I’ve been doing a lot of writing lately. Surprised? One of the themes for a bunch of my recent stuff has been to get away from the hard science fiction and fantasy writing and build stories around slightly more plausible fictions, in particular stories about the culture and ideas of the net. From a couple of perspectives, namely that of (a) a hack of a social anthropologist and (b) a card-carrying member of the geek tribe, net culture is fascinating to me. So, rather than make up fantastic realities, I’ve spent a lot of time making up fantastic scenarios inside the reality of people interacting online. A story that I’ve been working on has piqued my interest, and if all goes according to plan I’ll [...]
There is humour in the city. Humour in the darkness and blindness of not knowing what lurks behind the colourful billboards and flashing light-matricies. And there is something behind the cracks, but we think we know what it is… It seems like I sit and wonder about these things all the time. I’m trying to join the fractured elements of whatever I can grasp out of the air and construct it into a thing that I can see more clearly. I can see it now, but it is floating in the jetsom of my brain and I can’t figure out how to clear away the mess and reach out to it. I had an idea. Blogs. These things. They are literal self-expressions, of a sort. [...]
In the brash trend: there is something primal between the cracks in the sidewalk, smooth patches broken by regular grooves of shaped cement that rattle underfoot as we glaze by faster than intended by the city’s engineers. Clip, clip, clip… at metronomic repetition, paced almost too quickly to count. I bladed to work this morning, the sun shining at my back as I paced through the rough sidewalks and fragmented pathways that don’t exactly lead where I need them to go. There are still too many rocks, too much, and too little experience with that thin layer of connection between the asphalt and the rounded, spinning edges of my wheels. Speed is a factor in the city. Either one walks, drives, skates, cycles, trains, planes, [...]
He rushes across the room, and before you realize what’s happening you’re watching your pal start wailing on the poor sap who may or may not have tossed the spicy appetizer. He’s shouting at you across the room.
culture: (cull – cher) noun 1. the quasi-non-quanitfiable state of societal sameness by which we place our existence into the context of those around us.
