuesday) until:2009-12-01 since:2009-11-01 > 
    and I saw results, many from twitpic, which don't work now
    I went back months and months until
    <(#tittytuesday) until:2009-08-01 since:2009-07-01 >
    I quote
    The following two were interesting in that twitter had slow issues loading these as standalone posts:) 
     
     
    I realize titty tuesday is new around this time, so ok, let's go back some more
    < (#tittytuesday) until:2009-07-01 since:2009-06-01 > 
     
     
     
    <<as a point of note, he didn't don't tell him I told you >>
    I finally reached a lean search return
    (#tittytuesday) until:2009-05-01 since:2009-04-01
    I checked top and latest and only one return
     
    more information on that tweet
    The Sizzler
    @mysecretworld
    Apr 28, 2009
     
    This is the tweeter
    The Sizzler
    2,160 Tweets
    The Sizzler
    @mysecretworld
    I'm an engineer that likes to have sex, eat pussy, and fuck tits.
    Joined March 2009
    206 Following
    219 Followers
     
    PENULTIMATELY
    So based on my wee research, Tittytuesday was born on twitter on April 28th 2009, from a user who only accumulated 2,160 tweets... hmmm. I bet a bot. 
    But, what about the oldest tittytuesday titties? The goal was to find the oldest tittes findable. 
    ...
     
    I went further ahead and finally found an image at 
    < (#tittytuesday) until:2011-12-01 since:2011-11-01 > 
    A two year distance from the first titty tuesday, but 
    The link is from November 30th 2011

    The contents
    It links to the following image, which is of a clothed breast in a shirt entitled, body by brandt
     

    I went back and searched for twitpic images as other referrals seem to be deleted
    < (#tittytuesday) AND  twitpic until:2011-11-01 since:2011-10-01 > 
     
    The twitpic link that actually worked
     
    I went further back
    < (#tittytuesday) AND  twitpic until:2011-06-01 since:2011-05-01 >
    The twitpic link 
    and I went further back , but the twit pic links just didn't work. they were not highlighted, and I wasn't about to copy and paste. Now to be fair, maybe they do but I wanted to get to the first post and then try and find the first image. I can't say the following image is the first, but on twitter it is one of the early available.
     
    So the following is the oldest titty tuesday image I could cite

     
    IN CONCLUSION
    When I look at the early days of titty tuesday , it is to be noted how unrevealing it was. You can see through the search the growth of popularity and the phase into industry. Today, some women are bare breast models. Men mostly but others in general pay to see their breast bare in various scenarios and titty tuesday is like their sunday at christian  church. Many of them give a bare witness to honor titty tuesday and lead potential customers to themselves. And we found the birthday of titty Tuesday on twitter at least: April 28th 2009
    If you have another idea for an internet game, leave a comment.

     
    Post Script
    ...and desire5000 is on twitter still, in her description she refer to herself as a legend... i for one can't deny it
     
  9. richardmurray
    A 5 hour talk so be prepared, but lively and informative or comparative. But, what are your thoughts to the art of Black characters or regions where Black characters live in video games?
     

     
    LINK
    https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1604402565
     
     
    Check out her art
    Title: Emilia

    https://www.deviantart.com/tofusenshi/art/Emilia-oc-commission-921063712
     
    If you don't know how to embed twitch, use the following
     

     
    URL in text
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPA3EiqnaMM
     
  10. richardmurray

    A Visual Novel from SrtaZuzza

    By richardmurray,


    Gaming Craft
    A visual novel from SrtaZuzza, not a Black developer but an independent one. 
    What Black story will you like to see as a visual novel? 
     
    Link to play the game, how long did it take?
    https://tenacittea.itch.io/selfish-wish
     
    Check out art from SrtaZuzza
    Title: Mermaid

    Link
    https://www.deviantart.com/srtazuzza/art/Mermaid-918504363

     
  13. richardmurray

    SpinBowlers second prototype

    By richardmurray,


    BGEprototypes
    Spinbowlers is a concept I derived out of a deviantart invitational called Three EMoji challenge
    The characters are in the gallery immediately linked below. The prototype game is afterward, tell me what you think 
    Three EMoji Invitational Gallery
     
    HEre are the rules
    Seven cards are shuffled out, negative six to positive six with two zeros, two RO cards, meaning roll out and one GG card meaning GalaGyro every time you shuffle the shift value goes to zero and five multiple the times you shuffle is taken from the final score every time you shift, the shift value increments and the sum of shifts is taken from your final score shifting changes the position of cards in ashuffle which can be advantageous The bowling starting point influences the final value as the starting point is given a value of seven points if not RO , all positions from the starting position are given nan incremental less value The spinbowl is seven values emitting numbers zero to six.  The game is a match game. Seven spinbowl cards matching seven shuffled cards. if a shuffled card is an RO it is an automatic zero points for that space. If a shuffled card is a GG. Fourteen points if the value spinbowled equals the position of the spinbowled card. Seven points otherwise. If a spinbowl card is [0 to 6] and a shuffled card is [-6 to +6] the sum of the cards is taken. if the sum is between or equaling [0 to 6] the value is the sum, else the value is zero.  Bowl positions 2|3|4  USe the status line to see what is going on ENjoy

