Guy Stewart's Blog, page 40

WRITING ADVICE: Short Stories – Advice and Observation #14: Gene Wolfe “& Me”

In this feature, I’ll be looking at “advice” for writing short stories – not from me, but from other short story writers. In speculative fiction, “short” has very carefully delineated categories: “The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America specifies word lengths for each category of its Nebula award categories by word count; Novel 40,000 words or over; Novella 17,500 to 39,999 words; Novelette 7,500 to 17,499 words; Short story under 7,500 words.”

I’m going to use advice from people who, in addition to writing novels, have also spent plenty of time “interning” with short stories. While most of them are speculative fiction writers, I’ll also be looking at plain, old, effective short story writers. The advice will be in the form of one or several quotes off of which I’ll jump and connect it with my own writing experience. While I don’t write full-time, nor do I make enough money with my writing to live off of it...neither do most of the professional writers...someone pays for and publishes ten percent of what I write. When I started this blog, that was NOT true, so I may have reached a point where my own advice is reasonably good. We shall see! Hemingway’s quote above will now remain unchanged as I work to increase my writing output and sales! As always, your comments are welcome!

Without further ado, short story observations by Gene Wolfe – with a few from myself…

“What is impossible is to keep [my Catholicism] out. The author cannot prevent the work being his or hers.” Gene Wolfe

You can see above one of the reasons I admired Gene Wolfe – he was a Christian and wasn’t interested in hiding his faith. People took him as he was. I’m sure there were people who refused to read his work because of his faith, figuring his worldview was so absurd that he wouldn’t have anything to say that would interest them.

That’s OK – because there were enough people who COULD do that, while his books were never “popular”, they were intense, deep, and you put down the book or the short story pondering…something. His work wasn’t the kind that you read and forgot. Part of THAT was because he made you stop and think; ponder what he was trying to say, then go back and read it again, once more.

Incredibly POPULAR, multiple award-winning English writer, Neil Gaman admired Gene Wolf’s writing without sharing his faith. In 2011, he wrote: “He's the finest living male American writer of science fiction and fantasy...possibly the finest living American writer.” Other clearly not of his faith persuasion also praised his work: “Ursula Le Guin calls him ‘our Melville,’ and Michael Swanwick says he ‘is the single greatest writer in the English language alive today.’”

So – what was it about Wolfe’s writing that inspired such an observation, and how can I learn from it? I haven’t read everything he’s written – far from it – but what I have read (both short stories and novels) has captivated my attention at the time and left a deep impression on me.) Does he START OUT trying to write deep? Apparently, the answer is “No.” When asked if “the Urth of the New Sun series begin as a darkly literate intentional parody and subversion of the Sword & Sorcery tradition, or am I just reading it that way?

Gene Wolfe said, “No, it did not. At the beginning of that whole series, I simply wanted to write a short story or novelette for Orbit. I was at some Con down in Chicago and Bob Tucker grabbed me and dragged me to this panel on costuming, which I would not normally have attended, so he’d have someone to talk to. As I listened to this panel of professional costumers, I started sulking a little that none of my characters had ever been made into costumes. And then I realized I’d never written a character that would make a good costume – so whose fault was that? I started listening to these people and thinking up a costume people could make easily and enjoy wearing.

“Black boots – nothing easier; black trousers – ditto; no shirt, black cloak – for beans you can make a black cloak. A mask. A big sword. And I thought – who is this guy? The answer was obvious. He’s an executioner. I started writing this thing and it kept getting longer and longer.” Which resulted of course, the four novels for which he is best known: The Shadow of the Torturer, The Claw of the Conciliator, The Sword of the Lictor, and The Citadel of the Autarch.

Neil Gaiman bumped into Gene Wolfe once and asked him for ten bits of writing advice. Gene Wolfe said he couldn’t possibly come up with ten things on the spot! Gaiman asked for five, and this is what he said:

“Get up early and write.” I’ve done this for years now, ever since my children grew up and started staying out and up late. I was a “night writer”, working until 2 am…now I start at 5 am…

“Read what you’re trying to write, for Godsakes!” While there’s truth in this and I AM an avid reader of short stories and it’s what I write; I love a good long novel every once in a while.

“Remember that it is characterizing that puts your story heads and shoulders over the others in the slush pile.” Oooo…ouch…I clearly don’t have a good handle on this. Unless it has to do with humorous interaction. That seems to be my forte. NOT outright slapstick, though I’d tried that. But I guess I adhere to the MASH “school of writing”: deal with a serious issue; and (in the best episodes), reveal a humorous side to the deadly side. I’ll need to remember that in the story I’m writing right now.

“You do not characterize by telling the reader about the character. You do it by showing the character thinking, speaking and acting in a characteristic way. You simply show it and shut up.” Ah…I need to remember this, too. I get too much into “explaining” what’s going on in a story. I need to show my characters acting…um…characteristically in order to illuminate their…um…character…OK – that sounds stupid, but it ALL OF A SUDDEN MAKES SENSE TO ME. It suddenly explains SO MUCH about Severian (“hero” of the BOOK OF THE NEW SUN)…which leads me to…

“Do not start a story unless you have an ending in mind. You can change the story’s ending if you wish, but you should always have a destination.” And there you go – it’s why I’m having so much trouble with my current work in progress. I don’t know where it’s going, so I don’t know how to start it. Severian’s ending was the same as the journey of Jesus, whose destiny was to be the Christ. Wolfe himself said that Severian was “a man who has been born into a very perverse background, who is gradually trying to become better.” Not exactly the Christ story, but then, there is only on Son of God.

