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CUNNING PLANS: Talks By Warren Ellis
CUNNING PLANS collects several of NYT-bestselling author Warren Ellis' lectures on the nature of the haunted future and the secrets of deep history, given in recent years at events in London, New York, Los Angeles and Berlin.
56 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 1, 2015
About the author
Warren Ellis
1,888 books5,742 followersWarren Ellis is the award-winning writer of graphic novels like TRANSMETROPOLITAN, FELL, MINISTRY OF SPACE and PLANETARY, and the author of the NYT-bestselling GUN MACHINE and the “underground classic” novel CROOKED LITTLE VEIN, as well as the digital short-story single DEAD PIG COLLECTOR. His newest book is the novella NORMAL, from FSG Originals, listed as one of Amazon’s Best 100 Books Of 2016.
The movie RED is based on his graphic novel of the same name, its sequel having been released in summer 2013. IRON MAN 3 is based on his Marvel Comics graphic novel IRON MAN: EXTREMIS. He is currently developing his graphic novel sequence with Jason Howard, TREES, for television, in concert with HardySonBaker and NBCU, and continues to work as a screenwriter and producer in film and television, represented by Angela Cheng Caplan and Cheng Caplan Company. He is the creator, writer and co-producer of the Netflix series CASTLEVANIA, recently renewed for its third season, and of the recently-announced Netflix series HEAVEN’S FOREST.
He’s written extensively for VICE, WIRED UK and Reuters on technological and cultural matters, and given keynote speeches and lectures at events like dConstruct, ThingsCon, Improving Reality, SxSW, How The Light Gets In, Haunted Machines and Cognitive Cities.
Warren Ellis has recently developed and curated the revival of the Wildstorm creative library for DC Entertainment with the series THE WILD STORM, and is currently working on the serialising of new graphic novel works TREES: THREE FATES and INJECTION at Image Comics, and the serialised graphic novel THE BATMAN’S GRAVE for DC Comics, while working as a Consulting Producer on another television series.
A documentary about his work, CAPTURED GHOSTS, was released in 2012.
Recognitions include the NUIG Literary and Debating Society’s President’s Medal for service to freedom of speech, the EAGLE AWARDS Roll Of Honour for lifetime achievement in the field of comics & graphic novels, the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire 2010, the Sidewise Award for Alternate History and the International Horror Guild Award for illustrated narrative. He is a Patron of Humanists UK. He holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Essex.
Warren Ellis lives outside London, on the south-east coast of England, in case he needs to make a quick getaway.
The movie RED is based on his graphic novel of the same name, its sequel having been released in summer 2013. IRON MAN 3 is based on his Marvel Comics graphic novel IRON MAN: EXTREMIS. He is currently developing his graphic novel sequence with Jason Howard, TREES, for television, in concert with HardySonBaker and NBCU, and continues to work as a screenwriter and producer in film and television, represented by Angela Cheng Caplan and Cheng Caplan Company. He is the creator, writer and co-producer of the Netflix series CASTLEVANIA, recently renewed for its third season, and of the recently-announced Netflix series HEAVEN’S FOREST.
He’s written extensively for VICE, WIRED UK and Reuters on technological and cultural matters, and given keynote speeches and lectures at events like dConstruct, ThingsCon, Improving Reality, SxSW, How The Light Gets In, Haunted Machines and Cognitive Cities.
Warren Ellis has recently developed and curated the revival of the Wildstorm creative library for DC Entertainment with the series THE WILD STORM, and is currently working on the serialising of new graphic novel works TREES: THREE FATES and INJECTION at Image Comics, and the serialised graphic novel THE BATMAN’S GRAVE for DC Comics, while working as a Consulting Producer on another television series.
A documentary about his work, CAPTURED GHOSTS, was released in 2012.
Recognitions include the NUIG Literary and Debating Society’s President’s Medal for service to freedom of speech, the EAGLE AWARDS Roll Of Honour for lifetime achievement in the field of comics & graphic novels, the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire 2010, the Sidewise Award for Alternate History and the International Horror Guild Award for illustrated narrative. He is a Patron of Humanists UK. He holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Essex.
Warren Ellis lives outside London, on the south-east coast of England, in case he needs to make a quick getaway.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 74 reviews
November 23, 2015
Cunning Plans is a short collection of talks Warren Ellis gave between 2011 and 2015 at various conferences around the world.
Ellis is best known as a comics writer whose work includes Transmetropolitan, Planetary, The Authority, Freakangels, and numerous books at Marvel and DC. A lot of his best work concerns futurism, history and technology, all of which are themes covered in the talks and delivered in an intelligent but accessible, and funny, way.
He talks about the perception of science fiction as a means of predicting the future and what utter bullshit it is. Captain Kirk may have had a mobile-phone-looking device but it’s nothing like the smartphones we use today. Using it to talk to others is just one of a million functions our little black mirrors can do - Star Trek and other science fictions predicted nothing! Looking at the present is more relevant than throwing out guesses as Ellis writes: “To improve reality is to clearly see where you are, and then wonder how to make that better.”
But also, science fiction is always about the time it was written. 1984 is about 1948, and Orwell wasn’t trying to predict anything, he was using the novel to discuss concerns of the post-war years.