     
    First prototype arcade entry
     
  15. richardmurray
    Video


    TRANSCRIPT - my thoughts in the comments
    0:28
    all right good evening my name is Dr Jason ockerman
    0:34
    I'm a faculty member at the uh in the IUPUI School of liberal arts
    0:40
    and I'm the director of the Ray Bradbury Center what is the Ray Bradbury Center it is a
    0:47
    one of the larger single author archives in the United States it's also a small Museum we have
    0:53
    recreated Ray Bradbury's basement office with entirely original artifacts and we do offer tours to the public on
    1:00
    occasion so please follow us on social media if you'd ever like to come and see the collection
    1:06
    on behalf of the Bradbury Center and the school of liberal arts I want to welcome you to our literary Festival Festival
    1:13
    451 Indy we have events throughout the month of September to celebrate our literary
    1:20
    Heroes two of mine are going to be taking the stage uh in in just a moment to encourage people the festival
    1:27
    encourages people to cultivate an active reading life and to celebrate the humanities our
    1:33
    Festival references Ray Bradbury's most famous work Fahrenheit 451.
    1:38
    a cautionary tale about the consequences of the cultural devaluation of literacy
    1:45
    his words you don't have to burn books to destroy a culture just get people to
    1:51
    stop reading have only become more poignant and relevant today
    1:56
    that's why we felt that a festival like Festival four or five when Indy was necessary so thank you so much for for being here
    2:04
    tonight and being part of it hopefully you picked up some note cards
    2:10
    as you're listening to the speakers today please write down your questions and I think these two aisles here if I'm
    2:18
    wrong somebody will correct me okay I got the thumbs up from the boss so these
    2:23
    two aisles here you'll be able to approach a microphone and address your questions so please stick around for the Q a sometimes that's the best part
    2:30
    although I think everything about tonight's going to be great we also want to thank the aw Clues foundation for sponsoring tonight's
    2:36
    event and for sponsoring the entire Festival um that lasts the entire month of
    2:41
    September their generosity made this Festival possible uh in your programs
    2:47
    tonight there's a short survey if you could fill that out and turn it into one of our team members at our information
    2:53
    table uh in the lobby that would be super helpful for us we do have to do a grant report for Clues and your your
    3:01
    response to the event tonight would go a long way in helping us craft that report we definitely appreciate it
    3:08
    before introducing our speakers I want to share a brief land acknowledgment
    3:13
    IUPUI acknowledges our location on the traditional on the traditional and
    3:18
    ancestral territory of the Miami padawatami and Shawnee people
    3:24
    we honor the heritage of native peoples what they teach us about the stewardship of the earth and their continuing
    3:31
    efforts today to protect the planet founded in 1969 IUPUI stands on the
    3:39
    historic homelands of native peoples and more recently that of a vibrant a vibrant black community also unjustly
    3:47
    displaced where we sit tonight Madame Walker theater is one of the last vestiges of
    3:53
    that Vibrant Community as the present stewards of the land we honor them all as we live work and study
    4:01
    at IUPUI today people in this state who teach about the
    4:07
    injustices of the past are under attack and I want to affirm tonight that we
    4:13
    stand with our public Educators our public libraries and librarians
    4:18
    we honor their expertise we will never correct the injustices of
    4:24
    the present if we fail to acknowledge our past especially the parts that make us uncomfortable
    4:30
    if there are Educators and Librarians in the art in our audience tonight would
    4:35
    you please raise your hand so we can honor you [Applause]
    4:46
    thank you thank you for what you do um you know tonight in part we honor Ray
    4:53
    Bradbury a great author who spent his life standing up for public libraries because knowledge
    4:59
    should be free and accessible to everyone no matter what
    5:06
    we stand against any attempt to whitewash our history the old adage that
    5:12
    those who refuse to learn history are doomed to repeat it rings true but I would add it seems clear that
    5:18
    those who actively try to prevent history from being taught intend to
    5:23
    repeat it we will not let that happen so tonight the red Bradbury Center is
    5:29
    thrilled to partner with our friends at the center for Africana studies and culture and presenting a night with two
    5:35
    legendary authors Dr Charles Johnson and Stephen Barnes
    5:41
    tonight's event will be moderated by my dear friend and colleague Dr lasatien
    5:47
    executive director of the center for Africana studies and culture Dr Les the stage is yours my friend
    6:02
    good evening good evening good evening everyone thank you for coming out um a little little housekeeping before
    6:08
    we get started because we are breathing rarified air here tonight so I want to
    6:14
    acknowledge uh in in right in the front here to also legendary writers uh Ms
    6:21
    Sharon Skeeter and also miss Tanner nariev do right here in the front
    6:29
    and big thanks to to Jason uh and the the staff and and Folks at the Bradbury
    6:36
    Center for putting this on and also giving us an opportunity to play a role in it um some colleagues from Liberal
    6:43
    Arts are sitting right there shout out to y'all hello um and also our Dean
    6:49
    um let me say oh and look Rob Robbin uh our other colleague but our Dean is also
    6:55
    in the house here tonight as well uh Tammy Idol so I'd like to bring up uh Mr Barnes and Dr Johnson if they could hear
    7:02
    me to come on up and we'll get started let's give a round of applause
    7:17
    you wanted the right I'm gonna go to the right thank you
    7:24
    all right welcome welcome welcome thank you thank you both for being here greatly appreciated I think it's um it's
    7:33
    always good uh to introduce uh folks uh to who we have this August panel that
    7:40
    we're in here tonight so if you wouldn't mind if we just get started Jump Right In but also I think there might be
    7:48
    people in the house that would want to know uh about uh who we are are sitting
    7:54
    with tonight no I'm always curious about who I'm sitting with especially when I'm sitting
    8:00
    alone in a room exactly okay there we go so you know what I forgot to say what
    8:05
    did you forget to say we have Mr Maurice Broadus in the house tonight as well yay
    8:10
    foreign yes that's right yes yes so if you don't
    8:17
    mind I will start with uh the youngest of us um
    8:23
    [Music] okay if you don't mind um because uh you know uh I think it's
    8:29
    it it's it's very important for us to understand um the value uh in in the work you've
    8:35
    done uh in the literary World um but also you know in Academia and and
    8:42
    it's you know and some of these other other places if you don't mind just giving us giving a brief brief bio a
    8:48
    little bit about yourself okay uh you got 30 minutes
    8:54
    um first I want to say this is a joyful occasion for me to be on the stage with
    8:59
    this gentleman but especially that gentleman on the end we have collaborated on any number of projects in the past
    9:07
    most recently the Eightfold Path yeah uh which is uh award-winning as it turns
    9:13
    out uh graphic novel all of it all the credit goes to Steve they're all of his
    9:18
    stories okay I came on and I I you know I took
    9:24
    the ride with you and it was like anything we do together um a great pleasure we have a lot of
    9:30
    overlap you know I did a book in 1988 called
    9:36
    um being in race black writing since 1970. and in the last chapter it's a
    9:43
    survey of black writers uh up to 1970 in the last chapter I I mentioned this guy
    9:50
    I keep running across um his you know he's a martial artist and he writes science fiction
    9:58
    um he's a black dude too I'm thinking that's me that's me but then I really no
    10:04
    it's this character over here Stephen Barnes who um has been my hero for a
    10:09
    very long very long time um my history my journey
    10:15
    and to creativity had it was truly influenced by the man who did this book
    10:20
    he was in and the Art of writing uh brave adverry but I come to this
    10:28
    from being a journalist and a cartoonist that
    10:33
    was my first love my first Passion was drawing in high school I became a
    10:39
    professional illustrator when I was 17 I did some illustrations for a magic Company catalog in Chicago and
    10:47
    um I saved that dollar by the way too that I got paid it's framed and there were times I was I was gonna
    10:54
    use it because I was so broke in grad school but I started out as a as a Cartoonist and a journalist
    11:02
    and along the way read you know voraciously of course you know cartoons
    11:08
    do read a lot so we can get ideas from all kinds of different you know sources and it was around the time when I was 18
    11:15
    I got exposed to philosophy and decided one of these days I I have to get a
    11:20
    doctorate in philosophy I just have to and one of the lights I discovered is
    11:25
    how much Bradberry admired Socrates and Marcus Aurelius you know among the uh
    11:32
    the stoics right so so my journey took me from drawing to to scholarship and
    11:40
    then to writing at a certain point uh you know novels and short stories and
    11:46
    essays and and other things uh one of the things I want to emphasize which I'm sure most of you know already but I have
    11:53
    to remind myself of it repeatedly is all of the the liberal arts in the
    11:58
    humanities are interconnected one thing will lead you to another thing
    12:04
    you know if you might want to get up one day and draw but then the next day you
    12:10
    might want to get up and start a short story and the third day you might want to get up and write an essay on a
    12:17
    question that's been troubling you about the mind-body relationship there is no reason why any of us should have to
    12:25
    allow anybody to put us in a little box and say this is all that you do you know
    12:31
    if you see my name crop up with something it'll be Charles Johnson novelist but that's not the only thing I do so all of these Arts feed each other
    12:39
    you know create creatively and I when I was young looking at Bradbury's movies reading his short stories I felt that
    12:47
    Spirit you know of openness and the excitement that just comes from doing
    12:52
    something not as Bradbury said for money or fame first is for the love of doing
    12:59
    it you get money in Fame later if you get it well that's fine but that's not your motivation your motivation is the
    13:06
    fact that when you create you're creating yourself
    13:11
    with every canvas with every novel with every story with every poem you're
    13:18
    realizing your own individual inherent potential as a human being who can
    13:24
    through craft give a gift to the world of beauty goodness and Truth goodness and beauty
    13:31
    that may enrich the lives of others that's why I think we create and why we
    13:36
    honor this guy now shut up [Applause]
    13:45
    goodbyes if you wouldn't mind just no I was uh relatively poor kid grew up in a broken
    13:52
    home in South Central Los Angeles and I knew that the world that was presented to me was not the real world I knew that
    13:59
    there were some things that were said to me about who I was and what my potential was and what my people were that was not
    14:04
    accurate so I as many people did I think a large number of people in the science fiction fantasy fanish Community are
    14:11
    people who grew up feeling like the world was not the world inside them that they connected with was not the same as
    14:17
    the world that they saw and that they looked to the Stars they looked to the past they looked to other worlds and
    14:23
    other winds to get a sense of in some ways what might be truer that science
    14:29
    fiction is a fiction of ideas and Concepts that you know what if if only
    14:35
    if this goes on often anchored to physics but sometimes about
    14:40
    the human heart but usually if there are two questions that are Central to philosophy those questions are probably
    14:46
    who am I and what is true what is it to be human and what is the world that human beings perceive and science fiction approached it in one way fantasy
    14:54
    approaches it in another fantasy is not about the world of physics it's about the world of symbols and the human heart
    15:01
    and the way these things interact it's about the Poetry what's happening kind of between the atoms kind of between the
    15:09
    events so whereas science fiction has to be both internally and externally consistent connected to physics as I
    15:16
    said fantasy has to only be internally consistent that within this we're
    15:21
    talking about human heart human perception and what are we and how do we feel this
    15:30
    Bradbury Drew my attention I was reading voraciously at that time because I was
    15:35
    looking for you know that question who am I and what is true so am I slept in a
    15:41
    bedroom with the walls aligned with books and Ray Bradbury was interesting because he
    15:47
    wrote he was published in science fiction magazines but he was not writing about what if in that way it wasn't
    15:53
    interested in the physics of the situation he was interested in the Poetics of it as if he were a fantasy
    15:58
    writer he was about where is the human heart in all of this so the Martian Chronicles were not it was not what
    16:05
    Voyager landed on or whatever it was that were our first Rovers I forget what the name of was he was interested in
    16:12
    Edgar Rice Burroughs Mars he was interested in barsum you
    16:19
    know he was not he was interested in the Poetics of Science and because of that
    16:24
    he touched my heart he was a poet writing science fiction stories being published in science fiction magazines but you weren't going to learn anything
    16:30
    about science by reading Ray Bradbury which you were going to learn about was what is it to be human what is it to see
    16:36
    the stars what is it to yearn for a meaning to our lives you know what what
    16:42
    are we in the vastness of the universe and that really touched this young kid
    16:48
    trying to figure out who he was that the vision of the universe in that sense was so large the individual political or
    16:56
    philosophical differences that that deviled us on Earth are meaningless once
    17:01
    you start backing up you know when astronauts talk about how when they were in orbit they looked down at the world
    17:07
    and there were no divisions of Nations and they had a spiritual experience where they said the first day everybody
    17:12
    was pointing out the city they came from you know the next day when they were talking about the the the the
    17:18
    International Space Station they were talking about what nations they came from the next day after that they were
    17:24
    talking about the continent and then by the fourth day they're just looking at the world and those individual
    17:30
    differences dissolved when you look at the world in terms of a sound of thunder
    17:36
    going back 100 million years or forward into the future the problems that we
    17:41
    have right now politically or in terms of nations in the in the the the joining
    17:47
    together of just different groups of people who've been separated by large amounts of geography
    17:52
    all that stuff disappears the question of what is the difference between this civilization and that Civilization
    17:58
    it might be a thousand years of development but a thousand years of development is
    18:04
    nothing in terms of the 13.7 billion years that this universe has existed
    18:09
    it's nothing at all those differences dissolve and when that was the world
    18:14
    that I wanted to live in a world in which those differences that were necessary because the human mind works
    18:20
    in terms of what is similar as opposed to what is different we're very that dualism created a lot of our science and
    18:27
    so forth and so on but ultimately getting caught in the middle of that you are not this because of that you are
    18:34
    this because of this if you feel caught in that then taking that larger perspective can feel like taking a
    18:40
    breath of fresh air for the first time of stepping outside anything anyone ever said about who you were or what your
    18:46
    potential was and being lost in the Poetry of experience so my connection to
    18:53
    Bradberry was that I sought The Poetry in the mundane the the unusual in the in
    19:00
    the daily and he went went there every time he went there from his earliest
    19:06
    stories which were often what are called biter bit stories where somebody does a
    19:11
    bad thing and they are destroyed by the consequences of their action in these old you know uh pulp magazines you know
    19:19
    and stories of ghastlys and murderers and ghosts and goblins I just ate that
    19:25
    up because I I would read him and I would read other people wrote the same thing but Bradbury was always about
    19:31
