We’re pleased as punch to note that today is the official launch (check out the cake!) of Steampunk Revolution–the third steampunk anthology edited by Ann VanderMeer (widely praised for the last two volumes in the series, as well as her past work for Weird Tales and on a slew of other anthos). This go ’round Ann is looking at the post-steampunk end of steampunk, the bits that push past the tight aesthetic focus on dirigibles, steam, brass goggles, and white people in Victorian England. According to Ann, breaking a genre’s most cherished conventions is about as punk as you can get, so that’s where this book aims to go.
Stories include an instructional tale for writers by our own Poor Mojo’s Giant Squid (written with an assist from Poor Mojo’s editors Morgan Johnson, David Erik Nelson, and Fritz Swanson), as well as fiction by Cherie Priest, Bruce Sterling, Jeffrey Ford, Lavie Tidhar, Jeff VanderMeer, and plenty more. Check it out:
For the squid-obsessed or steampunk-enthusiastic, I also have a different squid-themed story in the VanderMeer’s previous anthology Steampunk II: Steampunk Reloaded:
Category: Other Writing
Does Cash Rule Everything Around Me?
Sorry for the late heads-up; we were traveling for Thanksgiving, and I’ve since had a congested baby (which is, bar none, the *worst* kind). At any rate, I continue to write a monthly column for the Ann Arbor Chronicle. This time around I talk about why I voted for Obama, how he expanded the electorate, if you can buy an election, and what we should maybe consider focusing on at the ballot box (*hint*: It isn’t just the economy).
The Ann Arbor Chronicle | In it for the Money: C.R.E.A.M.
. . .
Perhaps what’s most emblematic of the progress embodied by the Obama’s re-election is how he pulled it off. Often elections seem to focus almost exclusively on first solidifying support among the party faithful, and then with wooing “independents” (i.e., registered voters who show no party affiliation). What was extra-special about the Obama Campaign – and resulted in both a tidy majority in the popular vote and pretty stunning chunk of the Electoral College [5] – was how deeply it focused on expanding the electorate instead of wooing the independents. The campaign sought out citizens who were likely to support the president but had never voted before, and brought them into the conversation. From a marketing perspective, this is an entirely different activity from traditional campaigning, because you aren’t seeking to shift an existing behavior (“Buy Coke instead of Pepsi!”) but to create a new behavior (“Go to the gym instead of standing around drinking pop!”)
So, that’s one last nudge away from sanctioning bigotry and assisting persecution: Bringing the disenfranchised into the national conversation. I can think of nothing that better exemplifies what our democracy should be about than dropping millions of dollars on convincing people who don’t think their voice is valid or valuable that they need to join the conversation.
In the days following the election, as I heard both the Romney/Ryan campaign and Mitt Romney himself bemoaning – and even demonizing – this project of expanding the electorate, I was left to wonder what the hell country he thought we were living in. Just to review some basic American Civics: If you’re running for an elected position in a democracy and your opponent can rally more citizens who agree with his views than yours, it’s your views that are fucked up, not the People.
. . .
Perhaps what’s most emblematic of the progress embodied by the Obama’s re-election is how he pulled it off. Often elections seem to focus almost exclusively on first solidifying support among the party faithful, and then with wooing “independents” (i.e., registered voters who show no party affiliation). What was extra-special about the Obama Campaign – and resulted in both a tidy majority in the popular vote and pretty stunning chunk of the Electoral College [5] – was how deeply it focused on expanding the electorate instead of wooing the independents. The campaign sought out citizens who were likely to support the president but had never voted before, and brought them into the conversation. From a marketing perspective, this is an entirely different activity from traditional campaigning, because you aren’t seeking to shift an existing behavior (“Buy Coke instead of Pepsi!”) but to create a new behavior (“Go to the gym instead of standing around drinking pop!”)
So, that’s one last nudge away from sanctioning bigotry and assisting persecution: Bringing the disenfranchised into the national conversation. I can think of nothing that better exemplifies what our democracy should be about than dropping millions of dollars on convincing people who don’t think their voice is valid or valuable that they need to join the conversation.
