Slashdot Mirror
Clarion Sci-Fi Auction
trickofperspective writes "To defray the cost of this year's session, following budget cuts at host school Michigan State University, the famed Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop is holding an online auction of items donated by past alums. Bidding opens January 28th on items such as a signed limited edition of Neil Gaiman's American Gods, a signed, homeade galley of Cory Doctorow's upcoming Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town, and more."
Or, perhaps I'm just being too optimistic, and people bid because they go insane at auctions.
This flies in the face of science.
What do the authors who donated the items think of the auction?
This is downright disrespectul, they were fonated as gifts to the place. Not as "sell me on in 10 years time" gifts. This is like selling your engagement ring or that necklace your [beloved family member here] bought you for your 18th/21st birthday.
I hope someone demands their items back and gives them to people who deserve them and will respectful rather then pawn it.
I like muppets.
Not to be a jerk, but don't they proofread anything before posting an article? I can understand 'doners' in a comment, but 'homeade galley'? Is that like a kitchen for making lemonade while living at sea?
Do the authors who donated the items to the students think it's so neat? What do they think about the mismanagement that is letting their alma mater go under amidst bake sales and raffles?
--
make install -not war
My only bid, which I will pursue aggressively, will be for the axe that Robert Jordan uses to clearcut whole forests.
The purchase of this item will serve three purposes:
- Benefit the Clarion workshop, whose annual anthologies enrich my library of SF.
- Spare future fen any temptation to waste money or time on Robert Jordan dekologies.
- Save entire ecologies from deforestation and destruction.
If I were a donor and gave something to an organization such as this, it would be because I thought the organization would benefit from whatever it was I was donating.
By selling these things off, they are basically telling the donors that while their intentions may have been good, they don't think their items were worth using.
Annoyingly enough, this is the first time I've heard anything about the "director's cut" version of American Gods. Twelve thousand extra words? Sigh... And the "reader's" version with even more new stuff? Are books the new DVDs?
... I don't want to get to the point where I wait 2-3 years before buying books in case a better version comes out. That will just guarantee that fewer good books come out due to lack of interest.
Not that I have anything against Niel - AG was a really great book (and I already have an autographed copy of the "cinema release" version (from his appearance at Exoticon in New Orleans)), and all of his work is brilliant (and so different from all of his other work, that's his real strength in my opinion), but
Ah, the trials of progress.
You're special forces then? That's great! I just love your olympics!
Clarion funding has always been tight. This is a program for students in a specific genre of writing that is not generally taught/funded in most writing programs.
Writers never make a ton of money, with some notable exceptions. And most of those make thier "real money" off of other properties (film, etc). The same for being an instructor of writers, or a student in writing program. They don't have the same types of alumni that can leave an huge financial endowment, unlike the tech sector.
So they're trying to fund things the way they can, without gouging the students for the six weeks of instruction. Most of the authors have pointers to the auction on their respective sites, so I'm fairly sure most of the approve of the use of their donations.
Looks like Cory Doctorow has made two slashdot posts IN A ROW!
90% of being smart is knowing what you're dumb at.
This is really old news. Michigan State pulled funding in 2003. So obviously this "news" item is really a "timely" plug to help fundingraising.
We have recently been informed that Clarion's funding from Michigan State University has been discontinued after the current 2003 workshop.
Read about their funding woes here It may be worth supporting Clarion, but don't pass this off as breaking news.
"You'll get nothing, and you'll like it!"
when as slashdot been about breaking news?
I'll tell you when, never.
It's a sci-fi auction, it sounds like news for nerds to me.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I would want her to come to me so I can help get her on her feet.
But your point is well taken.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I thought it was a misspelling at first, until I realized that it was refering to Cory's ship full of prostitutes serving honey-wine.
Excuse my ignorance, but what is in the "reader?" Is it notes by an additional author, or by the author himself? Actually for the price, it should be someone there to read it to me, but that's probably too much to ask. ;-)
But it comes up a little short.
don't believe me?
