There was me, thinking the blog-meme meme (is that a meta-meme?) had died … but how wrong I was. I’ve been tagged by Sterling Camden, and as he’s been a long-term reader of VCTB since waaaaay before it was vaguely worth reading*, I cannot refuse him. Plus, he’s a really decent bloke, as far as I can tell of someone I only know blogospherically.

So, the instructions:

“To participate, you grab any book, go to page 123, find the fifth sentence, and blog it. Then tag five people.”

Simple enough … the only problem in my house is choosing a book, for there are many. So, like Sterling, I’ll do you one non-fiction and one fiction.

“Quite likely the problems experienced with early cloning efforts are just that: problems that can and will be solved.”

That’s from The Coming Convergence by Analog editor Dr Stanley Schmidt; think of it as a book on The Singularity (as statistical rate-of-change phenomenon rather than metaphorical techno-Rapture) for older folk who aren’t too clued up about where technology is actually at, where it’s going, and how it got there. With baked-in subconscious Western cultural imperialism, too - but that’s par for the course considering Schmidt’s demographic, and he’s not being nasty about it; just those same old assumptions.

Now, some fiction. Let’s see …

“As Hiro and Vitaly approach the vast freeway overpass where tonight’s concert is to take place, the solid ferrous quality of the Vanagon attracts MagnaPoons like a Twinkie draws cockroaches.”

I’m sure there are few among my readership who can’t guess the book that’s from; I really need to start my re-read so I can do an essay on it for SF Site as I promised. But I still haven’t touched the Masterclass reading list … life is full of tasks and time is, as always, more precious than anything. And here I am blogging a meme. Selah.

But what are memes for, if not for sharing the timesuck? So let’s tag some people who’ll give good results: Niall, Liz, Jonathan, Shaun, Justin, Dr Bloomer and Dr Hocking**. Feel free to pitch in even if you’re not tagged, though.

Ladies and gentlemen, consider yourself smacked up with a selfish gene. Bam!

[ * Seriously, I cringe at my own archives. I only leave them up through a combination of intellectual masochism and an irrational obsession over PageRank. Sad, huh? ]

[ ** Yeah, more than five; but there's always attrition in these things, y'know? ]

I smell serious memetic potential - you can blame Jeff VanderMeer*.

So - you can assemble a rock band out of science fiction authors living or dead. Who do you pick, what do they call themselves, and what’s their signature cover version? [image by flashbacks.com]

***

Shaper and the Mechanists

Drums: M. John Harrison. The guy’s got rhythm - rock climbing’s all about timing. Plus drummers are often way more poetic and thoughtful than the cliches would suggest.

Bass: Charlie Stross. I suspect very strongly that, given half a chance, Charlie could get his groove on in a fearsome way. Rock-star facial hair a bonus.

Keys: William Gibson. He wouldn’t do riffs and melodies so much as pads and atmospheres; a kind of post-rock approach. Will gradually accumulate a vast bank of interconnected effects and found-sound devices by poking around in Cash Converters in each town the band plays.

Rhythm guitar: Rudy Rucker. Already has experience with the instrument, and knows a good riff when he writes one. Could probably out-Townsend Pete Townsend with his power chords.

Lead guitar: Neal Stephenson. Aloof, idiosyncratic, a unique style often imitated but never duplicated. Like Charlie Stross, not averse to rock-star facial hair. Also a fan of Soundgarden, so must know what good guitar lines sound like.

Backing vox/posturing/inexplicable extra stage presence (aka “Bez“): Cory Doctorow. Give him a megaphone and a silly hat, feed him up with … er, sugary foods and caffeine? … and just let him do his thing. Guaranteed to PWN hecklers and get the crowd moving.

Lead vox/songwriter: Bruce Sterling**. He may not have the perfect voice, but every single song would be about something important, and you’d find new meaning with every listen. Inter-song banter would be awesome.

Tour manager: Hunter S Thompson. OK, so not a science fiction writer, but I figure I can have one genre-breaker. No one is going to stiff the band on a deal with HST handling the biz. Plus the band will stay largely drug-free, because all illicit substances will be “headed off at the pass”, so to speak.

A&R guy: Harlan Ellison. Typecasting, I guess.

Cover version: “We’re In This Together” - Nine Inch Nails. Simply because it’s an awesome tune.

***

Damn; I really want to see this band now. Maybe the band I joined recently could be the support act!