Ellis ties in ideas of magic and history into our current state of technology. You’ll learn about Cunning Murrell, a 19th century magician, who’s linked to Baldrick, a character from the British sitcom Blackadder whose catchphrase “I have a cunning plan…” is where the title comes from. Also, how older forms of magic and its language informs the technology that’s appeared. As he says, “Technology is the process of replicating the condition of magic. That’s the paradigm.”
The subjects in the talks are wide-ranging from a Kenyan peasant farmer called Mogo to Hannah Beswick the Manchester mummy to the story of the Tongva people who inhabited the Los Angeles basin once upon a time - I won’t spoil those here, you’ll have to read them yourself, but they’re excellent true stories.
Ellis’ talks are erudite but also have moments of humour, which is what makes his somewhat misanthropic attitude more palatable. On the subject of the Vorticists, he says:
“Modernism says that things can be right. Post-modernism says that nothing can be right. So if you ever wonder why nothing new ever seems to happen any more, find a post-modernist and beat the shit out of them.”
Some talks seem a bit random but are entertaining nevertheless. One morbid talk about old cities has Ellis musing:
“This is the point about old cities that everyone forgets - they’re nothing but dead people all the way down. And this is the point about America that everyone forgets - it is not a young country. It simply has the worst case of cultural amnesia on the planet. The worst, but not the only case. Because it happens everywhere. We only ever focus on the skin of a city, and never its blood and bone.”
Some of the talks are repetitive - Cunning Murrell appears again as mentions of Apple tech - and his talk on pop music was a bit uninteresting, but on the whole these are some wonderful essays full of fascinating history and observations. Ellis’ real voice is similar to his authorial one so if you’re a fan of his comics or books, like me, you’ll definitely find a lot to enjoy with Cunning Plans. Get in league with the fantastic!
Ellis is best known as a comics writer whose work includes Transmetropolitan, Planetary, The Authority, Freakangels, and numerous books at Marvel and DC. A lot of his best work concerns futurism, history and technology, all of which are themes covered in the talks and delivered in an intelligent but accessible, and funny, way.
He talks about the perception of science fiction as a means of predicting the future and what utter bullshit it is. Captain Kirk may have had a mobile-phone-looking device but it’s nothing like the smartphones we use today. Using it to talk to others is just one of a million functions our little black mirrors can do - Star Trek and other science fictions predicted nothing! Looking at the present is more relevant than throwing out guesses as Ellis writes: “To improve reality is to clearly see where you are, and then wonder how to make that better.”
But also, science fiction is always about the time it was written. 1984 is about 1948, and Orwell wasn’t trying to predict anything, he was using the novel to discuss concerns of the post-war years.
Ellis ties in ideas of magic and history into our current state of technology. You’ll learn about Cunning Murrell, a 19th century magician, who’s linked to Baldrick, a character from the British sitcom Blackadder whose catchphrase “I have a cunning plan…” is where the title comes from. Also, how older forms of magic and its language informs the technology that’s appeared. As he says, “Technology is the process of replicating the condition of magic. That’s the paradigm.”
The subjects in the talks are wide-ranging from a Kenyan peasant farmer called Mogo to Hannah Beswick the Manchester mummy to the story of the Tongva people who inhabited the Los Angeles basin once upon a time - I won’t spoil those here, you’ll have to read them yourself, but they’re excellent true stories.
Ellis’ talks are erudite but also have moments of humour, which is what makes his somewhat misanthropic attitude more palatable. On the subject of the Vorticists, he says:
“Modernism says that things can be right. Post-modernism says that nothing can be right. So if you ever wonder why nothing new ever seems to happen any more, find a post-modernist and beat the shit out of them.”
Some talks seem a bit random but are entertaining nevertheless. One morbid talk about old cities has Ellis musing:
“This is the point about old cities that everyone forgets - they’re nothing but dead people all the way down. And this is the point about America that everyone forgets - it is not a young country. It simply has the worst case of cultural amnesia on the planet. The worst, but not the only case. Because it happens everywhere. We only ever focus on the skin of a city, and never its blood and bone.”
Some of the talks are repetitive - Cunning Murrell appears again as mentions of Apple tech - and his talk on pop music was a bit uninteresting, but on the whole these are some wonderful essays full of fascinating history and observations. Ellis’ real voice is similar to his authorial one so if you’re a fan of his comics or books, like me, you’ll definitely find a lot to enjoy with Cunning Plans. Get in league with the fantastic!
June 17, 2015
A book made up of several transcribes of talks Warren Ellis has given. Think of it as him giving a TED talk and someone writing it down.
It's short, but very intellectually written and enjoyable. It mainly focuses on the discussion that science fiction does not predict the future, which has so often been regarded as a popular opinion.
A good read to have for journey somewhere.
It's short, but very intellectually written and enjoyable. It mainly focuses on the discussion that science fiction does not predict the future, which has so often been regarded as a popular opinion.
A good read to have for journey somewhere.
Read
March 21, 2022Odd choice to print these essays as verbatim transcripts, with clear laugh-line and applause breaks. Also, several of the essays overlap. Left wondering what would have happened if Ellis had spent some time going back over these and developed these stories into a proper essay collection or full book.
June 16, 2015
Warren Ellis, particularly in his non-fiction mode, falls rather handily into the "grumpy uncle" category of writers. By which I mean, I don't always agree with what he says, but I love to hear him say it. His carefully constructed, self-depreciating, doused-in-strong-drink persona add an elegant, fun and funny frame to observations about the now.
