I was talking with my brother-in-law a few years ago about electric cars. He converts internal-combustion vehicles to electric, and he was explaining how gasoline is an energy-rich fuel source compared to batteries. That is, it takes far less gas to push a vessel over a distance than it does electricity from a battery.
Writing is an effort-intense way to express oneself. It takes a long time to write a book and then to get back whatever you’re going to get back. Some of it is just the way the medium is consumed. If you make a record or a movie, it only takes an hour or two for someone to experience it. A book takes much longer.
Writing is difficult at every turn: it’s difficult to do, it’s difficult to get feedback, it’s difficult to get published, it’s difficult to sell, and it’s difficult to get read. This week marks the five-year anniversary of the release of my book Dead Precedents: How Hip-Hop Defines the Future from Repeater Books! Now, I’ve written and edited a few more books since, but even if it were my only book, I’d be proud of the final product.
The central argument of Dead Precedents is that the cultural practices of hip-hop are the cultural practices of the 21st century. In what Walter Benjamin would call correspondences, I use evidence from cyberpunk and Afrofuturism to make the book’s many claims—everyone from Philip K. Dick, William Gibson, and Rudy Rucker to Public Enemy, Shabazz Palaces, and Rammellzee, among others.
Jeff Chang, author of Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop and co-editor of Freedom Moves, says, “Roy Christopher’s dedication to the future is bracing. Dead Precedents is sharp and accelerated.” And Samuel R. Delany calls it “a book with so much energy and passion in it… a lively screed.”
If you don’t know, now you know.
And if you still don’t have a copy, get up on it!
Another Anniversary
I was never an angry or a sad drunk, but I took a short break from the drink in January 2017. After a couple of out-of-pocket nights in March, I decided to try it again.
That was seven years ago, and I’ve found nothing bad about not imbibing. As Ian MacKaye once said, “If you want to rebel against society, don’t dull the blade.”
Amen.
Also, if you’d like a copy of Dead Precedents (or any of my books for that matter) and can’t afford one or whatever, let me know. We’ll work something out.
If you’ve read it, please consider posting a review. They really do help.
Thank you for reading,
-royc.
http://roychristopher.com