    something more than the events and the actions there we go absolutely absolutely so you know who I am growing
    19:40
    up in the shadow of giants one of whom was the man that we come here to honor today
    19:45
    is a kid who grew up in South Central Los Angeles wanted to be a science fiction writer found a great mentor in
    19:52
    Larry Niven who's one of the great science fiction writers of the 20th century took me under his wing showed me how to do it gave me opportunities I was
    19:59
    able to build a life I published over three million words and you know the New York Times bestseller list in this award
    20:04
    and that one that's all fine but the important thing is I got to spend my life doing the thing I dreamed of as a
    20:11
    kid that was the reward just to be able to do that to be able to every day talk
    20:17
    to the little kid inside me and say I've kept the faith and for him to look at me and say Dad you sure did that is worth
    20:24
    you there is nothing I would exchange that for and and Ray Bradbury was one of
    20:30
    The Shining lights that said it was possible to get all the way there and never sell yourself out yeah can I add
    20:37
    something to that of course um one of the things Bradbury gives us it
    20:43
    gave me as a young person I hear you saying Brad baby gave it to you too as a
    20:49
    sense of mystery and wonder about this existence in which we find ourselves the whole thing with the view
    20:56
    from The Sciences right from the solar system moving all the way out to galaxies as our problems seem so
    21:04
    infinitesimally small and trivial and race so small and trivial when we you
    21:10
    know take that perspective um so science fiction has an intellectual discipline
    21:18
    um allows us to dream you know one of my colleagues um the late Joanna Russ
    21:24
    once pointed out that the female man yeah yeah
    21:30
    um and at UW University of Washington she she once wrote that a woman wrote to
    21:35
    her um about why she loved science fiction she lived in a in a kind of ordinary
    21:42
    town you know very very boring and conformist but science fiction what she
    21:47
    really found appealing were the Landscapes the
    21:53
    landscape's so different from the ones that she was living in right it opened up the imagination science fiction has
    22:01
    always served that purpose I think well you know Ray Bradbury if I if I may add to what you're saying is that he might
    22:09
    quibble with something that you said there it isn't about developing your ability to dream it's about remembering it that we we go we all go quietly
    22:17
    insane every night but we forget that and that creativity
    22:22
    to a certain degree is simply opening up a pore between our unconscious minds that dream every night in the conscious
    22:29
    mind that that performs it does the performative part of our mind the part of us that says I am uh and the child
    22:36
    has that and life keeps telling the child be practical right stay here and
    22:43
    we'll start shutting that down Ray Bradbury never lost that thing he never
    22:48
    lost that connection with the child and their people will say that all there is of Genius is maintaining the creativity
    22:54
    of a child with the disciplined knowledge of an adult that if you can do that if you can maintain a connection
    23:00
    there you are going to be performing at the highest level that you are capable of performing it isn't it isn't
    23:06
    gaining something that you don't have it's remembering how you started it's
    23:11
    remembering the creativity and the aliveness and the sense of wonder that sense of Engagement that every child has
    23:18
    that gets squeezed out of us by the adult world yeah I know I know and
    23:24
    that's what we want to keep alive yes that child um Bradbury also put a lot of emphasis on
    23:31
    the importance of the subconscious too so I'm glad I'm glad you pointed that out
    23:37
    um you know we we always have to I think of you know think how do we get back to to
    23:43
    that innocence that that openness that we had as children before the world beat
    23:49
    it out of us or before critics you know beat it out of us um and and so what's that's one of the
    23:56
    reasons that uh Sharon skies are there and I are both practicing Buddhists
    24:01
    um our my practice at least gets rid of an awful lot of that conditioning
    24:07
    from childhood on from parents and field teachers so that I can experience the
    24:13
    world where that sense of newness and wonder and mystery you do have that I've
    24:18
    I've commented to people that one of the things I love about you is how easily you are astonished
    24:25
    that it's like you're constantly rediscovering yeah so you just you see it right there
    24:32
    oh the world is here still have that you're not numb it
    24:39
    hasn't been it hasn't been scabbed over your nerves are alive you're strong enough that you're not afraid to feel
    24:46
    okay and I think that when we lose courage you know fatigue makes cowards of us all often as we age or as we get
    24:52
    tired or as we shape our egos to fit into the different molds that people want us to shape into we start
    24:58
    forgetting who we are and and that we started this life to enjoy it that that
    25:04
    we want that sense of joy and instead of that we sack we settle for not being afraid if at best
    25:11
    yeah we can't lose that you cannot yeah a human being cannot lose that and still be fully Alive one of the things I would
    25:17
    like to think is my capacity one of the things at least in my work as a
    25:22
    philosophical novel is I think that literature should liberate our perceptions liberate our perception you say
    25:29
    astonishment I would like to be able to look at some look at you know look at
    25:34
    something as if I've never seen it before it's often been said or very creative people they look at something
    25:40
    strange as if it's familiar and the familiar is if it's strange right so we're constantly working with
    25:47
    Consciousness and our perception and here every moment that we're alive is new
    25:54
    every single moment is alive the past I've written a lot of historical fictions and so forth but the past has
    26:00
    passed in the future I'm not going to worry about it because it ain't come and it never will because that's a horizon the
    26:06
    future that we can never reach the only moment we have right here with each other is right here right now
    26:15
    before I came over here I sat for a little bit of meditation I always do that I would not meet a group or a crowd
    26:21
    or do anything in public and so I had that chance to sit if only for 10 or 15 minutes so that I can be
    26:28
    here right here with all of you right now and the only moment that exists in
    26:34
    time not worrying about what am I going to do when we're done with this or what what was the flight light getting us
    26:40
    here with no sleep you know from Seattle right here right now new never like this
    26:46
    moment before you get up in the morning why wash your face you got the soap you know okay that has never happened before
    26:54
    you might think I'm doing a routine thing no not that soap not that water
    26:59
    not that moment and not that version of you and not that version of me you're
    27:04
    right you can't step in the same piece of water twice because your foot is never the same and the water has changed
    27:09
    that's right so it's it's that awareness that the sacred is in the mundane that
    27:15
    it is in this moment it that what I try to do is to Center myself and then ask
    27:21
    myself what is the task to do next it task may be to get out of bed and have breakfast it may be to embrace my wife
    27:28
    it may be to counsel my son it may be to play with the cat it might be to answer an email it might be to write a story
    27:34
    but all those I'm not different people when I do those things I'm the same person playing different roles so let me
    27:40
    be appropriate the question is can I be appropriate in this moment can I be here with this moment and the demands of this
    27:47
    moment with the story that I'm writing or the person that I'm speaking to or the task that I have to do be here
    27:53
    totally right now yes 30 of yourself isn't trapped in the past remembering
    27:58
    regretting 30 is not projecting into the future what you're going to do you bring back all of yourself 100 to this moment
    28:06
    right now whether it's writing whether it's talking to your your son or me
    28:12
    talking to my grandson uh you're here totally right at this moment so one of
    28:18
    the reasons why the martial arts have are such a great tool for learning
    28:25
    that because one second of not thinking about right here and you get hit in the head that's right you know so there's
    28:31
    nothing like a smack upside the head to wake you up no I better be here now you know you better forget about the
    28:37
    hamburger I had yesterday or what my wife's gonna say when I get home this guy's Gonna Knock my head off right here
    28:42
    right now in this instant there is no more other moment in time there is no other moment that that's it and that
    28:49
    that sense of being there is consistent across all arts and so this conversation
    28:55
    concerning getting hit in the head it's like an athlete in the zone yes in the
    29:00
    zone right yes so go on well no it's the dissolution of the subject object relationship there is not a you and it
    29:08
    there is there is a there's something that is happening here and you're not observing yourself doing it because when
    29:15
    you're observing yourself some of the energy that you would have put into that moment is put into creating a self to
    29:20
    observe and what's even worse is when people observe themselves observing themselves now you're two steps removed
    29:28
    yes and you've lost all the energy you need to liberate your true self so in
    29:34
    one sense Society will try to keep you in the place of observing yourself and judging yourself because that way you
    29:40
    become dependent upon Society to say that you're okay because if you're in the moment you you know you're okay
    29:46
    you're always okay when you're in the moment you're you're not okay once you observe yourself and start judging
    29:52
    yourself but when you're there and it's just happening that's when you're totally alive and that's what we look
    29:59
    for in sexuality in driving on the freeway in in heavy traffic in the rain
    30:05
    in fighting in in writing in Reading is the sense of total engagement in the
    30:11
    moment the eye is not observed it is it is
    30:17
    subsumed in the process of the interaction that that thing of the page
    30:22
    opening up and you fall into the page can happen only once this component skills have been
    30:30
    reduced to unconscious competence right right as you can tell we we've talked a lot together [Laughter]
    30:37
    and we have long conversations like this but this gentleman here may have I was
    30:43
    going to say that this is the easiest job I've never had if they were paying me
    30:50
    man I you know um and uh I I definitely the interesting
    30:55
    thing is you know the the one I think it was like the one time I got a chance to I think Jason and I were on a zoom with
    31:02
    you in a similar conversation happened and we were like in the chat like hey man let's just stay here they don't
    31:09
    notice us let's just listen and and get it so that's what I and I also would be remiss if I didn't mention that I am a
    31:14
    fill-in uh Dr Rhonda Henry uh was uh ill and could not make it she would have
    31:20
    been the person here today uh so I didn't want to lift her up and mention that as well
    31:26
    um so thank you first of all thank you for for that first that opening sound thank
    31:32
    everybody for coming see you later oh no we're still we got one more got one more so I do have one more uh thing and and
    31:39
    this is more specific uh you you've certainly touched on it you you showed us uh these were uh yeah yeah these uh I
    31:47
    I purchased uh some years ago of a complete line of Planet stories
    31:53
    from the late 30s to the early 50s these are the original issues and they have Brad Barry's Original Stories in them
    32:00
    and a lot of other people too who became famous because this is this is where he
    32:06
    began you know with the pulse I wanted to have the actual feel of that
    32:12
    um underneath my fingers see one of the beautiful things about Bradbury and the
    32:17
    pulp Riders to me they're prolific they they were not worried about am I
    32:23
    writing something that will last for the ages no Bradbury is getting 20 to 40
    32:28
    dollars per story he's making himself right a thousand words a day a story a
    32:35
    week he's got to sell um to a month in order to pay his bills
    32:40
    okay he is immersed in the moment these precede comic books okay by a few years
    32:45
    and the comic book artists were the same people you know you you were not looking back you were immersed in the moment of
    32:53
    creation you had a deadline to meet that's right um and and you produced all
    32:58
    this stuff not thinking that this might shape called culture that the characters that you're creating from Edgar Rice
    33:04
    Burroughs to the Marvel characters that these would be installed in popular
    33:09
    culture 50 cents uh you know 50 years later so that even my grandson knows
    33:15
    these characters right um I I admire artists who work like that
    33:20
    who don't think that what they're doing is precious but what they're doing is absolutely everything they can do at the
    33:27
    present moment yes and then you let it go and you go on to the next one yes and you go into the next one and you're
    33:33
    blessed to be able to have the opportunity to do that and and that certainly was going to be you know kind
    33:40
    of the next question I wanted to throw out there very open-ended of course but just the idea of you know Bradbury's
    33:46
    influence I know you've touched on a little bit but just maybe if there was any any particular specific oh I
    33:52
    absolutely can but yeah go you can go first or you know I can go there or whatever whatever is appropriate I want
    33:58
    to hear your stories about bravery okay anybody want to hear my stories about rape River okay
    34:04
    because he was very important in my life and I did not write this out because I know for a fact that I'm going to get
    34:11
    choked up so get ready for that um and I wrote down some dates just so I
    34:16
    could I could get as precise as I could but this is not a formal you know
    34:22
    scholarly thing so if any of the dates are wrong you know apologies in advance so
    34:28
    I I grew up and I had a dream of being the science fiction writer it was a thing
    34:33
    that I I really loved to do because I didn't understand math well enough to be a scientist so I did the other thing I
    34:39
    could wrote write poetry of the sciences and so I was a little kid growing up South Central L.A and had dreams of
    34:45
    being a writer and I was writing as much as possible and everything around me told me that I could not do it you know
    34:51
    my mom my dad was a backup singer for Nat King Cole and I was in the studio when they did the the background vocals
    34:58
    for Ramblin Rose yeah just watching dad and every time it's on the radio I hallucinate that I can hear my dad's
    35:05
    baritone and my dad's singing career ultimately floundered and
    35:10
    it led to a divorce and so my mom was terrified that if I followed the Arts that I would have a similar failure and
    35:17
    she used to tear my stories up and burn them because she was so scared that I would go down that path but I you know I
    35:23
    just kept going and kept going and kept going and by the time I got to college I had
    35:31
    um tried I knew my mom wanted me not to write and so I tried to step away from
    35:36
    writing I would but I was tricking myself I'd take all kind of other classes I would take you know drama and
    35:43
    composition and English and speech and stuff like this work in the radio station I think things adjacent to
    35:49
    writing without writing and then finally they had a contest a writing contest on campus
    35:56
    where the winner would read a story to the to the alumni and I won the I won
    36:03
    the contest and I read the story to the alumni and I watched them react to me
    36:09
    and I realized this is who I'm supposed to be that there is I would rather fail
    36:15
    as a writer than succeed at anything else so I dropped out of college my girlfriend at the time who later
    36:23
    became my wife and are living together she was an artist and I was a writer and I was taking jobs adjacent to Hollywood
    36:29
    trying to work my way and I was also writing stories and I was starting to send them out and I was you know getting rejected and rejected and rejected and I
    36:36
    I think that at some point I started getting like a fifth of a cent a word and you know getting paid in
    36:42
    contributors copies but I think before my first sale uh I wrote a story a
    36:47
    Halloween story called trick or treat about a guy who it when he was a kid he
    36:55
    his candy is snatched by the kids in the neighborhood they were bullies and when he becomes an adult he starts you know
    37:02
    the kids in the neighborhood he's living in the same house they're playing tricks on him so he plays tricks back and the
