Sime~Gen(tm) Inc.

Where Sime and Gen Meet, Creativity Happens

WorldCrafters Guild

Workshop:  THE FICTION DELIVERY SYSTEM #2

 

THE FICTION DELIVERY SYSTEM #2

An Excerpt from a longer post

#3. -- This list (Virtual Selyn - the Listserv of Sime~Gen fandom Sign Up at www.simegen.com/archives) is ABOUT THE SIME~GEN UNIVERSE, and not just "to talk about anything you want to talk about. We do have an underlying theme and thesis, and that's "Universe Building" -- and anything that happens in the "real" world can be discussed on this List because whatever there is in human nature that made it happen in the real world (or in Nature's nature) will also be an active drive in the Sime~Gen Universe. Once we understand what's happening in our "real" world, we can transpose it to Sime~Gen.

That produces a WRITING WORKSHOP lesson for our writers, a reading-sf lesson for people just entering the genre, and teases out bits and pieces of unpublished Sime~Gen background that could spark award winning stories from someone. It's also very consuming to discuss things with other adults who have a vocabulary.

#4. -- What we are really doing here on this Virtual Selyn List is bringing Sime~Gen into the modern world. Sime~Gen is a product of the 50's (when mutant stories were the most popular form of sf), written mostly in the 70's . But it has to be re-marketed as a 2000+ product which means, like Trek, it needs a "new look." This List is creating that "look". And it's creating a new marketing angle for this product.

This is not a list for "talking about whatever you want to talk about" -- it's a list for talking about whatever has caught your attention IN ORDER TO PURPOSEFULLY BUILD THE WHOLE SCIENCE FICTION GENRE (and incidentally Sime~Gen) INTO THE NEW MULTI-MEDIA REALITIES OF THE NEXT CENTURY.

There are media that haven't been invented yet. When they are, we'll be ready with people who can create and think in those media already. That's what this writing workshop is about - breaking loose of the strictures imposed by paper-publishing and using all of the creative opportunities inherent in online publishing. The new CZ online is our first step in that direction.

What we're aiming for here is a new form of "interactive literature" -- not one where the reader chooses the character's path of action, but one in which the reader's input is integral to the entire thematic background and ARTISTIC CHOICES which the authors (who will be mostly drawn from the readership) will make.

This will be "interactive" also in the commercial part of fiction choices - marketing will be founded on research participation by our Listmembers.

These are far future pie-in-the-sky visionary plans, but if nobody dreams, nothing ever happens.

(1999 COMMENT: Sime~Gen Inc. and the WorldCrafters Guild are two outgrowths of these discussions on the List. JL)

We are here to dream-together, not to destroy each other's enjoyment.

Issues which escalate into emotional exchanges can be learned from. If we, among Ancients who have so much in common, can't communicate on obsessive/compulsive behavior issues that are coupled to issues of personal autonomy and collateral damage -- IMAGINE what an explosive issue such a matter would be between people for whom it was LITERALLY a life/death matter .

Live Long and Prosper,

Jacqueline Lichtenberg