empty space, what it means (4)

The world we see is an illusion, albeit a highly persistent one. We have gradually got used to the idea that nature’s true reality is one of uncertain quantum fields; that what we see is not necessarily what is.

–Alexander B Fry, “In the Dark”, Aeon

chaos patterns

She stood companionably next to him for a moment, hands on hips, looking around the mostly empty space as if oil-stained floors and fluorescent warning stripes held an innate interest for her. Epstein didn’t like the way she relaxed. She was too hard to avoid. Her tailoring occupied the warehouse like another personality: everything interested it, from a momentary change in Epstein’s breathing to the sound of footsteps half a mile away. Every time its attention shifted, he caught the rank, exciting smell of hormonal gradients. She would smile at you behind that as if remembering something sexual you had enjoyed together, while pictographs ran chaos patterns down the inside of her forearm, from elbow to wrist like print from the historical times. She was some cheap cutter’s idea of the future.

From Empty Space (excerpt here), third volume of the trilogy that began with Light and Nova Swing (winner of the Arthur C Clarke Award 2007). All three here & at Amazon US.

cheap ideas of the future

“She stood companionably next to him for a moment, hands on hips, looking around the mostly empty space as if oil-stained floors and fluorescent warning stripes held an innate interest for her. Epstein didn’t like the way she relaxed. She was too hard to avoid. Her tailoring occupied the warehouse like another personality: everything interested it, from a momentary change in Epstein’s breathing to the sound of footsteps half a mile away. Every time its attention shifted, he caught the rank, exciting smell of hormonal gradients. She would smile at you behind that as if remembering something sexual you had enjoyed together, while pictographs ran chaos patterns down the inside of her forearm, from elbow to wrist like print from the historical times. She was some cheap cutter’s idea of the future.”

empty space, what it means (3)

Emmanuelle Riva: “You make an empty space and the empty space comes to you.”

“by turns brilliantly satirical, impenetrably dense, and deliberately crude”

Here’s the cover of the US (Night Shade Books) edition of Empty Space, published on March 5th. I’m not sure which of the major female characters the image represents, but perhaps neither the 60 year old East Sussex widow nor the genetically modified sex worker. Meanwhile, Publishers Weekly describes the book as “The third in genre legend Harrison’s Kefahuchi Tract sequence, following Light (2002) and Nova Swing (2007) … a self-referential mash-up of comedic horror and space opera caricature … most characters wallow in a state of existential angst and quantum absurdity, eventually coming to imaginatively grisly ends or beginnings, in a universe where sexual tourism powers economies and ‘stars and galaxies… look almost as remarkable as a new pair of Minnie Sittelman fuck-me pumps.’” So there you go. Order your copy now.

making some space

“Harrison is best known as one of the restless fathers of late-modern sci-fi, but genre questions are a distraction in the face of writing of such consistent brilliance and originality.” Robert Macfarlane selects Empty Space as one of his books of the year.

empty space, what it means (2)

The dancer from the dance:

“The over use of embodiment as a way of understanding has left us with limited philosophies, approaches and methods for exploring choreography and beyond. Once we start to expand the definition of choreography and separate it from dance (as many have been doing/have done – Forsythe, Spangberg, Davies), we realise the body is not central to this practice. Movement, space, time, flow, dynamics become choreography. R E L A T I O N S H I P S become choreography. And we can begin to draw on other fields which do not rely on embodiment as points of discussion. For example, topology. Code and programming. And other organisational or relational practices.” –Kate Sicchio at Dancing Digital

#2 in a series of found explanations

brendan byrne…

…reviews Empty Space for The Brooklyn Rail.

unassigned chapter titles

Some notes & unused chapter titles, Empty Space.

Anna stream: Try to get in a restaurant or cafe called “The Old Control Room” (What’s that one in the old power station in Wapping? Ask C.) Not more than 3 chapters prior to the end, or anywhere near the original mention in Assistant C5.

Assistant stream: Police up to their elbows in the heart of a Saudade City Saturday night.

Bring Skull Radio more in line with the baby-appearing-through-the-wall phenomenon.

Nova Swing stream: Neither a follower nor a leader be, Antoyne remembered Liv Hula saying. Irene and Liv, simply by loving him for who he was, had cured him of being in someone else’s entourage forever.

A ship is “New Venusport-owned, operated by a Denebian shipping company and flagged out of Motel Splendido”, but with different planets, not this tired old bunch. “New Venusberg” for “New Venusport”?

Chapter titles unassigned so far: A Brief Panorama of the Galaxy; Strong Waves Heat the Medium; The Wing from Nowhere; Light Emitting Proteins; Thin Client; Walking Through Walls; Contact Front; Sterile Neutrinos; Aerogel.

empty space america

Night Shade Books, who did such a good job on Things That Never Happen & The Course of the Heart, will publish the US edition of Empty Space on March 5, 2013.