    37:08
    next year they play a nastier trick and they asked that he plays a nastier trick on them and it goes back and forth and
    37:13
    back and forth until one year he plays a trick and the kids he accidentally kills a kid and he knows it next year they're
    37:20
    going to kill him and so this story is called trick-or-treat and I found out that Ray Bradbury was doing an
    37:28
    autographing at a bookstore and so my girlfriend was an artist and I created a
    37:33
    a a Halloween card that contained the story and artwork and we went to his
    37:39
    signing and we gave it to him in an envelope that had my address on it and about six weeks later I got a letter
    37:45
    back from Ray Bradbury saying he loved my story and this was the first time a
    37:51
    professional human being a person who was doing the thing that I wanted to do let alone somebody who I admired so much
    37:57
    had said yeah kid maybe you've got what it takes it meant more than I can
    38:03
    possibly say and inspired me to keep going so I kept going I'm writing and I'm trying to do this I'm trying to do
    38:09
    that I'm still not succeeding very much but I was starting to make a little bit of progress my mom
    38:15
    who had always been terrified finally realized that there was no way I was going to give it up and so she kind of
    38:21
    got on the bandwagon and she found a course that was being taught at UCLA
    38:27
    extension by Robert Kirsch who was the literary editor of the LA Times in about
    38:33
    1980 let's say 1975 1975 and
    38:39
    uh no no this is about about 1980 about 1980. uh and so I took a class from
    38:46
    Robert Kirsch and it was a strange class you know it was the little blue-haired lady writing astrological poetry and it
    38:52
    was the guy writing this going and I was writing these strange stories and I wrote one very strange story called is
    38:59
    your glass half empty about a compulsive Gambler who Hawks his pacemaker and he
    39:06
    Kirsch looked at me and he didn't know quite what to make of the story and he said
    39:11
    I've Got a Friend I'd like to show this story to would you mind if I did that and I said sure go right ahead and about
    39:17
    six weeks later I got a note I got a letter from Ray Bradbury who was Robert kirsch's friend writing telling me again
    39:24
    he didn't remember the earlier story he just said hey you know kid you know this is this is good you know this you know
    39:30
    that you've got something go for it don't ever give up doing that Ray Bradbury inspirational thing I kind of
    39:35
    said I got two letters from him you know this is this is cool so let me keep going
    39:41
    I eventually met Larry Niven and began working with him and started getting my
    39:47
    career going and in about what year did you publish your first story I published
    39:52
    my first story in probably about 1980 1981 somewhere in there maybe 79 to 81.
    39:58
    somewhere in there and it was like a fifth of the center word you know and then I finally the first story that was
    40:03
    published in a professional magazine was called uh it's called endurance vial about an
    40:12
    athlete who accidentally discovers a meditation that triggers his ability to
    40:17
    be more of an athlete and he starts running and he can't stop you know so that I think that was my first my very
    40:23
    first publication and I was working with Larry Niven and I had the balls to walk
    40:29
    up to Larry you know at the Las Vegas science fiction thing and I said hello Mr Niven my name is Stephen Barnes and
    40:35
    I'm a writer and he looked at me and said all right tell me a story I I found out that from the way I'd come
    40:40
    on to him I had about 10 seconds to prove I wasn't an luckily I just put that story is your
    40:47
    glass half empty into the mail that morning so I was able to stumble out you know I
    40:53
    think and that led to us eventually working together in my CR in my working he gave me a chance to work on an
    41:00
    earlier story of his that he hadn't been able to finish to his satisfaction called the locusts which was about a
    41:06
    group of space colonists who go to a planet and their children begin to devolve to australopithecines and they
    41:13
    don't know how to deal with it and if the problem in this story who would right if the problem of the story had
    41:19
    been biology or a cryptozoology or
    41:25
    physics or astrophysics I would have been lost but luckily the problem in the story was the psychology that Larry did
    41:33
    not understand group psychology as well as I think he could have such that he did not understand the impact that would
    41:40
    have on that little Colony if these things happen he was underestimating the emotions involved so that gave me an
    41:47
    opening a way that I could contribute something this story and it led to a Hugo nomination and my first real
    41:54
    publication you know with lyrics it was like you know wow this was you know I'm on my way so one of the things that I
    42:00
    was asked to do in this process was there was something called the planetary society in which I was asked to be a
    42:07
    presenter to be an announcer so I introduced several luminaries that were there astrophysics I mean there might
    42:14
    have been an astronaut so forth and one of the people was Ray Bradbury so Ray walked up on stage and before he walked
    42:20
    up on stage I told my story about how I was he was responsible for my me getting published by giving me inspiration at a
    42:28
    time when I was getting rejection after rejection after rejection started to question myself and he walked up on
    42:34
    stage and gave me a big hug and it was just a great moment everybody applauded it was very nice about eight years after
    42:40
    that um I was teaching a class at UCLA
    42:45
    and it was a a symposium and every week we had a different notable come in one
    42:51
    week it was Ray Bradbury so when I went to Ray's house came to class he came to
    42:56
    yeah he came and talked at the Symposium he was one of the I think seven notables that we had coming there
    43:03
    um and before the class I took him to dinner at in Westwood and
    43:12
    Larry Niven had asked if he could keep me but before Larry got there
    43:17
    ah I for 20 years I was the only black male
    43:24
    science fiction writer in the world so far as I could determine chip Delaney had left the field he'd gone into
    43:30
    Academia and queer fiction because he couldn't make a living in science fiction I survived largely because of my
    43:37
    partnership my mentorship with Larry Niven because I would I do collaboration with him and I'd make enough money to be
    43:43
    able to keep food on the table in the roof over our head but I was starting to wonder was I losing myself
    43:49
    was had I sold myself out was I losing
    43:55
    my art and I remember I had dinner with Leo and
    44:01
    Diane Dillon who we were just talking about in in Greenwich Village and they
    44:06
    are they were the essence of art it was like we're one they work they did Art together where one would start a line
    44:11
    the other one would finish it and back back so far and I was sitting at that table talking to them about the career
    44:19
    of an artist thinking I'd get some tips for my wife who was interested in being a professional artist and I suddenly realized that I didn't care about that
    44:25
    but I wanted to know was had I sold myself out had I sold out
    44:31
    my heart and I sat there and I just poured my eyes out and I just started crying finally I realized because I was
    44:38
    in the presence of real artists here this this was this was for real and I felt like a fraud I felt like a phony
    44:44
    and I was I just you know I poured my heart out to them and I finally said it is it too late for me
    44:51
    and they looked at each other and Diane looked at her husband and then she reached across the table and she took my
    44:57
    hands and she said Steve if you can even ask that question it's
    45:04
    not too late well that helped but I'm sitting at the table
    45:11
    with Ray Bradbury my childhood Idol who somehow I had choreographed an
    45:16
    opportunity to to be with him and and break bread with him and speak with him and I it was pretty much the same
    45:23
    question it's like you know I I've been hiding behind Larry Niven and his partner Jerry Purnell I'm writing these
    45:29
    things and I've gotten these Awards and made this money and so forth but I feel like I don't know have
    45:36
    am I broken you know is it too late for me is it can I can I still touch that
    45:42
    part of me that that is that's sacred and he asked me of course
    45:48
    he said have you published and I said oh yeah I published all these
    45:53
    stories in about six books and this that he just started laughing he just laughs oh you are going to have no problem at
    46:00
    all and hearing that for the second time is what made the difference I was able to see
    46:06
    that that I was just on this road I did not see Rey again
    46:11
    for many years and then in maybe the end of 2011 or the
    46:18
    beginning of 2012. I would I was asked if I would make a presentation at a more
    46:24
    at a at a acknowledgment dinner for Ray Bradbury who was very ill he could barely speak
    46:31
    he was in his wheelchair and it was held at the Universal Sheraton Sometime Late
    46:37
    2011 or early 2012. and I got up on the stage
    46:44
    it was so good to see him and he was so diminished physically but
    46:49
    the child self was still so alive in him his eyes were still still alive and I I told the
    46:57
    story of how he had reached out to me when I was getting started and he'd
    47:03
    written these letters giving me hope ing me believe that maybe it was
    47:09
    possible for me to have the life that I wanted how grateful I was for a chance to say
    47:16
    thank you to this great man and after I finished he held out his arms and he
    47:22
    gave me a hug and I went home and six weeks later I got a letter from him
    47:32
    telling me thanking me for the words I'd said
    47:38
    and how it had reminded him of his own path and his own Joy in his gratitude for the life that he
    47:46
    had had and the fact that he'd been able to touch others in the last words in that letter were
    47:53
    some of your tears are my own Ray Bradbury
    47:58
    and about six weeks after that he passed away and I just
    48:05
    wanted to say there's is no greater gift in life than
    48:12
    being able to take a look at the child you were and the truth and the dreams that they
    48:18
    had it realized that you were actually able to live that life
    48:24
    and that there was no possible way that you could have done it alone and that being able to talk to other
    48:31
    people along the path who say you know you're not remotely at
    48:37
    their level not remotely but they don't care all they care about is are you
    48:43
    writing are you reading are you teaching where are you what does the territory
    48:48
    look like from where you are and I just wanted to say that everybody in this room
    48:55
    has walked a path that others wish they could walk has answered questions that other people can't even formulate yet
    49:02
    and you never know what a kind word or a kind act is going to mean
    49:09
    his actions meant the difference between life and death
    49:16
    for part of my soul and I could not be who I am we're not
    49:22
    for people who had been kind to me who saw me and saw some potential Within Me
    49:31
    it reached out their hand and said you're going to have no problem at all
    49:38
    and I think you for the chance to come here and say
    49:44
    publicly how much I owe those people in one specific man one great man
    49:53
    Ray Bradbury who changed and saved my life
    50:11
    I'm going to pick up on like two things that you said Steve I know in my life there were individuals
    50:18
    who encouraged me when I couldn't get that encouragement from anywhere else
    50:23
    and when you're young you're tender you know you're in your teens and um
    50:30
    you know I'm not gonna belabor you know and bore you with those individuals who
    50:35
    did that for me but that's an extremely important thing for a young person an
    50:41
    old person too to have somebody who gives you permission
    50:46
    to go that route and to trust yourself and to trust your passion that could be
    50:52
    a teacher you've also written about a teacher in high school who um you know
    50:58
    positively gave you reinforcement yes so those those teachers are
    51:04
    extremely important um in our lives and I've had a a a several you know uh when I was a
    51:12
    cartoonist and then the novelist John Gardner when I started writing novels
    51:18
    and he led me into the book World which I knew nothing about and then later you know when I was in philosophy with my
    51:25
    dissertation director who became a dear friend who's actually passing away right
    51:30
    now but those teachers are extraordinarily important but there's something else you said I'd like to know
    51:36
    I'd like you to say a bit more about you've worked with Niven yes collaboratively yes and you're wondering
    51:43
    what's happening to me you know where am I you know so is that the opening that
    51:50
    question that led you to and to Nana Reeve to afrocentrism
    51:56
    is that how you found your way there well okay afrofuturism yeah I'm sorry yeah
    52:03
    for future futurism um well all that happened is that I worked with Larry Niven and his partner
    52:09
    Jerry Purnell and um I learned the basics of my craft and
    52:16
    I already had the basics of my craft I came to them with a certain amount of skills that were developed but then they
    52:21
    took me to being professional I remember you know Jerry I never I don't know how many writers in world history have ever
    52:27
    had the experience of two world-class writers best-selling writers award-winning writers sitting on opposite sides of the room tearing apart
    52:34
    their work at the same time because I was working on a book with the two of them and Cornell was taking great
    52:40
    pleasure in this how Burns we're ripping apart barnes's precious Pros Barnes was your mother
    52:47
    scared by a gerund I mean he would take he took such Glee in ripping me a new
    52:55
    one every single time I would drive home from working with them crying sobbing
    53:01
    because you know just taking this battering but it was like it was like being asked to spar with the black belt
    53:07
    class you got your butt kicked every night but you would crawl off the mat
    53:12
    but you'd know if I can survive this I'm going to be a fighter so I knew if I
    53:18
    could survive this I will learn things that are taught in no school in the world now one of the things is that
    53:23
    Jerry wrote stories that Jerry wanted to read Larry Niven wrote stories Larry Niven wanted to read so in order to be
    53:30
    like them I didn't it wasn't writing like Larry nibbon or Jerry Purnell I had to write stories that Stephen Barnes
    53:37
    wanted to read what were those stories into a huge degree
    53:42
    there is that question what was missing from the field and what was missing was people who
    53:48
    looked like me right and it wasn't passive it was active insult Edgar Rice
    53:54
    Burroughs would write stories you know in which in which uh the
    53:59
    Enterprise Burrows stories were the the core of Tarzan was specifically racism
    54:05
    specifically the idea that a British that an English Lord gentleman raised by Apes is still a gentleman and he made
    54:11
    racism specific in one of his stories in the jungle Tales of Tarzan where he says
    54:16
    white men have imagination black men have little animals have none I mean that was specifically so you can't get
    54:23
    away from it but I needed those stories because I was trying to Define myself as a man where I
    54:29
    am in the universe so as I once said to a group that I I sacrificed my melanin
    54:35
    on the altar of my testosterone I mean I I wanted to be a man more than I cared
    54:40
    about being black I would I would add something you brought something to Parnell and and Niven that they didn't
    54:46
    have yes from your perspective in your history they did not have the black orientation any of that no but but I
    54:52
    don't know if that worked into the books not that much I mean Jerry was was by
    54:58
    his own uh statement took politically to the right of Attila the Hun so it was
    55:05
    difficult to navigate that territory but one of the things I learned was how to argue with somebody smarter than you because Jerry was just smarter than me
    55:11
    just you know he's you know Jerry's brain had a rocket attached to it Larry's brain had a transport a
    55:19
    transporter attached to it whereas I could understand how Jerry would do stuff it was just an ordinary brain with a lot more information working a lot
    55:25
    faster but Larry would dematerialize and materialize someplace I was just like I don't even know how you got there so
    55:33
    taking their lessons and then writing my own stories demanded that I write for my
    55:39
    own experience so I'm then dealing with the fact that you know my my first book
    55:45
    was a book with Larry my second book was a book with Larry my third book was a solo book and I wrote a black character
