I’ve been listening to Dar Williams’s “The Buzzer” a lot while writing KU2. I listened to it a lot while writing Tap & Gown as well. On the surface, its fast tempo is designed to put you on edge, and like the Jeopardy tune, makes me want to work as quickly as possible.
Clearly, that’s not why I’m listening, though. I originally chose “The Buzzer” for my Tap & Gown playlist because it reminds me of Yale, where the experiment took place. In addition, Dar was one of my favorite musicians in college, which puts me in a “I’m a college senior” mindset. And finally, the topic of the song reminds me a lot of Poe. Or the potential of Poe.
“The Buzzer” is a song ostensibly written from the point of view of a participant in the Milgram Experiment. If you aren’t aware of these groundbreaking and highly controversial psychology experiments, here’s a very quick (and generalized) rundown of what happened: a scientist calls in two volunteers for an experiment on how negative reinforcement improves learning and memory. One volunteer is assigned the role of the “learner” and one the role of the “teacher.” They are put in separate rooms, where they can only hear one another. The teacher is instructed by the scientist to ask the learner a series of questions. If he gets them wrong, the teacher is instructed to shock him with a little machine he has. If the learner continues to get answer wrong, the teacher is instructed to up the voltage of the shock. If the learner screams/faints/begs for the teacher to stop, the scientist tells him to go on.
Now, the truth of the experiment is that only the “teacher” is a true volunteer. Everyone else is in on the experiment, and no one is getting shocked at all. It’s actually an experiment about the willingness of people to obey authority (i.e., the scientist, who supposedly designed the experiment and knows how far is too far). The experiments, done in the early 60s, came on the heels of Nazi war criminal trials.
So that’s the experiment. The song, written 40 years later, imagines a scene where the scientists explain to the narrator what it is she did, and what that makes her. And what’s really fascinating is that the narrator accepts that weakness in herself.
Right away, I knew it was like I failed a quiz.
The man said, “Do you know what a fascist is?”
I said, “Yes, when you do things you’re not proud of,
But you’re scraping by, taking orders from above.
I get it now, I’m the face, I’m the cause of war
You don’t have to blame white-coated men anymore.”
When I knew it was wrong, I played it just like a game
I pressed the buzzer. I pressed the buzzer.
It really just gets better from there. And what’s so brilliant about Dar is the way she encodes these lines with the condescension of the scientist to the narrator, who we see throughout the story is not particularly educated or upper-class. “Do you know what a fascist is?” Well, maybe she does and maybe she doesn’t, but she also isn’t as weak as they are telling her she is.
It reminds me a lot of Poe — the anger, the defensiveness, the willingness to do things that he knows aren’t right and the ability to justify them within himself. I don’t know what would happen if Poe was in the Milgram Experiment. He might be like, “Screw the slowly increasing voltage. Let’s just fry this sucker.”
Or he’d knock out the scientist, take his white coat, and call in the next group of volunteers. Poe loves authority, but mostly because he expects to be authority. He accepts that this is the way life is, and only wants to figure out how he can be the one in charge. I find that potential in him to be very interesting to write about.
There’s a fun character development exercise. Who cares about their favorite ice cream flavor! Put them in infamous historical psychological experiments and let ‘em rip! next up: The Stanford Prison Experiment. (Hey, it worked for Logan and Wallace.)
I’m not one of those writers who spends a lot of time talking about theme, because I think that theme is pretty organic in writing. I don’t start out saying, “This book is about friendship,” “this book is about conservation,” etc. It’s more something that I become aware of after the book is written. I think in Tap & Gown, I explored a theme of easy vs. right, which no, are not always at odds with each other, but are often more interesting if they are. At what point does the ease of something make it “right” (if ever)? Where do those two lines intersect? Over the course of the book, almost every major character has to make the decision between something that’s right and something that would make their lives easier. Sometimes they make the wrong answer. Sometimes they make the easy answer and it’s still right, or right for them. Once, someone makes an answer that’s both harder and wrong (and no, it’s not the one y’all who’ve read the book are thinking).
