Dune screenwriter works in 30-year-old MS-DOS app, obeying dictat of Butlerian Jihad

Originally published at: Dune screenwriter works in 30-year-old MS-DOS app, obeying dictat of Butlerian Jihad | Boing Boing

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George RR Martin writes on Wordstar…

I believe Neil Gaiman prefers his first draft on a legal yellow pad? Or at least on paper…

But as he would say, whatever works to get you to do the job of actually writing is good.

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The mantra of the writer facing the blank screen:

“I must not get writer’s block. Writer’s block is the mind-killer. Writer’s block is the mind-killer is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my writer’s block is the mind-killer. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the writer’s block is the mind-killer has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”

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Flashed by in linked-to video.

I believe that device on the left was properly called a Telephone Machine.

“I will telephoning my friends for drinks!”, you would say. Then you would all meet up for drinks as planned.

What an age that must have been.

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strangers-with-candy-good-times

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Watching that XP machine pop-up requesting updates does make me shiver! I hope he doesn’t go online with that, it’d just too tempting to the big bad world out there!

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There’s a chance you’re messing up Ne(a|i)l’s. Neal Stephenson definitely does. That’s not to say Gaiman doesn’t, but I know for sure Stephenson does.

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These are known as “yellow dogs” in my neck of the woods. The little half-sized pads are “yellow pups”. I have no idea why.

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Weird! Regionalisms are funny.

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Yup. This is the Baroque Cycle.

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Yes. I’m also failure certain on the Neil Gaiman, but hey… I guess that 40 years of reading sci-fi and fantasy means I can’t possibly know my Neals from my Neils… :roll_eyes:

I also can’t tell the difference between a bald man with a beard, and a man with crazy hair…

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You definitely know your Ne(i/a)ls.

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I wonder how these Neils write?

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Perhaps you meant Kneel?

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To be fair, while I despise texting in general, meeting up with friends for drinks is one case where texting is more useful than the traditional voice use of a telephone – you can text the group to say where you found a table or whether you had to change venues. Having to call everyone individually would be annoying.

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I can’t tell anneal from an eel. :woman_shrugging:t2:
But I know what’s a moray!

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When I was a youngster you wouldn’t have a phone because the shitty flats you lived in didn’t have them. So you’d arrange to meet people a week before and then turn up as arranged!

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♪ When the jaws open wide, and there’s more jaws inside, that’s a moray! ♪

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864byn2
Marine life is weird.

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