    55:53
    I specifically wanted to create a black hero that was Street Lethal yeah but the
    55:59
    book company Ace put a white guy on the cover he's very clearly described as being as dark
    56:05
    as Zulu and they put a white guy on the cover and my poor editor called me up and she's in tears you know Beth Meacham
    56:13
    is her name very nice lady not her fault she said that they had done this Susan Allison who was the head editor I don't
    56:20
    have as good a feeling about her because she kind of blew it off she wasn't upset well it's one of those things that
    56:26
    happened it was the marketing department and I talked to the marketing department oh no it's the advertising it's the art
    56:32
    Department I talked to the art Department the art Department said well it's the sales department and the sales
    56:39
    department said well the truck drivers who are going to put the books on the stands would think that this was shaft
    56:45
    in space and so I realized at that point I can either hate white people I'd
    56:52
    rather not do that did I say that out loud no
    56:57
    I could either hate white people or I consider that what's going on here is an
    57:03
    example of how human beings think that human beings feel protective of their
    57:08
    tribe and almost all human beings are tribal they happen to have that power Everybody wants to rule the world
    57:13
    everybody wants to feel that the world reflects who they are in the mirror so this is I'm just at the an unfortunate
    57:21
    unfortunate effect of this what do I do with it I can either use this and say
    57:27
    the world kicked my ass or I can say this is where we are right now my dad
    57:35
    working with Nat King Cole performed in in hotels in Las Vegas where he could
    57:42
    not stay the world has gotten better than that
    57:47
    it's just not as good as I would like it to be how much longer will it take and I
    57:54
    projected trend lines in my mind I thought it might take two generations it might take two generations it might
    58:00
    take another 30 to 40 years before the world is ready for the stories that I want to tell
    58:07
    can I survive long enough to do that and so I started a program of I am going I'm
    58:14
    going to stay in this field and I'm going to create my stories and I'm going to do everything I can do
    58:20
    because I'm going to make it first of all I'm going to write stories that the kid who started this path would have
    58:25
    wanted to read and I'm going to create a career path so that other people coming in will have an
    58:31
    easier time than I have an Octavia Butler and I were the only black people working in the field we had many
    58:37
    conversations about this we lived walking distance from each other and Octavia was a level above me as a writer
    58:42
    she was often not happy with what I wrote Because she felt I was not living up to my potential
    58:48
    she would write and they put green people on the covers of her books but they wouldn't put black people you know
    58:53
    so we had lots of interesting conversations about that what do we feel about it what are we going to do I felt
    58:59
    I if I can stay in here and write the stories that I want stories that would
    59:05
    nurture the younger person I was that no matter what happens I've not been beat
    59:10
    and then I found out one day that there were Scholars studying something called afrofuturism and I was considered to be
    59:16
    an afrofuturist I didn't try to be one I was just trying to write Stephen Barnes stories
    59:21
    casually said that you lived walking distance from Octavia but I want to point out oh yeah you know we
    59:27
    used to come over for dinner and I'd go over her place and then we would just sit and we'd talk writing in life she was like my big sister I was wondering
    59:33
    you know um you go back to what is it the 20s the 30s and you've got black no
    59:39
    more that that early yes um and then you fast forward a little
    59:44
    bit and you got chipped Delaney and yeah you he said he couldn't make a living so
    59:50
    he moved on incredibly um once again elegant Pro stylist amazing and and then
    59:56
    you have October Xavier Butler and then there's you yeah that's about it and now
    1:00:01
    we have a lot of people tons of sci-fi can't even count them yeah but you guys are the best you guys were the pioneers
    1:00:09
    you seriously you were Pioneers um which is really quite incredible when you think back about it remember Pioneers
    1:00:16
    get arrows in the butt you know I was just trying I was just trying to
    1:00:22
    be the best writer that I could be in trying to survive trying to take care of my family and trying
    1:00:28
    to to survive in Hollywood and I made mistakes I made mistakes I betrayed that
    1:00:34
    little creative spark inside me a couple of times and it hurt I mean I was just
    1:00:39
    you know you can only sell yourself out so much yeah you know what's even worse is if you try not to sell out and then
    1:00:46
    one day you sell out nobody's buying you know so that's even worse but I remember
    1:00:52
    one of my agents I lost or walked away from one of my agents in Hollywood because I walked in there with my heart
    1:00:59
    on my sleeve and I said you know I don't know what's going to happen in my career but when I leave Hollywood I want to
    1:01:06
    leave with my sense of Honor intact and he looked at me and he said you'll be the only one and I realized at that
    1:01:13
    moment he and I did not understand each other at all I need to find a new agent because I'm not going to sell my soul to
    1:01:20
    do this I'm going to do everything I can and I will not sell out but I will rent myself
    1:01:25
    you know and I will stretch as far as I can but I'm always going yeah I'm I'm I'm kind of a hoe but
    1:01:36
    enjoy my work
    1:01:43
    if I write an episode of Baywatch and I have I wrote four episodes of Baywatch
    1:01:48
    people say that's not science fiction I said you ever see those silicon life forms running around on the beach
    1:01:53
    um I found something in every episode that I could actually care about and there's
    1:02:01
    another story I can go into that I might tell another time where the producers did eventually end up turning on me but
    1:02:07
    I got revenge but that's another story that's
    1:02:13
    um let's let's we'll uh well first okay before I think we can open up to a
    1:02:22
    little bit of a q a um but before we do that of course we want to just really thank you for your
    1:02:27
    words and Candor have you have you said everything you wanted to see you came prepared with some comments you came
    1:02:33
    prepared with some comments have you expressed what you wanted to express I came prepared with you no you had some
    1:02:39
    comments you were almost going to write a talk to do this but instead of that you prepared some comments I just wanted to be sure that that Charles has had an
    1:02:46
    opportunity to express himself no no no no I'm fine okay I think it's probably a
    1:02:51
    good idea if you want to move to that next question yes but before we did that look at this beautiful let's thank these
    1:02:57
    uh these these wonderful discussions
    1:03:04
    respect just trying to be like you no you don't want to believe me so uh
    1:03:12
    what what we could do um is you know
    1:03:18
    the the aisles could be your your pathway or if you so choose you could
    1:03:23
    just kind of raise it I can't see you because of the lights so perhaps you might want to stand up over okay that
    1:03:29
    they just raise the house lights yeah they just did so I could see folks so if
    1:03:34
    you have a question if you have a comment please just raise your hand and uh I will uh
    1:03:39
    catch you not everybody at once there we go Tumbleweed we got one yeah
    1:03:47
    and you'll have to project because I don't think we have a walking mic you're a big boy oh it's over here there we go
    1:03:53
    okay
    1:03:59
    no they were right even better
    1:04:07
    okay so they're gonna they got questions on index cards oh I see that people wrote already yes all right all right
    1:04:13
    good this is good because I can read them all okay come on yeah I just get them all at
    1:04:21
    once
    1:04:29
    don't do it all right
    1:04:36
    all right I'm gonna start here okay we're ready okay so I think this one is
    1:04:41
    for both of you and so this person says that they want to say that they appreciate uh that you both came out to
    1:04:47
    speak with us this evening and they love hearing your story um the question is is there a book that
    1:04:53
    you wrote that holds the most significance to you um if so would you be okay with sharing
    1:05:00
    your thoughts on the story um and then there's a little statement uh
    1:05:06
    at the bottom it says on the day when life seems to be too much to handle with all that you do okay that's the second
    1:05:12
    question so just go with the first question is there a particular book that you wrote that holds the most significance to you
    1:05:19
    um and if so uh would you share your thoughts on the story I can do that easily okay uh most significant book for
    1:05:25
    me was my second novel called oxygen tale which was rejected two dozen times nobody understood it my own Mentor
    1:05:34
    um John Gardner did not understand it and actually was afraid of the Buddhism that was in this
    1:05:41
    novel which is in the form of a slave narrative philosophical novel no form of a slave narrative with access to Western
    1:05:48
    and Eastern philosophy and my editor didn't understand it for my first book and um but that was critical
    1:05:54
    had I not done that book all the other books that I've done 26
    1:06:00
    after you know total 27 I would not have done it I had to do that book and once I
    1:06:07
    did that book I understood some things about myself I wrote the book to free myself of my
    1:06:15
    passion in reading of Eastern philosophy and Buddhism from my teens so I'm going to write this book you know and I'm
    1:06:21
    going to be free of it got to the end of the book I realized no this is the beginning for me so everything I've done has been in a
    1:06:28
    way referenced back to Oxford and tail which has a Bradbury connection because there is a soul catcher a slave Hunter
    1:06:35
    and Coors of Adam who has tattoos all the black people that he captures
    1:06:42
    are killed he gets tattoos on his body that where where is that going to come from except the Illustrated Man right
    1:06:48
    we're not which I read when I was younger so that that was a critical book for me I'll say that much
    1:06:55
    um yeah so that's mine for me it would almost certainly be
    1:07:01
    lions blood which Lion's blood you know which uh was my statement on race
    1:07:08
    relations in America uh basically it was it took me six years of research and I
    1:07:14
    basically created an alternate history which was an alternate America that was colonized by Islamic Africans bringing
    1:07:20
    in this particular instance Irish slaves here and so the story it deals with a
    1:07:26
    young Irish boy named Aiden Odair who is kidnapped by Vikings and sold to the Moors in Spain in andalus the word
    1:07:32
    perspective and brought to balalistan the United States to the province of nujibouti Texas where he becomes the
    1:07:39
    foot boy slip of Kai ibiz who is a young Islamic nobleman and the
    1:07:46
    story covers their friendship for about eight years from childhood to the beginnings of adulthood and um that I
    1:07:53
    don't know if I'll ever work that hard on a book again I probably will not I remember what you said you invited
    1:07:59
    Scholars to a party yeah to ask them questions yeah I basically knew that I could spend a hundred years researching
    1:08:06
    and still not touch one percent of what I needed to know so I did one of the smartest things I've ever done it's probably one of the 10 smartest things
    1:08:12
    I've done in my life I invited a room full of the smartest people that I knew and people came from from hundreds of
    1:08:18
    miles in addition to my invitation and we had a pizza party all day long I fed them pizza and beer and I had graph
    1:08:25
    paper and butcher paper on the walls and I passed out notebooks with the basic
    1:08:32
    premises of the world you know the politics and the economics and so forth of this alternate universe and I had a
    1:08:39
    videographer following people around and all day long we theorized about this
    1:08:45
    world that I was trying to create and they showed me everything they showed me so many things that I had not thought of
    1:08:50
    that by the end of that single day I had enough research to begin the writing process that I'd done six years of
    1:08:57
    research before I did that party so I my attitude is you want to know enough to
    1:09:03
    ask the right questions of experts and if you can ask an expert the right
    1:09:09
    question and they say oh yes well that's you know and they go off then you know enough to write your story you this is a
    1:09:15
    perfect example of what they call World building yeah World building and you went on to do a sequel or at more than
    1:09:22
    well I I did two of them Lion's bullet in Zulu heart Zulu heart yeah
    1:09:27
    all right and so we have we have a good number of questions I think we can okay I'll keep it shorter no no but we're
    1:09:34
    good I think everybody here is enjoying uh being able to hear is this okay guys I think we're all right this is what you
    1:09:40
    came for it's all it's all about you you can't get you can't Prime me out of the house but once I'm out of the house I really
    1:09:47
    do want to serve whoever brought me out so this is your chance okay and then for anyone out there if I misread anything
    1:09:53
    feel free to correct me um uh given that we celebrate uh
    1:09:59
    creativity originality and the process of fantasy is naming things a reductive
    1:10:05
    Act
    1:10:11
    is naming things a reductive Act well that's a big epistemological
    1:10:18
    question of course I mean how would you answer that um to name something is given of nature that's one way you could
    1:10:24
    talk about this to name something is to limit it uh to whatever name you you've given it uh given to it I there's a lot
    1:10:33
    of ways you could take this but but naming can be extremely important um guys how to talk about I guess people
    1:10:41
    who are Chinese have four or five different names you know a birth name and it it I'm going to let you you feel
    1:10:48
    that one um it is reductive but then again all language is reductive all language is a
    1:10:55
    reification of of something all language is a symbol and it's possible to mistake
    1:11:00
    the menu for the meal you know if you go you know kind of stepping into my core zipski for a second
    1:11:06
    um but language is all we have you know we're communicating with people
    1:11:12
    he said when you go in the other room and get what do you say you know the the salty thing you know it's all you know
    1:11:19
    the thing that makes things taste sharper you've just use labels for things the the concept of taste you've
    1:11:26
    used the label for the concepts of something that is bitter as opposed to sweet as opposed to Salty all those
    1:11:31
    things are labels all words are nothing more than that and
    1:11:37
    what you do with language I remember chip Delaney in his book The Jewel hinge jaw on writing he talks about the fact
    1:11:44
    that every word creates an impression you know the okay is this definite article the boy okay we
    1:11:51
    getting a noun in here the boy ran he got a the boy ran from oh okay now we're getting a sense of direction that that
    1:11:57
    just as music is what happens between the notes poetry is what happens between the words
    1:12:03
    as you hear a word and your brain does what's called a transderivational search for the meaning of that word it's the
    1:12:10
    journey that people go on between the words that creates the impression of art it's like you know this note followed by
    1:12:16
    that note what happens in between there the negative space is what an artist is manipulating or it's the thing that we
    1:12:23
    don't see we see the words but we don't see the space between the words let me see the tree the trees but we don't see
    1:12:28
    the space between them but it's a space between them the trees punctuate that space to create a forest so the labels
    1:12:35
    that we use we use not necessarily to Define things but to guide Consciousness you know think about this now think
    1:12:42
    about this now think about this what is the journey you go on between the words that's the thing that the artist plays
    1:12:49
    with that people do not see and that is in some ways the most important thing and you only learn to get there by
    1:12:56
    concentrating on the words and then at some point you see the forest that you have created with the use of those words
    1:13:03
    it's one of the reasons why the first draft it's so important it just as far as I'm because it just vomited out your
    1:13:09
    first draft should be trash just get it out there what what Bradbury referred to as running Barefoot through the grass
    1:13:16
    let your first draft be done from Pure Love then
    1:13:21
    the rewrite process is where you're adjusting and playing with it but just
    1:13:26
    get that first draft out there don't try to make your first draft meaningful they'll try to make it good don't try to
