What To Do About Distribution
Sunday Edition #24: Also, Disney+ AI, Canon, and Table Mountain!
Welcome to the Sunday Edition where I share interesting articles and links alongside what I’ve been up to!
The Distribution Conundrum
im in this constant tension rn of knowing that distribution is king and that i can and should grow a bigger presence on the internet.
while at the same time having max clarity on the fact that i am infinitely happier outside, off screens, in nature, climbing mountains, and spending time with people irl.
And I don’t always know what the answer is. I’m a creator. It’s fairly imperative that I maintain *some* public online presence if I want to continue telling stories, making art, or building new tech. But, I’m also increasingly less happy about the venue. Distribution has always been king, but it also used to feel that getting access to distribution felt sane, even if it wasn’t always reasonable (eg, in the past, having to convince gatekeepers of your worth). The democratization of information meant that instead of convincing a handful of ivory tower bottlenecks, you could sell directly to where consumers were having a conversation. But, over time, this venue became 1) gamed, 2) algorithmitized, and 3) noisy.
The bazaar became too popular for its own good, now requiring you to ignore the one guy selling performance enhancing pills shouting at you while you’re just trying to sell a cozy fantasy novel. The entire model became at once more streamlined (“just have to go viral!”), but more esoteric. It’s like whispering incantations from a spells manual to a God who only wants to be heard in a language you don’t understand. It’s slot machines as distribution, where the only success really comes your ability to keep rolling the dice. And this is/was all prior to generative AI and agents joining the fray.
I don’t really know how this will all shake out in time. People are starting to opt out, but even though modern distribution is a doomslop dark forest, I believe fans and creators don’t really want the 90s back either. Media today is still far more richer and diverse than it ever could have been prior to the web. Somewhere in between though, we might land again somewhere saner?
Do Fans Actually Care About Canon?
“Writers are tearing their hair out,” claimed the dubious insider report from Radar Online. “Bond didn’t just vanish off a cliff or fake his death — he was blown to pieces on screen,” the report points out. The rest of the report then cites the opinion of the aforementioned novelist, Anthony Horowitz, who wrote three Bond novels set in the original Ian Fleming canon, not the films.“If I was asked tomorrow to write the script, I wouldn’t be able to do it,” Horowitz said in a separate interview, which Radar Online is citing as new, but is actually from September of this year. “Where would you start? You can’t have him waking up in the shower and saying it was all a dream.”
It is kind of weird that even the Bond universe wants to potentially become more canonized, a series that has thrived on reboots. It made me think again on canon. I’ve contended before that canon is overplayed and that studios are contorting themselves for no good reason. Lore should be myth, not canon.
Besides the concerns of studios unnecessarily making it harder for themselves, it feels like ‘canon’ is both a scapegoat and a bikeshed, depending on which side you are on.
If the studios or writers complain about it, it feels like the easier thing to complain about rather than the other more structural problem they might be facing (knowing what to actually do to make good media). aka bikeshedding.
If fans complain about it, it’s because it’s an easy scapegoat. If a movie is good and it doesn’t really follow canon, what are the odds that fans will complain as much? Much less at least. If it’s bad, it’s easier to just say: “hey, look how they ruined it by this dumb retcon!”
I’m still firmly in the camp that both studios and fans should let canon go. It’s put on a pedestal far too much. As Kylo Ren said in The Last Jedi. “Let the past die, kill it if you have to. It’s the only way to become what you’re meant to be.”
Disney+ AI
Speaking of Disney. This was easy to spot from MILES and YEARS away. Disney plans to allow fans to remix Disney media with AI.
In general, LLM-media will likely fill in the holes left by 1) media being expensive to produce, and 2) timely to produce (because the content is time-sensitive), and 3) too niche to provide for a certain market. In other words, LLM-media will come to serve a long-tail of content. Expansive fan-fiction universes.
And literally just a few weeks ago:
Conglomeration begets conglomeration. Now, the labels just become more powerful. What does this look like if Disney does the same? They then not only produce much of the media, but also any AI generated fan-fic is also owned/distributed by them. It’s always why the arguments for stronger copyright in the wake of generative AI felt scary. It’s not really going to get creators that much more compared to the power of mega corps consolidating power.
Look, this was inevitable. Regular fans will probably like it, but it does feel scarier in the longer-term. Worried about a future where they build a walled garden that doesn’t allow fair use outside of Disney. And also worried that, in speaking of distribution, earlier, mega IP will just become more mega as a result. More risk averse, less opportunity for new creators to make things.
What I’ve Been Up To
Been quite a busy week with travel and catching up with family and friends, so not much to report otherwise!
✍️ Writing - Novel #2 Revisions
Not much to report here. Just slowly continuing.
📺 Watching - Star Wars Visions, Pluribus, and Friendship
Speaking of canon. Enjoying the new Star Wars Visions series. They’re experimenting with continuing some of the earlier stories. I kinda wish they’d just rip the band aid off and just make it “proper” IP and not hide it behind the “Visions” brand. Own it.
Pluribus, Vince Gilligan’s new show is off to a great start. High concept sci-fi and lovingly crafted. Going to enjoy seeing how it shakes out!
Friendship (2024) is a great dark comedic satire on modern male friendship and the “loneliness crisis”. Tim Robinson is great in this. Very watchable. It being funny and unhinged hides the darker sides of modern heteronormative male friendship.
🕹️ Gaming - Hades 2, UFO 50
Besides Hades 2, caught up on more UFO 50 games with a buddy this week. Still so wildly inventive a game. It’s one of those games that you can’t help but appreciate for the joy coming from Derek Yu in creating it. A game that only comes from passion.
🏃♂️ Running - UTCT is here!
Nervous and excited. Next week this time I’ll be running around Table Mountain, doing a 36km trail race over 2000m of elevation. It’s Ultra Trail Cape Town. No idea how it will go on the day, but focusing on making it an enjoyable day out on the mountain. Not focused on intensity and time, so not going to push myself too much. But still. I haven’t gone longer than a 24km trail run and unsure what the last 3rd will be like. Wish me luck! Will report back! After this week, looking forward to a well deserved rest from training. :)
🎶 Listening - Soft Loft - Paper Plane
A lovely gentle indie track. Enjoy! That’s it for this week folks. Hope you get to enjoy a lovely sunset. :)
Simon