"the official home page for much-lauded author Harlan Ellison." - harlanellison.com/home.htm
Bidding starts at 20,000 quatloos on the newcomer.
Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
If it's for a good cause, why not? I'll readily sell off that necklace or autographed first edition, i.e., another family member desperately needs money for an operation or the organization is on the verge of liquidation. Besides, I don't think the items that are going to be sold represent anything really personal. These are basically the same sort of things that celebrities give away, in lieu of cash, to charity auctions. This is the one lesson that Gollum, that sneaky hobbit formerly known as Smeagol, failed to appreciate. The value of a thing lies not in itself, but in the good it can do. Love something too much and you're possessed by it. Instead of owning it, you're owned by it.
I'm a sci-fi vegan: I don't want the aliens to think we have as much right to live as the fried chickens we eat.
----
Get a free ipod! My friend got his, it's real. all you need is an email for spam. sign up and get 5 people to do the same.
I think it's because the science in our culture is no longer fiction, all the choices have been made, and the scope of possible futures is narrowing rapidly as we zero-in on our final destination.
Sci-Fi did a great job when it really mattered, and to be fair, it still does in the areas which count. --Look at the subjects which have been holding recent fascination in such titles like The Matrix, Firefly, Stargate, Enterprise, Star Wars. There are some very current and interrelated themes running through each of these titles which indicate what the global consciousness is focused on at the moment.
An X-Files sequel? Gee, no shit.
-FL
I love Cory Doctorow's imagination and how he can immerse the reader in a very different world yet still keep everything consistent. I hope he has developed his writing a bit for this new book though because it seemed like in almost every story he ties the end up too quickly, almost as if he got tired of working on it and just wanted it to be done. I would like to be wowed by the endings as much as I am by the beginnings. He also keeps you in suspense by having unexplained questions that you want to understand. But then ends the stories without satisying the readers curiosity. But whenever I talk to anyone about interesting new authors I always bring him up because what he does he does very well.
Liberals call everyone Nazis yet they are the closest thing to it.
> The Matrix, Firefly, Stargate, Enterprise, Star Wars.
Pop Sci-Fi with hardly any revealing insights. Mostly, that is why it they are selling it, its not challenging, no one will be offended, no risk.
> I think it's because the science in our culture is no longer fiction, all the choices have been made, and the scope of possible futures is narrowing rapidly as we zero-in on our final destination.
Okay, then please tell me.
How will genetic engineering affect our lives, or nanotechnology? How will the Global Climate Change affect us and our societies? Will China become the next superpower, or will shee break due to socioeconomical difference between the country and the cities? What will happen to the aging industrial societies? Will the globalism destroy cultural indiviuality or will it create transnational subcultures?
And more importantly, which questions did fail I to ask?
"Between strong and weak, between rich and poor [...], it is freedom which oppresses and the law which sets free"
I went to Clarion West back in 1994 and had a great time. Of my class of 20, 17 have published at least a short story at professional rates. About half have written or edited some sort of book. The more well-known writers include Andy Duncan (World Fantasy Award winner), Eric Nylund (writer of many novels, including HALO: FIRST STRIKE), and Syne Mitchell (three novels). I'm trying to finish my second. My wife Leah Cutter (Clarion West 1997) has her third novel coming out this spring from Roc.
I'm really proud of my class (and have some more information on my website about them). And I'm very supportive of the Clarion-style workshops. We have more quality science fiction and fantasy in the world because of them. Consider bidding in the auction!
Professor of Astronomy, Author of Spider Star & Star Dragon (Tor)
As an sf novelist, obvisouly I'm likely to disagree.
I think it's because the science in our culture is no longer fiction, all the choices have been made, and the scope of possible futures is narrowing rapidly as we zero-in on our final destination.
We're certainly living in an sf world, but an infinitesmal number of the choices have been made, and the scope of possible futures is still infinite.
It's somewhat telling that you only cite TV and movie science fiction. And I wouldn't even consider Star Wars science fiction at all. There are still great sf books being published. Please, pick some up and get excited about the possibilities the universe offers us. Download mine or one of Cory's for free to start.