    1:13:32
    you know make the work of the Masters just write down the music that you're hearing and adjust it later
    1:13:38
    and then rewrite and rewrite and rewrite and rewrite and rewrite that's right that's right
    1:13:45
    okay and uh so um you keep mentioning trials uh Delaney
    1:13:51
    uh Samuel I'm sorry okay I don't know I'm well enough to you know I know who he is
    1:13:58
    I've read his work but I don't I don't know him see I know you know you just casually mentioned Octavia Butler so I'm
    1:14:04
    sure you know chip Delaney wasn't enough to come to anyway I'm stop joking around here um so this question is about uh Mr
    1:14:11
    Delaney why is Delaney out of fashion and the person mentioned that they loved
    1:14:17
    reflection of light in water I would say it's simply because different styles of writing go in and
    1:14:24
    out of fashion chip Delaney came into the science fiction field in the 60s was called the new wave where
    1:14:30
    people see the first generation of Science Fiction were people who knew science and literature you know Jules
    1:14:35
    Verne and H.G Wells and so forth the next generation of Science Fiction Olaf Stapleton and people like that knew the
    1:14:42
    work of wells and and the the Next Generation after that people like uh
    1:14:47
    Robert Heinlein they knew the Olaf stapletons and so forth and they were doing the same thing but by the time you
    1:14:52
    get to the 60s there was enough science fiction literature that it actually started coming back around instead you
    1:14:59
    know the that science fiction of the 30s and the 40s was justifiably mocked by
    1:15:05
    literary establishment because it wasn't interested in literary qualities it was interested in ideas Big Ideas you know
    1:15:11
    back it up to yeah to the first science fiction magazine which is what
    1:15:16
    if uh analog astounding uh no no it's
    1:15:22
    even earlier than that something planets or something the whole purpose of it was to teach young people science you talk
    1:15:29
    about Hugo guernsbach gernsbach gertzbach okay yeah yeah the grinsberg and that's where you get the term
    1:15:34
    science fiction it was to teach and be didactic right however the earlier guys
    1:15:41
    if I don't mischaracterize them would give us a science but they really weren't good with certain things like
    1:15:47
    characterization yes and and the virtues that go along with literature by the time you get to the 60s you see
    1:15:55
    the shift from the hard Sciences physics you know and in chemistry and all that kind of stuff to the soft Sciences yes
    1:16:02
    that is to say sociology and anthropology and blah blah blah so you
    1:16:07
    and my colleague Joan Russ was was part of that I interviewed yes she was I interviewed her and Chip Delaney because
    1:16:14
    we did a special issue of the Seattle review which I was at fiction editor of for 20 years devoted to science fiction
    1:16:20
    so I interviewed them together in the office at the University of Washington
    1:16:26
    um so so I want you to finish this off what happened to chip Delaney what happened to chip Delaney is that in the
    1:16:33
    new wave people like him and Ted sturgeon and Harlan Ellison were playing with language
    1:16:39
    they started playing with language and deconstructing the the relationship
    1:16:45
    between language and Consciousness to create effects in their work so they weren't telling you know uh
    1:16:51
    straight forward stories Bradbury was an early person who was grounded in the
    1:16:57
    pulps but used that manipulation of negative space emotionally and
    1:17:03
    artistically to create an effect you would put down one of the stories and say this wasn't science fiction but somehow you know I want to look at the
    1:17:09
    stars okay chip Delaney was in some ways well there were ways in which he was
    1:17:15
    limited from writing about what he really wanted to write about which was his sexuality and race and he could not
    1:17:20
    write about those things at that time so he would deconstruct language in concepts of race and Consciousness and
    1:17:26
    so forth and he was friggin brilliant he was one of the very first if not the
    1:17:31
    first black writer that John W Campbell who was the editor of astounding which
    1:17:36
    became analog would published because Campbell was a racist I mean he right there he would I know two people who
    1:17:42
    have letters from him where he stated straight out you can't write about an advanced application of civilization
    1:17:48
    because Africans aren't smart enough to create one that was and he was one of
    1:17:53
    the foundations of the field so Chip Delaney had to hide who he was in order to write so he hid in the world of the
    1:17:59
    intellect I will be so brilliant I will people when people think chip Delaney
    1:18:04
    they will not think black they will think brilliant he he deliberately expressed his intellect so that people
    1:18:11
    wouldn't notice his skin color but that where and that's my interpretation
    1:18:17
    that's nothing he ever said directly to me about it but that wears on you how do
    1:18:22
    you write stories for people and you feel in your heart they don't want to know who I really am they if they
    1:18:28
    acknowledge my intellect they're making me an exception oh if they were all like chip Delaney we wouldn't have a problem
    1:18:33
    that that eventually can turn to ashes in your mouth and lead to you asking
    1:18:39
    questions of Ray Bradbury and Leo and Diane Dillon um and he at some point got out of it
    1:18:46
    but the field moved on that the 60s broke the box that Olaf Stapleton and
    1:18:52
    Robert Heinlein and Arthur C Clarke and Isaac Asimov created by asking us to you
    1:18:57
    know the 60s were a time of experimentation and drugs and love and peace and so forth and so on
    1:19:03
    the generation that came after the 60s took all of that for granted and they began exploring Science Fiction with
    1:19:09
    simultaneously a sense of the Aesthetics that lead to literature and by the 80s and the 90s you actually
    1:19:17
    had a body of Science Fiction where the best of the best had both mastered storytelling and the sciences and the
    1:19:24
    capacity to create art and so Chip Delaney was forgotten to a degree because we no longer needed
    1:19:32
    what it is that he had brought to the field there was a recent issue of a magazine National magazine I can't
    1:19:39
    remember what it was a friend told me about it I didn't read it was a long piece on Delaney it's a long piece under
    1:19:45
    like a genuine genius huh Delaney was a genuine genius no question about it he
    1:19:51
    was one of Octavius teachers okay and you know so to act to him he Octavia is
    1:19:57
    insane Octavia she's a good writer sometimes better than others and so for you know and he's for real you know he
    1:20:02
    really means that um and both of them are above my level
    1:20:08
    but they what they were
    1:20:13
    helped make the field what it is they were foundational so let's get we got
    1:20:20
    four more I think we could get through them we will need to potentially move a
    1:20:26
    little quicker a little quicker okay I'm sorry because I'm I'm getting the signs but I don't want to disrupt the flow of
    1:20:33
    what's Happening Here so this person says growing up reading comics there was plenty of violence but now graphic
    1:20:39
    novels have the power to push out I believe it's saying out peace what are
    1:20:45
    your thoughts on that if you could push out peace I don't even know what that means if they mean that art is going to
    1:20:52
    make the world more violent I disagree with that wholeheartedly okay I think that that violence comes from being you
    1:20:59
    know it's like the Billy Budd syndrome you know the the greater your vocabulary and the more ideas you can express
    1:21:04
    through language the less you have to hit people there is an inverse relationship in prisons between the size
    1:21:09
    of vocabulary and the violence of the crime it's been noted many times by sociologists so the people who can play
    1:21:15
    with ideas don't need to stab you okay okay [Laughter]
    1:21:25
    moving at a steady clip we're gonna get there um thank you Elders for sharing your wisdom uh with your stories and the
    1:21:31
    question is how do you uh nurture the connection between your adult self and your child's self
    1:21:40
    how do you nurture the relationship between your adult self and your child
    1:21:46
    self you know I'll give you a meditation that I've seen other people use I don't know
    1:21:52
    if anybody here meditates but you can visualize this visualize yourself
    1:21:58
    as your younger self what what if you had a time machine and you could this has been done in movies
    1:22:04
    go back and talk to your younger self on a bad day when he or she just everything
    1:22:10
    went wrong getting beat up and so forth visualize yourself giving yourself that
    1:22:16
    kid you were a hug and holding that kid for you know a
    1:22:22
    breath or two and telling that kid you know it's pretty bad right now
    1:22:28
    but you don't know what's going to happen in the future that I do and it's going to be good
    1:22:33
    see that's perfect you know in in my system you know our pedagogy we teach we
    1:22:39
    have a podcast you know the life writing podcast and www.lifewritingpodcast.com and we talk
    1:22:46
    about a technique called the ancient child what the ancient child okay it is
    1:22:51
    a technique and it's like you imagine that at one end of a string is the child
    1:22:57
    that you were at the other end of the string is the old the Elder you're going to be on your deathbed you know just
    1:23:02
    just you're gonna die tomorrow be on all ego Beyond any need to look good or any
    1:23:08
    of that nonsense and all you're trying to do is move with Integrity between the dreams of childhood and the knowledge of
    1:23:15
    what values are real that you will have on your deathbed on the other side of ego and if you use a meditation like you
    1:23:22
    just suggested and you visualize the child self you can ask the child what it wants you to do
    1:23:28
    and you can also visualize the child and the Elder simultaneously then just sit
    1:23:33
    back and listen to them talk to each other and they will express everything you need to live your life with Integrity I've got another variation
    1:23:40
    that might be interesting particularly if you have difficulties with your parents
    1:23:45
    with your mom or dad visualize them and also maybe when they were young yes
    1:23:53
    they give them a hug love it I hadn't thought about that I
    1:23:58
    love that that it's not original to me that's multi-generational healing yes that's great yeah no I I didn't invent
    1:24:06
    that it's it's a meditation that people do in in the Buddhist tradition but also
    1:24:12
    I do the one with my younger self every time I meditate I give younger me a hug
    1:24:17
    yeah I do that I've never done that with my parents though and I'm going to do that within the next 24 hours that's
    1:24:23
    great I love it thank you last two very quick because these are quick ones what
    1:24:30
    are you reading now or watching
    1:24:35
    um I'm studying a time and energy management system I'm not reading any well actually no I'm reading the new
    1:24:41
    Stephen King novel of Holly and I'm studying a time in energy management system okay thank you well on the plane
    1:24:46
    from Seattle which left at seven in the morning so we had to be up at four in
    1:24:51
    the morning and I didn't get to bed but nevertheless from Seattle to Chicago I
    1:24:57
    read the essays in this the uh sin and the Art of writing by Bradbury okay and
    1:25:03
    that that was it was great well from Atlanta to Indianapolis I read a story
    1:25:09
    by one of the greatest living writers a guy named Charles don't go there don't
    1:25:14
    go there him a story that I just finished two
    1:25:20
    three days ago that's right because it's about martial arts I gotta show this to Steve and you promised you'd read it on
    1:25:26
    the plane and you didn't I thank you yes I did thank you I worked and one word possibly one quick word yes and we're
    1:25:33
    gonna bring Dr ockman back up but one quick word for any aspiring uh graphic
    1:25:38
    novel novelists writers who that was one of the questions so I'm terrified okay if you told me for just a second I've
    1:25:45
    got something specific I like to say the six step process that we teach in life writing and we learned this from Ray
    1:25:51
    Bradbury and studying other people like this the first step is write at least one sentence a day every day just make
    1:25:56
    that commitment second step is right between one and four short stories every month the third step is finish those
    1:26:02
    stories and submit them the the fourth step is do not rewrite your stories
    1:26:07
    except to editorial requests once you finish them don't rewrite them go on to the next door the fifth step is you read
    1:26:14
    ten times as much as you write and the last step is repeat this process 100 times we teach this to our students and
    1:26:21
    not a single person who's following this advice has failed to publish by story 26. okay well I used to teach at the
    1:26:27
    University of Washington in 33 years and I give my students assignments but one of the things I got them to do that I
    1:26:34
    found extremely valuable is keep a writer's workbook do not let your day go by in which you
    1:26:40
    have a thought a perception an image that comes to you and you don't put it down in your writer support workbook you
    1:26:46
    see an article that you like clip it this these These are extremely valuable I have
    1:26:52
    writer's workbooks that cover three shelves and go back to the early 70s
    1:26:57
    they're like memory memory aids keep a writer's workbook blank pages put
    1:27:03
    anything you want to on it you know like just descriptive passages you see somebody that you run into and they're
    1:27:10
    dressed in a distinctive and interesting way oh they got an interesting tattoo that goes the world is yours to process
    1:27:17
    through perception and you put that these scraps into your writer's workbook
    1:27:22
    and I assure you that they will be of use to you when you're I go through my writer's
    1:27:29
    workbooks I see I've thought about and written something on every subject Under the Sun literally since the early 70s so
    1:27:37
    it triggers my memory and I see my younger self actually because what is it you're paying attention to in the 70s
    1:27:44
    different than the 90s it's almost like an archeology of your own Consciousness
    1:27:50
    what you're focusing on during a particular decade I just filled up one
    1:27:55
    and I was I was telling one of my friends here I'd like to go by the bookstore to see if I can get another
    1:28:00
    blank book because I have to have that during the course of the day put stuff
    1:28:06
    into it is my journal every day yeah yeah I mean writers have them if you
    1:28:12
    want great examples of what they look like look at Hawthorne look at Chekhov look at um no I'm not Starcher I'm
    1:28:20
    thinking of some of the great writers we have their workbooks they have plot
    1:28:26
    outlines for stories they've never written they have observations of people um it started writers and just keep it's
    1:28:34
    just for you not for anybody else I'd like to make one quick comment
    1:28:39
    that if you like the way we've been talking about writing here you might want to come to a screenwriting Workshop that my wife and
    1:28:46
    I are doing you can find out about it at www.hollywoodloop hole.com and what I
    1:28:51
    will say is ignore the price on there if you need a price where we just want good people we don't care if you can afford
    1:28:57
    the full price for people who we know just write us a letter and saying that you you need a break on the price we'll
    1:29:02
    take whatever you got what we want is people come on September 23rd and really
    1:29:08
    want to learn how to write and about screenwriting
    1:29:13
    www.hollywoodloopole.com all right and folks please uh
    1:29:19
    make sure you're going to the events for the the festival 451
    1:29:24
    um tomorrow at the cancan theater will be filming uh screening Horror in the
    1:29:30
    war with uh Tanana you do wonderful you have an opportunity for book signing in
    1:29:35
    the back here thank you thank you thank you
    1:29:40
    [Applause]
    1:29:51
    thank you all so much that was amazing that was amazing thank you thank you and
    1:29:57
    uh there is an opportunity to get your books signed by Steve Barnes Dr Charles
    1:30:03
    Johnson Sharon Skeeter antonina review there are four tables up here at the front please put on your note cards what you
    1:30:10
    would like them to write in your book to my left the aisle in the far left
    1:30:16
    your right we're going to line up over here we're going to pull the tables forward and we're going to to get your
    1:30:21
    book signed if you need to purchase a book in order to have it signed uh The Book Table is still up in the in the
    1:30:28
    foyer to the back there where I'm pointing and thank you all for a wonderful night thank you for such a a
    1:30:35
    stimulating discussion and uh we love you thank you [Applause]
     
