The Grumpy Owl » art

Raymond Carver in the Paris Review

Ryan Oakley — Mon, 21 May 2012 15:45:34 +0000

I was beginning to see that my life was not—let’s say it was not what I wanted it to be. There was always a wagonload of frustration to deal with—wanting to write and not being able to find the time or the place for it. I used to go out and sit in the car and try to write something on a pad on my knee. This was when the kids were in their adolescence. I was in my late twenties or early thirties. We were still in a state of penury, we had one bankruptcy behind us, and years of hard work with nothing to show for it except an old car, a rented house, and new creditors on our backs. It was depressing, and I felt spiritually obliterated. Alcohol became a problem. I more or less gave up, threw in the towel, and took to full-time drinking as a serious pursuit.

Full interview is here.

Shared Tomorrows: Electro Pop

Ryan Oakley — Fri, 04 May 2012 12:02:44 +0000

Shared Tomorrows by Ryan Oakley on Mixcloud

As is my habit, I’ve put together another music podcast. These aren’t really for public consumption but since I’ve never been able to transfer a playlist from Rhythmbox to my iPod, Audacity is just about the easiest way for me to put any sort of mix together. And, having done so, why not share?

Anyway, this one is kinda electro poppy. Ranges from the 50s (I think) to the present day.

It Will Prove Invincible: Philip K. Dick Letter Re. Bladerunner

Ryan Oakley — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 07:55:12 +0000

After Philip K. Dick got his first glimpse of Bladerunner (based on his “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”) he wrote this letter to the production company:

October 11, 1981

Mr. Jeff Walker,
The Ladd Company,
4000 Warner Boulevard,
Burbank,
Calif. 91522.

Dear Jeff,

I happened to see the Channel 7 TV program “Hooray For Hollywood” tonight with the segment on BLADE RUNNER. (Well, to be honest, I didn’t happen to see it; someone tipped me off that BLADE RUNNER was going to be a part of the show, and to be sure to watch.) Jeff, after looking –and especially after listening to Harrison Ford discuss the film– I came to the conclusion that this indeed is not science fiction; it is not fantasy; it is exactly what Harrison said: futurism. The impact of BLADE RUNNER is simply going to be overwhelming, both on the public and on creative people — and, I believe, on science fiction as a field. Since I have been writing and selling science fiction works for thirty years, this is a matter of some importance to me. In all candor I must say that our field has gradually and steadily been deteriorating for the last few years. Nothing that we have done, individually or collectively, matches BLADE RUNNER. This is not escapism; it is super realism, so gritty and detailed and authentic and goddam convincing that, well, after the segment I found my normal present-day “reality” pallid by comparison. What I am saying is that all of you collectively may have created a unique new form of graphic, artistic expression, never before seen. And, I think, BLADE RUNNER is going to revolutionize our conceptions of what science fiction is and, more, can be.

Let me sum it up this way. Science fiction has slowly and ineluctably settled into a monotonous death: it has become inbred, derivative, stale. Suddenly you people have come in, some of the greatest talents currently in existence, and now we have a new life, a new start. As for my own role in the BLADE RUNNER project, I can only say that I did not know that a work of mine or a set of ideas of mine could be escalated into such stunning dimensions. My life and creative work are justified and completed by BLADE RUNNER. Thank you..and it is going to be one hell of a commercial success. It will prove invincible.

Cordially,

Philip K. Dick

Via Tim Maughan, who also wrote an excellent book, Paintwork, which you can and should buy here.

Semi-Free Copies of Technicolor Ultra Mall

Ryan Oakley — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 20:10:37 +0000

The Dystopia Display at The World's Biggest Bookstore. Technicolor Ultra Mall is top right.

I have a couple pieces of news regarding Technicolor Ultra Mall.

The first is that my publisher has made the ebook version available through the Amazon Lending Library. So, if you’re an Amazon Prime Member, you can borrow it for zero dollars.

If you’re old fashioned like me, it looks like the Canadian Amazon has one print copy left. So you can also buy that. Or not. I’m not your mama.

The other thing is that, this year, the Prix Aurora Awards are giving away a package to members that includes excerpts or full e-copies of all nominated works. Technicolor Ultra Mall is one such work, being short-listed for best English novel.

Through that package, Technicolor Ultra Mall is available in its entirety. I decided to do it that way because, well, if you pay the $10 to register and vote, I figure you should get something for your money — even if I don’t. My publisher was good enough to agree.

So go register and get some Aurora short-listed work. Then vote. If you’re already registered, just go enjoy the fiction then vote. You can do all that here.

Media Alienation 2.0

Ryan Oakley — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 07:08:18 +0000

Social Media’s Small, Positive Role in Human Relationships is an interesting article.