But as I was working on KU2 the other day, I realized that I was dealing with a much more literal analogy of “The Buzzer” and of the Milgram Experiment. The characters go along with certain things in the killer unicorn books because “it’s the way it’s done” or because people in authority tell them it’s the right thing to do. To break out of that, to disbelieve it, or to believe there’s an alternative (let alone fight for one) — in other words, to DISOBEY the authority in society or adults or history or leaders — takes a big leap in logic. And, um, spoiler spoiler spoiler.
Damn. When will this book be out!?!?!?!
Ahem. Anyway, trying to do this without spoilers is tough. But I find it interesting that I can turn to the same song for two such different books, two such different characters, and find so much to work with.
Sorry, guys! My internet went down yesterday afternoon and I was unable to coordinate the drawing. So, here we go.
(And can I just say how much more difficult this one was than my usual drawings? Usually I just pull up the handy-dandy random number generator and pick the corresponding comment in the thread. But with multiple entries, multiple posts, people emailing me their superheroes — I think my favorite was Indigo’s
– and people TWITTERING me their superheroes… well, it got a little hairy in there.)
We had over 120 entries, and THE WINNERS ARE:
Brooke Reviews, a.k.a. The Monstar Katee, a.k.a. (Well, the “generated” name isn’t as cool as the pic so just click here and check it out) Amy C-W, a.k.a. Super Meteorologist Amy
Congratulations, guys! Email me your addresses and I’ll send along your copies of DULL BOY! (Actually, Brooke, I think I might have yours.)
I’ll be announcing the DULL BOY giveaway winners later on today in this very space! (sorry for the delay, guys, it takes longer than I’d realized to coordinate a multi-entry potential giveaway.
In the meantime, enjoy this adorable video. Who knew physics could be this cute?
I was overwhelmed by the entries into the TAP & GOWN contest. You guys are incredibly creative! I shall be emailing you soon so I can get you your Secret Society Girl prize pack!
I hope I was able to get everyone. If you participated in the contest and DON’T see your picture in the show, drop me an email and let me know!
I’ve been getting a lot of email this week asking me what I’m doing next (and usually suggesting a fifth SSG book, which, no). I’ll admit, it’s a little curious, given that they have to come to the site to send me said email, and the home page of my website says exactly what my current and upcoming projects are. I’m not particularly secretive about it. Should I give a pass to the people who have asked through Facebook? Surely even Facebook cultists have heard of Google, right?
Anyway, for those who may have missed it, other than TAP & GOWN, my upcoming North American release schedule includes:
Mind Rain: Your Favorite Authors on Scott Westerfeld’s UGLIES Series
Released by BenBella Books, June 2, 2009
In Extras, the last book in Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies series, Aya tells us that when Tally Youngblood made the mind-rain fall, it cured all the pretties and changed the world forever. But Tally and her friends did more than change their world; they changed ours too.
Mind-Rain continues what Tally started, with startling, funny and insightful essays on the world, characters and ideas of the Uglies series, plus the short story that inspired Westerfeld to write the books in the first place.
Think you know everything about Tally’s world? After Mind-Rain, you’ll never look at the Uglies series the same way again.
The sparkly, innocent creatures of lore are a myth. Real unicorns are venomous, man-eating monsters with huge fangs and razor-sharp horns. And they can only be killed by virgin descendants of Alexander the Great.
Fortunately, unicorns have been extinct for a hundred and fifty years.
That bring us to the end of the summer. Then there’s a bit of a dry spell until fall of 2010, which marks the release of two more of my contracted-but-far-from-released projects:
Untitled Killer Unicorn Book 2 (I have a working title, but there’s no telling whether it will stick)
Untitled Short Story (well, I have a title, but I haven’t gotten the final word about its acceptance) in an anthology I don’t think I’m allowed to announce, but it’s probably not hard for y’all to guess, and which promises to rock all of our worlds.
