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Rank: Whale Shark
Groups: Shoal
, Whale Shark
Joined: 1/24/2009
Posts: 310
Location: UK
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MiaVRO wrote:Now that rawshark.ca is no longer available, is there any place to find the Aquarium Fragment. It was also available at rawsharktexts.com, but that too is gone.
Has it been/can it be posted here somewhere or what? rawshark.ca will be available again soon. HarperCollins took it down so we're currently working out taking control of it ourselves. There will be an all-new Raw Shark Texts site (prob branching off from steven-hall.org) before too long, but we're still working out the best way to do this - having rawsharktexts.com lead directly to the forums seems to be great for the boards, which were always the heart and soul of the site anyway. Plus, much of what might go on the site is already being/has already been compiled here. We have some ideas, but your thoughts would be very welcome - what would you like to see there? S
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Rank: Fry
Groups: Shoal
Joined: 3/27/2009
Posts: 2
Location: Liverpool
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Hi steven,
R.e Book recomendations for the hopeless
Thanks for replying! To be more specific.. there are so many aspects of Raw Shark that I enjoyed that its hard to even pick out the parts. I felt alot closer to the story than other books because it is set in the 'real' world, but not just that, it feels very present and local, so much so that I'd even been to the H section of waterstones in manchester and afterwards felt a connection. I'm not sure that many other books could make me feel so close to the story, well, except maybe the 'Haunted Liverpool' series haha.
It was very refreshing to see come actual typeography used in, and so central to the story. I must have flipped that flip book 50 times. But again I havn't seen this in any other books, so i'm not really helping so far..
I really like it when I read a book and a 'real' name or book is mentioned that I can then go and reserach, like 'One Thousand and One Nights', or 'Invention of Solitude', I like to go off on a tangent and find out more.
I also enjoy the concepts and theories because I've always had my own, and it dosen't always go too well when I pose them to people - so it was great to read someone elses.
But I think through this i'm realizing it's the pyschological aspects that intrest me the most, and I think it's reflected in the last 5 'stand out' books (including yours) that i've read.. here they are..
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
The Book of Lost Things - John Connelly
Addition - Toni Jordan (As recomended by Richard & Judy for a light read haha £3 bargain)
Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown, (long winded and sadly over donw now, but it really is thought provoking)
Please can you point me in the right direction as to a new book or even genre of books? As I am hopeless in bookshops, its kind of a sensory overload when I walk in one and I just exhale a 'Ppphhhhhhhhh....' and walk away dissapointed haha.
Many Thanks!
Nic
PS, i've picked up Raw Shark again and just finished the 'Luxophage' chapter.. It's one of my favourite chapters ever written, it's so vivid... Thank you
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Rank: Whale Shark
Groups: Shoal
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Joined: 1/24/2009
Posts: 310
Location: UK
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Hi Nic,
Okay - that helps a lot (and thanks for the kind words about Raw Shark!).
I'm maybe try Popco by Scarlett Thomas - it's a great adventure, full of stories-within-stories and also a book of ideas. I enjoyed it a lot. You could also have a look at Mobius Dick by Andrew Crumey which is a thought-provoking mind-bender, while still being very accessible. The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster is the book I always recommend, the first part City of Glass is probably the best book I have ever read. I will get around to posting my thoughts about that book on the forum at some point. I have been saying how wonderful it is for years, and it occurs to me now that I have never really written down my reasons for that!
If you like unusual typography in storytelling and fancy a real challenge, maybe try Raymond Federman's Double or Nothing. For something a little more grounded on this front and with a great plot to boot, you can't really do better than Mark Z Danielewski's cult classic House of Leaves.
Lastly, but not least-ly, if you feel like something disturbing and unique, check out Under the Skin by Michel Faber - brilliant and disturbing.
S
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Rank: Deconstructive Piranha
Groups: Shoal
Joined: 5/7/2009
Posts: 96
Location: Sweden
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I have a feeling I've read the answer somewhere before, but here goes:
If you were to choose one song, not an album or an artist but one single song; which one would it be that'd set the mood for the raw shark texts? (possibly as a soundtrack for a movie).