If anything, social media is a counterweight to the ongoing devaluation of human lives. Social media’s rapid rise is a loud, desperate, emerging attempt by people everywhere to connect with *each other* in the face of all the obstacles that modernity imposes on our lives: suburbanization that isolates us from each other, long working-hours and commutes that are required to make ends meet, the global migration that scatters families across the globe, the military-industrial-consumption machine that drives so many key decisions, and, last but not least, the television — the ultimate alienation machine — which remains the dominant form of media. (For most people, the choice is not leisurely walks on Cape Cod versus social media. It’s television versus social media).

There’s a lot to agree with in this analysis. What I object to the notion that one form of media is intrinsically more alienating than another. (Unless we’re talking in terms of alienating labour but I suspect that’s not what’s meant here.)

Television is an alienation machine but so are computers. So are books. But are you better off reading a harlequin romance or watching The Wire? Are you better off reading that romance with an interesting analysis or watching The Wire slack-jawed and covered in Cheetos?

The medium really isn’t the message.

The ratio of crap to good is probably about the same through all platforms. And some people can wring a lot of good from crap while other people can turn gold into shit.

Social media has played both positive and negative roles in my relationships. So has television. And books. But none of these things have played as large a role in my relationships as I have.

For good or ill.

You can’t expect too much out of these glowing boxes and screens. Most of what you get out of things is what you put into them. That holds up across every medium.

I’d say try to be a better user of all of them.

via Nathan Jurgenson

Letter From Huxley to Orwell

Ryan Oakley — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 14:37:57 +0000

This 1949 letter from Aldous Huxley to George Orwell is from Letters of Note. While these two authors shared a dystopic view, they disagreed on how it would be realized. Not to put too fine a point on it, Huxley feared the carrot while Orwell feared the stick.

Wrightwood. Cal.
21 October, 1949

Dear Mr. Orwell,

It was very kind of you to tell your publishers to send me a copy of your book. It arrived as I was in the midst of a piece of work that required much reading and consulting of references; and since poor sight makes it necessary for me to ration my reading, I had to wait a long time before being able to embark on Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Agreeing with all that the critics have written of it, I need not tell you, yet once more, how fine and how profoundly important the book is. May I speak instead of the thing with which the book deals — the ultimate revolution? The first hints of a philosophy of the ultimate revolution — the revolution which lies beyond politics and economics, and which aims at total subversion of the individual’s psychology and physiology — are to be found in the Marquis de Sade, who regarded himself as the continuator, the consummator, of Robespierre and Babeuf. The philosophy of the ruling minority in Nineteen Eighty-Four is a sadism which has been carried to its logical conclusion by going beyond sex and denying it. Whether in actual fact the policy of the boot-on-the-face can go on indefinitely seems doubtful. My own belief is that the ruling oligarchy will find less arduous and wasteful ways of governing and of satisfying its lust for power, and these ways will resemble those which I described in Brave New World. I have had occasion recently to look into the history of animal magnetism and hypnotism, and have been greatly struck by the way in which, for a hundred and fifty years, the world has refused to take serious cognizance of the discoveries of Mesmer, Braid, Esdaile, and the rest.

Partly because of the prevailing materialism and partly because of prevailing respectability, nineteenth-century philosophers and men of science were not willing to investigate the odder facts of psychology for practical men, such as politicians, soldiers and policemen, to apply in the field of government. Thanks to the voluntary ignorance of our fathers, the advent of the ultimate revolution was delayed for five or six generations. Another lucky accident was Freud’s inability to hypnotize successfully and his consequent disparagement of hypnotism. This delayed the general application of hypnotism to psychiatry for at least forty years. But now psycho-analysis is being combined with hypnosis; and hypnosis has been made easy and indefinitely extensible through the use of barbiturates, which induce a hypnoid and suggestible state in even the most recalcitrant subjects.

Within the next generation I believe that the world’s rulers will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging and kicking them into obedience. In other words, I feel that the nightmare of Nineteen Eighty-Four is destined to modulate into the nightmare of a world having more resemblance to that which I imagined in Brave New World. The change will be brought about as a result of a felt need for increased efficiency. Meanwhile, of course, there may be a large scale biological and atomic war — in which case we shall have nightmares of other and scarcely imaginable kinds.

Thank you once again for the book.

Yours sincerely,

Aldous Huxley

I don’t feel any need to choose between their two visions, believing that a combination of their ideas is the most realistic scenario. Whether we’re controlled by the carrot or the stick, one thing remains clear: People are jackasses.

John Cleese: How to be Creative

Ryan Oakley — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 11:40:02 +0000

I generally dislike all forms of ‘how to be creative’ or ‘how to be productive’ or ‘five secrets to success in the arts.’ Worse than useless, these things are indicative of an output fetish. A fixation on the factory floor. A jumped up, capitalist pornography for the creative classes.