And then, my dear friends, we come to the end…of my list of contracted books. It’s a magical time in every writer’s life where she gets to throw a ton of projects at the wall like so many wet spaghetti noodles, and see what sticks. I am currently boiling four spaghetti noodles in preparation for my little game of wall baseball.
One is not a YA project, and is unlike anything I have written before.
One is a YA project, and is unlike anything I have written before.
One might be a YA project, and is unlike anything I have written before.
One shares only one abovementioned characteristics with any of the others.
But in between then and now, I have a ton of work to do on those other two contracted projects I mentioned, as well as a bunch of work to do on some cool promotional things for the upcoming release of Rampant. Somehow I hadn’t really realized this was going to be such a huge transitional year for me.
I enjoy reading Lee Goldberg’s blog, though I don’t always agree with him. He had an interesting post up recently called “People Stop Watching Shows that Suck” in which he responded to an EW query about why SF movies are doing so well in the box office, while SF TV shows seems to be failing left and right.
First of all, I don’t know if SF TV shows are failing in any greater proportion than sitcoms, etc., but Lee makes some really good points about how SF shows have to bring in a greater audience because they are significantly costlier to produce than one of those “this is our living room, this is our coffee shop/bar/diner” sitcoms that have no special effects.
And of course, the comment thread turns into one of those “Firefly was the best show ever produced yadda-yadda-yadda, all shows before or since have sucked compared to its scintillating brilliance” mud pits. This is basically what happens at every TV show post where people are trying to have an honest discussion about the state of TV and show cancellation and whatnot.People bring out their Firefly bongo drums and beat the hell out of them.
Guys, Firefly was canceled seven years ago. Isn’t it time to move on? I get that you loved the show.
I’ve never seen The Sarah Connor Chronicles, though Justine tells me I’d love it and it’s totally going on my Netflix queue. But it is possible there were some quality issues and even the fans lost interest. I never saw it, and The Terminator is one of my very favorite movies of all time, and I totally loved Queen Gorgo in The 300. And yet, I still never saw it. I was still pretty angry over the horror that was the third Terminator movie and thought my husband wants to see Salvation this weekend, I’ve put my foot down about it.
(And all the reasons I’ve given — the movies are about time travel, and SARAH, not John, Connor and blah blah blah — are all reasons hat Justine has been thumping me over the head for not watching Chronicles, but I digress.)
As I’ve said before, it is rare for me to watch first-run television. In fact, in the past five years, the only shows I’ve seen first run are The Dollhouse (all on Hulu), Heroes (1st and second season), Veronica Mars (after falling in love with the first season on DVD), and How I Met Your Mother (ditto).
But I also really, REALLY love television. however, if there were some kind of Netflix “if you liked this, try this” matrix out there trying to figure out my television tastes from my favorite television shows, I have no idea what they’d come up with. Behold:
Diana’s Favorite Television Shows of All Time (not in order):
The X-Files
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
The West Wing
Arrested Development
Veronica Mars
How I Met Your Mother
The Wire
Avatar
And you know what? I didn’t even like or even SEE every season of those shows. The X-Files should have quit while it was ahead, somewhere around 1999 or 2000. I pretty much only like Buffy up until the end of season 5 (the musical episode was good, though). The third season of Veronica Mars blows, except for the part where Logan smashes the police car. Arrested Development started getting a little weak at the end, I didn’t even like The Wire untile the second season, and The West Wing I actually haven’t watched after the first season after Aaron Sorkin left the show.
Other shows I’ve liked recently include:
The first season of Heroes (1st season ONLY)
Dexter
The Gilmore Girls (first two or three seasons ONLY)
Star Trek: The Next Generation
And though I’m brand-loyal, in the sense that I will try a new show by a creator/star of a show I’ve loved previously, I’m not going to just sit around and wait it out in hopes that it will someday become the thing that I previously loved. After having seen The West Wing, I watched Sports Night. I liked Sports Night. I could see the West Wing DNA and I think the West Wing was a much better venue for Sorkin to say those things in. Then I tried to watch the truly execrable Studio 60. It wasn’t funny. It was trying to be The West Wing, and though I could buy how important it was for the people running the country and saving lives and creating jobs to be all up themselves and whatnot, I have a hard time when I’m supposed to be watchign the makers of a comedy sketch show giving us a Very Special Episode about McCarthyism. Click.