Professor of Astronomy, Author of Spider Star & Star Dragon (Tor)
that later became a book? ender's game for example?
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
Everybody is currently living out the answers to those questions. Who needs sci-fi when it's here? --Well, to be fair, we do like to examine these things, but you'll notice that they're all dealt with in the context of already having happened in such pop sci-fi as, um. . , The Matrix, Firefly, Stargate, Enterprise, Star Wars.
-FL
Why doesn't Slashdot just mirror BoingBoing instead of repeating every single one of the stories Cory & Co. post on their site?
A lot of this is due to an abysmal understanding of science in the general public. Without a grounding in real science and intellectual speculation, "Sci-Fi" just becomes another genre -- "Space Opry" as opposed to "Horse Opry." [misspelling deliberate] The heart of worthwhile Sci-Fi is intellectual, but we live in a technological society where it is cool to be anti-intellectual. Even on a "geek" discussion site like Slashdot! Make no mistake, "My OS is cooler than yours" pissing matches are anti-intellectual. (Intellectual Integrity) When you really care about the truth, you devote a lot of effort to trying to prove *yourself* wrong.
It's not so much that the genre is dead, but that much of the potential audience is brain-dead. Now waiting to be modded down to "Troll."
Everything that can be invented has been invented.
-Charles H. Duell, Office of Patents, 1899
This seems like as valid an indicator of how much popular interest Sci-Fi has in our culture as any. --If Sci-Fi were still hugely valid, then the mention of Clarion would ring bells instead of just tinkling them.
As for the number of choices left open to us. . . The possible futures may certainly be infinite, but the broad scope of discernable differences between them as relates to human awareness on the subject, seems to be diminishing. Global Warming is real and it's here; how it plays out is not really a matter of debate so much as fear to the point of not wanting to look. Genetic research is already having an impact on us; most of our food is already affected. We know how industry is screwing us. We've been globally corporatized, and it doesn't look like there are any likely off-ramps. The Neil Stephenson version of the future seems to sum things up, and it doesn't look promising. The time of speculating about going to Mars in a Ray Bradbury personal space-ship is gone.
All I'm saying is that as a culture, we've explored the possibilities in great depth through Sci-Fi, and we seem to have decided on what will happen. Ask the man on the street what the future holds, and he'll probably be able to tell you with some confidence. We're not living in the fifties anymore. The ideas are not new, and they've moved beyond the realm of "fanciful possibility" and into the zone of "depressing-almost-for-certain".
This is how I explain the lack of interest in Sci-Fi these days which expounds beyond the television reality. If you have another way of explaining it, I'd be happy to hear it. Maybe people simply read fewer books these days. Have readership levels dropped to the same degree in all genres of book?
-FL
Besides, SF is something like C&W music in its ups and downs. It's out there skittering around the edges of the mainstream most of the time, and every so often something huge comes along (Star Wars, Garth Brooks) and a huge explosion in popularity occurs. After a while people just get sated and interest again wanes, and it becomes slightly uncool to be into the genre--at least, for a while.
I'm sure some sales are lost to existential apathy, but I don't know how many people don't want to dream anymore because everything worth dreaming has already been dreamed.
Well. . . I've heard that argument before in other mediums. --That such things move in cycles.
--You'll pardon me if I wince slightly and call it Wishful Thinking. It's particularly common among people who work in an affected medium and who don't want to consider the possibility that they might have to find other work. I know this directly. I work in comics and I've seen booms and busts, and man, comic books are history. They cling, like any medium will cling, but for all intents and purposes, their time on the main stage has passed. There are other things to invest our collective attention in.
But things do move. So how long until there is a surge of interest in Sci-Fi? Well. . . Fairy stories were popular, as were stories about knights errant. The Napoleonic war was a popular subject for a while. Things come and go, but by the time they return, the genre is usually massively changed and the even medium is often barely recognizable. Usually the last wave of writers are dead. And so are the readers.