But you can make a good living selling this stuff.

When I do bother with it, which is rarely, I like to hear the thoughts of people whose primary occupation is anything other than producing a series of posts, books or lectures on how to produce things. Or, as I like to think of it, thin gruel.

John Cleese is, of course, such a fellow. Here is his speech on how to be creative.

It’s a pretty decent one (as such things go) and he emphasizes a few things that I find to be both funny and accurate: That is, the importance of play and time. Also, the light approach needed to approach problems in a creative way. Then the dedication to see the solutions through.

I also like the notion of intermediate impossibilities. Had I known of that concept when I named this blog, it’d probably be called that. It’s basically what I mean when I call this a notebook.

Via Zoetica Ebb

Walking the Clouds: Science Fiction of Indigenous Writers

Ryan Oakley — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 12:43:30 +0000

Walking the Clouds: An Anthology of Indigenous Science Fiction (University of Arizona Press) claims to be be first collection of science fiction stories, excerpts and poems by native people.

And I think, that can’t be right, can it? But, God help us, it probably is. This book is long overdue.

Indian Country Today says:

Dillon, a professor in the Indigenous Nations Studies program at Portland State University in Oregon, aims to show that “Native storytelling has always contained the elements of science fiction that are considered forward-thinking, inventive and visionary today,” she told Indian Country Today Media Network.

Dillon brings together authors and pieces that previously have been shoehorned into a broad range of other subgenres, from classic spaceships-and-lasers adventures to more unusual styles, such as magical realism or stream-of-consciousness. Most passages are short excerpts, usually no more than 10 pages, of much longer works. This may disappoint readers who hoped to enjoy fully developed tales. But a few excellent short stories are printed in full.

Author royalities from the book are being donated to “an annual writing contest, Imagining Indigenous Futurisms, which offers a $1,000 prize. Young indigenous, Native, First Nations, Métis and aboriginal writers from around the world can enter.”

You can buy the book here.

Earth Day: Science Fiction Writers in Toronto Star

Ryan Oakley — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 12:01:41 +0000

For Earth Day, the Toronto Star asked 15 science fiction writers, including me, how we’d tackle climate change. To save some space, my answer was edited down.

Here’s my full reply:

The environment is something I watch on TV. Narrated by Sir David Attenborough, it’s a pristine world free of human interference. But it’s also the concrete, the highrise and the little blue screen. Where animals are pests. The destruction wrought on the so-called natural world results from the false division between humans and it. Humans need to fuse with nature. Using biotech, houses should be grown not built. Towns designed with no clear line, aesthetic or technological, between human and environment. Euclidean geometry must be overthrown. Only by reaching such a state of obvious symbiosis can we end this conflict with the world we inhabit. The alternative is an increasingly alienating spectacle that will end in the circus of our own destruction.

You can read everyone’s answers here.

William S. Burroughs Letter to Truman Capote

Ryan Oakley — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 11:11:57 +0000

This is a letter that William S. Burroughs wrote to Truman Capote in 1970 about ‘In Cold Blood.’ Burroughs was upset that Capote never tried to stop the executions of which he wrote.

My Dear Mr. Truman Capote,

This is not a fan letter in the usual sense—unless you refer to
ceiling fans in Panama. Rather, call this a letter from “the
reader”—vital statistics are not in capital letters—a selection
from marginal notes on material submitted, as all “writing” is
submitted to this department. I have followed your literary
development from its inception, conducting on behalf of the
department I represent a series of inquiries as exhaustive as your
own recent investigations in the Sunflower State. Your recent
appearance before a senatorial committee on which occasion you
spoke in favor of continuing the present police practice of
extracting confessions by denying the accused the right of
consulting consul prior to making a statement also came to my
attention.

I have in line of duty read all your published work. The early
work was in some respects promising—I refer particularly to the
short stories. You were granted an area for psychic development.
It seemed for a while as if you would make good use of this grant.
You choose instead to sell out a talent that is not yours to sell.
You have written a dull unreadable book which could have been
written by any staff writer on The New Yorker—(an undercover
reactionary periodical dedicated to the interests of vested
American wealth). You have placed your services at the disposal of
interests who are turning America into a police state by the
simple device of deliberately fostering the conditions that give
rise to criminality and then demanding increased police powers and
the retention of capital punishment to deal with the situation
they have created. You have betrayed and sold out the talent that
was granted you by this department. That talent is now officially
withdrawn. Enjoy your dirty money. You will never have anything
else. You will never write another sentence above the level of In
Cold Blood. As a writer you are finished. Over and out. Are you
tracking me? Know who I am? You know me, Truman. You have known me
for a long time. This is my last visit.

Capote never wrote another book.