Cunning Plans is a brief collection of such observations, essentially the print versions of talks Uncle Warren has given at various conferences over the past few years. The talks contained in this volume are variations on a theme - the future doesn't exist, science fiction is always about now, and it is far better to create the future than to predict it. With whiskey.
Fans of Ellis' won't find anything unusual or unexpected here. Truthfully, if you read Ellis' newsletter or any of the various blogs he has maintained over the years, you might already be familiar with a lot of the ideas presented here. But the keyword in that sentence is presentation. If you haven't had a chance to hear Ellis' speak, and you want to hear Uncle Warren proclaim about the non-existent future, Cunning Plans is a lovely substitute.
Cunning Plans is a brief collection of such observations, essentially the print versions of talks Uncle Warren has given at various conferences over the past few years. The talks contained in this volume are variations on a theme - the future doesn't exist, science fiction is always about now, and it is far better to create the future than to predict it. With whiskey.
Fans of Ellis' won't find anything unusual or unexpected here. Truthfully, if you read Ellis' newsletter or any of the various blogs he has maintained over the years, you might already be familiar with a lot of the ideas presented here. But the keyword in that sentence is presentation. If you haven't had a chance to hear Ellis' speak, and you want to hear Uncle Warren proclaim about the non-existent future, Cunning Plans is a lovely substitute.
September 15, 2015
Direct, intuitive and unapologetic, this is the closest you'll come to Warren Ellis Cliffs Notes. It still packs abrasive metaphors and a general sentiment that will make you hate humanity while secretly cheering its futures in which we'll all have sorcerer computers for endocrine systems or something.
August 18, 2015
The collection of essays were a little uneven, but solid, enjoyable and as always delivered in the trademark Warren Ellis style.
January 25, 2016
Nobody makes me as excited and fearful of the future as much as Warren Ellis. And bless him for that.
Full review forthcoming.
EDIT:
Warren Ellis is a writer of things.
These are things he has written about the future.
Warren writes a lot of things about the future.
I could read Warren's writing about the future for the rest of my life and never complain about it.
And that’s despite the fact that Ellis has the curious ability to make me both dread the future and to utterly welcome it with open arms. It's one of his most peculiar and endearing abilities as a writer. The man contains multitudes. Most of which live a few years ahead of the rest.
(Warren Ellis is, I should mention, a goddamn wizard.)
Ultimately though, he makes me excited for it. I dare anyone to read any of the essays contained within this volume, especially the ones where Warren is essentially grabbing the reader by the neck and forcing them to look out at the World whilst screaming, "We are living in the future now, you silly bastard. The world is amazing and awe-inspiring and terrifying and it is of vital importance that you acknowledge this if you want us to survive as a species" and not feel at least a little bit of a spark.
(If that sounds a bit abrasive, you can blame him. He's the one who came up with the whole Internet Curmudgeon persona.)
The capital F Future is not everything Warren writes about here. These talks also act as a sort of funnel through which he poured a lot of recent obsessions out of his head. Getting them down on paper to be better understood. "This is always the writer’s cunning plan," writes Ellis, in the introduction to this volume, "writing things down so that you can see them properly." These obsessions include, but are not limited to: the role of science fiction (it's not meant to predict the future, damn it) history and folklore (important things, damn it), and -- most peculiarly -- magic (a real thing, damn it).
Ellis talks about magic a fair bit in this book, which was curious and fascinating, him being such a pragmatic fellow. I appreciated the musings, however, as it is a subject in which I have been progressively getting interested for a couple of years now. Although I don't mean magic in the fantasy Harry Potter/Hocus Pocus sort of way (although I would actually like that to be part of our actual reality as well); I mean magic as another lens through which we can view the world. Stories to make sense of this weird psychedelic experience we call Life. (It's all Grant Morrison's fault, I reckon.)
Ellis doesn't talk about magic in the hocuspocusharrypotter way either. At least not entirely. He employs magic as a metaphor in a couple of different ways. Firstly, as a way of making sense of all our increasingly overwhelming technology.
"Technology is the process of replicating the condition of magic. That’s the paradigm.
Look at a Segway and tell me it’s not the world’s shittiest witch’s broomstick. We only wanted jetpacks because we couldn’t make magic carpets work.”
(Likening technology to magic is essentially old hat by now, I know, but the way Ellis goes at it is compelling and fascinating. And so, so entertaining.)
And secondly -- and perhaps more importantly -- he uses it as a metaphor for the past. Another surprising but compelling theme found in these talks.
The future is nothing if we don't learn anything from the past. Especially if we don't learn from all the witches and the shamans and healers of old, who Warren describes as the original pioneers of technology, the original hackers. This is another peculiar leitmotif that runs through a couple of the talks here, and Warren actually, honest-to-goodness, makes a pretty compelling case for it somehow. He manages to draw a fairly clear and distinct line between these cunning folk of the past and the technological pioneers of today -- the test pilots of the future, to use one of Warren's own phrases. It seems far-fetched but actually starts to make sense the more you think about it. Because what are modern day tech developers if not Explorers of the Unknown? What are the Fogs of the Future and the Clouds of the Internet if not proverbial Spirit Worlds, accessible via our myriad of modern talismans?
“From deep within his cunning Reality Distortion Field, Steve Jobs insisted that the iPad was magic. He used the word. This is why. You could point at a magic mirror with a finger and cause mysterious and wonderful things to happen, as if you were a wizard. Magic clings to the digital world, as if the digital world were actually The Other World.”