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Rank: Whale Shark
Groups: Shoal
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Joined: 1/24/2009
Posts: 310
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timlarsson wrote:I have a feeling I've read the answer somewhere before, but here goes:
If you were to choose one song, not an album or an artist but one single song; which one would it be that'd set the mood for the raw shark texts? (possibly as a soundtrack for a movie).
Nice question. The song would have to be Shipwrecked by Envy and Other Sins. If I were making the Raw Shark Texts film myself, and making it right now, this'd 100% be the last song before the credits. S
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Rank: Deconstructive Piranha
Groups: Shoal
Joined: 5/7/2009
Posts: 96
Location: Sweden
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Steven Hall wrote:
Nice question.
The song would have to be Shipwrecked by Envy and Other Sins.
If I were making the Raw Shark Texts film myself, and making it right now, this'd 100% be the last song before the credits.
S
That was a great choice of a song! I like the bass in it. The song I have in mind while reading the book is Fading Vision by Envy (and no other sins, haha). Funny how the artists almost have the same name. The way I think of this song is when he's alone, cooking, driving, staring at Ian... Link below http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciQzo3cznhg
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Rank: Fry
Groups: Shoal
Joined: 5/12/2009
Posts: 1
Location: Victoria, Australia
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Hi Steven,
I'm a (fledgeling but published) writer myself and have just finished reading The Raw Shark Texts (literally just closed the book about half an hour ago) after breathlessly devouring it this last week. It was such a unique, surreal read that grabbed me on a subconscious and visceral level, and it is absolutely "a cult waiting to happen" as the cover cries - although judging from the steady buzz surrounding the book, that cult has already happened. Congratulations on penning such a brilliant and noteworthy tome. As a writer I'm green with envy, but as a reader I'm giddy with delight that such a book exists.
I've got a number of questions and since this is my first time on these forums I'm not sure if I'm breaking any code of decorum by asking so many (or if I'm repeating questions already asked a thousand times), so I do hope you'll humour me a little.
Firstly: the conceptual sea where the climax of the book takes place reminded me of Clive Barker's Quiddity/dream sea. Was this coincidental, or somewhat of a nod to Mr Barker?
Secondly: I felt strongly throughout the book (and particularly toward the end when Eric has some clear memories/realisations about Clio's death and his own state of mind) that you know what it is to experience loss. You write with a deep and searing understanding of grief that reduced me to tears at times. Is this just an uncanny skill you've acquired, or do you, indeed, have that personal experience with grief and loss that enabled you to write with such insight?
Thirdly: as a writer, I have an interest in the mechanics of how you put TRST together. Did you start at the beginning with a clear idea and go forth from there, or did it come in bits and pieces which you put together over time like a puzzle? Did the graphics (such as the Ludovician made out of words, etc) come after the book was done, or did you have them in mind and create them when you were at manuscript stage? TRST strikes me as a very intricate and delicate cobweb of concept and design, and I'm fascinated to know how it was built.
Fourth (and this is a slightly random question) - have you ever read The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart? I rate TRST up there with The Dice Man as a rare book that has overwhelming power to change people's lives.
And finally, you have quite a unique writing style. You break a lot of rules, but it works. Is your style inspired/influenced directly by anyone or anything, or is it an innate style you've simply always had?
Thanks for your time, and thanks for allowing readers to interact with you in this forum, it's a wonderful tool.