  16. richardmurray
    BLACK GAMES ELITE QUESTIONS
    1)What defines a Black comic book to you, no answer is wrong? 2)From your definition of Black Comic book, which will you like to see made into a video game?  I ask the two questions cause the point of Black Games Elite is to create, not to preach or talk. 
     
    Website
    https://www.schomcom.org/
    Registration
    https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-schomburg-center-s-11th-annual-black-comic-book-festival-registration-525127088257
     
    SCHEDULE
     
    FRIDAY, APRIL 14
    10:30 AM EST
    Black Comic Futures (Curated by Black Comics Collective)

    Little Apple Universe Screenings
    An interactive discussion and look inside the TV shows and school curriculum activities of Little Apple Universe.

    Featuring
    Riley Wilson, Little Apple Universe Young Actors

    Black Comic Future Panel
    Youth comic book artists discuss their original comic and creative process.

    Featuring
    AK Lovelace, Harlem School of the Arts
     
    1 PM EST
    Banned Books and Diversity in Comics

    Book bans across the U.S. are targeting graphic novels and comic books, especially those that take up issues of race, gender, and sexuality. This will be a conversation about how to advocate for stories that represent the full range of experiences for youth and adults.
     
    Featuring
    Joe Illidge, Dr. Monique Couvson,
    Mike Haynes-Pitts, Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez, Kadia Tubman
     
    3 PM EST
    The Creator Symposium

    Hosted by Women in Comics Collective International, this conversation will explore the ways in which multimedia and comic book professionals working in comics can continue to grow and thrive in an ever-changing industry.

    Featuring
    Regine Sawyer, Janicia Francis, Shauna Grant, Javier Cruz Winnik, Barbara Brandon-Croft, Ben Ha Meen
     
    5 PM EST
    The Business of Comics and Sequential Narrative

    A conversation on the business of comics and moving in the industry beyond just publishing.

    Featuring 
    TJ  Sterling, Alitha Martinez, Shawn Martinbrough, Gamal Hennesy, Dedren Snead
     
    6:45 PM EST
    Access Guide's Black Comics Trivia Challenge!

    Access Guide to the Black Comic Book Community the first SchomCom Trivia Night. This “Jeopardy” style event features the panelists and audience members in a nerd-off of Black characters and events from comics, tv, movies, and the culture, for ultimate bragging rights. Attendees will be able to play along on their phones or tablets to see if they are as knowledgeable as our panelists.

    Featuring
    Tatiana King, Karama Horne, John Jennings, Regine Sawyer

    SATURDAY, APRIL 15
    11 AM EST
    How to Draw Black Superheroes & Comics

    Join Tim Fielder (Infinitum, DieselFunk Studios) for a master class on drawing comics. This program is open to all ages, but it is especially geared towards young people ages 5 and up.

    Featuring
    Tim Fielder
     
    1 PM EST
    Speaking for Ourselves: Black Women & Marginalized Voices in Comics

    A conversation hosted by the Nerds, Erbs and Words podcast featuring industry experts about the nuances of Black women, LGBTQ, and other marginalized voices in comics and storytelling -- voices that mainstream media often misses.

    Featuring
    Erika Hardison & Keisha Parks (Nerds, Erbs and Words), Shauna Grant, Karama Horne, Elizabeth Colomba, Barbara Brandon-Croft
     
    3:30 PM EST
    Black in the Future: Afrofuturism in Comics & Graphic Novels

    A conversation highlighting the powerful relationship between Afrofuturism, comics, and graphic novels.

    Featuring
    John Jennings, Ytasha Womack, Tim Fielder, Ayize Jama-Everett
     
    5:30 PM EST
    Cosplay Showcase

    The SchomCom Cosplay Showcase is open to attendees of all ages and skill levels. The showcase will take place on Saturday, April 15 at 6 PM. If you want to participate, you can sign up at the Schomburg Center on Friday, April 14 from 10 AM - 8 PM, or Saturday, April 15 from 10 AM- 3 PM. The last registration for the cosplay showcase is at check-in on Saturday, April 15.

    Featuring
    Guest DJ Greg Wilson (@gregorywilson)
     
    PRIOR COSPLAY
    https://www.schomcom.org/cosplay
     

     
     
     
    MY THOUGHTS
    I have to admit. I have become disenchanted with this festival. And I will be blunt, I have become disenfranchised with the NY Comiccon or the MakersFaire in NYC. Maybe it is just the financial scenario of NYC. But, all to often, the supposed point of the convention or fair is lost. The Schomburg Black Comic Book Festival isn't about Black Comic Books. It is Multiracial or multiculturalism in aspects of the Comic Book Industry. It isn't about Black explicitly. I daresay it is more about female representation, that just happens to be black , then about black representation. And that isn't a problem. But, it calls itself a Black Comic Book fair. And, they will have a virtual gallery for black comics, which is just like NYComiccon's artist alley, which used to be the entire NY comiccon, is now a small aside. It's not a comiccon . It is a movie/video game, entertainment convention. And same with the Makersfaire. It is a 3d printing, drone fair. True makers get these little areas to show their craft. I just wish all conventions and starting with Black ones, will be more honest about what they are here for. If I administered a Black Comic Book Convention, it will be a simple thing. Get Black comic books!  I wish the Schomburg would mirror itself off of the Komikku Māketto in Nippon, commonly called Japan. Get rid of all the Black preachers who want to talk about this and talk about that. I will love to see how many Black Comic Books are out there. Something tells me, far fewer black comic books are available today, than Black artists who say they want to make a comic. 
     
  17. richardmurray

    Chun Li in barcelona

    By richardmurray,


    Game Art
    Photographer: JAVIER IBAÑEZ
    GRAFFITIS BARCELONA 2022
     
     

     
    GRAFFITIS BARCELONA 2022 | JAVIER IBAÑEZ | Flickr
     
     
    Title: SONIC in underhill brooklyn
    Photographer: Julia O 

     
     
     

  19. richardmurray

    Nintendo Direct 9-13-2022

    By richardmurray,


    game news from somewhere
    THE BIG BUDGET GAMES
     
    Fire Emblem Engage
    If you are a fan of the fire emblem series, this is a buy. 
    It will be out 1-20-2023
    A divine edition with collectible items will be with it. Fire Emblem is a franchise game so what that means is, fans will be favored and non fans for whatever reason, take it or leave it.
     
    It Takes Two - electronic arts usa, 2 players required
    Help two parents return to normal, can be played in handheld mode exclusively, I think. They say you can play it in the complete switch. 
    November 4th 
    Interesting game, a natural two player.  I am interested. Can pre-order if you are seeing this post.
     
    Fatal Frame: Mask of the lunar eclipse - Koei Tecmo games
    Creepy game, scary game, for you frighteners:)  Seem to be a maid outfit:) 
    she mysteriously vanished as a child and is now in an abandoned hospital , a camera is used to recover memories. 
    This game never came out in the USA but those in japan know it. Nintendo does a number of these sorts of games, new to the world outside japan.
     
    Xenoblade Chronicles 3 second wave
    look like mechas.  Ino is a new hero made for this advance in character or item content or quality for xenoblade 3.
    She will allow new strategies and types, after you complete her quest.
    A third wave is coming
    October 13th 
     
    Indie or smaller budget games- my preferred zone
     
    Spongebob squarepants: the cosmic shake by THQ Nordic
    I am not a fan of the cartoon so...
    3-d platformer. Looks fun though if you are into the series. Voiced by the original actors from the show
    launching next year, no exact time given
     
    Fitness boxing fist of the north star from Imagineer
    Wow! the original screenshot I was thinking. Oh wow! first of the north star, but this is  a fitness game:)  I remember a relative had the first fist of the north star video game on his nintendo. It was interesting. 
    You can take on bosses, they look like the characters from the anime. But it is for fitness, you need to move and work out as you play.
    March 2023
     
    Oddballers from UBisoft
    Many minigames, six players can play simultaneously, can specify your playing character. Meant to be fun. These games are best if you have a bunch of people you know play the switch, can get online with it, and then you can organize play times.
    Launches Early next year
     
    Tunic by Finji
    A puzzle adventure game. A fox washed up on a shore, needs to complete a manual and to do that you have to go through the island. Looks pretty.
    September 27th preorders are available now
     
    Front Mission 1: Remake + Front Mission 2: remake both by Forever entertainment
    Front mission is a strategy game, turn base, you ride a mecha, they call wanzers, that you can advance. Front Mission 2 was not released outside japan. I love strategy games so I may get this. IT all depends on how busy I am. 
    Front mission 1 in November 2022 Front Mission 2 in 2023 Front Mission 3 is coming after Front Mission 2
     
    Story of Seasons: a wonderful life from Xseed games
    Originally it came out 20 years ago. This is a daily life routine game. Care for animals, raise up a farm, like Stardew Valley, but better colorizations or scope. You can have a child and raise it and characters will grow old. 
    Summer 2023
     
    Splatoon Injection
     
    First post launch splatfest for splatoon 3.
    09/23 friday 5pm Pacific time to 09/25 sun 5pm Pacific time
    Theme: what would you bring to a deserted island? 
    Gear  Grub Fun Splatoon was injected here. This is a larger project that the smaller games, but Splatoon was started as an experimental. Like PRofessor Layton, it was contingent on success so it was an inhouse indie project so to speak. 
    Enjoy splatters:) 
    They end with more updates for splatoon 3
     
    Medium budget game
     
    Octopath Traveler 2 from Square enix
    This adds 8 new travelers.
    Hikari the warrior
    Agnea the dancer- I am a dancer and a singer, for those who remember coming 2 america
    Partitio the merchant- who sounds like he doesn't know whether he wants to be from the midwest or the deep south and sports a cowboy hat of course:) while his name is:) partitio
    Osvald the scholar
    Throne the thief
    Temenos the cleric
    Ochette the hunter
    Castti the apothecary 
    Players path differs between day and night. This is a game meant to give users truly different stories to be a part of, like a choose your path but meets super nes graphics
    Launches 2 24 2023
     
    Fae Farm from Phoenix Labs
    A lifestyle game. Farm simulator. Magical spells to grow crops. Face off against mischievous foes. 
    Can play up to 4 players online or local player. Can customize home. Seasons change that will be important.
    Spring 2023 
     
    Theatrhythm Final bar line from Square Enix
    For the 35th anniversary. I have the original. For fans of the series, this is for you
    385 songs in total, can play each stage, music divided by game.
    Two players can compete locally, 4 players online multibattle
    February 16th 2023- can preorder now
    after games launch downloaded able content songs from various series in the square enix  library
     
    Mario + Rabbids sparks of hope from Ubisoft
    I never got into this. but you can freely roam into worlds. Find coins, unlock paths. help locals with task. 
    A gold edition can be ordered that gives you the game with weapons skins and a season pass
    October 20th 2022
     
    Rune factory 3 Special from XSeed games
    You can now fish, farm, relax in the town in and around doing quest. Can transform into a "Monster"
    Locales will change how they react to you based on your look and they have improved the features to be with your game spouse:)... I play a game that has that and I can't bring myself to go down that tunnel
    Out in 2023
    A new rune factory series will launch in the future. This is a series though which has many fans who have every game so for newbies like me, you can get in now if you want. 
     