It's an interesting and attractive way of looking at the the world. It’s also one of those ideas that, once it gets in your head, it’s very difficult to look at things any other way.
There is actually a word for this. Explainers is the term Neil Gaiman used to describe those writers who had a knack for explaining the world to itself in clever and unforgettable ways. He said this of Douglas Adams specifically, but it could apply to other writers of the fantastic like Terry Pratchett. It certainly applies to Warren Ellis. He uses these disparate themes of time and magic and technology to explain our current world.
This, by the way, is what Warren argues is the true purpose of science fiction. Science fiction has no business predicting the future. Science fiction has only ever talked about the present, viewed through the kaleidoscopic lens of the future.
Metaphor is the key word. History and time and magic and technology. These are very real things but they are also the metaphors we use to talk about our current condition, our current position in time and space.
"The central metaphor is magic. And perhaps magic seems an odd thing to bring up here, but magic and fiction are deeply entangled, and you are all now present at a séance for the future. We are summoning it into the present. It’s here right now. It’s in the room with us. We live in the future. We live in the Science Fiction Condition."
Underneath all of this heavy bric-à-brac, however, Warren's writing has always been, at its heart, about the people. We are the ones living through history, after all. We are the ones performing the magic and the rituals; we hold the talismans. We are the ones who will inherit the future (if we don't kill ourselves first and leave the planet to the cockroaches).
Ellis has oft been described as a journalist, and I also share that view, but I am also always reminded of something he said in Captured Ghosts, the documentary about his work:
“The job of the writer is – I think – the same as the job of the journalist, which is to stand up and say, ‘Here’s where I am today, and here’s what I think it looks like.’ But the writer I think has an extra responsibility to say, ‘Look up, because you’re here too.’”
And this, for me at least, is what his writing's all about. He wants you to look. Backwards, because history is important, if we are ever to learn, but up and ahead as well, because that way leads to... well, the rest of our brief, ridiculous, beautiful lives. So just look.
Look, you tremendous bastards.
"I’d love to be able to tell you a story about the future, but I’d rather tell you a story that counts. I’d rather give you a sense of where you might come from, because you need to know where you’ve been to know where to go. The future is your story to tell."
Full review forthcoming.
EDIT:
Warren Ellis is a writer of things.
These are things he has written about the future.
Warren writes a lot of things about the future.
I could read Warren's writing about the future for the rest of my life and never complain about it.
And that’s despite the fact that Ellis has the curious ability to make me both dread the future and to utterly welcome it with open arms. It's one of his most peculiar and endearing abilities as a writer. The man contains multitudes. Most of which live a few years ahead of the rest.
(Warren Ellis is, I should mention, a goddamn wizard.)
Ultimately though, he makes me excited for it. I dare anyone to read any of the essays contained within this volume, especially the ones where Warren is essentially grabbing the reader by the neck and forcing them to look out at the World whilst screaming, "We are living in the future now, you silly bastard. The world is amazing and awe-inspiring and terrifying and it is of vital importance that you acknowledge this if you want us to survive as a species" and not feel at least a little bit of a spark.
(If that sounds a bit abrasive, you can blame him. He's the one who came up with the whole Internet Curmudgeon persona.)
The capital F Future is not everything Warren writes about here. These talks also act as a sort of funnel through which he poured a lot of recent obsessions out of his head. Getting them down on paper to be better understood. "This is always the writer’s cunning plan," writes Ellis, in the introduction to this volume, "writing things down so that you can see them properly." These obsessions include, but are not limited to: the role of science fiction (it's not meant to predict the future, damn it) history and folklore (important things, damn it), and -- most peculiarly -- magic (a real thing, damn it).
Ellis talks about magic a fair bit in this book, which was curious and fascinating, him being such a pragmatic fellow. I appreciated the musings, however, as it is a subject in which I have been progressively getting interested for a couple of years now. Although I don't mean magic in the fantasy Harry Potter/Hocus Pocus sort of way (although I would actually like that to be part of our actual reality as well); I mean magic as another lens through which we can view the world. Stories to make sense of this weird psychedelic experience we call Life. (It's all Grant Morrison's fault, I reckon.)
Ellis doesn't talk about magic in the hocuspocusharrypotter way either. At least not entirely. He employs magic as a metaphor in a couple of different ways. Firstly, as a way of making sense of all our increasingly overwhelming technology.
"Technology is the process of replicating the condition of magic. That’s the paradigm.
Look at a Segway and tell me it’s not the world’s shittiest witch’s broomstick. We only wanted jetpacks because we couldn’t make magic carpets work.”
(Likening technology to magic is essentially old hat by now, I know, but the way Ellis goes at it is compelling and fascinating. And so, so entertaining.)
And secondly -- and perhaps more importantly -- he uses it as a metaphor for the past. Another surprising but compelling theme found in these talks.
The future is nothing if we don't learn anything from the past. Especially if we don't learn from all the witches and the shamans and healers of old, who Warren describes as the original pioneers of technology, the original hackers. This is another peculiar leitmotif that runs through a couple of the talks here, and Warren actually, honest-to-goodness, makes a pretty compelling case for it somehow. He manages to draw a fairly clear and distinct line between these cunning folk of the past and the technological pioneers of today -- the test pilots of the future, to use one of Warren's own phrases. It seems far-fetched but actually starts to make sense the more you think about it. Because what are modern day tech developers if not Explorers of the Unknown? What are the Fogs of the Future and the Clouds of the Internet if not proverbial Spirit Worlds, accessible via our myriad of modern talismans?
