Future so bright
January 1, 2015 7:29 PM   Subscribe

Yes, yes—We live in the Gibsonian tomorrow, the grim meathook future, the ever-weirder cyberpunk dystopia. But it won't be that way forever. Well, it might get weirder. But good-weird. To that end, the latest anthology from The Sockdolager, You Gotta Wear Shades, contains an astonishing seven tales of brighter futures. Because we happen to think things are in fact gonna get better.
posted by the man of twists and turns (25 comments total) 67 users marked this as a favorite
 
and a story from Narrative Priorities!
posted by the man of twists and turns at 7:31 PM on January 1, 2015 [3 favorites]


Excellent, look forward to reading. But, just, ha. Ha ha, even.
posted by chainlinkspiral at 7:33 PM on January 1, 2015


It's so bright! The goggles... they do nothing!
posted by oneswellfoop at 7:49 PM on January 1, 2015 [2 favorites]


No cranial implants yet, so I'm taking my tablet to bed, to sample one or two of these. Thanks.
posted by Artful Codger at 7:56 PM on January 1, 2015 [1 favorite]


This sounds like exactly what I need right now. Thanks!
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 8:03 PM on January 1, 2015 [2 favorites]


Subtitle: 1985
posted by clavdivs at 8:34 PM on January 1, 2015


So far so good...short fiction lowers the barrier to entry, and that can't be a bad thing when the hordes aren't exactly rushing the gates. Thanks indeed!
posted by spacewrench at 8:38 PM on January 1, 2015


Love the title. Only place I've ever heard the word is the line from "Our American Cousin" that was the cue to shoot Abraham Lincoln.

"Don't know the manners of good society, eh? Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal — you sockdologizing old man-trap."
posted by broken wheelchair at 8:47 PM on January 1, 2015 [2 favorites]


wasn't this posted a few days ago with reference to a different mefite as one of the authors (OOC)?
thanks either way as i forgot to bookmark the Sockdolager website.
posted by Conrad-Casserole at 9:04 PM on January 1, 2015 [1 favorite]


The stories are so richly constructed and excellent in their concepts and detail.
posted by Oyéah at 9:13 PM on January 1, 2015 [2 favorites]


Is it astonishing that there are 7 tales, or are the tales themselves astonishing?

/misplaced modifier pedantry
posted by Saxon Kane at 9:28 PM on January 1, 2015


Oh my goodness! I was surprised so many of us chose like, theatre and historical recreation as themes. We are all such dorks.
posted by The Whelk at 9:44 PM on January 1, 2015 [2 favorites]


Well, there went my evening. But I loved them all. Thank you.
posted by emjaybee at 9:45 PM on January 1, 2015 [2 favorites]


Purchased! Looking forward to this.

Bless your hearts, you productive nerds.
posted by DigDoug at 7:24 AM on January 2, 2015


(I had a really hard time trying to come up with an optimistic sci-if premise (maybe everyone dies and the ant civilization is really neat?) until I saw a production of the importance of being earnest attended almost entirely by very bored prep school kids in actual Blazers)
posted by The Whelk at 7:26 AM on January 2, 2015


I'd really like to check this out for a number of reasons but I'm just seeing a blank screen. In FF 34.0.5 on Mac OS X. Help?
posted by dubitable at 8:10 AM on January 2, 2015


Along the same line of optimistic SF, there's Project Heiroglyph and its companion anthology volume. I just started listening to the book, during my commute, so can't vouch for the stories yet, other than the first one (by Neal Stephenson) which I found strangely moving. And go the record I'm not much of a Neal Stephenson fan.
posted by newdaddy at 8:17 AM on January 2, 2015


We've had a couple people run into the blank screen problem -- we're gonna call Squarespace and get it sorted out!
posted by Narrative Priorities at 8:55 AM on January 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


Blank white screen in FF 34.0.5 here too. IE 11 works.
posted by ropeladder at 12:40 PM on January 2, 2015


Safari 7.1 on OS X 10.9.5 also shows a blank white page. Chrome 39.0.2171.95 on the same laptop works just fine.
posted by kingless at 1:19 PM on January 2, 2015


Finished, and glad to have done! Somebody mentioned a purchase, but I don't see how to give them any money? I would if I could...I'd rather pay for stuff directly than give Google ads a cut while they abuse my privacy. Don't be evil, my ass.
posted by spacewrench at 9:04 PM on January 2, 2015


Love the title. Only place I've ever heard the word is the line from "Our American Cousin" that was the cue to shoot Abraham Lincoln.

The cue to shoot Lincoln was "You gotta wear shades"!?
posted by Ian A.T. at 9:20 PM on January 2, 2015





Love the title. Only place I've ever heard the word is the line from "Our American Cousin" that was the cue to shoot Abraham Lincoln.


oddly I once wrote something about going to visit Our American Cousin and that being a Thing
posted by The Whelk at 9:25 PM on January 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


Gibson doesn't write distopias. He just doesn't write fascist white power fantasies.
posted by pfh at 10:30 PM on January 2, 2015


This has been lovely. I've only read one story so far, Authentic Soup, as I'm deliberately going to take my time over this - max of one a day. I found the story to be a lovely little piece that could stand alone or be part of a bigger tale. What it did though, was to unfold into something greater than the sum of its parts.
posted by quarsan at 10:59 PM on January 2, 2015 [2 favorites]


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