I loved Buffy, but I never really liked Angel, probably because I actually never liked the character of Angel on Buffy and the character I did like, Cordelia, they changed completely until she was no longer fun. Firefly was okay, but certainly not the second coming its die-hard fans want me to think it is. The movie was very cool in some places, and utterly sucked in others. My Buffy goodwill, I have to admit, is wearing thin. Dollhouse has both Whedon and Eliza Dushku, but very little else to recommend it. I don’t like the characters, a lot of the acting, and most of the episodes I’ve seen. Is he making a statement about human trafficking? Is he trying to horrify us with our inexpected sympathy for the temptation the human traffickers/victims/investigators face? It’s manipulative and glossy, and I am not buying it.
This is why I think my hypothetical “what show will Diana like next” matrix is in for a hard time. For instance, I like genre, I like epic, I like interesting characters, I like science fiction, I like strong females… but I hated Battlestar Galactica. I liked Buffy, but I didn’t care for Alias. I was utterly unconvinced by Mad Men, and even my well-documented adoration for Jason Dohring and the general vampire genre could not make me suffer through another episode of Moonlight. I feel like I’ve tried a lot of the obvious, “Oh, I should like this,” shows only to find the next great show to love (most recently, it was Avatar) in the most unlikely of places (kids cartoons) in the most unlikely of ways (I read about the race issues surrounding the casting of the upcoming live-action movie).
I’m nearing the end of my Netflix queue of tv shows to watch, and I’m starting to get worried. Will there ever be another show to discover on Netflix that I love as much as The Wire or Avatar? (Okay, Avatar is my favorite television show of all time. At least, it has been that way for the past few months. Veronica Mars, season 1 is still my favorite season of television, and Buffy episodes comprise most of my list of top ten episodes of television.) Are there any other shows that good? Has the bar been inexorably raised by the sprawling, modern, Dickensinian The Wire or the expertly crafted fantasy epic Avatar?
Is the reason I think How I Met Your Mother is so much better than Friends because it really is funnier and more realistic, or just because it’s about people my age who are much more like me than the inexplicably affluent high-rise dwelling 20 somethings of the early-90s Friends? Pretty much every episode of HIMYM includes something that has either happened to someone in my group of friends, or they say something that has been spoken by someone in my gorup of friends. It’s eerie and hilarious, and I’m glued to the screen.
And, most importantly, with only two seasons of ST:TNG to work through left, what in the world should I watch next?
Between the Tap & Gown release week contest (get me your pictures of T&G in the wild!), the Dull Boy contest (send me your superheroes!), and the spoiler thread (no, I’m not taking requests for secret stories), this has been a really busy week on the blog. I haven’t even gotten to make my interview yet, let alone post it to the blog. I’ve only had a chance to visit one lonely bookstore to see my own book in the wild.
Writing-wise, this has been a busy week as well. I’m doing revisions for a short story, finishing up a proposal, and I’m knee deep in the second killer unicorn book, whose title changes, oh, daily. Someday I will learn to write a series where I work out the titles beforehand. KU2 is especially challenging in terms of carving out writing time, because it’s so intense that I really need to immerse myself in Astrid’s headspace. And, given the nature of her abilities, Astrid’s headspace is an extraordinarily scary place to be.
Which is too bad, because Diana’s own personal headspace is super fun right now. The weather is finally getting pretty around here, my garden is blooming its butt off (my radhishes look gorgeous on top, but don’t seem to be forming any actual radishes on the undersides, but hey, the herbs look good), Rio and I are having heaps of fun hiking through Rock Creek Park in the mornings, and I’m really ejoying my experiments with no-knead bread. Sailor Boy has an extra day off this weekend and we’ve got a big surprise coming to the house.
