Back to the Future

We began the week with an infographic about Star Trek on account of Leonard Nimoy’s death. We end the week with an xkcd graphic about stories of the past and future and its mentions of Star Trek. Not just for Nimoy, but now also of Harve Bennett, who was a producer instrumental in the production of the movies that solidified Star Trek as a cultural phenomenon.

Stories of the past and future
Stories of the past and future

Credit for the piece goes to Randall Munroe.

How to Write a Story

Today’s post is hosted on Brain Pickings. It’s diagrams made by Kurt Vonnegut that describe how basic plot lines work along two axes. There is a short video you can watch that goes over a few of them. But my favourite is, of course, not there. You have to read a bit further along to find it. Or just look below. But if you don’t read it, you’ll miss the written context.

Sucks to be a cockroach
Sucks to be a cockroach

Credit for the piece goes to Kurt Vonnegut.

Charting Literary Greatness

This is an interesting piece from Brain Pickings that looks at the literary careers of some of the 20th century’s greatest authors. Naturally, much debate will centre upon what is exactly a masterpiece, but if you take the subjectivity out of the graphic, you are left with an interesting piece. And I say interesting because in this case, I am not quite clear how I feel about this particular piece. But if I had the time I would love to be able to take a stab at it.

Literary careers
Literary careers

Credit for the original piece goes to La Lettura, I am unclear on who deserves the credit for translation.