More Things, Jan 17, 2014
“Audio never goes viral,” writes radio and podcast producer Nate DiMeo. “If you posted the most incredible story — literally, the most incredible story that has ever been told since people have had the ability to tell stories, it will never, ever get as many hits as a video of a cat with a moustache.”
Why choose a female protagonist? Is it more difficult to believe that a male would be slowly manipulated as Mae is by The Circle? Or simply more natural to imagine a woman happily giving ratings to hundreds of brands, products and moods throughout the day?
As someone who grew up without a lot of money in a rich town, skiing was the kind of activity that I had never even considered, [because of its cost](https://ksp-me.squarespace.com/intlobject/(http://thebillfold.com/2014/01/the-cost-of-skiing/). But, under the influence love, and my innate desire to fit in with peers, I joined my boyfriend on a trip to Tahoe, where I would finally put the past behind me and conquer this weird thing once and for all.
The ideal run kept morphing as more secrets were discovered. The Door of Time skip, one of the most famous sequence breaks in gaming, involved a series of hops and backflips that allowed Link to pass through a wall and skip many of the game’s levels. In other areas, Link can use bombs to levitate or other camera tricks to bypass barriers, breaking the linear adventure into a dizzying romp.
Penélope Cruz telling Michael Fassbender how to please her? Cameron Diaz making love to the windshield of a sports car? Brad Pitt in a cheap suit? Maybe the killing and humping and glorious vulgarity were too much. Maybe it was badly sold.
But does anyone write just for the money? Laurence Sterne, the plagiarist author of Tristram Shandy, said he wrote “not to be fed but to be famous.” Now, of course, he is. It worked.
Humans sit around all day, consciously or unconsciously, wondering if they’re doing everything right, or if what they like in any realm is weird comparatively. Clothes, books, music, food, lifestyle, everything.
The underground exists, but it’s on the Internet and nobody can figure out a way to make money from it. I’m on the Internet, but it did ruin every business I’m in.