totse.com | Softserv online chat with Victor Koman


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	Softserv online chat with Victor Koman SOFTSERV RTC WITH VICTOR KOMAN Date: 05/21/90 Time: 23:16EDT Attendees: [[NeilSchulman] SOFTSERV] [[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK] [[Kate] SOFTSERV-KO] [TOM.ROBINSON] [KEITH.KIRTS] [NICK.DOTSON] [R.GIBSON8] <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> I'm breathless with antici PATION! <[NeilSchulman] SOFTSERV> Room is now listen-only. <[NeilSchulman] SOFTSERV> Tonight's speaker is Victor Koman, author of the Prometheus Award-winning novel, \The Jehovah Contract\, and the equally stunning \Solomon's Knife\ ... <[NeilSchulman] SOFTSERV> \The Jehovah Contract\ is a thriller in which an assassin is given the Job of his life ... <[NeilSchulman] SOFTSERV> And \Solomon's Knife\ is a medical thriller which tackles the most controversial issue of our age <[NeilSchulman] SOFTSERV> I'm sure you have questions for Victor, so after a brief opening statement from him, I'll open the floor for questions. Use the /RAI command to get in line. <[NeilSchulman] SOFTSERV> Victor? <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> OK. First, thank you for dropping in tonight... <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> I think that the most important fact of the coming millennium.... <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> is that many dilemmas that we had once considered insurmountable moral conundra will turn out to be simple problems of technology. <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> What once was considered the realm of tedious philosophers and religionists will turn out to become the province of every day technical experts. <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> I dealt with just that topic in my novel SOLOMON'S KNIFE, <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> in which the violently debated issue of abortion is turned on its head so that we may see a clearer moral field once the technology advances to where a woman need no longer take a life to be free of a pregnancy. <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> I think I can stop pomposing and unlock the chains on thy lips and fingertips... Neil? <[NeilSchulman] SOFTSERV> Okay, I'll open the room for questions. Use the /RAI command to get in line. <[NeilSchulman] SOFTSERV> Tom Robinson is first. <TOM.ROBINSON> Ok... <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> Hello, Tom <TOM.ROBINSON> Howdy, Victor! Forgive my ignorance, but it's been a few months since I've... <TOM.ROBINSON> had a chance to go through the online catalog and whatnot. What's the premise, briefly, of The Jehovah Contract? <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> Dying assassin Dell Ammo... <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> is given one last contract--on God. <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> And I think you can guess who put the contract out... <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> In the course of hunting Jehovah down.... <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> he discovers that God is an idea within us, in various disguises, and it is that IDEA of God that must be destroyed to kill God in any meaningful manner.... <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> So he has to find a way to kill God in the minds of everyone on Earth. And for how he does that... buy the book! <TOM.ROBINSON> Fascinating! So it basically follows the Eastern concept of God, then? <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> Yes--God is a New Yorker. Well, I took from here and there... <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> mostly read books about the origins of religion, such as Robert Graves' THE WHITE GODDESS, and John Lilly's book about God, forget the title. <TOM.ROBINSON> Okay, thanks. ga <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> And a lot of Wiccen stuff. <[NeilSchulman] SOFTSERV> \Simulations of God\ is Lilly's book. <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> Right. <[NeilSchulman] SOFTSERV> And, of course, \Jehovah Contract\ can be ordered from SoftServ--download the Sampler TODAY! <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> You can see in the last few chapters how I portray "God as Death," God as War" etc. <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> But I disagree with Lilly on a lot of stuff. <[NeilSchulman] SOFTSERV> OK ... Kate is next. <[Kate] SOFTSERV-KO> Where do you get these wild ideas, Victor? How do you get inspired? <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> The origin of JEHOVAH took many paths, from naming the protagonist after a street in Long Beach (Del Amo ["of the Master"] <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> to my love for Raymond Chandler's work and a desire to emulate him. <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> The idea of creating a positive image of an assassin was also a desire of mine, and I hung around witches and such at the time I started JEHOVAH, so they all merged into an assassin given the Ultimate Hit. <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> As far as SOLOMON'S KNIFE is concerned, the idea for that came from an offhand comment by \New Libertarian\ editor Samuel Edward Konkin III that all the right- to-lifers ought to stop trying... <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> to pressure the State to stop abortions and ought instead to develop artificial wombs and scoop up all the aborted fetuses and bring them to term as their own. <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> While I didn't get into the artificial womb concept (although I've heard unreliable reports that Dow-Corning is working on one), the idea sort of springboarded into <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> the story about a doctor who finally decides to take action. <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> Or, I could answer the way Harlan Ellison does--SCHENECTADY! <[NeilSchulman] SOFTSERV> OK, Vic. Kate