“From deep within his cunning Reality Distortion Field, Steve Jobs insisted that the iPad was magic. He used the word. This is why. You could point at a magic mirror with a finger and cause mysterious and wonderful things to happen, as if you were a wizard. Magic clings to the digital world, as if the digital world were actually The Other World.”
It's an interesting and attractive way of looking at the the world. It’s also one of those ideas that, once it gets in your head, it’s very difficult to look at things any other way.
There is actually a word for this. Explainers is the term Neil Gaiman used to describe those writers who had a knack for explaining the world to itself in clever and unforgettable ways. He said this of Douglas Adams specifically, but it could apply to other writers of the fantastic like Terry Pratchett. It certainly applies to Warren Ellis. He uses these disparate themes of time and magic and technology to explain our current world.
This, by the way, is what Warren argues is the true purpose of science fiction. Science fiction has no business predicting the future. Science fiction has only ever talked about the present, viewed through the kaleidoscopic lens of the future.
Metaphor is the key word. History and time and magic and technology. These are very real things but they are also the metaphors we use to talk about our current condition, our current position in time and space.
"The central metaphor is magic. And perhaps magic seems an odd thing to bring up here, but magic and fiction are deeply entangled, and you are all now present at a séance for the future. We are summoning it into the present. It’s here right now. It’s in the room with us. We live in the future. We live in the Science Fiction Condition."
Underneath all of this heavy bric-à-brac, however, Warren's writing has always been, at its heart, about the people. We are the ones living through history, after all. We are the ones performing the magic and the rituals; we hold the talismans. We are the ones who will inherit the future (if we don't kill ourselves first and leave the planet to the cockroaches).
Ellis has oft been described as a journalist, and I also share that view, but I am also always reminded of something he said in Captured Ghosts, the documentary about his work:
“The job of the writer is – I think – the same as the job of the journalist, which is to stand up and say, ‘Here’s where I am today, and here’s what I think it looks like.’ But the writer I think has an extra responsibility to say, ‘Look up, because you’re here too.’”
And this, for me at least, is what his writing's all about. He wants you to look. Backwards, because history is important, if we are ever to learn, but up and ahead as well, because that way leads to... well, the rest of our brief, ridiculous, beautiful lives. So just look.
Look, you tremendous bastards.
"I’d love to be able to tell you a story about the future, but I’d rather tell you a story that counts. I’d rather give you a sense of where you might come from, because you need to know where you’ve been to know where to go. The future is your story to tell."
July 1, 2019
A short collection of Warren Ellis lectures (more like TED talks) from conferences in the early to mid 2010s. It helps to have a grounding in Ellis's previous work, such as Transmetropolitan and Global Frequency. While uneven, the talks are a good distillation of Ellis's worldview - the advance of technology is relentless, unpredictable, alternately terrifying and thrilling. The incandescence of his writing carries through to his lectures, so this is a short, enjoyable read that will get you thinking about the future. Not a defined future because Ellis argues that is impossible to predict, but a future that will demand adaptability and resilience in the face of whatever comes. One could argue - and Ellis does - that this future is already here.
September 9, 2018
Esta es una recopilación de conferencias y charlas de Warren Ellis, y generalmente tratan sobre futurismo, pero cuando rascas un poco te das cuenta de que como muy buen dice él mismo, en realidad es un análisis del presente. Porque la ciencia ficción en realidad siempre trata sobre el momento en el que fue escrita.
Su brevedad implica que las ideas potentes que contiene pegan aún más fuerte. Hay párrafos verdaderamente fantásticos. Merece la pena.
Su brevedad implica que las ideas potentes que contiene pegan aún más fuerte. Hay párrafos verdaderamente fantásticos. Merece la pena.
Read
December 12, 2019Fascinating collection of talks about the intersection of magic and technology, and the future. At first I thought it might be slightly too optimistic about the possibilities of technology given the limitations placed on it by capitalism, but that gets rectified later on. In the end we get a balanced yet inspirational look at the possibilities held by the future.
Now where is that upcoming book about the future of the city that's mentioned in the author's bio...?
Now where is that upcoming book about the future of the city that's mentioned in the author's bio...?
September 5, 2022
Some excellent essays by Warren Ellis. I enjoyed them all, smiling, and nodding along often, laughing out loud (on a crowded plane) more than once.
Highly recommended - especially if you like your essays on the intersection of Futurism, technology, and magic - as told by a curmudgeonly British scribe that has forgotten more about what he's talking about than you'll ever know.
Highly recommended - especially if you like your essays on the intersection of Futurism, technology, and magic - as told by a curmudgeonly British scribe that has forgotten more about what he's talking about than you'll ever know.
February 1, 2017
Interesting talks Ellis has given. Time, pop culture, what Silicon Valley needs to do bring on the future.
July 13, 2022
Philosophical, funny, and short non-fiction talks from a fantastic writer.
