Hatrack River Writers Workshop: What I'm Looking For

This is topic What I'm Looking For in forum Discussing Published Hooks & Books at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by aspirit (Member # 7974) on :

Does anyone know of a science fiction novel titled Effervescence or something similar? I saw it in a brick-and-mortar Barnes and Noble last autumn and would like to take another look at it, but (a) the store no longer carries a copy and (b) I don't clearly remember who wrote it and how it's titled.

In the opening, as I recall, the POV character observes the beings around him while he contemplates how no evolutionary surprises are left in the universe. Humans have interacted with every form of intelligent life imaginable (and beyond imagination). Then, a friend or someone enters the scene to tell him of a new place, where intelligent life forms unlike those already known may exist.

Posted by aspirit (Member # 7974) on :

Nevermind. I recognized Greg Egan as the author of Incadescence (not Effervescence) when I saw his name in an Amazon.com review (of Neal Stephenson's Anathem).

Perhaps this thread can help someone else looking for a specific book.

Posted by DaveBowen (Member # 8786) on :

I'm temporarily hijacking this abortive thread. What I'm looking for is a sense of purpose and meaning to life. Not in the Douglas Adams sense; more like in the "well, that was an interesting ride, but we didn't really go anywhere," sense.

I've just found a book called Drive, which says motivation comes from three desires:

Autonomy- the desire to direct our lives.
Mastery- the urge to get better and better at something that matters.
Purpose- the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves.

Perhaps the book will help, though I've generally found self-help books to be similar in effect to Novocaine. They ease the pain temporarily, but leave your lips all puffy and numb.

Brilliant ideas or insights are welcome.

Thanks,
Dave Bowen

Posted by BenM (Member # 8329) on :

Philosophers probably smarter than your or I have been working on this question for thousands of years.

It bugs me too sometimes, that need for life to be something more than A Day In The Life Of. I hope though that I can take my tendency for introspection (which raises the question in the first place) and let it guide my fiction a little in ways I don't expect. Maybe in doing so I'll set my subconscious free and answer my own question.

So my thought is don't sweat it - channel it.

Posted by billawaboy (Member # 8182) on :

i dunno i think my motivation comes from a ton of places. sometimes I do things to impress a girl. Can't say that has anything to do with Autonomy mastery or Purpose...

Sometimes I do things out of pure vengence...missed the three again...

Sometimes I do things simply becuase I have nothing better to do - i'm not even sure what to call that...motivation by desire to waste time till I find something I have to do. Randomly browsing the internet is a good example.

I think largely my motivation these days is to accumulate enough money so i can pay for my delicining health when I get old. I have no illusions of an afterlife, and I have never felt a purpose to do anything larger than myself or not.

If fact the biggest motivator in my life seems to be laziness. I tend to maximize my efforts in ways that allow me to do neccessary things it the least amount of energy and time and money. In a way it's an avoidance of Autonomy. I don;t want to be responsible for too many thing - I'd give up freedoms for luxuries.

Now mastery...I admit I definitely had a motivation stemming from that desire. But those days died the minute I realized that everything I learn and master will mean nothing when i die. My brains will be mush, my neural pathways gone, and my mastery forever disappeard. And it only gets worse with age after 30. At best you can claim to be a master at soemthing till your 40s - then it's just downhill. Even science guys tell you that you do your best work before 35, before your neurons start degrading from old age. And I dont even have to take about sports. You pretty much have to born as a genius and develop all that skill at a young age then put into practice as an adult. Then you can say you're a master.

I say motivations stem from a lot of desires not just 3. Sometimes they dont have to make sense to us - only to the people who feel them.

Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :

There was a very cool article in the December 2009/January 2010 issue of the SFWA BULLETIN about research that seems to indicate that what readers are really looking for is something to stimulate the anticipation centers of the brain and not so much the pleasure centers. It talks about how such research can apply to making stories more appealing to readers.

The article is "Your Brain on Books" by Fran Van Cleave, and if I could find a digital copy I'd put a link here about it. I'd say the article is worth the $6.95 price of the magazine.

Email bulletin@sfwa.org about ordering a copy.