Rob Walker's Blog, page 29
March 25, 2010
An interactive Stuff Porn site…
Here's a nice note from Lisa Peet, posted to the Open Letters blog LIKE FIRE, about the Significant Objects/Electric Lit teamup going on this week.
March 24, 2010
Miniature Turkey Dinner + Jenny Offill story
Object No. 22 of 50 -- Significant Objects v3
[Bid on this Significant Object, with story by Jenny Offill, here. This story is part of a special collaboration with Electric Literature. Proceeds from this auction go to Girls Write Now.]
"Everything that has eyes will cease to see," says the man on the television. He looks credentialed. His hair has a dark gleam to it. His voice is like the voices of those people who hand out flyers on the subway, but he's not talking about God or the...
Another Radium-Age SF story contest!
In January, I announced a micro-fiction contest over at HiLobrow.com, an intellectual/literary website that I edit with Matthew Battles. We recently appointed Patrick Cates the site's Magister Ludi (Master of Games), and yesterday Mr. Cates announced a second micro-fiction contest. The deadline for submissions is March 31, at 5 pm EST, so act fast!
THE THEME: Radium-Age Apocalypse. The story should (a) be apocalyptic, i.e., either the world or life as we know it should be shattered; and (b...
March 23, 2010
Bunny + Stephen O'Connor story
Object No. 21 of 50 -- Signficant Objects v3
[Bid on this Significant Object, with story by Stephen O'Connor, here. This story is part of a special collaboration with Electric Literature. Proceeds from this auction go to Girls Write Now.]
Nobody could remember back before everything was Astroland, but some people pretended. Hop-a-Long was one—so-called because of his gigantic tinsel-furred ears, his rabbit-eye-red eyes, but not because he hopped. He didn't hop. He rocked from foot to foot as...
March 22, 2010
Toy Car + Marisa Silver story
Object No. 21 of 50 -- Signficant Objects, v3
[Bid on this Significant Object, with story by Marisa Silver, here. This story is part of a special collaboration with Electric Literature. Proceeds from this auction go to Girls Write Now.]
I failed my learner's permit test three times. The first time, my father was angry, because he had gotten out of bed at seven thirty on a Saturday morning so we could be first in line when the DMV opened at eight. Still, we had to wait three hours. "The...
Significant Objects X Electric Literature!
We are pleased to announce our latest collaboration — this week Significant Objects brings you five objects and five stories curated by the mighty Electric Literature.
This is exciting for us for several reasons. Let's start with the writers that the editors at Electric Literature have lined up: Rick Moody, Stephen O'Connor, Jenny Offill, Marisa Silver, and Matt Summell. Not bad, eh? And wait till you see the objects! Really, it's a killer set of stories that we are honored to publish...
Signficant Objects X Electric Literature!
We are pleased to announce our latest collaboration — this week Significant Objects brings you five objects and five stories curated by the mighty Electric Literature.
This is exciting for us for several reasons. Let's start with the writers that the editors at Electric Literature have lined up: Rick Moody, Stephen O'Connor, Jenny Offill, Marissa Silver, and Matt Summell. Not bad, eh? And wait till you see the objects! Really, it's a killer set of stories that we are honored to publish...
March 21, 2010
Significant Tweets for Week Ending 2010-03-21
March 20, 2010
Significant Objection
I'm a big fan of BBC Radio's A History of the World In 100 Objects series, so I am supremely disappointed and irked that my attempt to join in the series' interactive Web feature invitation to "add your object" to a kind of crowd-curated collection has been rejected!
I was inspired in part by this video in which a guy explains the significance of an ordinary-looking bar of soap — it is of course the object's story (it was from the World Trade Center). Probably many listener submissions have...
March 19, 2010
Monkey Puppet + Dara Horn story
Object No. 20 of 50 — Significant Objects v3
[Bid on this Significant Object, with story by Dara Horn, here. Proceeds from this auction go to Girls Write Now.]
Among Franz Kafka's possessions upon his death from tuberculosis in 1924 were many unpublished manuscripts and personal effects, all entrusted to the novelist Max Brod, whom Kafka had appointed as executor of his estate. In his will, Kafka specifically instructed Brod to burn all of his manuscripts, an order which Brod chose to defy. No ...
