The value of innovation
This is a recursive post, in that in part it is about innovation, but it is also in itself an innovation - I'm trying to see how to link up with GoodReads (akicolj - advice, please!). Reflecting on what I'm reading seems more a Lj kind of think than Fb.
So here's the quote on goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7752929-so-i-don-t-see-the-theme-of-the-story-as
I'm hoping that comes through accessibly, at least.
It's from an interview with Gabriela Santiago in Lightspeed Magazine, June 2016: People of Colo(u)r Destroy Science Fiction! Special Issue it says the interview is with Nalo Hopkinson, but she's 'just' the editor. Gabriela's story, (“As Long As It Takes to Make the World”) is well worth a read, too (lots of other good ones).
So, what Gabriela says is "“So I don’t see the theme of the story as nature versus science. I see it as a conflict between demanding and understanding, between the kinds of labor that our society values or doesn’t value, “innovators” versus “maintainers.”'
I was surprised to read this, as it's a viewpoint I've only come across in the (traditional/heritage) crafts community. Crafts are an area where (in the UK) a vase that you can't put a cut flower in is valued above a mug you can drink tea out of. Even though the mug is made with more skill. Because the former is 'innovative', but the latter is not. And the amount of creativity is the same. So the former is gets lots (well, a barely adequate amount) of goverment support, but the latter gets none.
It struck me that there are, on the other hand, parts of our lives where innovation is not valued. If you see 'difference' as innovation. If you have a daughter, for example, or two, and then avoid further pregnancies, in a culture where the norm is to have daughters until you have sons, women without brothers are an innovation. That's the only example I could come up with that actually involved parental choice - there are many where people become innovators or maintainers without intervention.
The other thing that struck me from Gabriela's interview is that her family are living examples that the individual is not 'an innovator' or 'a maintainer' - the two peoples of the world-becoming that she presents in the story. Which is part of the point of the story. It's a brilliant story!
So here's the quote on goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7752929-so-i-don-t-see-the-theme-of-the-story-as
I'm hoping that comes through accessibly, at least.
It's from an interview with Gabriela Santiago in Lightspeed Magazine, June 2016: People of Colo(u)r Destroy Science Fiction! Special Issue it says the interview is with Nalo Hopkinson, but she's 'just' the editor. Gabriela's story, (“As Long As It Takes to Make the World”) is well worth a read, too (lots of other good ones).
So, what Gabriela says is "“So I don’t see the theme of the story as nature versus science. I see it as a conflict between demanding and understanding, between the kinds of labor that our society values or doesn’t value, “innovators” versus “maintainers.”'
I was surprised to read this, as it's a viewpoint I've only come across in the (traditional/heritage) crafts community. Crafts are an area where (in the UK) a vase that you can't put a cut flower in is valued above a mug you can drink tea out of. Even though the mug is made with more skill. Because the former is 'innovative', but the latter is not. And the amount of creativity is the same. So the former is gets lots (well, a barely adequate amount) of goverment support, but the latter gets none.
It struck me that there are, on the other hand, parts of our lives where innovation is not valued. If you see 'difference' as innovation. If you have a daughter, for example, or two, and then avoid further pregnancies, in a culture where the norm is to have daughters until you have sons, women without brothers are an innovation. That's the only example I could come up with that actually involved parental choice - there are many where people become innovators or maintainers without intervention.
The other thing that struck me from Gabriela's interview is that her family are living examples that the individual is not 'an innovator' or 'a maintainer' - the two peoples of the world-becoming that she presents in the story. Which is part of the point of the story. It's a brilliant story!