(2004-05-12) Sterling Zenith Reading

Went to Bruce Sterling book signing for The Zenith Angle (ISBN:0-345-46061-8) last night. First time I've heard him speak - highly enjoyable (not just a q&a like that lazy Neal Stephenson dude). Some random bits:

• instead of reading an excerpt (he was going to do "the fight scene") from the book, he read us (based on "polling" us) a story he's written for the relaunched Amazing SciFi magazine. Whose main character kept sounding like a buffed-up Donald Trump to me.
  • update: apparently "The Spider's Amazement"
• raised in India (oil brat)
  • loves BollyWood movies, esp Qayamat (no need to listen to, or even read, the dialogue)
• ELSI: Ethical Legal Social Implications: results in PhilJones:BecomingConservative
• runs a Writing Workshop http://www.io.com/~lawrence/TC.html
• likes World Changing http://www.worldchanging.com/
• working on piece for Wired Mag on War On Iraq leading to US withdrawal leaving behind a Failed State (like Nigeria) to be run by NGOs (who can move the Cheap Oil) and their PMCs.
  • EU as model for future states - regulation without sovereignty.

Bruce is more pessimistic than I expected, though maybe that's a SignOfTheTimes.

Brian Dear saw him later in the month.