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Rank: Whale Shark
Groups: Shoal
, Whale Shark
Joined: 1/24/2009
Posts: 310
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Nepenthe wrote:Hi Steven,
I'm a (fledgeling but published) writer myself and have just finished reading The Raw Shark Texts (literally just closed the book about half an hour ago) after breathlessly devouring it this last week. It was such a unique, surreal read that grabbed me on a subconscious and visceral level, and it is absolutely "a cult waiting to happen" as the cover cries - although judging from the steady buzz surrounding the book, that cult has already happened. Congratulations on penning such a brilliant and noteworthy tome. As a writer I'm green with envy, but as a reader I'm giddy with delight that such a book exists. Thank you so much Welcome to the forum :) Nepenthe wrote:I've got a number of questions and since this is my first time on these forums I'm not sure if I'm breaking any code of decorum by asking so many (or if I'm repeating questions already asked a thousand times), so I do hope you'll humour me a little. Don’t worry, you’re not breaking any code of decorum - it’s always great to get questions. I’m happy to say that we don’t really have any rules here, because we’ve never needed them. The only thing we ask is that all posters respect other users, and it’s great to be able to say that in the two years the forum has been running, we’ve never had to pull anyone up about that (thank you guys btw!) Nepenthe wrote:Firstly: the conceptual sea where the climax of the book takes place reminded me of Clive Barker's Quiddity/dream sea. Was this coincidental, or somewhat of a nod to Mr Barker? I have to say that I’ve never read Clive Barker, so any similarities were added by your reading rather than my writing. Not that this should make them any less valid, of course. I attempted to write the book in a way that would encourage these sort of associations by the reader, it’s one of the ways that the book (hopefully) moulds itself to whoever is reading it. This has backfired on me a few times though - I’ve been accused of lifting from writers I’ve never read at least half a dozen times, but what can you do? Nepenthe wrote:Secondly: I felt strongly throughout the book (and particularly toward the end when Eric has some clear memories/realisations about Clio's death and his own state of mind) that you know what it is to experience loss. You write with a deep and searing understanding of grief that reduced me to tears at times. Is this just an uncanny skill you've acquired, or do you, indeed, have that personal experience with grief and loss that enabled you to write with such insight? Yeah, I have had experience with it, but then I’m sure anyone reading this has too. It’s one of life’s few constants, isn’t it? Nepenthe wrote:Thirdly: as a writer, I have an interest in the mechanics of how you put TRST together. Did you start at the beginning with a clear idea and go forth from there, or did it come in bits and pieces which you put together over time like a puzzle? Did the graphics (such as the Ludovician made out of words, etc) come after the book was done, or did you have them in mind and create them when you were at manuscript stage? TRST strikes me as a very intricate and delicate cobweb of concept and design, and I'm fascinated to know how it was built. Good question, you’re right – it’s a complete house of cards. I’d say I started with two different decks– the Ludovician shark and Eric and Clio’s story – and the big eureka moment was realising they were excitingly complimentary. From there on in it was a long process of adding things, taking things away, trying to balance something against something else. This went on before the writing, then again during, then again afterwards, and it’s the reason the book took so long to write (six years, including the editing process). One wrong move and the whole thing would collapse. And it did, several times. As for the text images – yes, they were in there from the very first draft. My agent called me one day to ask how my book was going and I told him I was making a shark flipbook, and had been for about three weeks, he just said ‘fine’, I guess he was used to me by then. Nepenthe wrote:Fourth (and this is a slightly random question) - have you ever read The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart? I rate TRST up there with The Dice Man as a rare book that has overwhelming power to change people's lives. I haven’t. I know I should. I’m actually a little scared to and for the exact reason you mention. Nepenthe wrote:And finally, you have quite a unique writing style. You break a lot of rules, but it works. Is your style inspired/influenced directly by anyone or anything, or is it an innate style you've simply always had? Yeah, it does break lots of rules. I’m interested in writing that feels fresh and different, that’s the stuff I like to read. A writer I very much admire once said that great writing has a lot more in common with bad writing than with good writing, and I completely agree with that. As a writer of prose I think you need to be brave, go for it and risk being terrible, or you’ll just sound like everyone else. That said, Raw Shark is written in the first person, so that’s Eric’s voice and not necessarily my own. The book I’m writing now sounds pretty different. As my wonderful friend Paul ‘the website’ Wilson said when he got hold of an early chunk – “this sounds nothing like you. It’s really good.” Thanks Paul. Nepenthe wrote:Thanks for your time, and thanks for allowing readers to interact with you in this forum, it's a wonderful tool. Thanks for the questions! S
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Rank: Deconstructive Piranha
Groups: Shoal
Joined: 5/7/2009
Posts: 96
Location: Sweden
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Steven Hall wrote:“this sounds nothing like you. It’s really good.” Oh god that's {unintentionally} mean! Sometimes, a few authors upload an excerpt for people to read when they are writing / "doing all the post-writing stuff"... anything that crossed your mind?
