UPDATE (31 May 2012): There’s a preview for my piece available here, for those who would like a sneak peek.
ORIGINAL POST: The new SF/Science magazine Arc, put out by the makers of New Scientist, has just published its second issue, Arc 1.02, with the theme of “Post Human Conditions.”
Among the contents is an article by yours truly, included as an installment of the magazine’s “Unevenly Distributed” column. My piece, titled “The Mudang’s Dance,” is about South Korea’s particular relationship with futurity, memory, modernity, and change — assessed in the light of William Gibson’s famous comment “The future is already here, it’s just unevenly distributed.” As mentioned in the official Tumblr post on the issue:
… science fiction writer Gord Sellar wonders why the South Koreans — arguably the most forward-looking nation on earth — show no interest whatsoever in futurology. Do they know something the rest of us don’t[?]
Well, that’s close enough to what I’m saying that I won’t nitpick… though it depends on what you call “forward-looking” and of course some Koreans are interested in futurology. (It just hasn’t penetrated into the culture in the way I find it has in most of the Western world.)
One interesting detail I didn’t get around to mentioning, which people outside Korea might find surprising, was that former President Kim Daejung actually hired futurist Alvin Toffler as an advisor, back around the time he was catapulting Korea into the Internet Age (ie. around the turn of the century. One assumes he felt Toffler was the man for the job not just because he was a famous futurist, but because he didn’t have a creditable counterpart in South Korea.
Anyway, I’ve never shared a TOC with Frederick Pohl before, but it’s an honor. Also, Nick Harkaway, Jeff Vandermeer, Paul McAuley, and PD Smith stick out in the contributors list.
Print issues are still in transit, but those who’re interested in reading it electronically, check out the list of places you can get it here. If you like the magazine, make sure to subscribe!