Buzz Rickson's
Something I ran across a loooong while ago, but never really made much note of, to myself or to anyone else, really:
Something from 'the Other Side Of The Bridge'
There is a blog post by William Gibson's about a jacket he used for the main character from one of my favourite books. It became, as he says, "Cayce's jacket immediately felt to me like a *character*, rather than merely a garment". It's true, part of why I loved that book was how people's obsessions are often more central than the 'actual' characters.
Here's the meat of the post - "While Rickson's had never made a black one, countless black jackets in the MA-1 pattern have been made over the years. It's been a very popular, indeed classic pattern. These are not made to the specifications of the US military, but for sale to civilians. I gave Cayce one because I thought it worked for her, and I made it a Buzz, because that worked for me. I never stopped to think that Rickson's didn't actually make a black one, but if I had, that wouldn't have stopped me."
And then the twist.
"Some time after the book was published, I recieved a very puzzled letter from the folks at Buzz Rickson's, who had been getting requests for black MA-1's. Once I had explained what was happening, they amazed and delighted me by asking my permission to make a repro of *Cayce's* jacket, to market as their Pattern Recognition model."
the full post literally made me go teary when I first read it. Imagine something from your head coming to life.
I can make up another example. Imagine, let's say, an odd pair of shoes. Some combination of styles and tone that never existed. Now you write about them, or maybe paint them, or perhaps you include them in a movie. And then that's it, right? Your vision has been communicated, It does whatever acts of imagination do when they are shown off. People view, and have some responce. Or not. Or maybe it makes them think about their own crummy shoes.
What you could never expect is that sometimes someone bridges the gap,and brings back this artifact from inside your mind.
How cool is that?
***I make an exception here for all the lame kitch 'replicas' people make of movies. most especially silly, silly daggers and things. I'm talking about functional, real-use things here... and no, letter opener versions do not count!
[addenda]:I swear, every 5th or so thing I specifically hunt out on the internet leads me to this guy's page. it's bizarre. I'll have to start following his blog so I don't have to repeatedly go there as an aside to a long google-search. I can say 'already seen that'. Or perhaps even skip the google search, because he's already mentioned it!
Something from 'the Other Side Of The Bridge'
There is a blog post by William Gibson's about a jacket he used for the main character from one of my favourite books. It became, as he says, "Cayce's jacket immediately felt to me like a *character*, rather than merely a garment". It's true, part of why I loved that book was how people's obsessions are often more central than the 'actual' characters.
Here's the meat of the post - "While Rickson's had never made a black one, countless black jackets in the MA-1 pattern have been made over the years. It's been a very popular, indeed classic pattern. These are not made to the specifications of the US military, but for sale to civilians. I gave Cayce one because I thought it worked for her, and I made it a Buzz, because that worked for me. I never stopped to think that Rickson's didn't actually make a black one, but if I had, that wouldn't have stopped me."
And then the twist.
"Some time after the book was published, I recieved a very puzzled letter from the folks at Buzz Rickson's, who had been getting requests for black MA-1's. Once I had explained what was happening, they amazed and delighted me by asking my permission to make a repro of *Cayce's* jacket, to market as their Pattern Recognition model."
the full post literally made me go teary when I first read it. Imagine something from your head coming to life.
I can make up another example. Imagine, let's say, an odd pair of shoes. Some combination of styles and tone that never existed. Now you write about them, or maybe paint them, or perhaps you include them in a movie. And then that's it, right? Your vision has been communicated, It does whatever acts of imagination do when they are shown off. People view, and have some responce. Or not. Or maybe it makes them think about their own crummy shoes.
What you could never expect is that sometimes someone bridges the gap,and brings back this artifact from inside your mind.
How cool is that?
***I make an exception here for all the lame kitch 'replicas' people make of movies. most especially silly, silly daggers and things. I'm talking about functional, real-use things here... and no, letter opener versions do not count!
[addenda]:I swear, every 5th or so thing I specifically hunt out on the internet leads me to this guy's page. it's bizarre. I'll have to start following his blog so I don't have to repeatedly go there as an aside to a long google-search. I can say 'already seen that'. Or perhaps even skip the google search, because he's already mentioned it!