In the days following the election, as I heard both the Romney/Ryan campaign and Mitt Romney himself bemoaning – and even demonizing – this project of expanding the electorate, I was left to wonder what the hell country he thought we were living in. Just to review some basic American Civics: If you’re running for an elected position in a democracy and your opponent can rally more citizens who agree with his views than yours, it’s your views that are fucked up, not the People.
. . .
Oh. My. GOD: IT’S *CYBER MONDAY*!!1!
I’m not really sure if Cyber Monday is still a thing or not, but the gift-buying season has clearly begun, and I’m still a guy who’s got stuff you might want to give to the Special Ones in your life.
SNIP, BURN, SOLDER, SHRED
As of this writing there are two (2!!!) copies of my geeky DIY book in the Amazon warehouse, but I’m told more will reach them soon–or you can buy directly from my publisher–use the coupon code SHRED and you’ll save 35 percent, bringing the paperback price down to meet Amazon’s. As a bonus, No Starch Press throws in DRM-free ebook version (including ePub, Kindle-ready mobi, and a super-slick PDF) for FREE. Want a personalized, autographed copy of the book? I can hook you up!
Amazon reviewers have scads of nice things to say about Snip, Burn–all of which please me beyond all proportion:
“A great book for parents looking for new ways to interact with their kids.”
“I highly recommend this book as I know you will also find some great projects to try out for yourself!”
“My husbands eyes lit up when he saw this book! He couldn’t get enough of it. ”
“Highly recommended by this high school music teacher. Great ideas for student projects or even at-home projects with your own kids.”
“I highly recommend this book as I know you will also find some great projects to try out for yourself!”
“My husbands eyes lit up when he saw this book! He couldn’t get enough of it. ”
“Highly recommended by this high school music teacher. Great ideas for student projects or even at-home projects with your own kids.”
“TUCKER TEACHES THE CLOCKIES TO COPULATE”
I’m not 100% sure you can even *give* a Kindle book as a gift; if you can, then you can give my celebrated steampunk novella.
“A hilarious and moving and filthy read. Highly recommended for people who like intelligent fiction that isn’t afraid to get dirty and weird at times.”
“Tucker is funny, and dense, and more than a little dark, and engaging, cover to cover. ”
“A fun and darkly funny story that’s also strangely poignant. Good whether you like steampunk or have no idea what the genre is. Read this one. You won’t regret it.”
“Tucker is funny, and dense, and more than a little dark, and engaging, cover to cover. ”
“A fun and darkly funny story that’s also strangely poignant. Good whether you like steampunk or have no idea what the genre is. Read this one. You won’t regret it.”
If Kindle-book giving is verboten by Amazon, I can go you one better: I’ll sell you DRM-Free ebooks in all popular formats or–for a premium–a limited edition, handmade print chapbook.
The illustrated ebook pack is the same as the Kindle version available through Amazon, but DRM-free, and in formats suitable for almost any device. Includes mobi, ePub, PDF (in several print-ready layouts), and digital extras(!!!) “Patrons” get an exclusive, handmade, signed and numbered print edition (like the one in the pic)! Details on Pick-What-You-Pay options
STEAMPUNK II: STEAMPUNK RELOADED and STEAMPUNK III: STEAMPUNK REVOLUTION
If you dig steampunk and *also* dig books *not* printed in some guy’s basement, check these out. (FYI, my story in Steampunk II, “The Bold Explorer in the Place Beyond,” is a prequel to “Tucker Teaches the Clockies to Copulate.”)
