It must be weird to be asked to talk to someone with a camera long enough to have an hour and a half of footage. I’m watching the William Gibson documentary No Maps For These Territories, and I’m struck by the difficulty of this kind of “performance.” No doubt it is a performance: sitting around and talking is different from sitting around and talking to a camera. It’s interesting in a number of ways. It certainly provides some context to Gibson’s career, especially his recent comments about SF and the comments in the documentary about the relative difficulty of imagining the future.
I would have preferred if I could have gotten it out of a library or something, since I don’t know how often I’ll watch it. But I am glad I’ve seen it.
Oddly, I’ll be watching another documentary this evening, as well — El Ché: Investigating a Legend — as a little inspirational research for when I polish up my story “Dhuluma…” I don’t know much about Ché Guevara, so I have few expectations.
I’m writing the ending of “McWar” now, under the influence of one nicely hammering drink and some nicely hammering music. This track, actually — I rarely listen to recordings I’m on, but this one somehow brings out something grimy and nasty from the depths of my imagination, which suits “McWar” well. I recommend it — it’s the only track in the world where I have a featured vocal track. (I think I have a couple of bad backing vocals elsewhere, but aided by a flu, this one is actually good, because I sound nothing like the Gord most people know. Though it’s mostly the band noise I am listening to right now.
Which reminds me, I’m traking a break from Frank Norris’ The Octopus to read Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club. I should have done so years ago. He has a few pretty damned good tricks — the kind of thing I shall have to read again, like the Chapoter 3, the technique of which has been running through my brain since I read it. Shall have to experiment some more. I think it may drive me off producing new stuff for a while, but hey, whatever. A new dimension in style would be worth a few months of experimentation. I think if one pushes it, that technique could do a lot.
Back to drafting. Won’t be posting much the next few days — have social plans two nights in a row, which is unusual for me.
UPDATE: Got it! Redraft for McWar done. Now titled “Alone With Gandhari.” Needs some polishing. I’m going to do that in a week or so, since the deadline for “Gandhari” doesn’t really exist (and is probably end of November if I do send it where I’m intending); however, the deadline for “Dhuluma…” looms, and the story needs just a little polishing, so that’s slated next.