3 ms·

I gotta admit: I rarely make time for any recent fiction. Too busy catching up on the last 5,000 years. I don’t expect that to change before I die. Film has a

I gotta admit: I rarely make time for any recent fiction. Too busy catching up on the last 5,000 years. I don’t expect that to change before I die. Film has a similar problem—there are plausibly low-thousands existing films worth my time, a whole lot of them 30+ years old. I could never watch a film made after 2000 and not run out of good entertainment in my lifetime. They’re damn lucky the Mouse got copyright extended to a century or more.

BeFlatXIII 3y ago
This is the argument I bring up whenever people start ranting about how widespread torrenting means we will never have new music or movies. Who cares? I have multiple lifetimes of good stuff to enjoy already.
greenie_beans 3y ago
read "the sarah book" or "crapalachia" by scott mcclananhan if you want to read fiction from a living author that should be included in your reading list for the past 5k years of language arts.
bombcar 3y ago
It’s also a highly effective sorting algorithm - anything still talked about ten years after it came out is probably worth some time. I will say that it seems entirely possible to relatively quickly see all US animated kids movies …
- satvikpendem 3y ago
  The Lindy Effect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindy_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindy_effect
- vundercind 3y ago
  > I will say that it seems entirely possible to relatively quickly see all US animated kids movies Decent or better ones… maybe. There’s a deep bench of poor-to-terrible animated kids’ movies that were straight to VHS/DVD/streaming. For god’s sake, there are like nine Land Before Time movies alone.
  - bombcar 3y ago
    There's a surprisingly large number of direct to DVD/VHS animated movies you just cannot find ... anywhere. Not on streaming, not at the library. It's hard to even find a list; and some are pretty decent, for what they are.
matwood 3y ago
And if you add in TV shows, there's more great content out there than I'll ever have time to watch.
- vundercind 3y ago
  Video games, too. I live through the 90s yet my backlog includes thousands of hours of reputedly-amazing games from that decade that I didn’t get to at the time.
  - bombcar 3y ago
    To be fair the awesomeness of many blockbuster games could be condensed way down with little harm to the game (e.g., Final Fantasy without all the random battles).
pests 3y ago
There are gems coming out today that will be considered great works by our descendants. By avoiding current authors or media you miss out on the cultural story and critique/commentary that influences all our media. Sure, the last 5000 years are interesting, but isn't right now pretty amazing too? You might accidently read the best book ever written but you won't know until history plays out. But I think it's important to see how recent history has shaped the narrative of the worlds authors in today's world. Weve lived through a lot of major events. Everyone does. But these are our events.
- vundercind 3y ago
  I’m not avoiding them, but “rando probably-just-ok new thing” versus any of hundreds of major classics I haven’t made it to yet… it’s tough to pick the new thing very often. [edit] or, hell, not even major. Odds that a recommended-by-people-online got-some-hype-in-review-rags new book is gonna make me happier to have read it than, say, a 2nd-tier Maugham or Faulkner or something? Not great.
- gverrilla 3y ago
  > There are gems coming out today that will be considered great works by our descendants. Wow. Can't wait for the next Harry Potter / Avatar / Celebrity book / Spiderman movie !!!!11!!!1! Great works! > but isn't right now pretty amazing too? No.
  - pests 3y ago
    Why be so negative? Live a little.
    - gverrilla 3y ago
      Negativity is good sometimes. It made 2 revolutions already!
- samspot 3y ago
  Yeah, if you like sorting garbage. Which of the 1.5 million books published this year will you read? People routinely hide money in mattresses, so why not head to the landfill and start looking? I sometimes read/watch/play something if a friend recommends it. But I've no time/interest in sorting through the random deluge of media in the hope of finding diamonds. I'll let someone else find the diamond and tell me about it.

BeFlatXIII 3y ago

This is the argument I bring up whenever people start ranting about how widespread torrenting means we will never have new music or movies. Who cares? I have multiple lifetimes of good stuff to enjoy already.

greenie_beans 3y ago

read "the sarah book" or "crapalachia" by scott mcclananhan if you want to read fiction from a living author that should be included in your reading list for the past 5k years of language arts.

bombcar 3y ago

It’s also a highly effective sorting algorithm - anything still talked about ten years after it came out is probably worth some time. I will say that it seems entirely possible to relatively quickly see all US animated kids movies …

satvikpendem 3y ago
The Lindy Effect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindy_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindy_effect
vundercind 3y ago
> I will say that it seems entirely possible to relatively quickly see all US animated kids movies Decent or better ones… maybe. There’s a deep bench of poor-to-terrible animated kids’ movies that were straight to VHS/DVD/streaming. For god’s sake, there are like nine Land Before Time movies alone.
- bombcar 3y ago
  There's a surprisingly large number of direct to DVD/VHS animated movies you just cannot find ... anywhere. Not on streaming, not at the library. It's hard to even find a list; and some are pretty decent, for what they are.

matwood 3y ago

And if you add in TV shows, there's more great content out there than I'll ever have time to watch.

vundercind 3y ago
Video games, too. I live through the 90s yet my backlog includes thousands of hours of reputedly-amazing games from that decade that I didn’t get to at the time.
- bombcar 3y ago
  To be fair the awesomeness of many blockbuster games could be condensed way down with little harm to the game (e.g., Final Fantasy without all the random battles).

pests 3y ago

There are gems coming out today that will be considered great works by our descendants. By avoiding current authors or media you miss out on the cultural story and critique/commentary that influences all our media. Sure, the last 5000 years are interesting, but isn't right now pretty amazing too? You might accidently read the best book ever written but you won't know until history plays out. But I think it's important to see how recent history has shaped the narrative of the worlds authors in today's world. Weve lived through a lot of major events. Everyone does. But these are our events.

vundercind 3y ago
I’m not avoiding them, but “rando probably-just-ok new thing” versus any of hundreds of major classics I haven’t made it to yet… it’s tough to pick the new thing very often. [edit] or, hell, not even major. Odds that a recommended-by-people-online got-some-hype-in-review-rags new book is gonna make me happier to have read it than, say, a 2nd-tier Maugham or Faulkner or something? Not great.
gverrilla 3y ago
> There are gems coming out today that will be considered great works by our descendants. Wow. Can't wait for the next Harry Potter / Avatar / Celebrity book / Spiderman movie !!!!11!!!1! Great works! > but isn't right now pretty amazing too? No.
- pests 3y ago
  Why be so negative? Live a little.
  - gverrilla 3y ago
    Negativity is good sometimes. It made 2 revolutions already!
samspot 3y ago
Yeah, if you like sorting garbage. Which of the 1.5 million books published this year will you read? People routinely hide money in mattresses, so why not head to the landfill and start looking? I sometimes read/watch/play something if a friend recommends it. But I've no time/interest in sorting through the random deluge of media in the hope of finding diamonds. I'll let someone else find the diamond and tell me about it.