Tad Williams

An Obama moment, something authentic and great ---

The last word ---

Here it is – currently doing the rounds of publishing industry blogs n newsletters -- a real-deal of a prediction, and something I have felt in my heart (though not articulated with anything like this clarity) for a while now. (Thank you, Publishers Lunch.)

(p.s. The original Shadowmarch, published on the web, was exactly what's described in para 3.)

Time: What Publishing Will Look Like?

Lev Grossman thinks he has big ideas about the evolution of publishing, and the novel in particular:

"A lot of headlines and blogs to the contrary, publishing isn't dying. But it is evolving, and so radically that we may hardly recognize it when it's done. Literature interprets the world, but it's also shaped by that world, and we're living through one of the greatest economic and technological transformations since--well, since the early 18th century. The novel won't stay the same: it has always been exquisitely sensitive to newness, hence the name. It's about to renew itself again, into something cheaper, wilder, trashier, more democratic and more deliriously fertile than ever....

"...More books, written and read by more people, often for little or no money, circulating in a wild diversity of forms, both physical and electronic, far outside the charmed circle of New York City's entrenched publishing culture. Old Publishing is stately, quality-controlled and relatively expensive. New Publishing is cheap, promiscuous and unconstrained by paper, money or institutional taste. If Old Publishing is, say, a tidy, well-maintained orchard, New Publishing is a riotous jungle: vast and trackless and chaotic, full of exquisite orchids and undiscovered treasures and a hell of a lot of noxious weeds.

"Novels will get longer--electronic books aren't bound by physical constraints--and they'll be patchable and updatable, like software. We'll see more novels doled out episodically, on the model of TV series or, for that matter, the serial novels of the 19th century. We can expect a literary culture of pleasure and immediate gratification. Reading on a screen speeds you up: you don't linger on the language; you just click through. We'll see less modernist-style difficulty and more romance-novel-style sentiment and high-speed-narrative throughput. Novels will compete to hook you in the first paragraph and then hang on for dear life."

Time

So Tad's driving around yesterday, getting himself a sandwich and *thinking*, when he sees a truck in front of him, and its bumper is thick with stickers like: nOpe; and, a big peace sign made out of fighter jets, or bombers, or somesuch. I mean, the truck bristled with this stuff. And Lordy, Lordy, but if it doesn't fall out a minute or two later that the light is red, and they are next to each other, abreast in the lanes. Tad leans over and goes - Hey - hey! and rolls down the window. The guy does the same.

Tad, smiling, smiling, and oh so very nice: "Just wanted to say - happy inauguration day!"

Oooh, I say when he tells me - Mean...

I've been quiet for a week or so, I think. It is because the book sucked me into its kraken-like embrace. And I had to stay there till I'd figured a few things out. That's how it goes, it's internal and intense and I get upset if it won't, like, go with me.

I have also been reading, the better to fatten the story-making bit of the mind. Reading this week has been two books: The Owl Service by Alan Garner, and The Host, by Stephanie Meyer. The Garner book won the Newberry, I think, when I was quite small. I tried it back then and never could get into it. Reading it now takes me straight back to that time, only with an explanation: I didn't like the characters; many scenes are pitched pretty intensively on dialogue which, whilst it is extremely skilfull, neverthless left me longing for more exposition; and I was, back then and now, confused from the start about who was related to whom. I think this is a bit of a sacred book, and it really is awfully, awfully good. I found the ideas behind it - the inescapable past, and that fact, too, that it's about the class struggle that bedevilled kids of my generation in England, not to mention our poor forsaken parents - thrilling. It should be my kind of book, yes. But it isn't, not quite.

However, Alan Garner's web site is awesome, and stuffed with things to dig into. Recommended.

As for The Host - I love it. It's so intensely imagined and felt. Her take on the human condition as seen through alien eyes - very powerful.

But also - sigh. Have a feeling it's going to frustrate me like the other ones.

The only other thing to say right now is, the weather in California has been rather unnaturally gorgeous; and we spent much of inauguration day shedding tears of joy.

p.s. Scary, scary!! (Naturally His Dogliness sent me this. As loyal Shadowmarchers know, he loathes to fly.)

I mean that in a wanky sort of way. If you’re familiar with Brit slang, hopefully you’ll get what I mean. I’m saying, I’m in my own head, I’m up my own ass… Turned inward, the better to go to what I’m writing right now, which is a scene where Lucinda is confronted in an alleyway by a big scary character who’s going to have a big impact on the story. Well, OK, he’s one of the major villains.

But I have to spook myself, get my breath running and focus on thoughts of being scared.

Oh, I’m also nursing my poorly daughter – poor angel is sick in bed, watching TV with the dogs.

*

OK, very excited. Found fab website for Odfarm research. It gave me the idea I wanted, too – the alleyway pic.

Happy me!

My computer is doing spooky things. Like, it just flashed some text I deleted, from black on white to white on black – spooky. I fear it’s more than just the usual inanities of Microsoft Word. The system is gummed up. I need more memory.

Books are spooky things. Mojo. The best ones are, anyway. So, here’s a list. Ahem: Wot I got for Xmas/birthday: —

• Girls Like Us, by Sheila Weller
• The Importance of Music to Girls, by Lavinia Greenlaw
  (mine was a gift from the UK and the Brit cover is sooo much cooler)
• Buddha, by Osamu Tezuka
  (looks like a fabulous manga – created originally in the 70s.)

List # 2 – wot Tad got for Xmas: —

• Best American Comics, ed. by Linda Barry
• The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For, by Alison Bechdel
• John Lennon, by Philip Norman