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Down and Out in Opish

John Sanchez has translated the novel into Opish, "a children's language comparable to Pig Latin."

Opish is essentially English with the letters "op" added after every consonant. For example, Disney World becomes Dopisopnopeyop Woporoplopdop in Opish...

The Opish title is Dopowopnop anopdop Outop inop tophope Mopagopicop Kopinopgopdopomop and the author's Opish name is Coporopyop Dopocopotoporopowop.

Down and Out hacked onto a Sony ebook reader

Peter sez, "Here's Phillip Torrone reading 'Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom' on a Sony Librié. The Librié is the first device that uses the incredibly cool e-ink technology co-developed by Philips and Sony; according the a few scattered reports, it's like reading actual paper. The Librié, being a Sony device, comes with the dumbest DRM ever: a library of 400 titles that evaporate off of your device in 60 days. Not no more! Here's a wiki on the Librié that has some software you can use to create Librié books from ASCII files."

(Thanks, Peter!)

Down and Out: Pirate-speak edition

In honor of Talk Like a Pirate Day, Sydd Souza has run my Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom through a perl script that translated it into pirate speak:

I lived long enough t' be seein' th' cure fer Davy Jones' locker; t' be seein' th' rise o' th' Bitchun Society, t' learn ten languages; t' compose three symphonies; t' reckon me boyhood dream o' takin' up residence in Disney World; t' be seein' th' Davy Jones' locker o' th' workplace an' o' work.

I nerethought I'd live t' be seein' th' tide when Keep A-Movin' Dan would decide t' deadhead until th' heat Davy Jones' locker o' th' Universe.

Subvocalization mic

A conceit in my novel Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom is that our cellphones will disappear into our bodies, silently feeding us audio via cochlear implants and micing our throats to pick up sub-vocalizations (something I think I ripped off from Harry Harrison, though others have done it too). Now a DARPA program has produced a functional prototype of a subvocal pickup that can turn words you haven't spoken into signals on the wire.

One system, being developed for DARPA by Rick Brown of Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, relies on a sensor worn around the neck called a tuned electromagnetic resonator collar (TERC). Using sensing techniques developed for magnetic resonance imaging, the collar detects changes in capacitance caused by movement of the vocal cords, and is designed to allow speech to be heard above loud background noise.

DARPA is also pursuing an approach first developed at NASA's Ames lab, which involves placing electrodes called electromyographic sensors on the neck, to detect changes in impedance during speech. A neural network processes the data and identifies the pattern of words. The sensor can even detect subvocal or silent speech. The speech pattern is sent to a computerised voice generator that recreates the speaker's words.

(Thanks, John!)

Scholarly essay on Down and Out

The fall edition of Currents in Electronic Literacy contains a tremendous scholarly essay on Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Eric Mason, called "Remediating the Magic Kingdom: Notes Toward a Poetics of Technology."

This description of the process of flash-baking reveals the textuality of technology because the experience of the Presidents' lives that the technology delivers is achieved specifically through texts such as "newspaper headlines, speeches, distilled biographies, personal papers." The technologicity of texts that this description constructs is one that downplays the specific technological context of these textual genres (i.e. attempts to obscure their specific technologicities). The techno-logic of "gestalts" presented above suggests as well that the experience of a technology is irrelevant to its content--that you can place content from newspapers and biographies into the technology of flash-baking without any loss or change. Such a technologicity of texts works to undermine the specificity of a text's technological context and the lived experience of technology. Conversely, a responsible poetics of technology refuses to ignore and refuses to obscure the irreducible differences of technologies, arguing that a text and the technology used to create and consume it are consubstantial elements that can be articulated but never transcended.

SciFi Wire on Nebula Nomination

Today's edition of SciFi Wire (the wire service of the SciFi channel) features an amazing, flattering article about the fact that my novel Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom is a finalist for this year's Nebula Award for Best Novel.

Doctorow also tackles morality, cloning, socialism, poverty, the right to die, freedom of choice, hubris and the cult of celebrity in the book. He said he has heard from many Disney people, and the reaction and comments about the book were "all positive. They say I captured the mood and details just right."

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom was released in February 2003 to widespread acclaim. Blog critic Kevin Marks wrote, "About once every 10 years, a science fiction novel appears that redefines the art form. One that describes a world different from our own, but recognizably yours: extrapolated from current trends, but richly evocative of its difference, adding words to the language that needed to be coined."

The Austin (Texas) Statesman said, "It may be the best debut science-fiction novel since [William Gibson's] Neuromancer."

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom went on to win a Locus Award for best first novel. If it wins the Nebula, it will join Neuromancer (1984) as a debut-novel winner.

Down and Out is a Nebula Finalist

The final Nebula Award ballot is out and my first novel, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom is a finalist! w00t! The awards ceremony is in Chicago on April 30th -- I'll be there with fingers crossed (check out the tough competition!)

Novels --

Paladin of Souls -- Lois McMaster Bujold (Eos, Oct03)
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom -- Cory Doctorow (Tor, Feb03)
Omega -- Jack McDevitt (Ace, Nov03)
Cloud Atlas : A Novel -- David Mitchell (Sceptre, Jan 2004)
Perfect Circle -- Sean Stewart (Small Beer Press, Jun04)
The Knight -- Gene Wolfe (Tor, Jan04)

Down and Out on the preliminary Nebula ballot!

The preliminary ballot for the Nebula Award came out yesterday, and my novel Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom is one of six novels that made the first cut. Between now and Feb 15, my colleagues in the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) will vote on a final ballot. It's exhilarating to have just gotten this far, but it will be truly amazing if my first novel makes the final ballot. If you're a SFWA member, I hope you'll remember the book when your preliminary ballot arrives in the mail!

Paladin of Souls -- Lois McMaster Bujold (Eos, Oct03)
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom -- Cory Doctorow (Tor, Feb03)
Omega -- Jack McDevitt (Ace, Nov03)
Perfect Circle -- Sean Stewart (Small Beer Press, Jun04)
Conquistador -- S.M. Stirling (Roc, Feb04)
The Knight -- Gene Wolfe (Tor, Jan04)

Utne Reader on Whuffie and reputation systems

I was interviewed for an article on reputation economies in the current issue of the Utne Reader -- the piece is online now!

In the 2003 science fiction novel Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, author Cory Doctorow imagines a society where all of life's necessities are free, and market laws such as supply and demand cease to exist for everything else. Instead of trading in a hard currency, citizens living in this "post-scarcity economy" measure their wealth with an ephemeral, reputation-based currency called "Whuffie." Doing something that benefits the community, like baking a cake or writing beautiful poetry, increases a person's Whuffie, while causing a traffic accident or publishing clumsy prose can temporarily put you in a virtual poorhouse. Everyone is wired into the Internet via brain implants and can routinely view and modify others' standing instantly (and free of charge), ultimately making one's status the subject of majority opinion.

Down and Out wins Locus Award

This is so freaking cool: my novel Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom has won the Locus Award for Best First Novel of 2003. The Locus Award is based on a popular poll of readers of the trade mag, a larger group than even the Hugo voters, making it the largest beauty contest in the field. I couldn't be any happier: thanks everyone! Hope to see you at the World Science Fiction Convention in Boston, where the award will be presented.

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