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Forget the singularity — bring on the plurality
I’ve been thinking about sci-fi tales that present the idea of consciousness being downloadable and storable — that is, people are able to back up their minds in case something happens to their bodies. Or are able to live in, or at least move around, virtual realms because their minds are able to escape their bodies. (Some call it transcendence, but I call it escape. I’m getting old.) But I can’t think of a single tale that takes this to the next logical step: if your mind can be transformed into data that can be moved around, then surely this data could be merged with other data. That is, if we can back up minds, why can’t we merge minds? Why not upload a hybrid of multiple minds/consciousnesses into a single host — a sort of Borg, but without the silly Star Trek idiocy of the Borg — and approach the narrative from that prismatic perspective. I’m not talking just shared memories and ideas, but a collective mind. The notion of an expanded consciousness defined by plurality rather than singularity, to borrow another sci-fi term, would really challenge contemporary notions of life, the mind, technology and, well, everything in between. Now throw in some Peter Watts alien critters that don’t have sentience in any recognizable form at all, and you’ve got a sci-fi tale that’s more reliant on the science than the fiction. And which is, you know. Interesting. Unfortunately, that’s rarely the case these days. But hey, I’d read it.
Film adaptation, please
A nice review from Eye Weekly, which also mentioned me earlier in the context of a past life I had working for Harlequin, the romance publisher. Those were the days, let me tell you. Anyway, yeah, I’ll take the film adaptation behind Door No. 3, please.
Putting the dead back in deadpan
Another lovely review of The Warhol Gang, this time from the Montreal Gazette. And, I guess, the first review from the Postmedia Network. I have to admit, though, that I have never read any of JG Ballard’s fiction or even seen Crash. Instead, the obsession with accident scenes in the book is based on a news story I read years ago about a guy who pretended to be a first responder and helped people at accidents because… well, I don’t know why he did it. Which is what led me into The Warhol Gang.
I only say this because it’s come up in a couple of reviews and I’m starting to feel sheepish about the gap in my library. I do, however, have a book of JG Ballard quotes that I’m endlessly fascinated by. See also Oscar Wilde.
Warhol Everywhere
People sometimes ask me where I get my ideas, and I usually tell them the truth: I get them from spam emails. But every now and then I’m inspired by something in real life. Improv Everywhere just struck again, this time with a subway ride that made a brief stop on a Rebel spaceship taken over by Imperial stormtroopers. In my mind, the resistance group in The Warhol Gang was equal parts Black Bloc and Improv Everywhere, although more this type of mission than the Star Wars one:
"Every word is there for a reason"
Nice review of The Warhol Gang by Ryan Bigge. As a bonus, he also republishes his Toronto Star review of my first book, Please, which came out way back in the oughts. Or, as one of my university profs referred to it, the halcyon days of my life.
The Warhol Gang: It's all true
I’ve got a piece up over at the Globe revealing the editorial process behind The Warhol Gang and where I got my ideas. (Hint: my life.)
I’d written a novel where I’d kept the main character at a distance.
Why? It didn’t matter. All that did matter was I had to figure out who he was. If I didn’t know, how would readers? But I was running out of time as my deadline approached. And my editors had to be growing impatient, although they didn’t show it, bless them.
So I did the only thing I could think of. After numerous edits, and when it was nearly time to deliver a finished manuscript, I rewrote the book. Up until that point, it had always been in third person, with all the emotional distance that third person brings. Now I changed everything to first person. Instead of asking, “Who is he?” and “What does he want?” I asked “Who am I?” and “What do I want?”
I didn’t tell anyone what I was doing. Not my editors, not my agent.
Not even my wife.
Welcome to the new and improved website
Well, look at me. I got a facelift. And a tummy tuck. And some botox.
I’ve made some changes to the website to bring it into the Web 2.0 world. We’re still in 2.0, right? Or have we moved on? Anyway, thanks to the good people at Bluenotion, peterdarbyshire.com is now much more pleasing to the eye, and easier to navigate. Books and comics stuff in the left sidebar, other bio stuff and your comments in the right sidebar, and feeds up in the top corner. And anarchy in the middle column!
Regular posting will resume shortly, once I figure out how to log in.
"Living the hallucination"
The Saturday Post has an interview with me about The Warhol Gang –page WP13. The black bloc comment is most appropriate.
peter darbyshire 