Talk about intriguing ideas that tap into the zeitgeist. Check out Significant Objects, a site that melds short stories, the talismanic value of art objects, eBay auctioneering, and a social media twist. The project’s founders – authors Joshua Glenn and Rob Walker, the Consumed columnist for the New York Times Magazine – call this “an experiment.” It goes like this: “A talented, creative writer invents a story about an object. Invested with new significance by this fiction, the object should — according to our hypothesis — acquire not merely subjective but objective value.”
So the site’s “curators” bought a bunch of thrift-store detritus cheap and then assigned each object to a writer who composed a short story around the object. For the first anthology, 100 writers participated, some like Colson Whitehead, Jonathan Lethem, Nicholson Baker, and David Shields, quite well known. Significant Objects then sold each object on eBay with a copy of the story attached. Results? $128.74 of junk brought in $3,612.51. A $2.99 Hawk Ashtray, for example, accompanied by its William Gibson story sold for $101.
For anthologies two and three, Glenn and Walker rounded up different sets of writers – more big names among them (Heidi Julavits, Neil LaBute, and Luc Sante) – and donated the proceeds to creative writing programs for kids.
We’re not quite sure where all this headed. Is it a lark or some sort of long-term effort to come up with new revenue streams for writers? It’s certainly fun to watch.
Ted the Cat (1994-present) is a domestic shorthair blogger and vers libre poet. He also enjoys sleeping, eating, and lurking. Ted the Cat co-habits with Kaze,
also a blogger at 317am.net.