has no follow-up, so Jim Audlin is next. <[Jim] J.AUDLIN> Okay. As you know, I've read and enjoyed Jehovah Contract... <[Jim] J.AUDLIN> My question is this... <[Jim] J.AUDLIN> Do you see any difference between the concept of "god" and "idea-of-god" and, if so, what is it? <[Jim] J.AUDLIN> Hello? <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> Musing... <[Jim] J.AUDLIN> The question is because Del Ammo kills the IDEA of God. <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> God as an idea in our heads is demonstrable... <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> Nearly all of us have a concept of the divine, whether from "personal experience" or from the constant bombardment by church/parents/others... <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> Whether these ideas have any basis outside our minds, though, is something that either cannot be answered, in which case worrying about it is futile, <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> or something that has not been proven (to me, at least) to my satisfaction. <[NeilSchulman] SOFTSERV> OK. Follow up, Jim? <[Jim] J.AUDLIN> Well (grin) as you know, that is the fault of your logic -- insisting on... <[Jim] J.AUDLIN> objectivism and empiricism... <[Jim] J.AUDLIN> but... <[Jim] J.AUDLIN> my follow up is,... <[Jim] J.AUDLIN> does God "exist" in the mind of an atheist, in a nation of atheists, a world of atheists? <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> Only if they think about it. What if the idea of God never pops into their heads? <[Jim] J.AUDLIN> You're asking ME? <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> More important, does God exist in the mind of an ANTI-theist? <[Jim] J.AUDLIN> (Well, I say, yes, of course.) <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> Actually, so do I. <[NeilSchulman] SOFTSERV> OK ... Keith Kirts is next ... <KEITH.KIRTS> I'm very interested in the title of Saucer sluts. <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> You want a history on that? <KEITH.KIRTS> And I'd like to know what's up with your publishing company. <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> Once again, the inspiration "came" from Samuel E. Konkin III, who thought up that title as a book that would sell no matter what was in it. <KEITH.KIRTS> I agree. <KEITH.KIRTS> Much like Space Sex. <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> I went ahead and wrote a 40,000 word novel under that title with the usual plot of two men being abducted by 4 green women in a starship. <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> who wanted to repopulate their planet. However, in my book... <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> I took the "hard" science approach that such a mating would not work, despite page after page of attempts... <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> So they were forced to turn to cloning the hero. <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> It will be available on our BBS, but not on GEnie. <[NeilSchulman] SOFTSERV> And what can we expect upcoming from KoPubCo, Vic? <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> A novel entitled DEATH'S DIMENSIONS, which I wrote even before THE JEHOVAH CONTRACT, and is based on a short story that was published in the erstwhile GALAXY. <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> We just released Samuel E. Konkin's excellent NEW LIBERTARIAN MANIFESTO, and will be publishing a collection of his essays. <[NeilSchulman] SOFTSERV> OK, we've gotten through our first round of questions, so we move to second questions. Kate is first. <KEITH.KIRTS> Are you working on a new book? <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> Snuck that one in, eh Keith? <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> Yes, I am... <[Kate] SOFTSERV-KO> That was MY question! What new projects do you have in the works? <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> It is science-fiction, the first of a trilogy <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> or more... <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> and that's all I can really say about it because I'm having a VERY tough time... <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> determining what sort of spin I want to give it... <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> 0 <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> 100 pages of notes <[Kate] SOFTSERV-KO> Will it be a major motion picture (or 3)? <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> Not yet... <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> But I think at least part of the book (of which I DO have a screenplay) would make a great film. <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> The screenplay is entitled KINGS OF THE HIGH FRONTIER. <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> It's about the greatgreatgreatgreat grand nephew of Davy Crockett. <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> A physics student at NYU. <[NeilSchulman] SOFTSERV> OK! Jim has another question. <[Jim] J.AUDLIN> On transoption. <[Jim] J.AUDLIN> My question relates to the "inertia factor" (for lack of a better term)... <[Jim] J.AUDLIN> Will pro-choicers ever give up the path they've taken and consider transoption? I doubt it. And... <[Jim] J.AUDLIN> when people are so picky about "what they get" for a child, how would you sort the "options" out for people who want to transopt -- and deal with the legal entanglements? <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> In the novel, I make very clear that those who have... <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> a vested POLITICAL interest in being "pro-choice" or "pro-life" resist and <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> denounce transoption and are its chief opponents--it threatens to solve the problem that's been paying their salaries! <[Jim] J.AUDLIN> (I meant to say "prochoicers and prolifers" -- sorry.) <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> However.... <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> the "rank and file," that is, the women who must actually make the hard choices... <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> embrace transoption as a life-saving alternative.... <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> In answer to your second, <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> the same sorts of people who open their hearts and homes to adopt children of all races and genders will be in the forefront of transoption, too. <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> There could be more of them here and now, but even one life saved, as they say. <[Jim] J.AUDLIN> My question is framed on the experience that people simply don't change easily to new ideas. I would expect transoption to be a very hard sell. <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> And of course, the answer to the whole mess turns out to be cheap, constantly "on" genetic contraception as a way to avoid unwanted pregnancies in the first place... <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> with transoption the new "last resort." <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> The whole novel is about what a "hard sell" it would be! <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> It takes 16 years in the book for transoption to catch on. <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> At least 8 years of which it is illegal--and still undertaken! <[NeilSchulman] SOFTSERV> OK, Tom has another question. <TOM.ROBINSON> That's a good observation, Victor, about the political aspects; and it's a shame emotional issues bring out political opportunists. Is "transoption" a term you coined to describe the alternative you envision? I've never heard it used before. <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> Thanks, Jim. <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> Yes, Tom--A friend of mine, Virginia Jacobs, came up with the term as an alternative to what I had coined: transortion. <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> She added a "p" and made it less ugly sounding and more friendly and warm. <TOM.ROBINSON> Very creative! Thanks -- that's all I was wondering about. ga <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> You're welcome. <[NeilSchulman] SOFTSERV> OK, I have a question ... <[NeilSchulman] SOFTSERV> Vic, what do you try to accomplish with your writing? What "hole in the bookshelf" (to use Bradbury's idea) are you trying to fill? <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> Many holes... <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> I want to portray what Samuel Konkin calls "perspective inversion"... <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> Where what your prejudices assume turn out not to be the truth... <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> SOLOMON starts out as a medical thriller in which I portray the doctor as coldly as possible... <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> yet she turns out to be the pivotal hero.... <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> In JEHOVAH, I take someone practically no one would think honorable--an assassin--and turn him into a hero of all Earth.... <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> My screenplay (unproduced) FIRESCAR starts with a race to find an H-bomb in the hands of a seemingly ruthless billionaire ... <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> and ends with its use to create an island where people can live and deal in freedom. <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> I guess I want to be the guy that turns people on their heads. ga <[NeilSchulman] SOFTSERV> Well, you do it! <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> Thank you. You keep reading them... I'll make more. <[NeilSchulman] SOFTSERV> One more question from me ... <[NeilSchulman] SOFTSERV> What's your favorite and least favorite thing that's been said about something you've written? ga <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> My favorite thing (if I can remember...) <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> is a reviewer who said... <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> that the hardest thing for a writer to do was emulate the Chandler style and that I did it beautifully... <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> My least favorite is the curt dismissal SOLOMON'S KNIFE received from <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> Publisher's Weekly, who wished that transoption WOULD end the abortion issue so that they wouldn't have to be subjected to such novels in future! <[NeilSchulman] SOFTSERV> OK. I'd like to announce the winners of copies of Victor's novels ... <[NeilSchulman] SOFTSERV> They are: Tom Robinson and Bob Gibson! Each will be receiving copies of both \Jehovah Contract\ and \Solomon's Knife\ in the SoftServ Paperless Book Edition. Congratulations! <[NeilSchulman] SOFTSERV> Room is now in the talk mode. <TOM.ROBINSON> All RIIIGHT! <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> Congratulations, guys! <TOM.ROBINSON> That's excellent. <[Kate] SOFTSERV-KO> You're in for fun reads, Tom & Bob! <TOM.ROBINSON> Thanks very much! <[NeilSchulman] SOFTSERV> I'd like to thank Victor for giving such great answers ... <[NeilSchulman] SOFTSERV> The room is now in CHAT mode. <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> Now, how do I sign a digital book? <TOM.ROBINSON> Hahaha! <TOM.ROBINSON> Good question. :) <[NeilSchulman] SOFTSERV> With an RSA Digital Signature, of course! <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> Nyuck nyuck! <NICK.DOTSON> YOU SIGN A DIGITAL BOOK WITH A MOUSE/OR TRACK BALL. <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> If it were in Page Maker, it would be a cinch! <TOM.ROBINSON> I think that's one of the neatest tricks a writer can pull off -- to get the reader to think while entertaining 'em. ;) <[Victor Koman] SOFTSERV-VK> Thank you, Tom. I try! ## 9
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