The reason the public will re-focus on a subject is that culture has collectively forgotten all the things it taught itself during the original wave of attention. Are you dead yet? I know I'm not, and unless an exciting new possibility enters the picture of science, then I won't feel excited enough to pick up a speculative science novel. That's how it works. What Sci-Fi writers are basically waiting for is a very significant reality shift which opens up questions most people will have a burning desire to see answered. Rocket ship technology did this. As did the advent of industrial manufacturing and artificial materials science and genetics. But those things are done. --Remember, that stuff was new only sixty years ago! And that's when Sci-Fi mattered and was big. None of this stuff is new anymore, and so Sci-Fi simply doesn't matter as much, as evidenced by the low public interest in this Slashdot story.
What will the next big shift be? Well, heck, there have been a few. Look at the genres which have hit large in print publishing. Which books sell millions of copies? And why? I think it's limiting to label oneself a Science Fiction writer. Just be a writer, go where the action is and have something worth saying. (Yeah, that's not terribly realistic. People tend to spend a life-time trying to find personal focus, and do not often have anything worth saying outside those areas. Thankfully, this is why we have lots of different people, each with different perspectives.)
--Of course, there's nothing wrong in exploring the details. That's where niche markets come in. If it interests you, then stick with it and you'll be rewarded. Passion drives, and there are always enough people to support high talent and true passion and the right message within a specific area of interest.
-FL
Moreover, sf is really about just predicting the future and warning people about technological pitfalls. That's a narrow vision. It's a very unconstrained way of approaching a host of problems and issues that contemporary fiction may not be able to do. Philip K. Dick questions reality. Space colonization looks at new forms of government. Etc.
If you think the future is so clear, you need to work on your imagination. For instance, go compare predictions of the stripes of "peak oil" people to those who believe in the Vingean singularity and immortality in a couple of decades.
Well. . . The problem is that today we do actually have a pretty good idea as to what is coming. It's coming into focus daily. People are simply dealing with it in different ways, most subconsciously, a few consciously, and many others through outright denial which often involves looking away altogether.
The early and mid parts of the last century were filled with a large number of possibilities based on developing technologies and new scientific discoveries. There were many, many possible paths. The simple fact is that we've chosen most of those paths, and they are leading where they are leading. --I am in a position to know that many really powerful scientific discoveries have already been made behind the scenes, and that the public realm is only experiencing a very controlled release of 'new' ideas and science in accordance to other people's plans. If some 'new' scientific discovery comes along to change our society in any significant way, then you can bet it was deliberately placed. Of course, the plans of the Powers That Be are certainly subject to chaos and changeability, and those bounds are the ones which are being explored by current fiction of any worth.
The problem is that most Sci-Fi writers are not privy to the really good stuff; they are civilian writers working within the controlled medium. Subconsciously, people know this and have no real interest in reading their work. That's my guess as to part of the lack of interest in Sci-Fi books these days.
The relevant material, the stuff which is affecting the course of our culture today DOES, however, receive massive attention. Look at the kinds of stories which go big (or which are pushed small, but nonetheless set fire to minds), not just in one genre, but across the board. I think this offers a good indicator of the state of not just popular fiction, but the shape of our current and coming reality.
-FL
Your point about the fact that some media never seem to return to the strength of their initial heyday is valid, but doesn't really address the point being argued. My original argument was simply that everything has NOT verifiably been done, and so the need to wonder lives on. I have seen no evidence that this is not the case. I have also seen no evidence that SF is waning significantly. True, the Kennedy-era general fervour for space itself is gone, but SF itself seems to be going strong.
Some industry insiders talking it over.Perhaps a lack of vision in the populace is--in part--responsible for a perceived waning of SF's influence in the world. There is no reason to believe that this factor is the only one or even a significant one. For that matter, the fact that a story on Slashdot gets a low comment count could hardly be considered market research. Interesting, perhaps, but certainly not anything upon which to base decisions. In fact, in Europe in 2003:
And no, I am not dead yet. But I do have the capacity to dream, and I do not need a scientist somewhere to think something up before I can dream about it.