Tuesday 20 November 2012

Must Artists Suffer? A New Story up at New Scientist's Arc



It's a story that plays with the supposed link between unhappiness and art. What do you think? Is there a link? My main character thinks so, but I don't agree. This story was lots of fun to write.  You can enter the debate at the Arc site, if you've a mind. 

And Arc have announced their new competition: 'Is the Future Friendly?'

Here's what the editor kindly said about the story: 


Arc’s winning stories: Deborah Walker’s Drink Deep and Long the Circean Poison

Must artists suffer? The novelist and poet Thomas Hardy thought so, quipping that “light writes white”. Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World  is a narcotised shopping mall, its zombie denizens, blissed into political quiescence.
Deborah Walker (@deboree), a runner-up in our recent short story competition, broadly agrees - but her story, set in a world where pleasure has been harnessed and commodified, is altogether more mischevious. There is no conspiracy here, no attempt to defraud humankind; only a technology that speaks to some very deep, politically uncorrect (and largely male) assumptions about what greatness is, and how it can be achieved.
It’s also a playful period piece that, in its attention to detail and speech rhythms, knocks all that steampunk malarkey out of the court

12 comments:

  1. Writers don't have to suffer to write (or if they do, I'm doing it wrong)

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  2. Really enjoyed your story on Arc / Tomorrow Project site. Especially liked the wee pleasure witch and her automated sympathy. Lovely interplay between her and Reggie. Liked the setting too: the endless flat, saturated fens. Congrats!

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  3. Thanks, Peter. It was a fun story to write.

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  4. You were a 'runner up' with that piece!? I might as well give up writing then.

    Loved the story and the dialogue was brilliant, and flowed so well. I haven't read the other entries, I'm almost too afraid to do so.

    But brilliant writing Deborah, you certainly have a fan here :) - stalking is optional... at a price.

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    1. Hey, Mark. Well they're paying me £200 and I get to be published by New Scientist's Arc. So I'm thrilled. It would have been great to win. Next time, maybe!

      Thanks for the read. It means a lot. It's so hard to keep up with everything, so I really do appreciate it.

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  5. Hah, hah, great stuff. Do writers have to suffer? I don't know. I suspect some do and some don't.

    Meanwhile I'm off for a whisky...

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    1. The relationship between a fine Riojas and fine prose is surely undisputed.

      Kids: Don't drink and write.

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  6. Hey, congrats, Deborah!! You truly deserve the accolades... and more!!

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  7. Thanks. That's so sweet, Lynda. I hardly deserve them at all #falsemodesty.

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  8. "Who can fathom the mysteries of the human mind" -- true that. I think this is the longest piece of yours I've read yet, Deborah; fine work indeed. And I agree with Mark above. Runner-up? Glad I didn't compete!

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  9. Thanks Milo. It was a fun story to write. You're right, it's one of my longer works. Well spotted.

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