Rob Walker's Blog, page 32

Weekend reading: Stories about an "egg whisk" on Fictionaut

What?

Not enough stories about objects in your week?

Well then! Check out these entries in the Significant Objects Fictionaut Group, where the following talented writers have all created stories about the above object. Which one do you find to be most Significant? Chime in over on Fictionaut, or let us know here in the comments. We want your feedback! After all, our earlier Fictionaut-made story, by Nicholas Rombes, ultimately fetched nearly $150 — we'd love to see something like that happen...

Announcing the SO Challenge: Spot the Patterns!

A glimpse inside Significant Objects' laboratory.

Years ago, when I was (briefly) a grad student in Sociology, at Boston University, I discovered that positivist science doesn't offer satisfactory models for synthesizing a cluster of elements that resist reduction to a common denominator, generative first principle, or essential core. Significant Objects now faces this problem. Our efforts to organize our experiment's data into a simple pattern haven't worked — doubtlessly because our model...

Utah Snow Globe + Blake Butler Story

Object No. 10 of 50 -- Significant Objects v3

[Bid on this Significant Object, with story by Blake Butler, here. Significant Objects will donate the proceeds of this auction to Girls Write Now.]

My granddad's granddad had a box under his bed. If you got to open the box (you had to beg) you would find a little door. The little door had a combination on it that you had to know to get inside the second box, which I did. I had the combination tattooed on my spinemeat when I was four while on a...

The Tool to Deceive and Slaughter

A significant objet d'art

We've mentioned a few other art projects that use eBay as a platform or medium. The idea-based artist Caleb Larsen's A Tool to Deceive and Slaughter is a fun one. It's a significant object — a sculpture, supposedly, though it looks pretty much like a black box with wires running into it — that forever attempts to auction itself on eBay.

From Larsen's website: "Every ten minutes the black box pings a server on the internet via the ethernet connection to check if it is f...

Needle Case + Duane Swierczynski Story

Object No. 9 of 50 — Significant Objects v3

[ Bid on this Significant Object, with story by Duane Swierczynski, here. Significant Objects will donate the proceeds of this auction to Girls Write Now. ]

Hi there.

Don't be afraid. I'm not going to hurt you.

I understand your trepidation. It's not everyday a torn suit hanging on a rack starts talking to you.

Yes.

Yes, I really am a suit, and I am indeed talking to you.

Come over here a minute.

See the pack of superfine needles over there? Right there...

Paper Fan + Lakin Khan Story

Object No. 8 of 50 — Significant Objects v3

[ Bid on this Significant Object, with story by Lakin Khan, here. Significant Objects will donate the proceeds of this auction to Girls Write Now. ]

The cardboard sign, neatly hand-lettered in black, was propped in the front window of the crowded little shop: "Fans For Sale." I imagined an army of mercenary fanatics willing to cheer for, blog about whoever paid their wages. I sure needed some ego-boosting fans: here I was, 29 years old, five years...

Paper Fan

Object No. 8 of 50 — Significant Objects v3

[ Bid on this Significant Object, with story by Lakin Kahn, here. Significant Objects will donate the proceeds of this auction to Girls Write Now. ]

The cardboard sign, neatly hand-lettered in black, was propped in the front window of the crowded little shop: "Fans For Sale." I imagined an army of mercenary fanatics willing to cheer for, blog about whoever paid their wages. I sure needed some ego-boosting fans: here I was, 29 years old, five years...

Cornhusk Doll + Lance Gould Story

Object No. 7 of 50 — Significant Objects v3

[ Bid on this Significant Object, with story by Lance Gould, here. Significant Objects will donate the proceeds of this auction to Girls Write Now. ]

Carpenter usually took a bathroom break at 11:15. Today, the skinny bastard was still going through e-mail at 11:47. He hadn't gotten out of his chair since he first parked himself in it at 9:03.

"God DAMN it — what the hell is he doing?" Kohler muttered into the phone.

"His insides must be bursting,"...

Cornhusk Doll

Object No. 7 of 50 — Significant Objects v3

[ Bid on this Significant Object, with story by Lance Gould, here. Significant Objects will donate the proceeds of this auction to Girls Write Now. ]

Carpenter usually took a bathroom break at 11:15. Today, the skinny bastard was still going through e-mail at 11:47. He hadn't gotten out of his chair since he first parked himself in it at 9:03.

"God DAMN it — what the hell is he doing?" Kohler muttered into the phone.

"His insides must be bursting,"...

Rubber Band Gun + Benjamin Percy Story

Object No. 6 of 50 -- Significant Objects v3

[ Bid on this Significant Object, with story by Benjamin Percy, here. Significant Objects will donate the proceeds of this auction to Girls Write Now. ]

I brought to school a rubber-band gun I bought at the mall. I bought it at that store with the tarot cards and the stink bombs and the beer T-shirts and the posters of women in thongs bending over on beaches with sand stuck to them in all the right places. So I brought to school the gun and showed...