I used to follow Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden books, until I tired of them. They’re puffalicious, but they remind me too much of S.M. Brust’s condensed sci-fi con conversations, and they just started to sound self-similar.
But, one of the characters in those books that I enjoyed, naturally, was Dresden’s dog Mouse. Mouse got the name because he’s humongous, but once was small(ish) and gray(ish). Butcher teases us with a bit of lore regarding Mouse but never gets detailed: he’s a Tibetan temple guard dog (a “foo dog”) and a supernatural power in his own right. [Mouse]
Just for the heck of it, I thought I’d render Mouse in Midjourney.
Midjourney AI and mjr: “a giant noble chinese temple dog, gray, realistic, alive.”
The first thing I thought was “that guy probably eats a 25# bag of kibble for breakfast.” Then, I thought, “I pity the poor fool who has to brush him.” But maybe supernatural dogs don’t get poopy butt, or armpit mats, I don’t really know.
Midjourney AI and mjr: “the chinese woman wearing hanfu is standing next to the huge dog”
This one was harder to get: Midjourney has its own idea how big dogs are, and I had to feed back the other image of Mouse in order to get the proportions right. Finally I resorted to roughly compositing a human figure into the picture of the dog, so Midjourney would riff on it from there.
Finally, I tried this and I think it came out pretty well!
Midjourney AI and mjr: “the chinese woman is brushing the huge dog’s fur with a silver brush.”
I know a yarn collector/spinner who once made a sweater that was 50% samoyed dog fur. Allegedly, their fur is hollow and is amazingly insulative because it holds air. OK, whatever, no matter how many times it had been de-dogged it still smelled funny when it got wet.
My local TV news this morning had a short piece on checking whether images were generated with AI. I recognized one of their examples of fakes: your pope in a puffer coat. I gather that it went viral and is now all over the internet. 8-)
As a spinner I can confirm that yes, that “wet dog” smell never goes away. Even so, many people want their dog hair spun into yarn to make a keepsake from their own dear doggo.
I love the way it does the hair. It would take me a long time to replicate that hair with pen or pencil.
I read some of the Dresden Files stuff, up until the sad/rabid puppies kerfluffle, which Butcher was suspiciously quiet about. I’ve since heard various rumors of him associating with various alt-right fuckwits.
Nothing solid, but I’ve more authors I enjoy reading than I can keep up with, so I’m not going to waste any more time reading stuff from someone who won’t at the very least denounce white supremacy.
On that note, I recently finished N. K. Jemisin’s short story collection (How Long ’til Black Future Month), and really enjoyed it – I’m a huge fan of her ‘Broken Earth’ trilogy, and I think she’s going to be one of the more noteworthy SF/fantasy authors of our generation.
The first dog my wife and I got was kind of a small, shephardy mutt, and she did have rather (but not extremely) long hair. To combat poopy butt we would regularly clip her hair, but only back there.
Which brings to mind one of the classic insults (which I saw on M*A*S*H, delivered by Jamie Farr): “If my dog looked like you, I’d shave his butt and teach him to walk backwards.”
Allegedly, their fur is hollow and is amazingly insulative because it holds air.
So, I have read it claimed, is the fur of polar bears. Supposedly, sometimes algae get inside, and the bear’s coat turns green.
@1: The “puffer coat pope” was not originally Marcus’ idea, although he did riff on it.
Bill – the viral puff pope was actually by somebody else and looks different from marcus’s when you have them side by side. i checked when i first saw his to see if the AI actually did produce an identical result with similar inputs, and while the bot’s “idea” was the same, the rendering was not.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but MidJ is real likely to close the eyes of Asian people. It’s weird.
@6&7: I stand corrected. I should have gone back and read Marcus’ post more carefully.
your pope in a puffer coat.
Yes, that was not mine – it was some guy on the internet who was high on shrooms and playing with midjourney AI, as one does.
My pope was wearing reactive armor. :)
lochaber@#3:
I read some of the Dresden Files stuff, up until the sad/rabid puppies kerfluffle, which Butcher was suspiciously quiet about. I’ve since heard various rumors of him associating with various alt-right fuckwits.
I recall that the sad puppies incident affected me and my reading landscape, by making me re-assess the value of MILSF. Basically, it’s a genre that elevates violence as a means of problem-solving, which is truly the main thing fictional about it.
