07-21-13 UPDATE:Podcast Update:Time to Read Episode 109: Brendan I. Koerner
Here's the one-hundred and ninth episode of my new series of podcasts, which I'm calling Time to Read. The podcasts/radio broadcasts will be of books worth your valuable reading time. I'll try to keep the reports under four minutes, for a radio-friendly format. If you want to run them on your show or podcast, let me know.
My hope is that in under four minutes I can offer readers a concise review and an opportunity to hear the author read from or speak about the work. I'm hoping to offer a new one every week.
When we first spoke, we had talked about the influence of his work in video games on 'Soon I Shall Be Invincible.' This time around the story was set in the world of video games, and Grossman was engaged in the tricky task of writing a story about the creation of a new storytelling medium. I spoke with him at his hotel room in San Francisco, with a spectacular view in the background. Of course it was obliterated by the story in the foreground.
In his collection 'A Perfect Vacuum,' Stanislaw Lem wrote a satiric review of a novel titled Toi (You), written entirely in the second person. Grossman did not go this far; most of this book is told by Russell in the first person. But there are plenty of "in-game" portions written in the second person.
The result of this composition and process was that our interview has a rather recursive feel to it. Essentially Iwas asking Austin to tell me some stories about how he told stories about the storytelling medium he helped to create. More than most, this interview required some pretty careful delineations on my part as I tried to cut down my questions ins parse-able bits that could actually be answered.
A conversation with Grossman is filled with a sort of crackling energy. 'You' is a rather complicated piece of writing and putting it together was not an easy task. Taking it apart to reverse engineer it in the interview was no easier, but was really fun. Each of the layers of this novel, and there are many offers a thread one can follow though and follow up on.
For this reader, it was interesting to hear how the other half lived, so speak, because in the hears while Grossman was working in the videogame industry I was working as a Sysdmin in the electronic music and computer sound industry. Both combine the arts and technology, or more correctly, I suppose try to reconcile them. This sort of reconciliation does not come easily.
07-16-13 UPDATE:Podcast Update:Time to Read Episode 108: Austin Grossman
Here's the one-hundred and eighth episode of my new series of podcasts, which I'm calling Time to Read. The podcasts/radio broadcasts will be of books worth your valuable reading time. I'll try to keep the reports under four minutes, for a radio-friendly format. If you want to run them on your show or podcast, let me know.
My hope is that in under four minutes I can offer readers a concise review and an opportunity to hear the author read from or speak about the work. I'm hoping to offer a new one every week.
The one-hundred and eighth episode is a look at Austin Grossman, 'You'.
Ryan Coonerty and I are sitting in a mini-meeting room at NextSpace in Santa Cruz, to talk about 'The Rise of the Naked Economy: How to Benefit from the Changing Workplace,' the book he co-wrote with NextSpace co-founder Jeremy Neuner. It's the perfect setting, because NextSpace is in fact a small pocket of the future described in the book.
I rather enjoyed reading 'Naked,' even if I did feel like a Tyrannosaurus Rex perusing '100 Things You Should Know About Dinosaurs.' I certainly enjoyed discussing the book with Coonerty who is every bit as smart and animated as his book. While our conversation covered some of the topics of the book, I trust that listeners will for the most part get the feel of the book — it's fast, intelligent and engaging. But it takes no prisoners in terms what it's describing and it makes no promises that everybody is going to be okey-dokey.
For this reader and interviewer, there was more than a bit of discomfort in the mix. 'Naked' makes perfect sense, and does so in an entertaining manner. Coonerty makes even more sense and is even more entertaining. We had a hell of a good time talking about how the past (folks like myself) is all but gone, and how inviting and exciting the future is for those who have one. I'm not sure I fit into the latter category, but that doesn't stop me from having a fine conversation about it.
Coonerty definitely knows whereof he speaks. NextSpace is an extremely cool place to be, even if you're not cool yourself. The idea here is that you can have a place away from home to work where you interact with people who may or may not be in the same game you're in, but who at least have their lives together enough to be able to afford the place and get things done. You can see and hear the cooperative day-after-tomorrow feel in action. There are couches and areas that simulate living rooms with office-like desks set around. There's a super high-speed network, wired and wireless. Everybody is friendly when they're not buried in their own work. Throw in some aliens and it's the work version of the bar in Star Wars. There are a few NextSpaces sprinkled around the country now, and one can only presume that this is a growth market. It seems certainly to be the case after you've read the book.
Reading the book is highly recommended if you want to find yourself in a NextSpace or embark upon a viable version of what we dinosaurs called a "career." You can listen to Ryan Coonerty give you many good reasons to read 'Naked,' so that you will feel less so, by following this link to the MP3 audio fossil.
New to the Agony Column
09-18-15: Commentary : William T. Vollman Amidst 'The Dying Grass' : An Epic Exploration of Simultaneity
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with William T. Vollman : "...a lot of long words that in our language are sentences..."
09-05-15: Commentary : Susan Casey Listens to 'Voices in the Ocean' : Science, Empathy and Self
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Susan Casey : "...the reporting for this book was emotionally difficult at times..."
08-21-15: Agony Column Podcast News Report : Senator Claire McCaskill is 'Plenty Ladylike' : Internalizing Determination to Overcome Sexism [Incudes Time to Read EP 211: Claire McCaskill, Plenty Ladylike, plus A 2015 Interview with Senator Claire McCaskill]
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Emily Schultz Unleashes 'The Blondes' : A Cure by Color [Incudes Time to Read EP 210: Emily Schultz, The Blondes, plus A 2015 Interview with Emily Schultz]
07-05-15: Commentary : Dr. Michael Gazzaniga Tells Tales from Both Sides of the Brain : A Life in Neuroscience Reveals the Life of Science
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Michael Gazzaniga : "We made the first observation and BAM there was the disconnection effect..."
04-21-15: Commentary : Kazuo Ishiguro Unearths 'The Buried Giant' : The Mist of Myth and Memory
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Kazuo Ishiguro : ".... by the time I was writing this novel, the lines between what was fantasy and what was real had blurred for me..."
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Marc Goodman : "...every physical object around us is being transformed, one way or another, into an information technology..."
Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 199: Marc Goodman : Future Crimes: Everything Is Connected, Everyone Is Vulnerable and What We Can Do About It
