Amateur Authors

Samuel Pepys and Chaucer were amateur authors, so was Milton; they were  civil servants. All facts I am coming to appreciate more as I read the excellent Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self by Claire Tomalin. Even in the Sci Fi world, in which I am a published but amateur author, one can find plenty of excellent precidents for non-pro authorship. Like Tolkein. The meaning of amateur, here, being number two in the list at http://www.webster.com , namely: "one who engages in a pursuit, study, science, or sport as a pastime rather than as a profession". I would prefer a less insipid word than pastime for the last bit, such as passion, voluntary hard labor or life's work auxiliary to primary source of income, but the point is--lots of wonderful authors had day jobs. So flinch not from the strenuous sneers and imprecations of the hard core pro, oh fellow amateurs. We, too, come of a long and honorable tradition. PS I do not recommend surgery for removal of a bladder stone in the 17th century, as Pepys experienced it. Shudder.

Curse of the Science Fiction Writer

In the category of discovering science fiction authors: via a message on the SF Canada mailing list, I surfed to Ahmed A. Khan's mini-story Curse of the Science Fiction Writer and discovered how to deal with despots.

Readers Think, Watchers Click

I found reading Mara E. Vatz's commentary on a report by the National Endowment for the Arts both depressing and inspiring. (See: http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/blog.asp?blogID=1487 ). In a nutshell, the study at issue shows that reading for pleasure is on the decline.  It also points out that the subset of the population that does read, is the portion of the population that contributes the most to civilization.

As a fiction author, okay--that's depressing. Who wants to know that one is "playing" to a shrinking audience?

As a reader, on the other hand, it is nice to know that my growing impression that I am not likely to enjoy a conversation with anyone who hasn't read a book of his or her own free will in the last six months, is not a mere figment of my imagination.

On balance I think .... there are an awful lot of people in the world. If readers are less than 50% of them at the moment, that still amounts to a lot of people. And if it is going to be the readers or the non-readers who make the world turn (by being proactive instead of apathetic) then I am glad it is the readers who are in the driver's seat.

 

As for the "optics" in a world that seems increasingly obsessed with the "more is better" stampede, I recommend we found a Readers Pride organization. We could make T-shirts that say: "Readers Think, Watchers Click".

The irony here is that most people consider me a techno-guru. I work in educational technology and have owned a computer since the TRS-80. I have a Masters in Computational Science and I consider dabbling in Flash Animation programming to be entertaining. But the kind of integrated, whole-meal-deal stimulation I get from a good book is still unparalleled for me as a mental experience. It is to books I retreat for solice and to deepen my understanding of the universe.  When I read a good book, I feel as if I've had an exciting conversation with the author that has expanded me as a human being.

Since I seem to have one foot, firmly, in each world I find myself deeply puzzled some days. How is it that so many people view the issue as an "either/or" affair?

 

Cory Doctorow's Next "Garbage" Novel

Discovered Cory in a professional capacity, while searching the web for articles on Digital Rights Management. Joined his mailing list and this morning, over my coffee, read an excerpt from his next novel based on an indepth knowledge of ... junk. Couple of things that struck me as interesting apart from the story. :-) One, the excerpt is from a work in progress but it is online now. I found one typo in it--I can relate to that! An in initial blurb warns the work is one "in progress" and the actual words might change before it sees print. It was on something called "Fantastic Metropolis" hosted by MULTIVERSE.org. And it promotes a book soon to be in print, from Tor. Oh, yes, and it is set in Ontario. Cory's a fellow Canadian. About the text, it's an interesting read and definitely original. I can say with confidence that I have never read a story about a bunch of brothers parented by a washing machine and a mountain before. I liked the protagonist, Albert. Hope he copes.

Digital DNA

DNA is digital! Never thought of it like that before, but it made all kinds of sense when I read Glyn Moody's rationale in the early chapters of his book on the history of bioinformatics, a new science empowered by the availability of the Human Genome. Protein is analog. DNA is digital. DNA is a four-symbol digital code, rather than a two-symbol one, but it is n less digital for being richer in that regard. It is easy to forget that the difference between digital and analogy coding is not based on sticking to zeros and ones. To be digital, all a code requires is that it be put together out of discrete building blocks that are never intermediate between one state and another. The letters A,G,T and C (standing for DNA's four bases) are every bit as digital as my computer's two-state flip flop circuits and a disk drive's two-state magnetic domains.

Moody's book also uses a style for doing footnotes that intrigued me because it looks so natural, especially for web citations. For example, the second footnote on page 9 of the book reads:

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The Connection:Digital Code of Life: How Bioinformatics is Revolutionizing Science, Medicine, and Business / Glyn Moody (Wiley; 2004) was a serrendipidty find on the "new arrivals" shelf of the UNBC Library. I'll be reading it for a while! Got in the first few chapters at the Four Seasons Pool in PG last weekend, sitting on the sidelines while the kids were swam.

Vea and Vahoc by A. M. Stickel

Cutting a Dark Lord Down to Size

In a two page neo-fairy tale, written as a submission to a writer's challenge for the July 2004 edition of Deep Magic, author Anne M. Stickel struck a resonance for me with a toy box. I was a bit worried that the competently written tale would lapse into cliche about two paragraphs before the toy box arrived. It did, also, cross my mind that the heroine's parents might not be as complacent as she was about their deaths, since however meaningless a substandard life might seem to someone with high expectations, it is a bit heartless to make presumptions concerning its value to the parties concerned. But "Vea and Vahoc" is mythic stuff, so I'll waive the human rights objection. Quibbles of that sort don't really belong in a myth. And it is all worthwhile once we get to the toy box. I thought, "Yes!". Anyone who wants to know what it's all about will have to go download the July 2004 edition (free!) of Deep Magic at http://www.deep-magic.net/Issues/July2004/index.shtml

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The Connection: Anne herself told me about Deep Magic, when she notified me of a review of my own novel (with Alison Sinclair), Throne Price, that also appears in the July 2004 edition.