Head over to Tor.com to read and listen to the Copper Robot’s recent interview with Cory Doctorow, who is a blogger at Boing Boing, and author of novels including the recent Makers, as well as Little Brother and Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town.
A cheery conversation with Cory Doctorow about the upside of economic collapse
Cory Doctorow got the idea for his latest novel, Makers, during the economic meltdown that started the decade. He released it during the meltdown at the end of the decade. And he wrote it during the boom in the middle.
“I wrote it as a parable about the dotcom collapse, and specifically the aftermath in San Francisco. Because there was this amazing thing that happened when the money went away in the Bay Area,” Cory said in an interview. “It really seemed like one day there was an unbelievable amount of money sloshing around the city, and the next day it just vanished. I remember walking down Van Ness [Avenue, in San Francisco] one day, somewhere near 18th Street, and passing a guy who had 50 Aeron chairs and five boxes of dotcom T-shirts on the street. He had a sign up that said, ‘Make Me An Offer.’ He was literally folding up his company and going back to the midwest that day, as soon as he sold his Aeron chairs.”
But the money running out didn’t put a stop to the creativity.
Tor.com has graciously agreed to let me write up science-fiction related Copper Robot interviews and post them there, which will help bring Copper Robot to the attention of their large audience, and also spread the good word about Second Life.
I’m going to be blogging on other subjects for them as well. I’m very pleased to be blogging at Tor.com, a blog which I’ve enjoyed reading since its inception a year or two ago. Tor.com blogs about science fiction and related subjects, and they understand that “related subjects” can be a pretty broad area. Also, I’ve known Patrick Nielsen Hayden, who oversees Tor.com, for nearly half my life now, a thought which I find disturbing, because it actually doesn’t seem longer ago than last week when we met. Update, Saturday 1/23: Patrick says: “I don’t oversee Tor.com, I just buy the fiction. Pablo Defendini runs the place.”
I do encourage you to bookmark Tor.com and read it regularly, but if you’d rather not do that, I’ll continue posting updates about Copper Robot here, as well as in the Second Life group, mailing list, Twitter account, etc. — see the sidebar for those links. I also post Copper Robot updates and more on my personal blog, Mitch Wagner’s Blog. By the way, I came up with the name for my personal blog all on my own, I didn’t focus-group it or anything. And I post pointers to all my Internet activity on @MitchWagner on Twitter. I’m all over the Internet, baby. I’m like a brother-in-law who always wants to borrow money; wherever you go, there I am.
Photo: ArminasX Saiman on the Second Effects blog.
I don’t oversee Tor.com, I just buy the fiction. Pablo Defendini runs the place.
I apologize for the error. I’ll fix it straightaway.