RECOMMENDED READING: Just Ride: A Radically Practical Guide to Riding Your Bike by Grant Peterson
Although this is framed as a manifesto by a former bike-racer-turned-designer/bike-populist, railing against what “racer mentality” has done to the otherwise universal American pastime of “riding bikes,” I’m *manically* recommending it to anyone who likes to pedal. It’s a great, great book: a quick, fun read composed of short, tightly focused practical articles. the book is *packed* with excellent advice on fitness, maintenance, bike fitting, and riding techniques. E.g., this was the first I’d heard about using your hips to assist cornering, and it’s *changed my life.* I disagree with him about helmets (since I started riding daily in a city full of drivers-from-elsewhere, I’m *deeply* committed to my relationship with my brain bucket), but his points about how to own a slightly larger slice of the road by giving the *impression* that you’re an incompetent rider has been revelatory.
I’ve never been tainted by the bike-racing headspace (I’m *waaaaaay* to lazy to be into competitive *anything*), but I read this book in a single day, and have been going back to it frequently since, applying Peterson’s tips to my bike, diet, and exercise regimen. Get a copy, read it, and keep it close at hand.
So you like what you see? Wanna read more? #scifi #reading
On the off chance that you come here for the writing (as opposed to just gawking at the rad pictures of my beard, mushrooms, and no-arm Civil War dudes), you might be interested in a few new and classic writings I have on offer.
If you’re interested in the misadventures of a land-bound, advice-tendering Giant Squid, check out the story Morgan Johnson, Fritz Swanson, and I have in the new anthology Steampunk III, just hitting stores now:
For those thrilled equally by ingenuity and the human ramifications of very clever clockwork robots, check out my novella Tucker Teaches the Clockies to Copulate:
I reckon Mr. Nelson might be a bit wrong in the head, frankly, but the product of that disarray is quite lovely–tender, almost, but also sharp and perceptive.
A standalone prequel to this novella–featuring the parable of a tiny squid with big notions–is included in the VanderMeer’s Steampunk II anthology:
“Beautiful, often lyrical, frequently disturbing, always exciting, and occasionally even funny, but they’re also dense, literary, and trusting of the reader to be smart enough to ‘get’ it.”–New York Journal of Books on Steampunk II: Steampunk Reloaded
Live in MI? Vote *NO* on Props 5 and 6; Live Anywhere? Stop Being Politically Cynical
I continue to write a column for the Ann Arbor Chronicle. The latest one seeks to counteract a huge, manipulative ad campaign being run by a somewhat nefarious billionaire looking to fundamentally cripple our ability to functionally run Michigan.
Please Vote NO on Props 5 and 6; touch base with everyone you know in Michigan, and make sure they’re planning on voting *against* these shenanigans, too.
Larger than local politics, this billionaire’s efforts to hoodwink us really rely on our active connivance, by preying on our suspicions of the worst in each other. Even if you don’t live in Michigan–poor devils!–there’s something to be learned from what’s happening here:
The Ann Arbor Chronicle | In it for the Money: Kleptocracy
. . .
What [billionaire] Moroun is preying upon is our knee-jerk “common sense” conviction that government – which is the subset of ourselves that we charge with the job of keeping the house tidy so the rest of us can earn a living – is essentially incompetent. More so than mudslinging in political ads or lies during debates, it’s this core cynicism – a cynicism we each individually carry in our hearts and reproduce over and over again with pithily captioned pictures posted to Facebook, and re-shared links to spurious infographics, and caps-locked screeds – that’s poisoning us as a nation.
Listen, I love you, so I feel like can say this: Cynicism is the mechanical thing that dumb people do to seem wise. It’s a display of our most fundamental weakness: the ardent desire to be right.
Knee-jerk anti-governmentalism is the equivalent of thinking you’re precognizant because you can look at the succulent, exquisitely prepared dinner that’s been set before you, turn to your host and confidently claim: “In the next several hours, this luxurious banquet will be rendered into fecal matter by the action of our digestive systems.” That doesn’t make you a reliable forecaster of human events; it just makes you a boor. I don’t think any post-adolescent needs constant reminders of the basics: people lie, humans are fallible, puppies become stinky old dogs, and everyone dies. We do need to remind each other that we can and should live our lives, wash that dog, help each other recover from our failures, and correct the liars.
. . .