Elsewhere, Wolfe says, “Read. No matter what you may long to believe, you cannot become a writer without tens of thousands of hours of reading…[and] Write. Writers do it. Would-be writers do not. Just as you can't learn to swim without floundering around in the water a lot, you cannot learn to write without writing. Harlan Ellson tells his would-be writer audiences that they should write a short story every day--three hundred and sixty five little stories over the next year. Is Harlan grandstanding with a piece of ridiculously exaggerated advice? No.” I haven’t done THAT, but I’m making more progress NOW that I have ever made. Of course, I’m retired. I’ve been waiting for this my entire life.

In an interview with Larry McCaffery, when asked about his initial eight-year “training”, Wolfe said, “During those eight years…why weren't you selling? Was your work really that bad or were you already writing far enough outside the accepted genre conventions that it was difficult to find a home for your work?”

Wolfe said, “…mainly I was simply learning the art of writing. You don't go out, buy a violin, and then immediately get a job with a symphony orchestra—first you've got to learn how to play the damn thing. Writing is a lot like that.”

And do great writers have to rewrite? Wolfe definitely has something to say about that! “I do a minimum of three ‘writes’ for everything I do—an original and then at least two rewrites. A lot of stuff goes through four drafts, and some of it goes 15 or even more drafts; basically I'm willing to keep revising until I get it right…[In THE FIFTH HEAD OF CERBERUS] I completely rewrote those opening pages at least eight or ten times because it seemed essential to capture that certain flavor I wanted the story to have… since character usually seems to be the single element in my works I'm most interested in, a lot of the rewriting I do involves me trying to fine tune character.”

I just realized that I’ve rewritten several stories more than once – sometimes months or even years later. I did that recently with a story I just sold (“Dinosaur Veterinarian” to ANALOG Science Fiction and Fact)…[Wolfe was also an ANALOG writer! In the May 1973 issue (I was 16…) had the story, “How I Lost the Second World War and Helped Turn Back the German Invasion”.]

From GOODREADS, Michael Roetzel had this to say: “I do recall once finding a bare paragraph or two on a long lost blog in which Wolfe described how he wrote. He says he writes first broadly and generally, just describing what is happening, and only begins to really write, to lay out sentences, in his 2nd and 3rd rewrites.” (Possibly anecdotal, but it seems to jive with the interviews I’ve been reading.)

Lastly, the blogger doesn’t say where the qu0te came from, but I saw it in one of the other interviews I read: “Find a very short story by a writer you admire. Read it over…until you understand everything in it. Then read it over a lot more…Put it away where you cannot get at it…When you cannot see it again, write it yourself. You know who the characters are. You know what happens. [But] YOU write it. Make it as good as you can. Compare your story to the original, when you have access to the original again. Is your version longer? Shorter? Why? Read both versions out loud…[and] you can see how the author handled those problems. If you want to learn to write fiction, and are among those rare people willing to work at it, you might want to use the little story you have just finished as one of your models.” This is an exercise I plan to do – and soon. I have two choices of which story to try this with, either “The Tides of Kithrup” by David Brin; or “The Weatherman” by Lois McMaster Bujold. When I’m done, I’ll report back here!

For now? I gotta get back to writing!

References: https://raymondwriteswrongs.wordpress.com/2015/04/22/writing-advice-from-gene-wolfe/, ., https://www.depauw.edu/sfs/interviews/wolfe46interview.htm, https://www.technologyreview.com/2014/07/25/12916/a-qa-with-gene-wolfe/, http://scatterings1976.blogspot.com/2016/07/gene-wolfes-advice-for-writers.html, https://www.blackgate.com/2010/11/23/and-it-goes-on-from-there-an-interview-with-gene-wolfe/
Image: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41JNnybcihL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 534

Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them. Regarding Fantasy, this insight was startling: “I see the fantasy genre as an ever-shifting metaphor for life in this world, an innocuous medium that allows the author to examine difficult, even controversial, subjects with impunity. Honor, religion, politics, nobility, integrity, greed—we’ve an endless list of ideals to be dissected and explored. And maybe learned from.” – Melissa McPhail.

F Trope: xenofiction (point of view of an animal)
Current Event: http://www.arkanimalspace.com/ark-blog/theo-the-bomb-sniffing-dog/

Mia had one mission in life.

She was a IED-expert. When she was called up and shipped to Afghanistan, it was the single most exciting moment in her short life. She was certain she’d been made for it. Certain that no one else could do it as well as she could. She knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that her mission was to save lives by getting rid of IEDs that littered this sad country after its abortive war. She was set to do whatever was necessary – almost.

When she found IEDs, she refused to touch them and certainly refused to disarm them no matter how simple the device was. In fact, she couldn’t disarm an IED even if her partner’s life depended on it. She couldn’t handle them – because she didn’t have hands.

But smelling an IED was an entirely different story. She could tell the exact makeup of the IED from thirty meters away.

It had taken her a lot of time to train her partner to be as good as she was. The language barrier itself was nearly impossible to overcome. Ethan Pai-Teles was virtually deaf, couldn’t tell the difference between a rubber band bomb and a mercury-tilt switch bomb. Mia could smell mercury from a long way away – the sharp, poisonous tang would keep her away even when Ethan tried to bribe her with treats.

She’d usually answer him, “Totally unsafe, Ethan! Totally unsafe!”