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Rank: Whale Shark
Groups: Shoal
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Joined: 1/24/2009
Posts: 310
Location: UK
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timlarsson wrote:Sometimes, a few authors upload an excerpt for people to read when they are writing / "doing all the post-writing stuff"... anything that crossed your mind? I don't like to show things before they are finished, but - there will be some nifty little perks to being a member here in time :) S
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Rank: Deconstructive Piranha
Groups: Shoal
Joined: 1/24/2009
Posts: 30
Location: Adelaide, Australia
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Quote:Please can you point me in the right direction as to a new book or even genre of books? As I am hopeless in bookshops, its kind of a sensory overload when I walk in one and I just exhale a 'Ppphhhhhhhhh....' and walk away dissapointed haha. If anyone else ever feels like this - take a deep breath and just ask someone who works there for a recommendation. Honestly, I reckon that 99.9% of us who work in a bookshop LIVE for the open-minded reader and are more than happy to point you in whichever direction you want to explore ^_^ To Steven - my question is: do you have any plans to come back to Australia? And should you need an excuse to come back and go about creating hype for your new book here, the biennial Adelaide Writers' Week is on in April of 2010 and it would be SO INCREDIBLY BRILLIANT if you could make it! Last year we had Germaine Greer and Paul Auster and Siri Hustvedt and Peter Carey, and (not that I'm biased living here or anything...) but I can tell you from experience that our festival is even better than Sydney's! Yep. ^_^ In the mean time, Happy Writing! Sophie
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Rank: Bede Shark
Groups: Shoal
Joined: 1/24/2009
Posts: 256
Location: Canada
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Sophieness wrote:If anyone else ever feels like this - take a deep breath and just ask someone who works there for a recommendation. Honestly, I reckon that 99.9% of us who work in a bookshop LIVE for the open-minded reader and are more than happy to point you in whichever direction you want to explore ^_^
Hell yess!!!
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Rank: Whale Shark
Groups: Shoal
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Posts: 310
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Sophieness wrote:To Steven - my question is: do you have any plans to come back to Australia? And should you need an excuse to come back and go about creating hype for your new book here, the biennial Adelaide Writers' Week is on in April of 2010 and it would be SO INCREDIBLY BRILLIANT if you could make it! Last year we had Germaine Greer and Paul Auster and Siri Hustvedt and Peter Carey, and (not that I'm biased living here or anything...) but I can tell you from experience that our festival is even better than Sydney's! Yep. ^_^
In the mean time, Happy Writing!
