Rob Walker's Blog, page 37
February 5, 2010
Significant Objects X Underwater New York
Photo by Adrian Kinloch
Next week, we close out Significant Objects Volume 2, our cycle of 50 stories and auctions, with proceeds going to 826 National.
And to go out with a bang, we have an extraordinary team-up to announce: We've joined forces with Underwater New York to bring you five stories about things found on the beach of Dead Horse Bay, Brooklyn.
The writing crew? Chris Adrian, Deb Olin Unferth, Kathryn Davis, Robert Lopez, and Tom McCarthy. The objects? You're already looking at some...
February 4, 2010
Aquarium Souvenir
Object No. 44 of 50 — Significant Objects v2
[Bid on this Significant Object, with story by Mark Jude Poirier, here. Significant Objects will donate the proceeds of this auction to 826 National.]
We drove to Wildwood Aquarium, left Alice at her apartment, even though it had been her idea to go. The week before, a German visitor to the aquarium had been killed, bitten in two by Sammy, the angry orca, as he held a fish for it. The crowd had cheered when the water turned red, then pink. People...
Which exposition strategy adds the most value?
Our experiment has answered the question of whether narrative adds measurable value to near-worthless tchotchkes with an emphatic YES. But how does narrative do so? Is every form of narrative exposition, for example, equally effective in encouraging the reader to regard a thrift-store castoff as somehow meaningful?
Apparently not. We've determined that in the 100 stories we published as part of Significant Objects volume 1, three types of exposition are employed. One of these three expository ...
February 3, 2010
Hair Pick
Object No. 43 of 50 — Significant Objects v2
[Bid on this Significant Object, with story by Robin Sloan, here. Significant Objects will donate the proceeds of this auction to 826 National.]
So there was a banshee on our property.
We heard the wail first (naturally) and we heard it for a while before we ever saw her. At first we thought it was a wolf; then we thought maybe it was some weird machine at Fort McLean. Like, some big whining drill over on the other side of the valley.
But then we saw h...
Significant owner meets Significant author
We always love it when our buyers send us pictures of their Significant Objects in their new homes, or add such pictures to our Owners' Flickr Pool. Here's a recent, and distinctly awesome, example:
Object No. 61 from the S.O. v1.
Jeannie and Trifin Roule have acquired several Significant Objects since this project began, including this, the Hand-Held Bubble Blower + Story by Myla Goldberg, from Volume 1 of the project. In this case the author, at a recent reading, signed both the object and
February 2, 2010
Coconut Pirate
Object No. 42 of 50 - Significant Objects v2
[Bid on this Significant Object, with hand-written story by Will Vlautin, here. Significant Objects will donate the proceeds of this auction to 826 National.]
When he woke up in the middle of the night she was laying on top of him and he thought he was dying. It was summer in Houston and the air conditioner on full kept the bedroom just under eighty-five. He pushed her off and stared at the coconut pirate her father had given her before he moved in w...
February 1, 2010
"Charlie's Angels" Lunchbox Thermos
Object No. 41 of 50 - Significant Objects v2
[Bid on this Significant Object, with hand-written story by Carl Wilson, here. Significant Objects will donate the proceeds of this auction to 826 National.]
Wetnet Constitutional Group: Auratic Object Background Report
1
Archive fragment: John Forsythe (voice) as Charles "Charlie" Townsend; Farrah Fawcett-Majors as Jill Munroe (1976-77, recurring 1978-80); Kate Jackson as Sabrina Duncan (1976-79); Jaclyn Smith as Kelly Garrett; Cheryl Ladd as Kris...
Mermaid Figurine
Object No. 50 of 50 — Significant Objects v2. PHOTO: Adrian Kinloch
1. Pollution of coastal waters can have / the black sun of melancholy / signature of all things I am here to / test for indicator organisms such as / Love or Phoebus, Lusignan or Biron / based on weekly or fortnightly water sampling
2. The beach zone is modeled as / the grotto where the siren / (see Fig. 1) / wind-generated surface advection and / have lingered in / with parameter estimation / limit of the diaphane / with...
January 31, 2010
Significant Tweets for 2010-01-31
Wish List: Vintage Accutron "Astronaut" Watch
The coolest watch ever?
If you happen to have one you're not using.
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This is the second in an irregular series of posts aimed at raising awareness, among the Significant Objects readership, of the project curators' wants and needs.