He rarely understood her. At least now he slowed down some. When they first started working together, he’d tried to get her to understand English. She got that – some of the first words she’d understood were “toy” and “walk”. But the language was so limited. Ninety percent of the scent keys aligned with real language were missing in English. It was nearly impossible for Ethan to hear anything but the most rudimentary phrases in the Bark Tongue.

Yun, a Chinese Shih Tzu soldier Mia had met at the Summer Olympics had it easier. Her partner at least understood the importance of pitch in real speech. Ethan – she loved him, but MAN! – was practically tone deaf, even as far as Humans were concerned.

She had to rely on body language, just as he’d devised a series of hand signals that allowed them to work together as their sight at close range was very nearly the same.

They were patrolling a stretch of road they hadn’t been in a bit. They’d been working together – she knew it was many, many sunrises past the last sandstorm, Ethan said “Two years, six months, five days, thirteen hours and,” he’d glance at his arm, “fourteen minutes” – and she caught the whiff of an IED.

She growled. It smelled strange. Very strange. There was the sharp, Human smell of plastic explosive but it was overlain with something different. She’d never caught the scent of anything like it…except maybe when they’d trained together when she was a pup. It had been in a very dry place, a long way away from her favorite water and the fabulous birds Ethan killed for her but didn’t allow her to eat.

This place had a two white makes laid on the floor of one of the buildings. Ethan had made a violent sound and exclaimed something softly and low so she could actually hear it, “Area Fifty-One?”

This smell was the same as that...

Names: ♀ UK-Scotland ; ♂ UK, Portuguese
Image:
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/98/71/e5/9871e52bbc09c525af21b8f6471eab15.jpg

Slice of PIE: DISCON III – #4 Balancing Story and Scientific Authenticity

Using the Programme Guide of the 2021 World Science Fiction Convention, DisCON III, which I WOULD have been attending in person if I felt safe enough to do so in person AND it hadn’t been changed to the week before the Christmas Holidays…I will jump off, jump on, rail against, and shamelessly agree with the BRIEF DESCRIPTION given in the Program Guide. I will be using the events to drive me to distraction or revelation – as the case may be. The link is provided below where this appeared!

Many readers love real science, or just the appearance of real science, in their science fiction. It is no small challenge to create compelling literature that also triggers a scientific sense of wonder. Panelists discuss how to do it right.

Panelists:
Catherine Asaro: best-selling science fiction writer
Lezli Robyn: Editor, writer, Essayist, Galaxy’s Edge magazine
John Ashmead: editor, Moderator
Eva L. Elasigue: no idea
Derek Künsken: SF writer
Maquel A Jacob: new SF writer

I love real science – it’s why I taught it for the first thirty years of my career as an educator and why I’ve taught classes such as “Writing in Science, Science in Writing”.

My love is biology, and among my favorite current SF writers are Julie Czerneda (herself a research biologist at one time); but I also love David Brin’s work (an astrophysicist who has an uncanny ability to create weird and believable aliens); as well as others too numerous to name who write scientifically.

The group also pointed out some of the pitfalls of what is sometimes called a “hard science fiction” story.

Included on this list are things like, “Future science is fun!” (I just finished a short SF story that utilizes a type of space travel suggested to me by the physics of “Miguel Alcubierre Moya, a Mexican theoretical physicist known for the proposed Alcubierre drive, a speculative warp drive by which a spacecraft could achieve faster-than-light travel.” I postulated that it might allow Humans to reach into something called Anchorspace by changing the geometry of space by creating a wave that would cause the fabric of space ahead of a spacecraft to contract and the space behind it to expand. This allows the ship to “anchor” briefly, to extend a “sail” into real space to aim the ship using stellar winds in real space to turn and aim for the destination in real space.)

Other comments suggest you “need to have a sense of what the editor is like”. As well, know your target market. Lezli Robyn noted, “ANALOG stories are solution oriented; ASIMOV’S are consequences oriented.” She had also mentioned that writers need to THINK about the implications of their science. For example, she is unable to see, but points out, “Does my mind see more than my eyes?” That is a fascinating question, certainly one that a writer could seek to deal with in a unique – and sensitive – way. And if you are afraid of writing about a character who is unable to see, keep in mind the blog I posted here: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2020/07/possibly-irritating-essay-its-mistake.html

She went on to iterate that to create an effective hard science story, you needed a “big objective goal; the materials the characters need to requisition or have on hand – and if there’s no catalogue handy to order the parts from, the characters need to create NEW mechanisms to get the job done.

Finally, make sure to weave the science into the story – “Hard science fiction has LEGENDARY infodumps!” There was quite a bit of laughter, but if you write hard SF, you know how easy it is to get sucked into the world-building part of the writing…and forget the characters and their plight!

Recommendations of science-based fiction from the group: A MEMORY CALLED EMPIRE by Arkady Martine; PERIHELION SUMMER by Greg Egan; THE QUANTUM ROSE by panelist Derek Künsken; THE ALGEBRAIST by Iain M. Banks. They offered another by Steven Barnes, but I would highly recommend LION’S BLOOD, and ZULU HEART, the first two novels of an incomplete series. The classics DUNE by Frank Herbert, and ENDER’S GAME by Orson Scott Card were also included. I’d also recommend the meticulous world building of Peter F. Hamilton’s several worlds…

Program Schedule: https://discon3.org/schedule/
Image: https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQY860vAI2izm2g2mUgxzT14fGVmoGh66B51g&usqp=CAU

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 533

Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them. Octavia Butler said, “SF doesn’t really mean anything at all, except that if you use science, you should use it correctly, and if you use your imagination to extend it beyond what we already know, you should do that intelligently.”

