Swiss Writing Knife
(Rudy Rucker is a guestblogger. His latest novel, Hylozoic, describes a postsingular world in which everything is alive.)
Recently my jeweler daughter, Isabel, made me a great “Swiss Writing Knife” with symbols of seven of the things I’m interested in: A Zhabotinsky scroll (for cellular automata), the Mandelbrot set (for fractals), a robot, A Square (for the fourth dimension), Infinity, a UFO, a Cone Shell (for diving, cellular automata, universal automatism, and SF). It’s gold-colored metal and the little “blades” swing in and out, with the icons in silver-colored metal riveted on.
I tend to adjust the knife according to what kind of story or novel I'm working on, and I keep it by my keyboard as a good luck amulet, or an embodied muse.
Isabel's business, Isabel Jewelry is in Pinedale, Wyoming, and she makes most of her sales over the web. One of her customers was in fact Boing's own Cory Doctorow, who had her custom-make a pair of crypto-device wedding rings.
As a sometime zinester, Isabel has a cool drawings site as well---check out her "Get Back" story about thongs. Isabel's graphic novel, "Unfurling: The World's Longest Comic Strip," will be on display this November at the SOMArts Gallery in San Francisco, all four hundred or so feet of it!
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I thought you were going to say that you write *with* it... like with silverpoint. I bet you could, with a prepared ground... it's usually more of an artist's medium than a writer's, but it seems like writing a few symbolic things would be good for charging the knife.
How sweet! Gratitude from children is oft hard come by.
Here's an idea wherein you could pay her back: take her car, say you're gonna change the oil, and hand paint flames on it!
It's easy to see where she gets her artistic talent from, but I'd still recommend that she stick with jewelry making.
Good looking stuff. Hey, can I be in your family?
Isabel also made our wedding bands. We went for the hammered rings, which are absolutely gorgeous. We're REALLY happy with them. Tell her I said thank you!
Well, honestly, I think it comes down to two things -- sure. . . on the surface, it's a little lame when someone promotes something that's seemingly only in their own self interest.
On the other hand, what's the difference in him posting about things he believes we may find genuinely interesting whether they come from his kids or not? The story about the can antenna gave some background on the people behind it. The story with the thoughtful gift came with a link to artisan/"Maker" jewelry.
These are two things that could have been posted by any other contributor and wouldn't have been met with such a harsh stance. . . .
Lighten up, eveerybody. . . with any luck, another post that just may change our lives is just around the corner.
The bump ball post did that for me.
Boy howdy.
It's a magickal instrument for writing inspiration....very unique.
Oh, come on. We're talking about the woman who designed Cory Doctorow's wedding rings. So now you're going to beat up her father for giving her a plug? Why don't you ask for your money back? Oh, that's right, you're reading BoingBoing for free.
I really like the Swiss Writing Knife. I wonder what would happen if you tried to take it through airport security?
Probably not a good idea with a one-of-a-kind-high-sentimental-value item.
#5 posted by glanois:
When I read "Gareth gets magical in London,", I thought Humph, wish I could get MY incipient novel plugged on BB, but immediately realized that that wouldn't happen because I'm not friends with any BB staff-type people and nobody knows anything about my stuff, so what the hell was my problem? It would be like getting irritated because Bill Burroughs never talked up my work even though he'd never read it and didn't know me.
And if I ended up guestblogging, you can be damn sure I'd want to call some attention to people in my little corner of the world who fit into my host's general milieu and whose work I felt would be interesting to the readership. (E.g., I probably wouldn't direct people to my third cousin Billy's Roto-Rooter franchise, but I might mention my buddy who makes PC casemods that look like LOTR cities).
I'm always interested when folks want to treat BB like old-style mass media...as though Rucker talking about his kids' business is the same as Dan Rather plugging his son's consultancy firm in the middle of the Evening News.
Anyway: IMO, a proper Swiss writing knife has a corkscrew.
Heh. You could easily consider half the posts on BB as "plugs" of some sort. BB features posts about stuff they think is cool (or noteworthy). As a result, a lot of the time there are posts about a particular business or performer or what have you.