[ * Not just for this post, either - you could try to pin the decline of postmodern culture and the sub-prime crisis on him too. It wouldn't be very fair, though, let alone true. ]

[ ** This was a foregone conclusion, of course. Fanboy is as fanboy does. ]

OK, it’s reached a point where I’m retrospectively ashamed of having forced LOLcats on everyone I knew over the last year or so. Because people like me, who in all innocence did exactly the same thing, have unleashed a monster.

A monster that will devour everything in its path; everything we hold sacred. Even, for example, T. S. Eliot’s The Wastelands …

III. TEH SERMON, IT BURNZ (173)

if teh river running, why not moving?
INVISIBLE WIND.
nymphoz gone.
river has trash no more.
nymphoz and friends left,
no can find.
shakey bones with big laughs r here!

rat creepin in teh banks, (186)
fisher kingz has no fishies!
rat eatin kingz relatives.
king sees mrs potter, standing in teh bubbles.
potter daughter hotter.

twitter twitter
jub jub bird.
still in rong poemz
TRUE!

Laugh, cry, sigh - choice is yours. After the day I’ve had, I just managed a wry grin. [Via the indispensable MetaFilter]

OK, so here’s one of those memes that doesn’t involve you answering the sort of personal questions that the population of MySpace seem to find so incredibly important, and it promises to send some links back to you if you complete it.

These things remind me of chain-letters, to be honest, only without the veiled threat of gypsy magic or voodoo curses. But I’m going to do it anyway, because I was tagged by Chip, and he’s been a loyal reader here for ages - despite the fact that I have no idea what it is that he finds worth reading amongst the waffle and sf-nal pontification. Selah. So …

-Start Copy-

It’s very simple. When this is passed on to you, copy the whole thing, skim the list and put a * star beside those that you like. (Check out especially the * starred ones.)

Add the next number (1. 2. 3. 4. 5., etc.) and write your own blogging tip for other bloggers. Try to make your tip general.

After that, tag 10 other people. Link love some friends!

Just think– if 10 people start this, the 10 people pass it onto another 10 people, you have 100 links already!

1. Look, read, and learn. ***
-http://www.neonscent.com

2. Be, EXCELLENT to each other. ***
-http://www.bushmackel.com

3. Don’t let money change ya! ***
-http://www.therandomforest.info

4. Always reply to your comments. **
-http://chattiekat.com

5. Link liberally — it keeps you and your friends afloat in the Sea of Technorati. *
-http://chipsquips.com

6. Don’t give up - persistence is fertile.
-http://www.velcro-city.co.uk

-End Copy-

OK, so the challenge for me is picking out ten people who I think care enough about blogging as an end in itself to take part in this … so, let’s try Gareth Powell, the SF Signal crew, Tobias Buckell, Jeremy Tolbert, Jason Stoddard, Paul Gilster, Sven Johnson, Jonathan McCalmont, Niall Harrison and Jamais Cascio.

I’ve made a quite deliberate effort to keep that list down to people who I read regularly, and who don’t blog for a living, but who do it because it’s a way of enabling their main job, or engaging with a community around a creative career.

Tally ho!

Rising star of UK science fiction Gareth L. Powell has started a blogging meme - every Friday he’s going to post a piece of flash fiction (under 1000 words) on his blog, and he invites you to do the same.

I think I’ll have a go at this - deadlines are a great motivator, and I could do with a reason to kick my arse into fictional gear.

But never fear - no matter how fierce the competition, FPB will not lay down and die! Sure, there’s a place for free fiction before the weekend, but there’s also a place for some random hippy to blather on about his week after posting a photo of a houseplant …

Well, we can blame Niall Harrison for this one, but he’s a nice guy, so don’t get too crazy at him when this little game consumes an hour of your life…

Continue reading “Meme attack! Sorted science fiction”

Scott ‘Acephalous’ Kaufman needs your help with his experiment to track the rate of propagation of memes through the blogosphere. Continue reading “Faster than the speed of blog! or, how fast do memes meme?”

So, guess who finally has *actual* wall-shelves for all his books now, then? That’s right …

… I have! Continue reading “Pimp your library!”

Science fiction is often described as being ‘proleptic’ - as a vehicle for prediction of the future, if not reflection of the present, and a lot of debate has been kicking around the blogosphere concerning that definition. Continue reading “Coded commentary: science fiction and contemporary politics”

OK ladies and gentlemen, it’s time for a bit of meme action. I don’t do these very often, but this one is book related, which makes it forgivable as far as I’m concerned. Continue reading “When book memes attack!”