SF Trope: genetic memories
Current Event: http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2013/jan/23/digital-files-stored-and-retrieved-using-dna-memory

Iker Dương flexed his bicep.

Leonie Gonzalez shook her head and rolled back over on her stomach.

“What? I thought you said you wanted to see a trick?” Iker said.

Without looking at him, she pulled up the latest Kathy Reichs Temperance Brennan book on her Kindenookpad – or knop – and got back to her reading.

“What are you mad at?”

Leonie said, “Listen Iker, I like you and all, but if you want us to be anything more than buddies, you’re going to have to actually talk to me.”

Iker sat down. The sappy sad look on his face almost made Leonie give in and feel sorry for him. Instead, she rolled over with her back to him.

He arched over her, planting his hands firmly on the ground then flipped his feet over, landing lightly. She almost grabbed him then, too. But they were almost done with their college freshman year, she wanted to get into medical school – she was aiming to be the first forensic anthropologist on Mars because now that the population there had topped three million, there were going to be MURDERS…

He flexed his bicep again and said, “I’m trying to show you something.”

She sighed.

“Not my muscle! I’m showing you what we’re doing in the lab!”

“Trying to create muscles from nothing?”

“Hey!” He pouted and she relented a bit. “I’m sorry, but the Mexicans and the Vietnamese are not known for producing Olympic weightlifting champions...”

“It’s not my muscle, it’s what’s in my muscle!”

“String beans?” She winced an instant after speaking the words but couldn’t say, “Iker, wait!” fast enough to stop him from sprint away. She also couldn’t quite stop the thought that he had a rather cute backside as well and even though he was sorta on the skinny side…”Iker, wait!” He kept going. She stopped, pondered for an instant, then put her ancestry to work and sprinted, catching him in ten long strides, grabbing his arm. She thought for an instant that the bicep wasn’t as wimpy as she’d imagined. “I’m sorry, Iker – but you’re just such a tempting target. What...”

“DNA – I have a data package in my bicep. I’ve been carrying it for the past week and we’re going to take it out tomorrow to see if…”

From the shadows of the science building, a voice said, “I don’t think you should be talking about this, folks.”

Names: ♀ Swiss German, Argentinian; ♂ Mexican, Vietnamese  Image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_%283%29.jpg/220px-Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_%283%29.jpg

WRITING ADVICE: Creating Alien Aliens, Part 13: ALIEN Governments…Symbiotic or Parasitic?

In September of 2007, I started this blog with a bit of writing advice. A little over a year later, I discovered how little I knew about writing after hearing children’s writer, Lin Oliver speak at a convention hosted by the Minnesota Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Since then, I have shared (with their permission) and applied the writing wisdom of Lin Oliver, Jack McDevitt, Nathan Bransford, Mike Duran, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, SL Veihl, Bruce Bethke, and Julie Czerneda. Together they write in genres broad and deep, and have acted as agents, editors, publishers, columnists, and teachers. Since then, I figured I’ve got enough publications now that I can share some of the things I did “right”.

While I don’t write full-time, nor do I make enough money with my writing to live off of it...neither do all of the professional writers above...someone pays for and publishes ten percent of what I write. When I started this blog, that was NOT true, so I may have reached a point where my own advice is reasonably good. We shall see! Hemingway’s quote above will now remain unchanged as I work to increase my writing output and sales! As always, your comments are welcome!

Part 1: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2020/01/slice-of-pie-creating-alien-aliens.html
Part 2: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2020/02/slice-of-pie-creating-alien-aliens-part.html
Part 3: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2020/02/slice-of-pie-creating-alien-aliens.html
Part 4: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2020/04/slice-of-pie-creating-alien-aliens-part.html
Part 5: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2020/09/writing-advice-creating-alien-aliens.html
Part 6: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2021/02/writing-advice-creating-alien-aliens.html
Part 7: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2021/04/writing-advice-creating-alien-aliens.html
Part 8: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2021/05/writing-advice-creating-alien-aliens.html
Part 9: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2021/08/writing-advice-creating-alien-aliens.html
Part 10: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2021/09/writing-advice-creating-alien-aliens.html
Part 11: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2021/10/writing-advice-creating-alien-aliens.html
Part 12: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2021/12/writing-advice-creating-alien-aliens.html

It would be easy to just copy and paste the forms of government that Human society has experimented with or is currently using, but as I’m talking about ALIENS, maybe the ones we’ve come up with wouldn’t make sense to incomprehensible aliens.

So, let’s look at “hierarchy” as a meme for how aliens might create some sort of “government”. Well then! It appears to be WAY more than that and there is a field of study specifically targeted at this (admittedly unexpectedly complex!) phenomenon.

In the article below, “Aggression heuristics underlie animal dominance hierarchies and provide evidence of group-level social information”, the authors have discovered “…how patterns of aggression depend upon information about the ranks of individuals within social dominance hierarchies…[there are] three main patterns of rank-dependent social dominance: the downward heuristic…close competitors…and bullying…The majority of the groups…follow a downward heuristic, but a significant minority…show close competitors or bullying…[this is] consistent with higher levels of social information use…heuristic use may depend on context and the structuring of aggression by social information should not be considered a fixed characteristic of a species…”

So, these aggression heuristics apply across most kinds of animal life on Earth.

The question is whether they would apply to OTHER forms of life.