What [billionaire] Moroun is preying upon is our knee-jerk “common sense” conviction that government – which is the subset of ourselves that we charge with the job of keeping the house tidy so the rest of us can earn a living – is essentially incompetent. More so than mudslinging in political ads or lies during debates, it’s this core cynicism – a cynicism we each individually carry in our hearts and reproduce over and over again with pithily captioned pictures posted to Facebook, and re-shared links to spurious infographics, and caps-locked screeds – that’s poisoning us as a nation.
Listen, I love you, so I feel like can say this: Cynicism is the mechanical thing that dumb people do to seem wise. It’s a display of our most fundamental weakness: the ardent desire to be right.
Knee-jerk anti-governmentalism is the equivalent of thinking you’re precognizant because you can look at the succulent, exquisitely prepared dinner that’s been set before you, turn to your host and confidently claim: “In the next several hours, this luxurious banquet will be rendered into fecal matter by the action of our digestive systems.” That doesn’t make you a reliable forecaster of human events; it just makes you a boor. I don’t think any post-adolescent needs constant reminders of the basics: people lie, humans are fallible, puppies become stinky old dogs, and everyone dies. We do need to remind each other that we can and should live our lives, wash that dog, help each other recover from our failures, and correct the liars.
. . .
The day this column went live I got a *really* nice email from the Consul General of Canada complimenting me on my efforts. Don’t let anyone speak ill of Canadians to you. That whole damn nation is one huge class act.
War, Misery, #Steampunk, and Human Ingenuity & Dignity
Meet Private Samuel H. Decker:
His basic story is this: A Union artillery gunner, Decker lost both arms in a loading mishap in October of 1862. Three years later he had *built these new arms himself*. From this account:
With the aid of his ingenious apparatus he is enabled to write legibly, to pick up any small objects, a pin for example, to carry packages of ordinary weight, to feed and clothe himself, and in one or two instances of disorder in the Congressional gallery [where he was employed as a doorman] has proved himself a formidable police officer.
I’ve seen this picture crop up on more than a few blogs recently, under the heading of “This Guy is Fucking Rad!!!” and accompanied by *squeees* of how steampunk he is. And, on the one hand, he is really rad. On the other . . . jeez, it’s a little bit grisly if that’s *all* and *only* what we take away from this picture. It’s tantamount to looking at pics of female concentration campers and saying: “Damn, girl, you are skinny! What’s your secret?”
Listen: It is straight-up monstrous for any of us to even lightly draw an equal sign between what this man suffered in the name of human dignity and liberty, and the stories we write or how we may choose to dress up on a free weekend now and again. I’ve written about this a little before, and I still maintain that when we write steampunk and leave out a real and honest treatment of guys like Pvt. Decker, we’re doing a Bad Thing.
The above account of Decker’s extraordinary achievement–one of a slew of totally uncelebrated Americans who helped to transform doctors’ notions of the degree to which a “cripple” could return to “normal life”–is drawn from Photographs of Surgical Cases and Specimens, a collection of photographs (obviously) and case histories collected by the U.S. Army from 1862 on, and distributed as cards among medical professionals as a way of disseminating information on how a variety of docs and field surgeons had coped with the unprecedented carnage of the modern battlefield.
The Medical Heritage Library digitized the entire collection for the first time this year (the cards were widely circulated, so individual remarkable images–like those of Decker–have long floated around online, although often devoid of context). If you have a strong stomach and are interested in the real and remarkable nitty-gritty of the Victorian Age here on US soil, this is simply an incredible read:
Digital Highlight: Civil War photography from the Army Medical Museum | Medical Heritage Library
At the outset of the Civil War in 1861, the lack of experienced surgeons in the ranks of both the Union and Confederate armies represented a looming medical crisis. In 1862 the United States Army Medical Museum was formed, in part to advance practical research into new ways of treating and diagnosing the types of trauma that had become commonplace on the modern battlefield. Almost immediately after it was established, the museum’s first curator, Dr. John Hill Brinton, began collecting specimens from field hospitals and military grave sites. In the years that followed, individual portraits along with photographs of these specimens and accompanying case histories were disseminated to hospitals and medical institutions around the country.
