Only a Game

The Mythology of Evolution: Publication Date

The publisher has given me the street date for The Mythology of Evolution, namely 28th September 2012. It should appear in the databases of book retailers such as Amazon sometime in the next few weeks.

Note for Academics

I will be submitting a revised and edited version of the Implicit Game Aesthetics serial that starts today as a paper to an as-yet-undetermined journal or conference. Please help me decide where to publish it as I am really quite unsure!

My First Bestseller

Yesterday I noticed that the Kindle edition of Imaginary Games was ranked at #9 in the Amazon.co.uk “Bestsellers in Aesthetics” category. This is my first ever ‘bestseller’, although my suspicion is that I only had to sell a dozen copies to make it into this particular category’s top ten!

Imaginary Games Shoots Up Amazon’s Best Sellers…

…from about #490,000 yesterday to #95,105 this morning! Woohoo! That means I sold at least one copy! :)

By the way, I desperately need some reviews of the book on Amazon, so anyone who’s read it I’d appreciate your support in this regard. Thanks in advance!

My Author Copies Arrived Today…

…so I was able to hold the first edition of Imaginary Games in my hands this afternoon. Don’t know if this means it’s available to buy now or not, but there are definitely copies in existence now.

Myths vs. Mythology?

Everything is going well with my second philosophy book, currently entitled Myths of Evolution, and I have now received two endorsements – one from British philosopher Mary Midgley who was “inclined to cheer loudly” upon reading the draft manuscript, and one from evolutionary scientist John O. Reiss who enjoyed the book and likes my viewpoint, but is concerned I get too preachy (which I do!).

John is skittish about my use of the word ‘myths’ in the title, however, fearing this will put off many of the readers who would be really interested in what I’m writing about. I’ve wondered about this myself – it’s a sensitive word in the US, and the people most likely to pick up a book entitled ‘Myths of Evolution’ will likely be disappointed that I am not advocating intelligent design. He suggests ‘The Mythology of Evolution’, which is a title I have already been considering.

What do you think – is The Mythology of Evolution a better title? Let me know!

Am I a Twit Now I am on Twitter?

Following the advice of a number of people, particularly recovering orangeholic Darius Kazemi, I am now on Twitter. I feel like an immigrant arriving in an alien culture for which I have no language or experience to draw upon…

Anyway, you can find me as @SpiralChris.

ShareThis Widget Removed

I've disabled the ShareThis widget because it was annoying me. If anyone found this useful, let me know and I'll ponder putting it back on. But if other people found it irritating, let me know as I'll take this as confirmation of my decision to cut it.

Once More Unto the Breach...

Still interested in new viewpoints or further discussion on File Sharing as Forgery. I find this an interesting topic, and most public debate thus far has been fairly asinine.

...Continué Tout Droit

To give more time for discussion of last week's Virtual, Fictional and Real, there is no new Focus post this week. The serial continues on Thursday as usual.

Some live points of discussion:

• The definition of "real" could be tightened to talk about that which is 'measurable independent of a measurer'. Does this keep out everything expressly defined as virtual?
• The definition of "virtual" may need adjusting; what is it that is gestured at with the examples of money, nations  and persons, and how could this best be expressed?
• Must things which we admit are not fiction (i.e. have no prescription to imagine, are not props in a game of make-believe etc.) be either virtual, real or supersensible, or might there be things which fall between these gaps?
• If that which is "fictional" has effects upon us outside of the prescription to imagine - e.g. reading a book affects how we look at the world afterwords - is fiction also virtual? Always, or only sometimes?
• To what extent does this previous point extend e.g. if I write a micro-story ("Once upon a time there was a squirrel. The end.")  does this have any virtual effect? If we say yes, does this mean the virtual definition is too loose?

Please use the comments of the original post to continue the discussions. Many thanks!