Sophie
Hey Sophie, I'd love to come back to Australia, and I'd love to do it fresh this time. Australia was the final leg of my Raw Shark tour and I was pretty run down and sick but the time I got to Sydney, I spent the first three days in bed! Adelaide sounds amazing and better than Sydney's is quite a claim - I think Sydney might well have been my biggest audience ever. Amazing line-up too. I guess it all depends on my publishers and whether they'd want to spring for me to visit. I'm thinking that April 2010 might be a little optimistic to get Hula Hoop out too, but if I got the chance to come along, I'd jump at it anyway! Thanks - the writing is getting there! S
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Rank: Fry
Groups: Shoal
Joined: 5/20/2009
Posts: 2
Location: Florida USA
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Did Envy and Other Sins write Shipwrecked specially for TRST? Because it's perfect. I had never heard of them, and after a little research, I must say, I really like their sound. I'm listening to them now. :) By the way. I wanted to tell you that I had never heard of your book before reading it, but I kind of stumbled upon it in a bookstore (because it was really discounted...sorry.) and I completely digested it in no time. Which is my dream - to discover an incredible work of literature by chance. I then went back and bought a couple of copies (to make up for the price :) and gave it to a bunch of friends who also liked it. (I hope you're not offended by the price; if it weren't a low price I wouldn't have read it!) So I read it about a year ago, and I want to re-read it, so I will probably be posting more later, but I wanted to say that I really loved your blend of reality and otherworldness. I appreciate a book that will cause me to suspend my belief so willingly. I also wanted to know what you thought of Neil Gaiman's writings. Anyway, I've never posted anything on anything before, so :) 
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Rank: Whale Shark
Groups: Shoal
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Joined: 1/24/2009
Posts: 310
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heather wrote:Did Envy and Other Sins write Shipwrecked specially for TRST? Because it's perfect. I had never heard of them, and after a little research, I must say, I really like their sound. I'm listening to them now. :) By the way. I wanted to tell you that I had never heard of your book before reading it, but I kind of stumbled upon it in a bookstore (because it was really discounted...sorry.) and I completely digested it in no time. Which is my dream - to discover an incredible work of literature by chance. I then went back and bought a couple of copies (to make up for the price :) and gave it to a bunch of friends who also liked it. (I hope you're not offended by the price; if it weren't a low price I wouldn't have read it!) So I read it about a year ago, and I want to re-read it, so I will probably be posting more later, but I wanted to say that I really loved your blend of reality and otherworldness. I appreciate a book that will cause me to suspend my belief so willingly. I also wanted to know what you thought of Neil Gaiman's writings. Anyway, I've never posted anything on anything before, so :) Hi Heather, Welcome & thanks for posting! No, I'm not offended at all! It's most important to me that people read the book, if it hadn't been discounted you might never have read it at all, so that's all good with me. Thanks for passing it on too, that's the most helpful thing that anyone who enjoys a book can possibly do for the author, so thank you for that. As for Neil Gaiman - I read The Sandman again recently, which I love, but I can't say I've ever read any of his novels. Oddly, people are often saying that Raw Shark is clearly inspired by Neverwhere, so I guess I should take a look at that book one day! I hear American Gods is very good too. S
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Rank: Fry
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Joined: 5/20/2009
Posts: 2
Location: Florida USA
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I would read Gaiman's collection of short stories called Fragile Things. It's my favorite.
I mentioned him because he is also someone who is good at magic realism.
Thanks for replying. I think it's really cool that you're so accessible.
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Rank: Whale Shark
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Joined: 1/24/2009
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heather wrote:I would read Gaiman's collection of short stories called Fragile Things. It's my favorite.
I mentioned him because he is also someone who is good at magic realism.
Thanks for replying. I think it's really cool that you're so accessible. You're very welcome & I'll put Fragile Things on my to read list. S
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Rank: Bede Shark
Groups: Shoal
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Posts: 256
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Ok, so, being a huge author with a revolutionary book and all... You must have had tons of interviews and stuff. What has been your favourite question to answer through it all?
(p.s. will the neg. 26 contest be up again soon?)
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Rank: Whale Shark
Groups: Shoal
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Joined: 1/24/2009
Posts: 310
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MiaVRO wrote:Ok, so, being a huge author with a revolutionary book and all... You must have had tons of interviews and stuff. What has been your favourite question to answer through it all?
(p.s. will the neg. 26 contest be up again soon?) I'm still thinking about this one Mia! S
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Rank: Fry
Groups: Shoal
Joined: 6/28/2009
Posts: 8
Location: USA
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Oh, I have a question!
Why did you choose Naxos? An excellent decision based on its beauty alone, but I can't help but wonder if there's any significance behind it. Have you been there? Did the island's mythological history play any part in choosing it?
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