Some people may argue that “aliens don’t have to necessarily be AGGRESSIVE”. But as a bio major in college, the ONLY way to become a dominant lifeform ANYWHERE is to get rid of or dominate anything else around that wants to eat you.

So, what about plants?

*harrumph*, you ever have crabgrass on your lawn? Really? It’s a war – with Humans drafted by Kentucky Bluegrass as the “shock forces” willing to throw themselves into the battle for little more reward than aesthetic pleasure or admiration from the rest of domesticated Humanity.
Next question! How about More Highly Evolved Life? You know, like the ones who’re going to come to Earth and give Scientists the magic formula for unlimited energy, unlimited food, and unlimited space, and unlimited power over everyone else on Earth! (mwahahahaha!) [CUE MUSIC: Everly Brothers - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbU3zdAgiX8 ] Yep, the ones who have overcome poverty, hatred, war, avarice…etc…you know, the ones like…um…which one of the alien aliens we worship have come to bring us Universal Peace at NO COST TO YOU!!!?

OK. Life as we know it evolved (the First Commandment of Science). Evolution is life outcompeting other life for the things that make life.

How then, can evolution end in Peaceful Coexistence? Intelligence is supposed to overcome evolution and create peace…but is that even realistic? Of COURSE IT WILL (The Second Commandment of Science).

Evolution = Competition (not cooperation)…

Or maybe Evolution leads to competition that LEADS past it to Cooperation?

Are there any examples of cooperative life on Earth? Is Mutualism a form of cooperation? Let me peek at it and see if I could imagine a space-faring civilization based on Mutualism.

First a definition (from Wikipedia for brevity): "Mutualism is [an] ecological interaction between two or more species where each species has a net benefit…it is often mixed with two other types of ecological phenomena: cooperation and symbiosis. Cooperation most commonly refers to increases in fitness through within-species interactions…Symbiosis involves two species living in close physical contact in a mutualistic, parasitic, or commensal [relationship]…”

Example of symbiotic aliens: the Trill from the STAR TREK universe. The Symbiont lives repeated lives while the Host lives a natural life, creating the effect of a “layered” individual. Could we live symbiotically with an alien civilization? I seem to recall that as a theme somewhere. Anyone? Of course, if you wanted to speak just emotionally, I’m pretty sure a good marriage might be considered a symbiotic relationship…

An example of parasitic aliens: the mitochondria in our cells are sometimes characterized as “good” parasites. At this point, neither one of us can live without the other. But that’s boring. How about some REAL parasite aliens? The eponymous Aliens in the ALIEN franchise are considered parasites. Even in fiction for kids, we have an example of a parasitic “alien”: “Lord Voldemort does this to Quirinus Quirrell in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. This would just be your garden-variety Demonic Possession, if not for the visceral manner by which the parasite attaches to the host: Voldemort's face grows out of the back of Professor Quirrell's head!” Clearly, contacting a parasitic civilization wouldn’t leave us with much of a future. Could WE be parasites off of another civilization? Hmmm…that might have possibilities.

So what could I do in a world I’ve invented? I call it River, a puffy Jupiter where the technophilic Empire of Man does NOT meddle with genetic engineering (except to clean up diseases and increase the survival factor on various of its worlds). Its decree is that anyone with LESS than 65% original Human DNA (from the original 2014 Human Genome Project results) is NOT Human. They live in the clouds of River by gravity modification and lighter-the-air craft.

The genetically savvy Confluence of Humanity allows not only genetic engineering, but creating lifeforms to live anywhere – there IS no limit to how much a Human can be modified. The main character has had a kilometer-wide, manta-ray-like, hūmbūlance created from his DNA, and internal organs modified to create a “surgical field hospital” with an nitrogen/oxygen atmosphere.

As Humans go, the Humans of River are recognizable (mostly), and interact in comprehensible ways. BUT…living in the skies of a world with no real surface, and that plants and animals are limited to habitats (no matter HOW vast), that are smaller than the world is going to change Human interactions. (Comparison Question: How has having a liquid water surface which makes up seventy-one percent of Earth’s surface, affected Humanity?)

Duh. How has it NOT? The question does not compute!

Let’s get back to government. In the Skies of River, how is the Confluence ruled? You’ve got vastly different populations – some who have no need of setting foot on ANY kind of surface; others who live in biohabitats, balloon-like cities grown from bone and sinew. Also, they have tamed and bred IMMENSE cloudwhales, a native form of life reminiscent of jellyfish; except worm-shaped and literal KILOMETERS long, undulating through the skies. Soil, a RARE AND PRECIOUS commodity, has been manufactured from asteroids (as have metals, taken from the moons of River) and then layered on the backs of even LARGER cloudwhales. They grow the food needed in the skies of River. Because they trade food for technology (has THAT ever happened on Earth? Nah!) harming the cloudwhales is a crime punished by INSTANT DEATH among both the inhabitants of the Empire and the Confluence – which societies inhabit alternate east and west blowing bands of clouds…

So, what kinds of government? The Empire has an Emperor or an Empress, either one depending on an elaborate process. But because the society is not on any one continent (we saw what happened when the British Empire split up onto separate continents. “The British what?” (said with Hindi, Telegu, Bahamian, American, Australian, Guyanese, Canadian, Nigerian accents). So, to keep a united Empire, every Entity (a Conglomeration of Balloons, a Relation of Cloudwhales, a Bunch of Gravity Modified Castles, (or what not) sends ONE representative to the yearly Parliament Platform that rides the Equatorial Belt, to serve a three year term.