    Nintendo 64 games on Nintendo online
     
    Pilotwings 64
    MArioparty
    Marioparty 2 
    MArioparty 3
    Pokemon Stadium
    Pokemon stadium 2
    1080 snowboarding
    excitebike 64
    Goldeneye - i played that game:) when it was new
     
    Games out now or near out and medium to small budget to Indie
     
    Various Daylife from Square Enix
    An RPG. More common visual structure.
    Out the day of this post, so you can get it if you see this
     
    Factorio from WUbe Software ltd
    Management simulation game. This kind of game is what I mean by a game's scale is very tiny. It looks interesting, but your character is really small. At least by the images given.
    I love the concept though. More original than the usual. Crashed ship, you have to reconstruct it on an alien world. Like Pikmin meets Astroneer.
    Love the look of the construction lines. You have enemies you will need to construct. 
    OCtober 28th 2022
     
    Ib from playism 
    A young girl named Ib in an art gallery gets sucked into a scary surreal world through a painting, you have to get her back. A puzzle horror game with nice visual graphics so you can actually have puzzles. Puzzles can't be difficult to see, that is why horror games that try to look like a movie with puzzles can be too difficult. Like the concept. 
    spring 2023
     
    Big budget games
     
    Mario Strikers battle league from Nintendo
    Pauline , Diddy Kong joins in
    More gear and  a new stadium 
    2nd free update launches in september 2022
     
    Atelier Ryza 3 alchemist of the end and the secret key from Koei Tecmo games
    I don't know this series. I love how it is subtitled into english. One of the come here from japan games.
    Ryza is a female lead. An RPG, very graphic. If you are in the series you are in. 
    February 24th 2023 
     
    Mario kart 8 deluxe booster course pass Wave 3
    A sneak peak of the courses. Mario Kart fans rejoice.
    This holiday 2022 launches. If you have nintendo switch online + you don't need to pay
     
    Nintendo switch sport
    Golf will be added from Wii sports, 22 golf courses
    Free update this holiday 2022
    The guy in mr iwata's position asked for fans to wait a little longer
     
    Shigeru Miyamoto- if you don't know who that is , shame on you
    Super Mario Bros animated movie will be out next Spring with illumination 
    Suepr Nintendo world, will open in hollywood california 
     
    Pikmin! over 20 years for the first game. I love pikmin. I wrote this as I listened so if you read my words you know how I feel.
    Pikmin Bloom - Take it with you . Send out pikmin , on your phone, a phone game.You can keep a record of where you have been with pikmin. 
    PIKMIN!!!
    Pikmin 4!!! YES!!!
    2023  I can wait I can wait
    You can play from the pikmin perspective from the ground. Switch will make it more interesting. 
    Dandori- strategically deploying commanding the pikmin!!
    I can't play Pikmin on the phone but I am very happy. As an engineer I think Pikmin is one of the finest games ever made. Non engineers don't comprehend the challenge of pikmin. I have enjoyed Pikmin , Pikmin 2, Pikmin 3, Hey Pikmin, and will enjoy pikmin bloom if I can. Pikmin 4 is a keeper!
     
    Big Budget games
     
    Just dance 2023 edition from Ubisoft
    Karaoke games. Great for partying. for gatherings. Not really a game you buy for yourself, you buy that for the house. 
     
    Medium Budget Games
     
    Harvestella from square enix
    Life simulator RPG. very glitzy, pretty. Not for me, the combat is too glamoury.
    Demo will be later the day of this post. 
    November 4th 2022
     
    Bayonetta 3 
    Bayonetta recovered memories, confronted demons to save friend, now saves humanity from the humonguli
    Any one who wants to play a bad ass woman, who looks like a purposefully cosplayable character, enjoy
    October 28, can preoder now- a new trailer will launch on youtube.IT wasn't on nintendo's

     
    Master Detective archives Rimcode  from Spike Chunsoft 
    Yuma an amnesiac detective, and a spirit haunting him have to solve cases. This is like Yokai watch had a baby with Ace Attorney. 
    Spring 2023
     
    REsident Evil Village Cloud from Capcom
    OCtober 28th 2022- can try a demo if you see this. Winters expansion available December 2nd for third person character. Resident evil 2 and 3 will be available as cloud versions
     
    Sifu from Sloclap
    Brawler game, thrusting, tripping, parrying.
    Break opponent's stance and gain the upper hand. SIFU!!
    Fall in combat and you get older and weaker. 
    Get revenge before your time is up. 
    This reminds me of Sakurai samurai designed by the late Mr Iwata, a game I absolutely love, where you wield a sword but you have to do it wisely
    November 8th , can preoder today
     
    Crisis core final fantasy Vii reunion from square enix
    The events leading up to Final Fantasy 7
    Final fantasy fans rejoice, separath and cloud are with him. 
    December 13th 2022
     
    Radiant Silvergun from live wire inc
    A space shooter game. 
    September 13 2022, today . For space shooter collectors this looks nice, nothing new mechanically, but looks pretty
     
    Endless Dungeon from Sega
    Gauntlet but in space junkyards , procedurally generated levels. unlock weapons heroes. 
    2023
     
    Tales of Symphonia remastered from bandai namco entertainment america inc
    Remastered. I am not a fan but for fans, rejoice
    early 2023
     
    Quick news
     
    Life is strange arcadia bay collection from square enix
    september 27th 2022
     
    Romancing saga minstrel song remastered from square enix
    december 1st 2022 , pre order now
     
    Lego Bricktales from Thunderful 
    Was a few short video clips but looks fun
    Fall 2022
     
    Disney Speedstorm from Gameloft SE
    2022 
     
    Fall guys season 2 from epic games
    september 15th 2022
     
    LATe Big news
     
    Kirby's return to dreamland deluxe
    Mr Iwata's baby, Kirby fans rejoice for 30th anniversary of Kirby
    February 24th 2023 can preorder
     
    King LINK!!!
    One man alone. 
    When will they do a link between worlds 2
    The Legend of Zelda, Tears of the Kingdom 
    5-12-2023
     
    CONCLUSION
     
    Saw a lot of Square enix and in house Nintendo. Though I did enjoy some of the smaller development firms projects
     
    Of the games I saw , the following interest me in a sale. 
    Tunic- looks beautiful FaeFarm- this is the first game in a long time that looks like it mirrors for me one of the most fun games ever, and that is fantasy life. When I look at this game, it makes me think of fantasy life had a baby with animal crossing and stardew valley. The time changing and scope is very stardew valley-ish. The visualization, which is important in these games, is like animal crossing. You can see everything. some times in these games, its too tiny or too large. Or the scale is not right. But, you can actually battle in here and that is Fantasy life. I think fantasy life was underrated for how people could come in and play and help another person playing the game.  Factorio- this is an individual game, I wish it was a multiplayer, I swear this concept with a multiplayer facet could be huge. But I like it. It's not for everyone, it is niche. But I like astroneeer, I like pikmin so if you like those then you will like this, and I haven't even played it.  PIKMIN 4 Mandatory Sifu- the mechanics I like. I am tired of immortal fighter games. I want fighter games where the mechanics are more honest, not unfun, not real, but honests. Why can't I get older if I lose. I like the concept. Endless Dungeon- like gauntlet ,a loose maybe Lego Bricktales- looks fun, I love my build a world games  
     
     
    The following games I want to say why not.
    Oddballer- if i can get members of black games elite to do this game, I will be in, cause it looks fun:) and we can go as a team on others teams. but it is contingent on the group Front Missions- I love strategy but I will not deny, there is a particular strategy game that I like a lot and until that next edition is available on switch while I like certain strategy games a lot, I will pause. Story of Season- look at faefarm above  
     
    The main video:) 
     

  20. richardmurray
    What's up fam of BGE
    I was having a conversation early today with two young brothas talking bout video games..... One of these bros mentioned that he did not know one black female gamer. (Till he saw me rocking my RE2 GRAPHIC T-SHIRT) I'm like
    We are out there but unfortunately we don't get the same recognition as the bro's.
    😔
    My questions to BGE..... How many black female gamers do you know personally....And Why the exclusion 
    From Mergirl Dunne of Black Games Elite
    BGE mewe page
    https://mewe.com/group/5f6a6b1e9bfa191d3a68cc0c/profile/5c3e37f67f857d550f1d9eea
    Mergirl Dunne Mewe page
    https://mewe.com/i/mergirlwhitedunne
  21. richardmurray

    50,000 games for 40 dollars

    By richardmurray,


    industrial review
    interesting, you can connect to a cathode ray tube, very much for the international world. Starts at $40 . They use a faux nintendo shaped base for the system or ports, like an nes mini. They use a faux playstation controller.
    the systems when you power it on,
    super nintendo, sega cd, sega 3ds, turbo grafx, odyssey2, neo geo, nintendo hacks, nes, nintendo 64, sega genesis, intellivision, gambe oy bolor, gambe gear, game and watch, famicom disk system, atari , lynx, atari 7800, amstrad, commadore, amiga, all games, sinclair
    wonderswan, virtual boy, vectrex, and more
    He tested, playstation portable/dreamcast/ neogeo/neogeo cd/lynx/MAME/Game boy advance/snes/n64/ds/virtual boy/genesis/nes/neogeo pocket color/intellivision/odyssey 2/2600/5200/7800
     
    Shared from MErgirldunne of BlackGamesElite https://mewe.com/i/mergirlwhitedunne
  22. richardmurray

    RMCaption001

    By richardmurray,


    captions
    I hope all three can center their remaining lives on this moment's happiness but fly better than its form

    If you want me to caption an image , share it to me, by whatever means
  23. richardmurray
    Hacking Nintendo Punch-Out To Control It With Actual Punches

    By Ian Charnas November 17th, 2021
    I recently adopted a kitten I found on the street, and every morning we play with the laser pointer. She gets a lot of fun and exercise out of this single-pixel video game, and it got me thinking I should make a video game where I get exercise too!
    Fast forward 3 months and I’ve hacked a Nintendo Punch-Out boxing game so that you control it with actual punches instead of a controller. It gives you the feeling of actually being inside the video game! You can watch me build and test the game on my youtube video.
    VIDEO

     
    The hardest part of the project was hacking the game to slow the opponents. You see, punching into the air is much slower than pressing a button on a control pad. So, the opponents were moving too fast, relatively, and it wasn’t a fair fight. I had to reverse engineer the source code (a process called “disassembly”) and slow each opponent down one by one.
    The result is a very fun and playable game that you can try yourself — entirely in your browser —  by visiting RealLifePunchout.com
    ARTICLE LINK
    https://makezine.com/2021/11/17/hacking-nintendo-punch-out-to-control-it-with-actual-punches/
  24. richardmurray
    I admit, the following youtuber, I follow for sword/weapon information and design. He is informative. 
    But when I realized he had a set of videos specifically on games,  I feel they are discussion starters. 
     
    rpg character classes are stupid- his reasoning is that character class restrictions turn the fantasy into tomfoolery.  Why can't a wizard pick up a sword? His proof is whenever a game has added character classes later, the developers are admitting the original character class set is dysfunctional

     
    rpg levels are stupid- his reasoning is that the ability of a player to reach the unkillable level deletes the reality any player should have. I will call it the sword art online god power. 

     
    dragon's dogma best rpg ever- the ability to manipulate the personal characters plus the pawn system free's up the personal touches to the game. 

     
    what divinity sin 2 tactical rpg did right- has all that baldur's gate, but has all modern features of a tactical rpg

     
     
    why fantasy dungeons are stupid- great for gameplay but bad for the purposes of the main boss who couldn't get out except how the heroes get to them, or the heroes who can't use the big bosses back door until they defeat the big boss or the mini bad characters who are always bottlenecked in the vault of their boss.

     
    master sword of link- he made models for each blade, which one do you like

     
     
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