It's not a "waste" to plug something you think is cool, its in keeping with the spirit of the blog. I think the knife is an interesting piece of work, though I can't fathom the usage of it, exactly. Heh.
But really folks. Its easy enough to skip posts that don't interest you. :)
And haha, right, #6? the BB readership surely gave Mr. Platt a hard time. :/ I suppose its better its just people doing the usual complaining than the outright nastyness that emerged that time(who knew what darkness lurked in the hearts of the BB readership...)
Oh, sorry.. feel free to delete my comment too if you want to.. it is a smidgeon off topic so I'd understand.
Awesome, I'm glad to see such creativity in a gift to a parent. I wish I could reward my parents with something so well made.
TroofSeeker, I'm not exactly sure what you mean by saying you would "still recommend that she stick with jewelry making." What else has been suggested that she do? Taxidermy?!
how much does that "Swiss Writing Knife"costs?
What an amazing gift! Your daughter must be really proud of you.
Reminds me of Mark's recent post RE the 10 most expensive things you own vs the 10 things that make you the most happy. The more I think about it, the more I realize that the things on the second list tend to be things that encapsulate either genuine personal achievement or genuine human connection. This gift is a memento of both. Congratulations.
Wow I was going to post that maybe some refrigerator art from Rudy's niece might be apppropriate too, but then I read the comments. Wow everybody's so positive! Strange how a lot of the positive posts are in defensive reply to negative posts that don't appear to be here.
Christ I checked the "defeat censorware" link below but it didn't have anything to say about getting around this kind of junk. Even newegg and other corporate sites keep negative reviews as well as positive ones. Well OK maybe some of them.
So in hopes this post stays up let me say that Rudy Rucker's family does wonderful things and you should all buy them right now!
#15, those comments were deleted for being offtopic, not negative. There's no need to spend so much effort to be vicious. It's uncalled for.
I also might point out BB is not a corporate site and few, if any, people browse here looking for products to buy. Therefore the concept of posting "reviews" in the comments section isn't compatible. If you don't like something you don't like it and you're more than entitled to your opinion. But really, is it too much to ask you to be polite?
There's a difference in being polite and being ridiculous. Also, "reviews" are also known as "opinions". That's how you "discuss" things, like the link says. It's a pretty obnoxious "discussion" if the only things you're allowed to say are how wonderful the original topic was.
There's a reason people are "vicious". They like boingboing in general, and come here for the usual mix of wierd and strange stuff. They also agree strongly with Cory Doctorow's strong anti-censorship/DRM views, or maybe have a fetish for women with crappy singing voices strumming ukeleles. They feel defensive of something they like turning into the lame second half of a talkshow where the celebrity guests plugs their latest project.
>>If you don't like something you don't like it and you're more than entitled to your opinion. But really, is it too much to ask you to be polite?
That's exactly what I did, and I was no means "vicious," or even impolite, unless impolite is extended to expressing anything other than a positive opinion.
Yet my post was deleted.
I would say what I think of that, but apparently that's impolite.
celeb8 & Humptydank,
If you have off-topic concerns, you can take them to the Moderation Policy thread.
I can't speak for Rudy, but I suspect that those of you who see this post as simply a "plug" are really really missing the point here.
I read this as the story of a unique father-daughter moment. Rudy's daughter is acknowledging his long writing career with a gift that shows that she understands and appreciates his particular themes and obsessions as a writer. It says "I really like what you've done so far, and I encourage you to do more of it." It also displays her own creativity, and is much more invested than just a greeting card that says the same thing. Really people, this is a great life moment, and I think it definitely qualifies as a "wonderful thing". It's maybe a little sentimental or twee for some tastes, but that's hardly worth complaining about.
This is plenty wonderful. And it's a father-daughter moment, as Nosehat points out above. I think it's entirely appropriate.
But then, if you had my opinion and a dollar, you'd have something worth a dollar.
I think Rucker's choices of topic are interesting, thanks.
I like to think this jewelry is creative, expressive, and has been made for the joy of making - in that sense I don't care if his kids made it or not.
Is anyone who's criticizing on here actually an accomplished jeweler, who's submitted their own work to boing boing and then been turned down? - I'm guessing probably not.
The impetus to be creative for the sake of being creative is valuable and it's to be encouraged.