Here is the (long awaited?) reading of my short story, “Artists and Anarchists,” for easier consumption.
Artists and Anarchists
Format: MP3
Size: 14.1 MB
Length: 15 min 29 sec
The podcast, like the short story before it, is released under a creative commons license.
The original post may be found here.
“Artists and Anarchists” is a short story for which I’ve had the idea for sometime. This is, in fact, the first story I’ve written in a long time. It’s a rather sarcastic perspective on what the near-future might be like if some of the legal and litigious insanity of current (misnomer-ed) intellectual property laws and “content” companies’ policies were taken to an absurd extreme. The characters are not based on any real people and any resemblance to actual persons or their names is coincidental.
I’m releasing the story under a Creative Commons license. What this means is that it’s free to distribute for non-commercial purposes. It’s also free (as in speech) to create derivative works (like your own version of the Bible). So if you think the story isn’t as good as it could be, you can remix it and make it better. I’ll also be recording a podcast of the story in the near future for everyone who would rather listen to the story than read it.
So without further ado: Artists and Anarchists
If you’re curious about my inspirations for the story, here’s a short list of some of the recognizable influences:
The Modern Humorist’s Propaganda in the Internet Age “downloading Communism” poster. Original found here.
The RIAA home invasions video found on YouTube. Warning: It’s a little graphic.
Several stories and lectures, as well as a bit of the writing style, of Cory Doctorow also served as influence. I recommend checking out his website, Craphound.com, which has a lot a stories and podcasts available for free under a Creative Commons license.
I just woke up from a dream in which I was telling a girl about a dream I had within another dream (within this dream in which I was speaking to her), in which I was told that I would die after listening to a particular song. When having the dream within a dream (within this dream), I had been afraid. But in the telling of it, I realized there was no reason to be afraid. Of course I would die after listening to the song. If I died before listening to it, I wouldn’t be able to listen to it. And just because I was going to die after listening to it, it doesn’t mean that I would die immediately after listening to it.
We all die in the end after doing whatever it is that we end up doing. To avoid listening to music for fear of listening to your last song would be to lose your life even while you are still living.
Edit: Before falling asleep again, I distilled that last line into a haiku:
If, for fear of death,
you avoid hearing music,
you will die in life.