The Confluence is slightly less…rigid. A Real Democracy, every member of the Confluence has a vote. The planet-wide voting technology is purchased from the Empire…

Certainly BIG changes are voted on one-hundred percent democratically (“What kind of imbecile would give up their vote and let someone else cast it?” is engraved on the heart of every Confluan, and history is frequently used to remind them what happens when a republic gets too big for its britches (not that anyone really understands what that means…but the IDEA is there)…

So – would an Empire and a true Democracy work on a world with no landmasses and no true borders, and where it approaches an “every being for themselves”; and the “solid resources come from an abundance of moons and a dozens of rings orbiting the puffy Jupiter River?

Is it a symbiotic government? Commensal? Mutualistic? Are the inhabitants of the skies of River living in commensal, mutualistic, symbiotic, parasitic, or “other” kinds of relationships? We’ll talk more later

Source: https://www.pnas.org/content/118/10/e2022912118, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasites_in_fiction
Image: https://cdn.vanderbilt.edu/vu-news/files/20190417214748/artist-rendering-585x299.jpg

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 532

Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them. Regarding horror, I found this insight in line with WIRED FOR STORY: “ We seek out…stories which give us a place to put our fears…Stories that frighten us or unsettle us - not just horror stories, but ones that make us uncomfortable or that strike a chord somewhere deep inside - give us the means to explore the things that scare us…” – Lou Morgan (The Guardian)

H Trope: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BarredFromTheAfterlife
Current Event: “…theorize that the nuclear war destroyed the afterlife…”, “…some people...have studied and manipulated The Dark to such an extent that they've become functionally immortal…”

Functional immortality: “Research suggests that lobsters may not slow down, weaken, or lose fertility with age, and that older lobsters may be more fertile than younger lobsters. This longevity may be due to telomerase, an enzyme that repairs long repetitive sections of DNA sequences at the ends of chromosomes, referred to as telomeres. Telomerase is expressed by most vertebrates during embryonic stages but is generally absent from adult stages of life. However, unlike vertebrates, lobsters express telomerase as adults through most tissue, which has been suggested to be related to their longevity. Despite internet memes, lobsters are not immortal. Lobsters grow by molting which needs a lot of energy and the larger the shell the more energy, eventually the lobster dies from exhaustion during a molt. Older lobsters are known to stop molting which means the shell will become damaged, infected, or fall apart and they die.”

Juana de Forlán shook herself hard, took a deep breath and said, “I can feel the synthetic lobster juice in me…”

Shaking his head, Koegathe Melamu, “You can’t possibly feel a hundred milliliters of a transparent liquid in your...”

“I know that!” Juana exclaimed. She shook her arms, “My head knows it, but my body says otherwise.” She took a deep breath, shuddering. “I feel like I’m getting younger by the moment.”

“It’s not an elixir of youth! If it worked the way we thought it should, the telomerase will let your cells keep dividing – more or less forever. But it’s not going to make you younger.”

She held out both of her hands, palms up, and said, “Might as well. I’m gonna live forever!”

Koegathe shook his head, saying, “Maybe – but we have no idea what the long-term effects of living forever as a lobster might be.” They both laughed, but after a few minutes, Koegathe reigned his mirth in when he noticed the pitch of his voice had been climbing. He took a deep breath then said, “Maybe that wasn’t as funny as it sounded.”

She shrugged, suddenly feeling light-headed.

"What's wrong?" Koegathe said, stepping toward her.

"I think I'm going to..." It seemed like the world around her rushed into a single dot of focused, bright light. Everything else was dark around her. The point of light remained steady for some time -- she wasn't sure how long because her *-sense of time was abruptly gone. Then the light moved toward her. She might have been moving toward the light. It didn't make any difference. It might have taken time. It might have happened instantaneously, she had no idea.

Once the light grew around her, she found herself standing on solid ground of pearly white. In a throne of the same pearly substance, there sat a being. She knew that it was Death. There was certainly some kind of harvest implement laying on the ground beside the throne, though it looked more like a silver weed whacker. Death didn't wear a robe, it -- he? -- wore solid work clothes, more or less like a technician in a computer manufacturing plant, though he didn't have a mask or gloves. He did have protective goggles pushed up on his head. Black, well-trimmed, wavy hair made it look like he was wearing a cap. The name badge clipped to his collar read, "Greaper".

"Cute," Juana said. "You're the Grim Reaper?" She rolled her eyes as only a young woman who grew up in the booming first two decades of the 21st Century could.

He lifted a leg to drape it over the arm of the throne and said, "You've presented me with a problem I've never faced before, young lady."

"What?"

"You're dying -- but you are functionally immortal -- and I have no idea what to do with you."

Names: ♀ Uruguay; ♂ Botswana
Image: https://cdn.britannica.com/40/11740-004-50816EB1/Boris-Karloff-Frankenstein-monster.jpg

POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY: DISCON III ��� #3 How Speculative Fiction Magazines Are CHANGING

Using the Programme Guide of the 2021 World Science Fiction Convention, DisCON III, which I WOULD have been attending in person if I felt safe enough to do so in person AND it hadn���t been changed to the week before the Christmas Holidays���I will jump off, jump on, rail against, and shamelessly agree with the BRIEF DESCRIPTION given in the Program Guide. I will be using the events to drive me to distraction or revelation ��� as the case may be. The link is provided below where this appeared!

How Magazines Are Changing:

Twenty years ago, a new age of internet magazines started rising alongside the print favorites. Now there are so many different ways to broadcast, produce, and consume short fiction. How are magazines changing to reflect that? We���ll look at how everything has changed over time, from what stories are popular to delivery methods to submissions rules and processes, and speculate about what may be coming next.