June 20, 2015
Creio que não consigo datar com precisão o momento em que me apercebi que venerava Warren Ellis. A coisa deu-se um pouco por acaso, ainda naqueles tempo pré-históricos em que a internet se acedia através de modems analógicos, a blogoesfera mais pura era uma colecção de texto e links, e comecei a seguir uma página escrita por ele. Daí passei aos comics, e fiquei irremediavelmente transfixo pela forma como a mente de Ellis digere tecnologia, futurismo e narrativas empolgantes de banda desenhada. Fiel fã da trilogia divinal Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman e Grant Morrison, descobri em Ellis algo ausente nestes grandes nomes dos comics: um profundo e difícil de expressar sentimento de compreensão dos limites em constante expansão da modernidade. Há mais no seu trabalho do que bons argumentos e histórias intrigantes. Por detrás destes sente-se uma intricada estrutura conceptual de especulação informada, um andaime conceptual que se deslumbra com a radicalidade da crista da onda científica e tecnológica enquanto especula em direcções inesperadas sobre os seus impactos sociais, morais e civilizacionais. Este carácter, tão ausente de boa parte da Ficção Científica, rendeu-me de vez ao trabalho deste singular autor que se refugia no estuário do rio Thames. Ellis compreende a modernidade tal como Ballard, anteriormente, a sentiu, sendo de certa forma um herdeiro do ballardianismo.
Cunning Plans reúne apontamentos e transcrições de palestras que Ellis tem sido convidado a dar em eventos ligados às intersecções entre tecnologia, design e arte. Sendo um contador de histórias, com um lirismo visceral da palavra electrificada, não se remete para o hype dinâmico ou apresentação estilo TED, com um pé na academia e outro no espectáculo. Ellis tece fiapos de pensamentos que reflectem a condição hipermoderna, misturando narrativas de elementos díspares que se solidificam em pontos de vista inesperados. Não é como Sterling, guru e profeta do admirável mundo novo digital, ou tantos outros oradores conceituados. É um shamã do mundo eléctrico, conjurando noções radicais na mente daqueles que estão encurralados a ouvi-lo com as teias de palavras que urde. Caracterizando as palestras pelos textos, não se trata tanto de aprender coisas novas mas sim de interligar o que se sabe e o inesperado, abrindo novos caminhos para compreender este transiente momento contemporâneo.
Cunning Plans reúne apontamentos e transcrições de palestras que Ellis tem sido convidado a dar em eventos ligados às intersecções entre tecnologia, design e arte. Sendo um contador de histórias, com um lirismo visceral da palavra electrificada, não se remete para o hype dinâmico ou apresentação estilo TED, com um pé na academia e outro no espectáculo. Ellis tece fiapos de pensamentos que reflectem a condição hipermoderna, misturando narrativas de elementos díspares que se solidificam em pontos de vista inesperados. Não é como Sterling, guru e profeta do admirável mundo novo digital, ou tantos outros oradores conceituados. É um shamã do mundo eléctrico, conjurando noções radicais na mente daqueles que estão encurralados a ouvi-lo com as teias de palavras que urde. Caracterizando as palestras pelos textos, não se trata tanto de aprender coisas novas mas sim de interligar o que se sabe e o inesperado, abrindo novos caminhos para compreender este transiente momento contemporâneo.
November 20, 2015
I have to preface this review by admitting I’m big fan of Warren Ellis in just about every way. His comic book work is amazing and innovative. He has hardly disappointed me except for his first novel Crooked Little Vein, but his batting average is pretty damn consistent. He came back ten times as hard with his second novel Gun Machine. I’ve been introduced to his some of his non-fiction work in the past thanks to some excellent essays online and his entertaining newsletter. So it’s no surprise that I really got a kick out of this book and hope I can attend one of his talks in person in the future.
The first talk is fantastic and really draws you into Ellis’ cynical yet hopeful atmosphere. He explains the history of cunning men, futuristic shamen who dare to dig into the future. Shit, Ellis is probably a direct descendent of these cunning men.
Every talk is a little different, but informative. He explains how everything is truly connected in the universe and how every bit of information (places, pop music, science fiction) can be traced back to an identifiable root. The combination of history and folklore really puts some things in perspective.
Towards the second half of the book, he argues about the point of science fiction and its place in literature. Ellis reaches back into history, tears away all the bullshit, and rips the root out to show you the entire timeline of science fiction and employs this same method in many of his talks. .
“The future isn’t seeing the circus approach town from up the road, coming straight towards you. It’s everything. It’s standing on the headlands and seeing an entire weather system, the breadth of the whole horizon, swirling around and inching towards us, cirrus by thunderhead by rainstorm.”
If you like Warren Ellis’ work at all, you’ll definitely enjoy Cunning Plans. It’s an informative and oddly entertaining collection of talks and bubbling with a love for the future and all of its possibilities.
The first talk is fantastic and really draws you into Ellis’ cynical yet hopeful atmosphere. He explains the history of cunning men, futuristic shamen who dare to dig into the future. Shit, Ellis is probably a direct descendent of these cunning men.
Every talk is a little different, but informative. He explains how everything is truly connected in the universe and how every bit of information (places, pop music, science fiction) can be traced back to an identifiable root. The combination of history and folklore really puts some things in perspective.
Towards the second half of the book, he argues about the point of science fiction and its place in literature. Ellis reaches back into history, tears away all the bullshit, and rips the root out to show you the entire timeline of science fiction and employs this same method in many of his talks. .
“The future isn’t seeing the circus approach town from up the road, coming straight towards you. It’s everything. It’s standing on the headlands and seeing an entire weather system, the breadth of the whole horizon, swirling around and inching towards us, cirrus by thunderhead by rainstorm.”
If you like Warren Ellis’ work at all, you’ll definitely enjoy Cunning Plans. It’s an informative and oddly entertaining collection of talks and bubbling with a love for the future and all of its possibilities.
