Hugo Lit Series: Richard Bausch, Roxane Gay, and Kary Wayson, with music by John Osebold
The 2013-14 season begins on Oct. 18, 2013, with writing based on the theme “People Will Talk” and featuring fiction writer and Guggenheim Fellowship winner Richard Bausch; author of the forthcoming “An Untamed State” Roxane Gay; Hugo writer-in-residence and poet Kary Wayson; and Seattle musician John Osebold.
The 2013-14 season begins on Oct. 18, 2013, with writing based on the theme “People Will Talk” and featuring fiction writer and Guggenheim Fellowship winner Richard Bausch; author of the forthcoming “An Untamed State” Roxane Gay; Hugo writer-in-residence and poet Kary Wayson; and Seattle musician John Osebold.
Theme: People Will Talk
It used to be that gossip at its best became urban legend and at its worst stirred a small blip on Page Six, but in the Internet age, the rumor mill now churns hearsay into fact faster than spin doctors can operate. A Facebook post circulates a screen cap of a CNN report stating Tupac is alive and well strolling Beverly Hills, but few see the fine print—“You just got April Fooled!” An email claiming KFC uses “mutant organisms” in their fried chicken goes viral, and everyone wonders exactly what is so finger-licking good. A tweet falsely identifies a missing Brown University student as one of the Boston Bombing suspects, and his grieving family receives more death threats than apologies. In all these cases, fact was ultimately parsed from fiction, but the redactions traveled slowly, casting a shadow not even truth can outshine. So, what is it about rumors, whether of Obama’s birthplace or the state of Lindsay Lohan’s psyche, that spur us toward obsession? And what does it say about us that we care so deeply?
