>> Although I associate the Ring more with LOTR; for some reason, once I'd read the trilogy I never went back to The Hobbit. <<
I like them all.
>>Has Shiv ever encountered the trilogy? I'm sure he hasn't read it, but does he even know it exists?<<
He hasn't even read The Hobbit. He knows the story because he had a foster brother who was a bookworm and talked about books all the time. Shiv isn't a reader, but for someone who's not, he has a surprisingly astute grasp of story.
>>The reason I'm sure he hasn't read it is that I would expect him to have the same reaction I had when I first encountered it -- to be put off by the sheer size of it.<<
Oh yeah.
>> After I read The Hobbit, it took me a full year of looking at LOTR in the library before I finally decided to check it out anyhow because if I didn't like it, I could always take it back. (And then I fell into it and tore thru all 3 books in 3 days. Fortunately, this was over summer vacation.) <<
:D My mother read me The Hobbit when I was four. I discovered LOTR when I was in third grade. I was reading under my desk during reading class while everyone else was fumbling through kiddie stuff. The teacher asked what I was reading. I showed her the book. She didn't believe I was really reading that. I launched into an enthusiastic description of "The Departure of Boromir" which left my appalled classmates with eyes as wide as saucers. The teacher handed my book back and said if I was reading that, clearly I didn't need the class and could just entertain myself quietly.
That was the one and only appropriate response of a teacher to my reading level that I can remember.
>> And here's another potential way for Shiv to make a living, besides (or in addition to) specialty blades. <<
Absolutely, and Tolli is thinking of that as an option because he knows that Shiv also draws. It's much easier to make a living as an artist in T-America than it is here.
>> Dichroic jewelry always sells well, even if he wants to stay away from the zetetic components. Although... if he could work with a super-gizmologist to develop some kind of zetetic battery, something that would store a "charge" of super-powers and last for a while, that self-powered glowing jewelry would be a REAL hit. <<
Doesn't even have to be superpowers. If Shiv twiddles around with materials, he may find a combination that responds to something else, such as sunlight. People make solar-powered and glow-in-the dark everything. Superpowers can do stuff that even good machines can't. I suspect, if Shiv uses the same raw materials, he might stumble across similar effects.
Replicating it, now, that's a challenge. ;)
>> Where I see a potential problem with the jewelry option (and, to a lesser extent, with the blades option as well) is in the process of actually selling the product. Shiv is a raging introvert; having to be "on" all day at a show would be torture for him, and most of the better shows require the artist to be onsite. <<
That's true. T-America includes many options for audience interaction. There are still creative recluses, but not as many, and they require a different type of support network and business model.
>> He'd be better off seeing if he could place his work in galleries and let them do the selling for him. And once he's got a bit of a reputation, of course, he can set up a website and sell online without actually having to interact physically with the customers at all. <<
Yep. What he really needs is an agent, to keep his everyday life widely separated from his artwork. Shiv does not want this kind of reputation distracting him from his dayjob. But he does like making things. I suspect that, like Gray, he's liable to deal more in gifts and favors with his artistic ability, and reserve cash transactions for emergencies.
>>But this is all looking fairly far down the road. <<
Not as far as you might think. Graham and Tolli both want to connect Shiv with the art community so the option will be there when or if he needs it. And what Shiv can do is unique as far as I know; the only other soup working regularly in glass is doing totally different things with it, although Crystella is a full-time artist. Once Shiv starts passing things around, it's going to attract attention.
>>Aha, breakthru! This is a MAJOR epiphany for Shiv, and I hope it leads to more and better things. <<
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dancing_serpent
Thoughts
Date: 2016-10-13 11:33 pm (UTC)Yay!
>> Although I associate the Ring more with LOTR; for some reason, once I'd read the trilogy I never went back to The Hobbit. <<
I like them all.
>>Has Shiv ever encountered the trilogy? I'm sure he hasn't read it, but does he even know it exists?<<
He hasn't even read The Hobbit. He knows the story because he had a foster brother who was a bookworm and talked about books all the time. Shiv isn't a reader, but for someone who's not, he has a surprisingly astute grasp of story.
>>The reason I'm sure he hasn't read it is that I would expect him to have the same reaction I had when I first encountered it -- to be put off by the sheer size of it.<<
Oh yeah.
>> After I read The Hobbit, it took me a full year of looking at LOTR in the library before I finally decided to check it out anyhow because if I didn't like it, I could always take it back. (And then I fell into it and tore thru all 3 books in 3 days. Fortunately, this was over summer vacation.) <<
:D My mother read me The Hobbit when I was four. I discovered LOTR when I was in third grade. I was reading under my desk during reading class while everyone else was fumbling through kiddie stuff. The teacher asked what I was reading. I showed her the book. She didn't believe I was really reading that. I launched into an enthusiastic description of "The Departure of Boromir" which left my appalled classmates with eyes as wide as saucers. The teacher handed my book back and said if I was reading that, clearly I didn't need the class and could just entertain myself quietly.
That was the one and only appropriate response of a teacher to my reading level that I can remember.
>> And here's another potential way for Shiv to make a living, besides (or in addition to) specialty blades. <<
Absolutely, and Tolli is thinking of that as an option because he knows that Shiv also draws. It's much easier to make a living as an artist in T-America than it is here.
>> Dichroic jewelry always sells well, even if he wants to stay away from the zetetic components. Although... if he could work with a super-gizmologist to develop some kind of zetetic battery, something that would store a "charge" of super-powers and last for a while, that self-powered glowing jewelry would be a REAL hit. <<
Doesn't even have to be superpowers. If Shiv twiddles around with materials, he may find a combination that responds to something else, such as sunlight. People make solar-powered and glow-in-the dark everything. Superpowers can do stuff that even good machines can't. I suspect, if Shiv uses the same raw materials, he might stumble across similar effects.
Replicating it, now, that's a challenge. ;)
>> Where I see a potential problem with the jewelry option (and, to a lesser extent, with the blades option as well) is in the process of actually selling the product. Shiv is a raging introvert; having to be "on" all day at a show would be torture for him, and most of the better shows require the artist to be onsite. <<
That's true. T-America includes many options for audience interaction. There are still creative recluses, but not as many, and they require a different type of support network and business model.
>> He'd be better off seeing if he could place his work in galleries and let them do the selling for him. And once he's got a bit of a reputation, of course, he can set up a website and sell online without actually having to interact physically with the customers at all. <<
Yep. What he really needs is an agent, to keep his everyday life widely separated from his artwork. Shiv does not want this kind of reputation distracting him from his dayjob. But he does like making things. I suspect that, like Gray, he's liable to deal more in gifts and favors with his artistic ability, and reserve cash transactions for emergencies.
>>But this is all looking fairly far down the road. <<
Not as far as you might think. Graham and Tolli both want to connect Shiv with the art community so the option will be there when or if he needs it. And what Shiv can do is unique as far as I know; the only other soup working regularly in glass is doing totally different things with it, although Crystella is a full-time artist. Once Shiv starts passing things around, it's going to attract attention.
>>Aha, breakthru! This is a MAJOR epiphany for Shiv, and I hope it leads to more and better things. <<
:D So it is, and so it will.