There is some MILSF like David Drake’s Hammers Slammers and Haldeman’s Forever War or Steakley’s Armor that is not presenting violence as the solution, but rather the problem. I grew up on Haldeman, Drake, Steakley, H. Beam Piper, Gordon Dickson, Michael Moorcock and I’ll argue that those writers were often trying to come to grips with the malaise of endless warfare. I felt that John Ringo, David Weber, etc., were more akin to “Mack Bolan in spaaaace!” – got a problem? Try violence. Oh, that didn’t work? Try more violence. E E “Doc” Smith had a similar problem, in that his lensman books were essentially a documentary about an arms race. It’s not great stuff. Especially when compared to C J Cherryh or Lois Bujold, both of whom grapple much better with the complex consequences of violence.
Anyhow, I felt that Harry Dresden’s response to trouble and travail was to go non-linear and get his kill-fest going, and that the surrounding characters, even the bad guys, were just props for the whole explosive denouement of each successive novel. It’s kind of formulaic after a while – like the Honor Harrington books, in which you know Honor will come up with a strategic deus ex machina that wins the final battle at suitably dramatic cost. Yawn. So, I stopped reading the Dresden books because I started to feel like I could no longer tell one from the next.
The sad puppies’ role was basically asking “why don’t you respect our writing?” which resulted in the answer, “… because it’s not very good?”
ahcuah@#4:
To combat poopy butt we would regularly clip her hair, but only back there
I did that with my dogs, until they responded by rolling in horse poo to re-balance their odor. After which, I resorted to the “springtime lion cut” annually.
I like the first picture best. Second one is too gracile. You can feel the heft of the bone and muscle in the first picture, which seems right. You should be surprised to see him move as fast as he can; it makes clear that he is not entirely of the mortal realm.
The later Dresden books suffer from the usual failure of tension that occurs when a character becomes powerful enough that there no longer seems to be much effort to their victories. Some authors, I think, also become too attached and don’t want their character to truly suffer, or suffer consequences.
Marcus Ranum @#10:
I made myself read all the Pup nominees, and really it gave me the greatest respect for editors. There were stories in there that I would have called unfinished, others that fulfilled their writ of being “traditional” SF by using ideas that could have been seen in SF sixty years ago. And they were so very proud of themselves. And they still are. I pop by one or another of their blogs now and again, and they don’t appear able to shake the notion that they were hard done by.
Maybe Foo Dogs don’t shed? I would be doing any brushing outside, as those would generate quite the amount of flying fur. The mane itself is awesomely fluffy and lion-like.
Tethys@#14:
Maybe Foo Dogs don’t shed?
That would indeed be supernatural!
ledasmom2@#13:
I pop by one or another of their blogs now and again, and they don’t appear able to shake the notion that they were hard done by.
I pretty much unplugged from all MILSF around that time. Not because of the puppies, per se, but because the things happening at that time made me sit back and think about the MILSF and realize what amateurish hack shit it generally is.
I came to feel that the Hugos (etc.) had a serious problem, namely that they didn’t decide in advance if their awards were for excellence or popularity. Mack Bolan in space would be as popular as the original Mack Bolan books, i.e.: very, but nobody mistakes it for high quality literature. Since the Hugos try to award based on internal feedback in the writer community, searching for excellence, they made a big mistake when they also granted awards for popularity. In the sense that there was this sort of pseudo-democratic process, the puppies were excluded in spite of the popularity of their crap.
The whole kerfuffle made me realize that I don’t care what books are popular I want people who understand good writing and thoughtful plotting to recommend really good books. I don’t care what is popular, because popular culture is more an indicator of what sucks, than what is good. I.e.: if we rewarded Mack Bolan in space novels, the next thing we would certainly get would be Paris Hilton, Space Fleet Commander and Tactical Knife-Fighter shit by John Ringo. Oh, le yawn. At which point the Marvel Comics Universe and DC Comics Universe can merge with MILSF and Star Wars and produce The Fictional Glarp Channel and we will have replaced religion, finally.
ledasmom2@#12:
I like the first picture best. Second one is too gracile. You can feel the heft of the bone and muscle in the first picture, which seems right. You should be surprised to see him move as fast as he can; it makes clear that he is not entirely of the mortal realm.
Yeah, that’s true. When he moves it should be a surprise, “oh, shit” moment.
New Warming Fabric Imitates Polar Bear Fur to Capture Sunlight
Warhammer 40K! (And I say that as someone who quite likes a bit of WH40K.)
Dunc@#19:
Warhammer 40K
Pretty much!
ahcuah@#4: “If my dog looked like you, I’d shave his butt and teach him to walk backwards.” One time in high school a kid said a version of that to me, something like “if I looked like you I’d walk on my hands and teach my butt to talk”. I said “I thought you were doing that already”. I got beat up, but totally worth it.