{"id":2461,"date":"2013-08-06T09:30:09","date_gmt":"2013-08-06T09:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/?p=2461"},"modified":"2013-08-06T23:18:48","modified_gmt":"2013-08-06T23:18:48","slug":"rayguns-over-texas-preview-bruce-sterling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/2013\/08\/06\/rayguns-over-texas-preview-bruce-sterling\/","title":{"rendered":"Rayguns Over Texas preview: Bruce Sterling"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Cover<\/a>

Cover by Rocky Kelley<\/p><\/div>\n

As we barrel toward the August 29 premiere of Rayguns Over Texas <\/em><\/a>at\u00a0LoneStarCon 3<\/a>\u00a0(aka the 71st Annual World Science Fiction Convention) in San Antonio, I am presenting book excerpts, one contributor per day.<\/p>\n

Today’s selection comes from Bruce Sterling’s introduction “Texas Over Rayguns.”<\/p>\n

Sterling’s self-penned biography for the anthology barely acknowledges his importance within the annals of Texas science fiction. He fails to mention his seminal place within the cyberpunk genre nor his involvement with The Turkey City Writers Workshop<\/a>, whose alumni include Howard Waldrop, Lewis Shiner, George W. Proctor, Lisa Tuttle, and many of the contributors to\u00a0Rayguns<\/em>.\u00a0<\/em>Throughout the 90s and early 00s until his leaving Texas for the wilds of Europe, Sterling embraced his role as the focal point of Texas science fiction, hosting bi-annual Turkey Citys and other events for the Austin creative community.<\/p>\n

In other words, Sterling was my first and best choice to write the book’s introduction.<\/p>\n

It takes some grit to be a Texan science fiction writer, for they\u2019ve\u00a0never been over-burdened with help and are blissfully unaware of\u00a0other people\u2019s literary rules. Somewhere within this form of genre\u00a0writing there remains the tall-tale braggadocio of a thinly scattered\u00a0people taking root in a vast frontier.<\/p>\n

Texas is rough and tough. It boasts a violent climate replete with\u00a0<\/span>tornadoes, hurricanes, droughts and wildfires. It\u2019s been the site\u00a0<\/span>of massacres, ethic cleansing and colossal natural and industrial\u00a0<\/span>disasters. Politically, Texas has always been a one-party state, with\u00a0<\/span>its public affairs in the hands of a camarilla of alcaldes and good old\u00a0<\/span>boys. Texas has handguns galore and one of the planet\u2019s largest prison\u00a0<\/span>populations. Texas has known economic collapse, military defeat,\u00a0<\/span>occupation, and centuries of racial oppression and grinding rural\u00a0<\/span>poverty. Those may be the stark facts, but they don\u2019t much bother any\u00a0<\/span>creative figure in this book. If anything, all that merely gives them\u00a0<\/span>some extra swagger.<\/span><\/p>\n

Texas is also advanced. The raw, spectacular landscape of this\u00a0<\/span>former republic is covered with superbly engineered infrastructure\u00a0<\/span>of highways, oil derricks, gas lines, transmission towers… windmills,\u00a0<\/span>ports, canals, spacecraft control centers, military bases… drones,\u00a0<\/span>nuclear weapons assembly plants, ultra-clean computer chip assembly\u00a0<\/span>factories \u2014 yes, most anything that technology can conjure up has\u00a0<\/span>been deployed on the people of Texas. Commonly they even inflict\u00a0<\/span>that stuff on other people.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

Excerpt from\u00a0\u201cTexas Over Rayguns\u201d \u00a9 2013 by Bruce Sterling.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we barrel toward the August 29 premiere of Rayguns Over Texas at\u00a0LoneStarCon 3\u00a0(aka the 71st Annual World Science Fiction Convention) in San Antonio, I am presenting book excerpts, one contributor per day. Today’s selection comes from Bruce Sterling’s introduction … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rayguns-over-texas"],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n