It may be below zero on these chill London evenings, but spring is in the air. And so is science-related fiction. On Monday, I was a talking head on the Guardian_’s ‘Science Weekly’ podcastsc.html, which was devoted to science and literature. What’s more, the formal announcement is forthcoming, but I’ve been authorized by fellow Nature Network London denizen Jonathan ‘he’s a lot less green than his avatar’ Black to leak a little trailer about an exciting new monthly manifestation: The Fiction Lab.
Exciting revelations: The new-look RI should be completed by April’s end
The Fiction Lab, coming soon to the state-of-the art bar in the newly refurbished Royal Institution on Albemarle Street, will be a reading group dedicated to lab lit and other science-related or inspired literary fiction. Brought to you by the RI and presided over by yours truly, it may in fact be the world’s first science-in-fiction salon. Once a month, starting on 9 June, we will gather together to enjoy a drink and discuss a great novel that features science at its heart. Sadly, there isn’t enough new pure lab lit fiction — novels featuring scientists plying their trade as central characters — to sustain a monthly book group, but despair not: we’ll be supplementing this rarefied genre with novels that are generally inspired by science or scientific ideas. Each month’s selection will be chosen by the group, and you’ll have a month to read the book before we convene to give it a poke and a prod.
Our first book will be The Sun and Moon Corrupted by Nature’s own Philip Ball. Ball is a prolific author of popular science non-fiction, but this is his debut novel, out in May and available now for pre-order on Amazon. It is puffed thusly: A young journalist, Lena Romanowicz, goes in search of Karl Neder, a provocative physicist whose discovery of a new energy source made him an outcast. In order to find him she must follow his trail from the castles of Transylvania to the rocket labs of NASA, from Viennese cafés to the blasted borderlands of the Soviet Union. But as Lena chases his story across the world, she is also trying to outrun the buried motives that drive her. Tantalizing stuff.
As a special treat, the first Fiction Lab will feature a special appearance by Philip Ball himself, who (after we’ve have a chance to thoroughly decimate his magnum opus – just kidding, Phil) will rather bravely drop by at the end to share his insider insights with the group.
We’ll keep you posted on any further developments!
From ‘days gone by’ (mid 2007)…..
Dear Graham,
Many thanks for these kind and encouraging words. It is nice to know that what I put out there has some value
Best wishes,
P**l
Mid-2007? Are you in a time warp, Graham? :-)
I am deeply curious how this little group will develop. I’ve been in book groups before but have never found one where I’ve felt truly at home. I think science in fiction has a lot of discussion mileage, so we’ll see!
Woh! I am so jealous that I can’t be part of this!
Well done Jenny, amazing stuff.
It was Jonathan’s idea…but one I’ve often thought of, usually followed by, good god, how to start. So it’s a good synergy!
Maybe we can do web streaming? Or some sort of Second Nature thing? Don’t ask me, I’m a technophobe.
Says Jenny, C++ goddess.
Just take your MacBook along (built-in camera, yes?) and stream it from there.
What a great idea! It sounds almost worth moving to London for.
Almost.
I do hope it works out! In Cromer I am destined to be a book group of one (or perhaps three). I’ve read Philip Ball’s novel twice – once in ms form, onece in proof. It’s … intriguing.
Don’t say another word, Henry! I’m the sort of reader who doesn’t usually even want to read the blurb on the back.
But thanks are due to you for letting me know it was coming. Phil has been trying to wrangle a review proof copy for LabLit.com for about three months, no joy yet.
Don’t you need huge bandwidths for streaming?
There’s rather a personal question, Jennifer.
{Mind The Gap TM is not responsible for the inanities of others.}
It might put off the participants to be ‘viewed’, as well. It’s meant to be a cozy affair.
I had heard something about this somewhere – perhaps a dream premonition, but I’m chuffed. Well done Jennifer for, umm, continuing to be the girl who can’t say no!
I… am terrible at reading to any sort of schedule, so can’t guarantee I’ll be there, but it seems to be A Good Idea In Principle. So woo! and yay! to J&J!
Scott, you could just read the back of the book, the first page and the last page, show up on the night throwing around words such as ‘juxtaposition’ and ‘post-humanism’ and everyone would think you were some sort of lit crit god.
It’s all in the gravitas, you see…
Well, one of my finest moments ever was writing 150 words on Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Three Colours: White one evening with only a 50ish word Variety review to go on. So maybe… :)
You and most of the press at large, if this is anything to go by. (props to rpg for pointing this out)
Digested read: most news stories are cribbed from press releases. So why not reviews?
Maybe the people at Nature could stream it into Second Nature (in Second Life)? That could be very cool. Even if it were just audio it would be great to listen along.
An excellent suggestion, Cameron. I’ll have a chat with J and get back to you.
Hi Jennifer,
I am new to your blog and really enjoy. The fiction lab idea has got the scientist in me and the lit-geek in me fighting over which got excited first. Keep up the good work.
Alex
Thanks, Alex – that’s very kind of you to say. I hope your inner lit-geek and scientist learn to live in bliss, as mine have done.
Jennifer, I would almost get on a plane and join y’all if you were discussing Kim Stanley Robinson’s Science in the Capital series. This guy really did his research (not that it’s really that accurate when you look at the details, but the gist is quite well done, which is what you want from science fiction).
Hi Heather – we had a nice review of that on LabLit and also, I interviewed Kim Stanley Robinson in an earlier issue of the magazine. He’s a really nice guy.
I don’t consider those books science fiction, actually. Too grounded in reality. But they would have been fair game for the reading group!
This sounds like a great idea except… why the (apparent) wish to avoid the ‘science in fiction’ in science fiction (books like Timescape, The Leaky Establishment, Einstein’s Bridge, Quicksilver… the list could go on forever)?