Save the Writer petition

Goodbye 2023!

Announcement

NO DOUBT 2023 was a tough year for everyone except a handful of tech billionaires who gathered enormous wealth–

— but we got through it, which is what counts. In so doing, at New Pop Lit we published a variety of sterling work, fiction and poetry both. In our admittedly biased opinion, some of the best writing to be found anywhere. Doubt this? Then click onto our “TOP OF THE POP” page and browse around. READ some of the stories and poems. They fit our goal of being readable and striking.

WHAT ELSE were we up to in 2023? For one, our “Save the Writer!” petition, which has us standing at the forefront among literary people in questioning the dubious benefits of Artificial Intelligence. If you have not yet signed the petition– you should.

WE ALSO began a new page at our site, Fast Pop Lit— a site within a site, really– for posting shorter work much faster than we can put up our longer features. Also, as a way to promote those writers we do feature at our main site. Plus, it’s as striking looking as any literary site out there– a reflection of our intention to be not just one more literary mag. Previews, interviews, commentary, satires– with much more to come. Check it out!

Then stay tuned for a lot more to come in 2024.

Which Way AI?

News

The question remains, several months into the introduction of ChatGPT: What will be the impact of the new technology upon today’s literary scene?

Botbooks have already begun to flood onto Amazon and other book and literature outlets. Quality of the offerings to date has been lacking, to say the least. Those who believe they can create something adequate or excellent with their prompts will likely be lost amid the mass mob of bot-generated trash.

New Pop Lit has been at the forefront of those engaging in pushback against the plutocrat-funded, piracy-fueled change.

FIRST, our “Save the Writer!” petition has hit 1,000 names– not bad for an effort backed by no institutions, ideologues, or prominent personalities. Only by everyday artists and writers. Please sign, if you haven’t already.

SECOND, we’ve begun a new blog, in some ways a new site– Fast Pop Lit— with which we can post ideas and arguments, creativity and satire, faster, to keep up with the speed of change but also to offer an actual difference, not just from bot work but also from other literary alternatives. Think Substack, refuge of established writers, whose writings are too long for an online environment– especially phones– and most (not all) of whose offerings are absolutely boring.

We seek to present with Fast Pop an underground sanctuary from the mass-packed jammed-together gray bleak city of choices– like a cool dark underground coffeeshop: small, artsy, and strikingly different from aboveground insanity. Which, let’s face it, is swiftly being taken over by bot people, like an influx of zombies.

Latest post: a poetic Sneak Preview of our next NPL feature.

Then after that will be satire. Remember, it’ll come fast. Blink and you’ll miss it.

Writer Activism?

Opinion

FOR ALL THE TALK of American literature today being heavily politicized, the results have manifested themselves– in stories, poems, and novels– chiefly in personal, solipsistic ways. Focus on the individual more than society. (See alt lit and autofiction.) Absent are sweeping novels or poems which encompass the broader world– whether like The Octopus by Frank Norris on the left, or Atlas Shrugged from Ayn Rand on the libertarian right. Or poems like “Thou Shalt Not Kill” by Kenneth Rexroth, or “Howl” by Allen Ginsberg.

Absent as well is a writer with the platform, credibility, and strong voice of an Emile Zola who proclaimed, “J’Accuse!” about the Dreyfus case.


WE’VE noticed even with our modest “Save the Writer!” petition a marked hesitation from writers, editors, critics, professors, and other literary people when one would think all would be on board for the modest ask that readers be notified, with brief statements on an inside page, when books are A.I.-generated.

We’ve asked a few of this nation’s most prominent authors (we won’t name them), to join our campaign, hoping to find an Emile Zola or Salman Rushdie among them. So far: Silence.

A NOT-ROBOTIC WRITER

The direct opposite of a bot-generated writer was the Bard, William Shakespeare– as is described in a new post, “Shakespeare and Creativity,” at New Pop Lit’s News blog. Please read it and see what you think.

ALSO big thanks to all who’ve signed the petition to date!

Has the Tech Bubble Peaked?

Controversy

Talk about perfect timing! Two days after we began our pushback petition against the A.I. ChatGPT chatbot onslaught, Silicon Valley’s key bank for tech money collapsed. Did they receive word that not everybody on the planet was buying into their latest scam iteration of mad technology? Maybe!


The purpose of chatbots? Encapsulated in a single word: MONEY.

Anyway, please sign the petition, if you haven’t already. Its goal is to protect readers and writers. You can check a box to be listed anonymously if you like. Thanks!

MEANWHILE, our feature poetry from Toronto writer-musician Tom Preisler is still “Top of the Pop” for us. Read it here.

Then stay tuned for other exciting pop-lit happenings!