In 1865, Lieutenant William Bell, who would later gain fame for his photographs of the American West, was appointed Chief Photographer of the museum. The artistic composition and quality of Bell’s work often bore greater resemblance to the celebrated portraiture of Matthew Brady than to standard, utilitarian medical photography. Under the direction of Brinton’s successor, Dr. George Alexander Otis, Bell photographed the portrait sitters and anatomical specimens in a studio at the museum, and was ultimately responsible for the majority of the images that comprise this collection.
In 1865, Lieutenant William Bell, who would later gain fame for his photographs of the American West, was appointed Chief Photographer of the museum. The artistic composition and quality of Bell’s work often bore greater resemblance to the celebrated portraiture of Matthew Brady than to standard, utilitarian medical photography. Under the direction of Brinton’s successor, Dr. George Alexander Otis, Bell photographed the portrait sitters and anatomical specimens in a studio at the museum, and was ultimately responsible for the majority of the images that comprise this collection.
And, of course, I’d be remise if I failed to mention my own steampunk novella–complete with frisky robots and crippled soldiers–available for Kindle via Amazon, and as both a handmade print and DRM-free digital edition (including Kindle) directly from me.
XKCD’s “What If?” Is an Excellent Soft Sci-Fi Template
I *love* these about 32 billion times more than XKCD itself–which I do, in fact like. But these I *really* like. Like all good scifi, they address the human ramifications of physical, scientific facts. SF, more so than any other literary sub-sect, seeks to directly address the question of how humans react to the things humans have done, and to try to fully imagine and enact how that plays out.
Everybody Jump
What would happen if everyone on earth stood as close to each other as they could and jumped, everyone landing on the ground at the same instant?
—Thomas Bennett (and many others)
This is one of the most popular questions submitted to this blog. It’s been examined before, including by a ScienceBlogs post and a Straight Dope article. They cover the kinematics pretty well. However, they don’t tell the whole story.
Let’s take a closer look.
At the start of the scenario, the entire Earth’s population has been magically transported together into one place.
This crowd takes up an area the size of Rhode Island. But there’s no reason to use the vague phrase “an area the size of Rhode Island”. This is our scenario; we can be specific. They’re actually in Rhode Island.
At the stroke of noon, everyone jumps.
As discussed elsewhere, it doesn’t really affect the planet. Earth outweighs us by a factor of over ten trillion. On average, we humans can vertically jump maybe half a meter on a good day. Even if the Earth were rigid and responded instantly, it would be pushed down by less than an atom’s width.
Next, everyone falls back to the ground.
Technically, this delivers a lot of energy into the Earth, but it’s spread out over a large enough area that it doesn’t do much more than leave footprints in a lot of gardens. A slight pulse of pressure spreads through the North American continental crust and dissipates with little effect. The sound of all those feet hitting the ground creates a loud, drawn-out roar which lasts many seconds.
Eventually, the air grows quiet.
Seconds pass. Everyone looks around.
There are a lot of uncomfortable glances. Someone coughs.
. . .
—Thomas Bennett (and many others)
This is one of the most popular questions submitted to this blog. It’s been examined before, including by a ScienceBlogs post and a Straight Dope article. They cover the kinematics pretty well. However, they don’t tell the whole story.
Let’s take a closer look.
At the start of the scenario, the entire Earth’s population has been magically transported together into one place.
This crowd takes up an area the size of Rhode Island. But there’s no reason to use the vague phrase “an area the size of Rhode Island”. This is our scenario; we can be specific. They’re actually in Rhode Island.
At the stroke of noon, everyone jumps.
As discussed elsewhere, it doesn’t really affect the planet. Earth outweighs us by a factor of over ten trillion. On average, we humans can vertically jump maybe half a meter on a good day. Even if the Earth were rigid and responded instantly, it would be pushed down by less than an atom’s width.
