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Scalzi’s blogs. J. Michael Straczynski’s presence on Usenet — while
in production on
Babylon 5,
no less — breeding an army of rabid
fans ready to fax-bomb recalcitrant TV execs into submission and
syndication. See also the MySpace bands selling a million units
of their CDs by adding each buyer to their “friends lists.” Watch
Eric Flint manage the Baen Bar, and Warren Ellis’s good-natured
growling on his sites, lists, and so forth.
Not all artists have in them to conduct an online salon with
their audiences. Not all Vaudevillians had it in them to transi-
tion to radio. Technology giveth and technology taketh away. Sf
writers are supposed to be soaked in the future, ready to come
to grips with it. The future is conversational: when there’s more
good stuff that you know about that’s one click away or closer
than you will ever click on, it’s not enough to know that some
book is good. The least substitutable good in the Internet era is
the personal relationship.
Conversation, not content, is king. If you were stranded on a
desert island and you opted to bring your records instead of your
friends, we’d call you a sociopath. Science fiction writers who can
insert themselves into their readers’ conversations will be set for
life.
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