Writer ‘buzzing’ over 3D-printed trophy

WETA LOVE: Gisborne writer Aaron Compton was awarded this Weta Workshop Sir Julius Vogel Award for his contribution to an anthology of New Zealand speculative fiction. Picture supplied

A 3D-printed trophy from the Weta Workshop was presented to Gisborne writer Aaron Compton last weekend for his part in the the creation of a New Zealand speculative fiction anthology called Te Korero Ahi Ka (to speak of the home fires burning). The book won the Sir Julius Vogel Award for best speculative fiction anthology.

Compton also contributed to the collection a story about bottled human brains that maintain their sanity by living vicariously through full-bodied people’s sensory experience — but it was his role as co-editor that won him the trophy in the “best collected work” category.

“I’m still buzzing,” he says.

“I got a cool-looking award made by Weta on my mantle-piece.”

The Sir Julius Vogel awards are named after the eighth Premier of New Zealand who in 1889 wrote the country’s first science fiction novel about how one day in the future women would be leaders.

“The arts and caprices which in old days were called feminine proved to be the silken chains fastened by men on women to lull them into inaction,” wrote Vogel in Anno Domini 2000, or A Woman’s Destiny.

“Without abating any of their charms, women have long ceased to submit to be the playthings of men. They lead men, as of yore, but not so much through the fancy or the senses as through the legitimate consciousness of the man that in following woman’s guidance he is tending to higher purposes.”

An entry in the 1966 Encyclopedia of New Zealand says “Vogel’s politics were like his nature, imaginative — and occasionally brilliant — but reckless and speculative.”

In the light of Vogel’s speculation, 21st century Compton enjoys the fact he was guided in his editorship by two women — Grace Bridges and Lee Murray.

For more about Compton go to https://www.compton.ink.