January 22, 2020
I love the way Ellis digs up obscure frames of reference and explains them, links them and uses them as a prism for understanding something.
This is a collection of ideas about futurology, science fiction, and the history of magic.
Ellis challenges the banality of the future, he says the present is exciting, he talks about Mccluhan, Ballard, Moorcock, mobile phones. sci-fi is not about prediction technologies but speculating social possibilities. He talks about speculative fiction and speculative design.
Some bleak circus- he uses this theme to frame a lecture about banality and futurism. Modern vs postmodern. He claims tech industry people are too buried in their own deep silos of research in a narrow field so that they lack the perspective to make their tech relevant socially. For the Future Everything conference he states that ‘everything’ is the important bit, to keep the big holistic picture in place. Ban prediction, as it is un-useful, it creates a lot of cultural baggage that gets in the way of design-led change. He compares Marinetti to Wyndam Lewis, Futurist vs Vorticist, one in favour of noise and speed and fascism, the other stillness, and fascism. Kraftwerk and their attempt at an alternative ‘future’ where nazism never happened. This is speculative on the social. roadside picnic- Ballard's view of a banal future.
This is a collection of ideas about futurology, science fiction, and the history of magic.
Ellis challenges the banality of the future, he says the present is exciting, he talks about Mccluhan, Ballard, Moorcock, mobile phones. sci-fi is not about prediction technologies but speculating social possibilities. He talks about speculative fiction and speculative design.
Some bleak circus- he uses this theme to frame a lecture about banality and futurism. Modern vs postmodern. He claims tech industry people are too buried in their own deep silos of research in a narrow field so that they lack the perspective to make their tech relevant socially. For the Future Everything conference he states that ‘everything’ is the important bit, to keep the big holistic picture in place. Ban prediction, as it is un-useful, it creates a lot of cultural baggage that gets in the way of design-led change. He compares Marinetti to Wyndam Lewis, Futurist vs Vorticist, one in favour of noise and speed and fascism, the other stillness, and fascism. Kraftwerk and their attempt at an alternative ‘future’ where nazism never happened. This is speculative on the social. roadside picnic- Ballard's view of a banal future.
January 18, 2016
This e-book collects transcripts of some of the talks that Ellis has given at various SF and futurist conferences over the past few years. Each one is an exploration of how science-fiction creators and fans should (or shouldn’t) be looking at The Future. Like a lot of his fictional work, it’s jam-packed with historical factoids, but in this case with the purpose of illustrating that you can’t understand the future without understanding both the past and the present. Ellis also makes the connection between the old world of superstition (ghosts, demons, magick, etc) and the new world of technology (i.e. iPads make us all wizards, at least by 18th-century standards). Despite the common thread, there’s little overlap between each piece, and what overlap there is doesn’t feel redundant. Like Ellis’ best work, it’s fascinating, thought-provoking and highly entertaining. If nothing else, Ellis makes a more solid case about the futility of predicting the future in 52 pages than Nassim Nicholas Taleb did in 500+ pages of The Black Swan.
June 16, 2015
An absolute must-read for anyone interested in history, in the future, in folkloric iconography, in the utter power of stories and imagination, and the intersections of all those things, how they come together to create a culture. Since this is a collection of different talks given by Warrwn over the past 5 years, there are a few ideas & conceits that repeat themselves across different essays — but it's still interesting to see how they grow, change, and stay in conversation with the other fascinating ideas that he's expressing. It's essentially a collection of his free-time philosophical obsessions from the past half-decade, and if you've ever read any of his fiction work, you know that he is quite the philosopher indeed.
November 12, 2015
'The future is more than an Instagram filter.'
In addition to being bearded, grumpy and a comics writer, Warren Ellis does a remarkable number of conference keynote speeches.
This slim, cheap ebook collects a variety of Ellis' speeches - some short, some long, all smart, interesting and well-written. (There's some of Ellis' best writing here, in fact - it's a form that suits his pithy, snarky style.)
He talks mostly about futurism - technology, change, adaptation, pop music and things being terrible but maybe not as terrible as that. And even when he's heaping scorn on futurism and being a miserable git in general, there's still an optimism about what the future could be if we could just be less crap for a bit.
Entertaining, thought-provoking stuff - well worth a read.
In addition to being bearded, grumpy and a comics writer, Warren Ellis does a remarkable number of conference keynote speeches.
This slim, cheap ebook collects a variety of Ellis' speeches - some short, some long, all smart, interesting and well-written. (There's some of Ellis' best writing here, in fact - it's a form that suits his pithy, snarky style.)
He talks mostly about futurism - technology, change, adaptation, pop music and things being terrible but maybe not as terrible as that. And even when he's heaping scorn on futurism and being a miserable git in general, there's still an optimism about what the future could be if we could just be less crap for a bit.
Entertaining, thought-provoking stuff - well worth a read.
June 10, 2015
Brain drippings from Mr. Ellis
I am a Warren Ellis junkie. I subsist off the loose brain drippings he leaves as breadcrumbs, as he winds his way through spaces both cyber and meat.
Now that my confession is out of the way, I gotta say that this is a great collection of the thoughts of one of the most unique writers it's ever been my pleasure to read. If you're a fan of his writing, grab this for the buck he's asking for it, and enjoy a little of the man behind the curtain. I wish I had the opportunity to see the speeches from this book in person, but the literary equivalent is far from second place.