Next, everyone falls back to the ground.
Technically, this delivers a lot of energy into the Earth, but it’s spread out over a large enough area that it doesn’t do much more than leave footprints in a lot of gardens. A slight pulse of pressure spreads through the North American continental crust and dissipates with little effect. The sound of all those feet hitting the ground creates a loud, drawn-out roar which lasts many seconds.
Eventually, the air grows quiet.
Seconds pass. Everyone looks around.
There are a lot of uncomfortable glances. Someone coughs.
. . .
These are also quite nice; the “one-way” mirror section is a little weak, but the final answer is rock solid: Short Answer Section
Neat! A Whole New Angle on Consumer-Grade 3D Printing
As we were working on putting together our Printrbot kit the other day, one of the guys mentioned this whole new tack on consumer-grade desktop 3D printing. Instead of building up parts via fused deposition modeling (which, in this case, means running ABS plastic feedstock–which looks like weedwhacker line–through a hot point that layers up your form using a rig that’s a lot like a pen-plotter), it uses stereolithography: Your part is super-quickly cured out of a bath of liquid, ultraviolet-sensitive resin by a UV laser beam. Very high resolution, crazy-slick tech–but well out of our price range. Anyway, he followed up with a link today, which I thought was worth sharing just to show that there’s more than one way to skin this cat. I’m increasingly wary of product-based Kickstarter projects, but this seemed too neat to ignore.
FORM 1: An affordable, professional 3D printer by Formlabs — Kickstarter
(*thx Phil!*)
Your #FridayReads: Get THE SILENT HISTORY on your iPhone, enter the STEAMPUNK III sweepstakes, and more #scifi
Fiction news!
First off, The Silent History–and app-based serialized fiction project–launched for iPad/iPhone this week. I’m one of the “Advance Reporters” contributing to the geolocated “Field Reports” (as of right now half the stories located in Michigan are mine–all centered around Ann Arbor). There’s a nice concise description of the project over on Contents Magazine:
The Silent History is a serialized electronic novel that debuted this week on iOS devices. The story at its heart is big: beginning right around now, some of our children stop developing language, and no one knows why. The novel is an archive of first-person accounts told by parents, doctors, teachers, and neighbors, and they’re released on a schedule, one at a time, from the beginning of the epidemic through to 2043.
Orbiting the body of the novel are dozens of “field reports”—stories written by readers and connected to specific physical locations. To read them, you have to show up, device in hand, at just the right spot on the built-in map.
Orbiting the body of the novel are dozens of “field reports”—stories written by readers and connected to specific physical locations. To read them, you have to show up, device in hand, at just the right spot on the built-in map.
That’s actually the lead-in to an interesting interview with the project editor Eli Horowitz, e.g.,:
Once you start thinking about it, the project is full of semi-comprehensible little resonances like that. I mean, it’s a lengthy book about the failures of language. It’s an oral history about people who can’t talk. It’s a digital book that is dependent upon engagement with the physical world. Etc.
If you want details (or to get the app), check out the official Silent History website and Tumblr blog. There’s also a video trailer with voice work by Ira Glass (!!!):
The Silent History from Richard Parks on Vimeo.
Also, along with Morgan Johnson and Fritz Swanson
I also have a story in Ann VanderMeer’s upcoming anthology Steampunk III: Steampunk Revolution, co-written with long-time co-conspirators Morgan Johnson and Fritz Swanson in the guise of our dear Giant Squid. The antho is sort of a post-steampunk re-imagining/re-examination of steampunk’s blind spots. You can buy it come Non-Denominational Gift Giving Holiday time, or enter the Tor.com Sweepstakes and win one pronto. Check out an excerpt from the antho’s intro and see what you think. FYI, I’ve got a story in the second antho in this series, too:
Steampunk II: Steampunk Reloaded
Finally, we’ve dropped the price on my novella Tucker Teaches the Clockies to Copulate–you know, to celebrate Sukkoth, or something. Happy October, everyone!