Participants
Brandon O���Brien: FIYAH Poetry Editor (2017-2020)
Jed Hartman: Editor of STRANGE HORIZONS, a weekly magazine of and about speculative fiction
Scott H. Andrews: Editor of BENEATH CEASELESS SKIES (Fantasy)
Vida Cruz: Asst editor of MERMAIDS MONTHLY (Fantasy)
Gautam Bhatia: STRANGE HORIZONS

Fascinating discussion looking at the radical changes from the clear Science Fiction and Fantasy division to what we consider today and call the broad field Speculative Fiction. When did that start? (WARNING: I���m a ���hard SF���/traditional Fantasy��� reader. It���s not that I haven���t read today���s SpecFic writers ��� I LOVE Rebecca Roanhorse��� fiction! Ada Palmer���I���m pretty sure I���m not smart enough to understand her writing���Hannu Rajaniemi (Finnish hard SF writer) and relative newcomer, Canadian Derek K��nsken, Cory Doctorow (Canadian-British); Peter F. Hamilton (British); and Adrian Tchaikovsky (British).

I DO read David Brin, Octavia Butler, Julie Czerneda (also Canadian), Lois McMaster Bujold (from Minnesota, where I live), Tolkien, Lewis, Donaldson as well as ancient science fiction by Heinlein, Asimov, Herbert, Clifford D. Simak and others.

I also read YA SpecFic, too: Suzanne Collins (of HUNGER GAMES fame); JK Rowling; SKYHUNTER and STEELSTRIKER by Marie Lu and others as my kids and grandkids direct me.

At any rate, I have a clear bias, so take that into consideration as you read my comments!

A few key things they brought up:

���There are more niche magazines today because the limitations of paper magazines have vanished.���

���As a result, BIPOC get to see stories about them���seeing people in stories written about them BY people like them���HOWEVER, those same people need encouragement to submit when they do see themselves.��� [I taught in a high school where the population was 65% non-white. I AM a big-old-fat-white-guy (a BOFWhiG), and I asked my students to teach me to be a better listener and to stand against racism. I worked to listen and learn from the students, teachers, and administrators around me. You have no real reason to believe that I was a midwife for several careers of BIPOC (Black/Indigenous People of Color) students; but if you like, I can connect you with some of them. Leave a note in the comments section.]

My biggest problem is that I rarely read online SpecFic���Of COURSE, I read Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora Hardcover edited by Sheree Ren��e Thomas. I wanted to see my students and friends in the future as well, but until I found this book, I didn���t know HOW to do it. Dark Matter led naturally to Tananarive Due, Nalo Hopkinson, and Nisi Shawl, and I���d discovered Samuel R. Delany and Steven Barnes myself (I SO wish Barnes would complete the cycle he began with LION���S BLOOD and ZULU HEART���I somehow thought that world was ready for the first step into space. I would have loved to have read future history! Nnedi Okorafor enticed me into BINTI���s world and I will willingly go there again (right after I reread the novella���s ��� but I have to buy it again ���cause I gave my copy to the school���s library.)

The discussion raised a specific question in my mind: ���How would I write about the colonization of new worlds by Humans that is NOT rooted in colonialism?���

What did the Zulu do to create their kingdom? ���Shaka created a stratified society based on a combination of subtle socialisation and ���reasonable degree��� of force. At the apex were the king and aristocracy, which consisted of the Zulu ruling house and the groups that were incorporated into the Zulu state during the early stages of its expansion. Closely linked to Zulu royalty and its aristocracy were the more important amakhosi (chiefs) and notables, iziphakanyiswa, who were drawn from the chiefdoms that were subjugated in the early stages of Zulu expansion.���

In Liberia, ���Liberia is a country in West Africa which was founded by free people of color from the United States. The emigration of free people of color, and later former slaves, was funded and organized by the American Colonization Society���.In 1847, the ACS encouraged Liberia to declare independence���The US���intervened when European powers threatened its territory or sovereignty.[6] As a result, eleven signatories established the Republic of Liberia on July 26, 1847���Liberia retained its independence throughout the Scramble for Africa by European colonial powers during the late 19th century, while remaining in the American sphere of influence���Until 1980, Liberia was controlled politically by descendants of the original African-American settlers, known collectively as Americo-Liberians, who were a small minority of the population. From 1980 to 2006, the violent overthrow of the Americo-Liberian regime led to years of civil war������

When I was there, I spoke with a few bilingual Kpelle and Lorma Lutherans who spoke both their birth language and English. They said that the first thing the freed American slaves did���was enslave those who did NOT come from the US���

During World War II, the Japanese launched a brutal invasion of China. The Chinese in turn attempted to crush the Hmong people (as they are currently doing to the Uyghur as the rest of us celebrate the 2022 Beijing Olympics���), who were chased to Vietnam, Laos, and finally Thailand. Today, nearly a million Hmong live in Laos; another 152,000 in Thailand���but the second largest population of Hmong people ��� 260,000 ��� live in the US. 100,000 of them live in California, and the second largest population is in Minnesota���with several families on my block in the most diverse city in Minnesota: Brooklyn Center (NOT Brooklyn, New York, thank-you-very-much!)

