For futurists, look to science fiction - particularly those people with
well sussed political nous. Ryman - resident in Oxford - has written
some of the most affecting books I've read in the last 30 years. His
"Was" left me in near-as-dammit tears in the 80s sometime!
Quite a lot of the futureworld is being worked out by writers of this
genre - in a quiet sort of way there is a renaissance of science fiction
going on, following the flurry of socio-political work by those such as
LeGuin in the 60s and 70s (Her "Left Hand of Darkness" is still, after
nigh on 40 years now, one of the best efforts to deal with what being
human means in any genre, and if you haven't read it - you should) with
the quality of writing by some authors in a different plane to the
rocketmen of the classical era. Kim Stanely Robinson is another writer
who is working on a triptych of novels over global warming, which I have
yet to read, or see in any of the large bookshops where they don't seem
to be stocked. Funny that, because until his turn to a form of political
writing that could impact with Heavy Weather, his stuff reliably showed
up at places like Dillons, or Borders. Blackwell's in Oxford never
stocks SF - far too grease monkey stuff for the upper class
intellectuals of the English elite who consider any proficiency with
material matter a definitive statement of lower class status.
Also mentioned is another tale about the collision of the boomer and
gen-x generations with the fishbowl society - sounds like fun. I just
wonder....
Anyway, let's hear it for another expatriate Canuck (from
boingboing.net):
Geoff Ryman wins Sunburst Award for AIR
The Sunburst Award for Best Canadian Science Fiction Book has been
awarded to my fellow UK-residing expat Geoff Ryman for his novel Air.
Geoff's written many fantastic novels, such as The Child Garden (about a
world where curing cancer restricts cellular division and reduces the
average lifespan to 30) and WAS, the World Fantasy Award winning mean
and dreamlike retelling of the Wizard of Oz from the point of view of
the abused and downtrodden little girl in Kansas whom L Frank Baum used
as his model for Dorothy.
'Mae lived in the last village in the world to go online. After
that, everyone else went on Air.' So begins Geoff Ryman's AIR, a
moving novel about change, tradition, information, power and
transformation. Ryman brings us to a remote Asian village one
heartbeat in the future, introduces characters who live on the
page and linger in the mind, and, in graceful, powerful prose,
explores the challenges of negotiating both technological change
and everyday life in the human community."
I was honoured to win the Sunburst last year for my short story
collection, A Place So Foreign and Eight More -- many congrats to Geoff
for his well-deserved victory! Link
posted by Cory Doctorow at 02:32:42 AM permalink | blogs' comments
New Futurismic story: litigation-happy dystopia
Futurismic's latest short science fiction story is online. Changing The
Tune (by Jason Stoddard) is a sweet dystopian short about a world where
every utterance is subject to offended micro-lawsuits from
eavesdropping, entrenched Gen-X and Boomer busybodies who pretend
affront to increase their incredible wealth:
"What is it you're doing again?" he'd told me one night before
we left the UCLA dorms, but I'd only been half-sober and
half-listening. I was more interested in how he was rolling his
student loans into a small business loan that was 50 times
larger, without ever having made a payment.
"Found media," he said. "Phonecam pix, IM threads, MPEG
captures, all that stuff from the dawn of the media age. We
track down where you appear, put it together into a coherent
format, do enhancement or repair work on it, and even storyboard
it."
"For almighties."
"Yeah, usually. But it's interesting, all the stuff that's got
caught in the net."
"And how many boomers have had their saggy breasts bouncing on
some VGA-res screen," I added.
Keith nodded. "Yeah, and that, too. Some of them like it, some
of them don't. You let them pick and choose."
Working with wrinkly old fucksters all day, greedy grubby
bastards always trying to see how they can forgo payment, or
even fuck you with a suit, I thought. No thanks.
Link (Thanks, Jeremy!)
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