Rob Walker's Blog, page 39
January 25, 2010
Significant Objects X Fictionaut = Today's story
Some weeks back we launched the Significant Objects Group on Fictionaut.com, as yet another way to bring new and unexpected voices into the project. We invited Fictionaut members to create Significance for the object at left — a music box. You can read all the stories that people came up with here.
And, we're pleased to announce that we've chosen one of these stories to be part of Significant Objects, Volume 2. While Fictionaut's rating system didn't point to a clear "winner" among the...
January 24, 2010
Significant Tweets for 2010-01-24
Selected highlights from twitter.com/SignificObs:
Fast Company/William Bostwick: "Our Objects, Ourselves." bit.ly/5tux4l #Object that sells itself: http://bit.ly/4GgAnC #Nice writeup on Apartment Therapy by Tammy Everts– Thanks! http://bit.ly/8E4WtY #Can creative writing programs be ranked? http://bit.ly/6nzh0v #"The fingers of a Google technician obscuring Kant's defence of writer's rights." http://bit.ly/6UZksw #RT @Cumar An interesting project, quirky stuff and some very good writing – aJanuary 22, 2010
Mystery Object
Object No. 35 of 50 — Significant Objects v2
[Bid on this MYSTERY Significant Object, with story by Ben Greenman, here. The Object will be revealed after the auction has closed. Significant Objects will donate the proceeds of this auction to 826 National.]
This object was the first artifact found at the Hasegawa house in Osaka, Japan, in 2006, immediately following the death of Nobuhiko Hasegawa. The Nobuhiko Hasegawa in question here is, of course, the famed Japanese giant, not the...
January 21, 2010
Miniature Basket
Object No. 34 of 50 — Significant Objects v2
[Bid on this Significant Object, with story by Roderigo Chavez, here. Significant Objects will donate the proceeds of this auction to 826 National.]
We were almost home from the doctor's office. "I'd better call my parents to let them know," I told Laura. "I don't want to talk to anyone once we get home." My dad answered. "Hey, dad, we just got back from the ultrasound. They couldn't find a heartbeat. They're going to run some tests, but it seems...
Wish List: Molotov Cocktail Toy
Readers, if you have this remarkable toy in your possession — with or without the original packaging — please consider donating it to Significant Objects. We've got a spot reserved for it on our knick-knack shelf already.
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This is the first in an irregular series of posts aimed at raising awareness, among the Significant Objects readership, of the project curators' wants and needs.
January 20, 2010
$1,000+
With the close of yesterday's auction, we've now passed $1,000 on the amount raised on behalf of 826 National. (By the way, we've added a snazzy "running total" box to the top of the right-hand column, have you noticed?)
Big ups to Susan Clements for winning the auction for Ceramic Dragon + Erin Ellia Story, and pushing us into four figures. Ellia, as it happens, is one of the finalists from our v1 contest with Slate. We've published several stories by those finalists in v2: Hammer Bottle...
January 19, 2010
Harvard Reunion Dish
No. 33 of 50 — Significant Objects v2
[Bid on this Significant Object, with story by Paul Jaskunas, here. Significant Objects will donate the proceeds of this auction to 826 National.]
A conversation between a husband and a wife in their room at the Plaza Hotel, in 1966, ends in an agreement to divorce. Outside their door, a maid listens. She hears the man say, Won't we be lucky ducks when this is over? Won't we feel like a million bucks then? She hears the woman reply, I hated every minute of...
January 18, 2010
Love Pillow
Object No. 32 of 50
[Bid on this Significant Object, with story by David Abrams, here. Significant Objects will donate the proceeds of this auction to 826 National.]
In the end, the pillow came between them. It was the last bone of contention, the impasse they faced after dividing the spoils of a nine-year marriage.
He said the pillow was his by rights; he'd bought it.
She took the stance that since he'd bought it for her, she could do with it as she chose.
He said he'd known from the first—the u...
January 17, 2010
Significant Tweets for week ending 2010-01-17
January 15, 2010
Cat Napkin Ring
Object No. 31 of 50
[Bid on this Significant Object, with story by Julie Klausner, here. Significant Objects will donate the proceeds of this auction to 826 National.]
On the bus in the morning, Judith Zinn-Lasser squints to read the small classifieds in The New Yorker, in hopes of finding something really bizarre, like an ad for an island owned by plutocrats where you can hunt St. Bernards. George was a dog person. Is a dog person. He is not dead, he is just gone, and that's fine and he and...