No, I’m not having a baby. Why does everyone always jump to that conclusion? It’s the Jane Austen chestnut, updated for the new generation: It is a truth universally acknowledged that a young married couple with jobs, a house, and a puppy must be in want of a rugrat.
I’m hoping to get a lot of writing done in this long weekend, but with Sailor Boy home and a full house, I’m not going ot hold my breath!
Yay! I’m going home to Florida next month! I’ve packed my suit and my sunscreen, and my signing pen.
You heard that right, I’m doing a booksigning when I’m down there! Any readers in Florida, I encourage you to check out the Tampa Borders on June 13th. See you there!
Wait a few days. Enjoy Tap & Gown delivered to your door.
Option Three:
Visit your local library. Ask them to get you a copy of Tap & Gown.
Wait a few days.
I know all of these options come with the unpleasant side effect of waiting a few days, but it is much much better than the alternative which is:
Do Not Do This:
“I am unable to find Tap & Gown in my local bookstore. I think I will leave the bookstore without saying anything to anyone and hope that they will randomly and without prompting order Tap & Gown in the next week or so.”
Return in a week or so to find that they STILL do not have a copy of Tap & Gown.
Bookstores will order you a copy of whatever book you want, if it’s in print and available from their distributor. Tap & Gown, being published by Random House, is both. Here’s some info that will help them find the book for ordering purposes:
TAP & GOWN
by Diana Peterfreund
Delta Trade Paperbacks (a division of The Random House Publishing Group)
ISBN: 978-0-385-34194-3
So as most of you know, a few months back, I went to Ireland to stay in a castle with a bunch of other YA authors. While I was there, I got to know the inimitable Sarah Cross, who is the only ninja I know who wears pink. Though it makes sense. In today’s colorful world, pink actually blends in better. Like, say her target is shopping at the GAP. No one would ever see her coming.
Here is a very rare photo of Sarah Cross:
Here is one, in her “civilian” gear, no doubt plotting something dastardly and secretive with known Gallagher Girl spy and art thief Ally Carter:
So anyway, after I escaped their nefarious clutches and came home, I got my hands on an ARC of Sarah Cross’s debut novel, DULL BOY:
And it BLEW MY MIND. It’s funny, imaginative, fast-paced, colorful, action-packed, heartbreaking, and filled with all kinds of asides and in-jokes for folks who like superheroes. It’s about a boy named Avery who discovers he has superpowers… and that’s just the beginning.
I’m also going to be giving away THREE copies of DULL BOY right here on the blog. And here’s what you have to do to win one:
1 entry: for leaving a comment here telling me what your superhero name would be, if you were a superhero.
2 entries: for going to The Hero Factory, making yourself a superhero, and sending me/posting the picture. (It’s great fun and takes about thirty seconds).
3 entries: for doing one of the above AND posting it to your own blog with a link back to this contest (make sure to leave a comment here telling me you did so).
Contest lasts through the weekend. Winners will be announced on Monday.
UPDATES: I’m loving all the entries, guys! A short note, if you link us to the page you designed your superhero on at the factory, it does NOT save, and merely takes us to the generic “creation” page. You have to press the little download tab, save the file (it will be called “MyHero.jpg” then post it on a blog, website, or photo-storage site like flickr, photobucket. Twitpic, etc.
ALSO, Command Decision: If your “blog” merely consists of posts of you pointing to other contests/giveaways on the web and possesses NO OTHER CONTENT WHATSOEVER, it’s not a real blog, and will not qualify for an extra entry to the contest. I’m not saying you have to be dooce or Felicia Day, here, and I’m not saying that you have to have a review blog (though I’m amazed bby how many of you do! Wow!) just that you have an actual blog. You can talk about your pet mouse, or the weird stuff you found in your locker at the end of term, or your undying love for Edward Cullen, or your undying love for Tally Youngblood, or your undying love for Severus Snape. I don’t judge. Blogs consist of content, not scraping, and not solely of “entries” into contests. That’s this blogger’s decision.