I am a Warren Ellis junkie. I subsist off the loose brain drippings he leaves as breadcrumbs, as he winds his way through spaces both cyber and meat.
Now that my confession is out of the way, I gotta say that this is a great collection of the thoughts of one of the most unique writers it's ever been my pleasure to read. If you're a fan of his writing, grab this for the buck he's asking for it, and enjoy a little of the man behind the curtain. I wish I had the opportunity to see the speeches from this book in person, but the literary equivalent is far from second place.
June 10, 2015
As always, Warren Ellis is at his most interesting when he thinks out loud. The pieces collected in this ebook aren't linked by any particular theme, and are of wildly varying links, but not a one of them is boring. And not one of them won't spark an idea that wakes you up just as you're on the cusp of sleep some time in the week after you read it, saying "Wait a minute!" to yourself, and either frantically scribbling down your latest inspiration or just as frantically hitting the interwebs to confirm or disprove something Ellis mentioned.
June 14, 2015
I'm a big fan of Warren Ellis' comics writing and was surprised to find that he seems to have reinvented himself as some kind of technological visionary. This ebook is a collection of various talks he gave over the last couple of years and they are not very good. I found the general tone very vague and meandering and my initial impression didn't improve when he repeatedly name dropped notable gasbags Bruce Sterling and Terence McKenna. I wish he'd stick to comic books and I can't for the life of me understand why a cranky curmudgeon like Ellis would want to be on the TEDx circuit.
June 14, 2015
Ellis is one of those writers who seem to have more ideas than they can get down in paper, so this is a collection of his ideas, most of which were given as lectures. A lot of which is on the idea of futurism, what the future looks like, and how we may get there.
As such there is no real thread running through the book, it's more stream of conciousness at some times as the thoughts just come flooding out.
I'm not sure I agree with him a lot of times, but that isn't really the point. The essays are there to make you think, and to be fair it does that. It's just a pity it's so short
As such there is no real thread running through the book, it's more stream of conciousness at some times as the thoughts just come flooding out.
I'm not sure I agree with him a lot of times, but that isn't really the point. The essays are there to make you think, and to be fair it does that. It's just a pity it's so short
June 19, 2017
I saw this book in a suggested reading list, and Ellis' background in comics and scifi (as well as the individuals review) sounded interesting enough that I grabbed it for a buck on my Kindle. -Excellent- investment. Warren Ellis sits you down and tells you a story of the familiar, and slowly walks you out to the edge and then past it. You only realize how far out you've gone when you notice that what -was- familiar begins to look so....alien.
Give it a shot, I'd bet that you won't regret it.
Give it a shot, I'd bet that you won't regret it.
June 18, 2015
I'm a bit biased since I'm a fan of most of his comic work. That said, Ellis has a unique POV on technology that I appreciate in his speeches and essays. Even when I may disagree with him, I love how he puts forth his views. At 52 pages there's nothing in depth in here, but it is a great intro to this Futurist ideas about technology and it's relation to sociology (particularly folklore) in the past, present, and future.
July 28, 2015
"The central metaphor is magic. And perhaps magic seems an odd thing to bring up here, but magic and fiction are deeply entangled, and you are all now present at a séance for the future. We are summoning it into the present. It’s here right now. It’s in the room with us. We live in the future. We live in the Science Fiction Condition."
Que livro, que homem, que futuro ao mesmo tempo assustador e excitante
Que livro, que homem, que futuro ao mesmo tempo assustador e excitante
August 11, 2015
Short, Sweet, and Scathing
Warren Ellis' gives us his take on why the futurists' penchant for prediction is utter bullshit. He argues for an organic future that really cannot be predicted as seen time and time again. This book contains short snippets of his thoughts and speeches (at times repetitive but adds to pugnacity of the argument) at various sci-fi and tech conventions/conferences. I would recommend this to people familiar with Mr. Ellis! If not, tread wearily!
Warren Ellis' gives us his take on why the futurists' penchant for prediction is utter bullshit. He argues for an organic future that really cannot be predicted as seen time and time again. This book contains short snippets of his thoughts and speeches (at times repetitive but adds to pugnacity of the argument) at various sci-fi and tech conventions/conferences. I would recommend this to people familiar with Mr. Ellis! If not, tread wearily!
August 26, 2015
The slim volume titled Cunning Plans is a collection of speeches and talks given by noted author Warren Ellis. Culled from the back of his mind over a three year stretch, there are repeated themes and parallel tracks that lead from men long dead to the bleak boring world of tomorrow.
It's a nice little building block for anyone interested in speculative fiction or building a more entertaining world from the bones of the last one.
It's a nice little building block for anyone interested in speculative fiction or building a more entertaining world from the bones of the last one.
February 6, 2016
An enjoyable collection of Ellis' recent talks at various conferences (some of which can also be found on YouTube). There are a couple variations here on the idea of early modern metaphors of magic being carried forward into the internet age. Best not to make too much of that, but it makes for a very entertaining talk, and some of the connections Ellis makes are engaging. An easy recommendation for anyone who enjoys his fiction.
January 27, 2017
Lots of sarcastic observations on fleeting cultural tastes but a LOT of food for thought that's grounding, pulling for pause, especially on possible futures in store for our technophiliac age. The talk in which he interweaves tech and magic -- how the symbols and intentions of past human curiosity stay with us, represented in gadgets and the relationships we build through them -- is especially moving. Recommended for people who like to feed time to their brains.
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