stray future questions

some links i came across this weekend:

Paper Cuts - the New York Times book blog, a place i keep returning to regularly. they have a video interview with Toni Morrison up, a conversation with Toni Morrison about her book that reaches back in time to the founding century of the States. also new: a new part of their "Stray Question" series, this time featuring author Elizabeth Graver. i like this interview form, casual and short, the same questions for different authors. and Graver's answer to the web-question "Is the Web a distraction or a blessing?" is interesting: "I do wonder how the Web is changing the texture and reach of contemporary fiction, as well as the writing process. It’s so easy, now, to find out a little about a lot or a lot about a little. It’s so easy to get interrupted or to interrupt yourself. But what a lovely lot of things to find. If it’s the Web, are we the spider or the fly?"

and browsing blogs, i came across the link to an interview with Cory Doctorow in the Guardian, on his new book, and on sciene fiction: willing science fiction into fact. it made me remember the tv feature i saw with him earlier this year, and his reflection on science fiction, back then i tried to piece his thoughts together from memory in translation (here the blog post: wastelands or magic kingdoms). In the Guardian interview, there is the statement again, now directly from him: "All science fiction writers, whether they admit it or not, are writing metaphorically about the present. To extrapolate the future is really to comment on the now. - The job of a science fiction writer, historically, has been to understand how technology and social factors interact," he says, "how technology is changing society."