How do I write a different future when so many Humans behave alike? We seem to follow certain patterns no matter our race, religion, or the continent we live on. Near the end, one participant noted that, ���Everybody should be able to do what they want to ��� autocracy, or no kind of government at all!���

Indeed, I DO need to read more of the new magazines to see how they solve the problems inherent in feeding, clothing, and serving a population of (as of January 2022) 7.9 billion. Indeed, yes! (BTW, just for the dystopians: this is the year that the movie, ���Soylent Green��� takes place. In it, ������Roth brings two volumes of ���Soylent Oceanographic Survey Report, 2015���2019������the Books confirm that the oceanographic report reveals that the oceans are dying���[and] also reveal that ���Soylent Green��� is being produced from the remains of the dead and the imprisoned, obtained from heavily guarded waste disposal plants outside the city.��� Would the Earth of this dark future REALLY be able to support the 50 billion people posited by this story, with NO GOVERMENT AT ALL?)
I���m not at all certain it could���but I MIGHT be able to write about it, and write BIPOC characters into my own fiction. I highly recommend the book WRITING THE OTHER by Cynthia Ward and Nisi Shawl (https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Other-Conversation-Pieces-8/dp/193350000X) Using it to guide me, and the quote I���ve got hanging over my desk: ���One of our classmates opined that it was a mistake to write about people of different ethnicities: you might get it wrong. Horribly, offensively wrong. Better not to even try.��� (1992, Clarion West Writers Workshop). 
Shawl and Ward's response: "...the lawn chair must have sagged visibly with the weight of my disbelief. My own classmate, excluding all other ethnic types from her creative universe! I think this sort of misguided caution is the source of a lot of sf���s monochrome futures."
I do not want to be accused of misguided caution...I want to enrich the world of Science Fiction!

Program Schedule: https://discon3.org/schedule/
References: https://www.southafrica.net/za/en/travel/article/shaka-kasenzangakhona-the-founder-of-the-zulu-kingdom
Image: https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQY860vAI2izm2g2mUgxzT14fGVmoGh66B51g&usqp=CAU

POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY: DISCON III – #3 How Speculative Fiction Magazines Are CHANGING

Using the Programme Guide of the 2021 World Science Fiction Convention, DisCON III, which I WOULD have been attending in person if I felt safe enough to do so in person AND it hadn’t been changed to the week before the Christmas Holidays…I will jump off, jump on, rail against, and shamelessly agree with the BRIEF DESCRIPTION given in the Program Guide. I will be using the events to drive me to distraction or revelation – as the case may be. The link is provided below where this appeared!

How Magazines Are Changing:

Twenty years ago, a new age of internet magazines started rising alongside the print favorites. Now there are so many different ways to broadcast, produce, and consume short fiction. How are magazines changing to reflect that? We’ll look at how everything has changed over time, from what stories are popular to delivery methods to submissions rules and processes, and speculate about what may be coming next.

Participants
Brandon O’Brien: FIYAH Poetry Editor (2017-2020)
Jed Hartman: Editor of STRANGE HORIZONS, a weekly magazine of and about speculative fiction
Scott H. Andrews: Editor of BENEATH CEASELESS SKIES (Fantasy)
Vida Cruz: Asst editor of MERMAIDS MONTHLY (Fantasy)
Gautam Bhatia: STRANGE HORIZONS

Fascinating discussion looking at the radical changes from the clear Science Fiction and Fantasy division to what we consider today and call the broad field Speculative Fiction. When did that start? (WARNING: I’m a “hard SF”/traditional Fantasy” reader. It’s not that I haven’t read today’s SpecFic writers – I LOVE Rebecca Roanhorse’ fiction! Ada Palmer…I’m pretty sure I’m not smart enough to understand her writing…Hannu Rajaniemi (Finnish hard SF writer) and relative newcomer, Canadian Derek Künsken, Cory Doctorow (Canadian-British); Peter F. Hamilton (British); and Adrian Tchaikovsky (British).

I DO read David Brin, Octavia Butler, Julie Czerneda (also Canadian), Lois McMaster Bujold (from Minnesota, where I live), Tolkien, Lewis, Donaldson as well as ancient science fiction by Heinlein, Asimov, Herbert, Clifford D. Simak and others.

I also read YA SpecFic, too: Suzanne Collins (of HUNGER GAMES fame); JK Rowling; SKYHUNTER and STEELSTRIKER by Marie Lu and others as my kids and grandkids direct me.

At any rate, I have a clear bias, so take that into consideration as you read my comments!

A few key things they brought up:

“There are more niche magazines today because the limitations of paper magazines have vanished.”

“As a result, BIPOC get to see stories about them…seeing people in stories written about them BY people like them…HOWEVER, those same people need encouragement to submit when they do see themselves.” [I taught in a high school where the population was 65% non-white. I AM a big-old-fat-white-guy (a BOFWhiG), and I asked my students to teach me to be a better listener and to stand against racism. I worked to listen and learn from the students, teachers, and administrators around me. You have no real reason to believe that I was a midwife for several careers of BIPOC (Black/Indigenous People of Color) students; but if you like, I can connect you with some of them. Leave a note in the comments section.]

My biggest problem is that I rarely read online SpecFic…Of COURSE, I read Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora Hardcover edited by Sheree Renée Thomas. I wanted to see my students and friends in the future as well, but until I found this book, I didn’t know HOW to do it. Dark Matter led naturally to Tananarive Due, Nalo Hopkinson, and Nisi Shawl, and I’d discovered Samuel R. Delany and Steven Barnes myself (I SO wish Barnes would complete the cycle he began with LION’S BLOOD and ZULU HEART…I somehow thought that world was ready for the first step into space. I would have loved to have read future history! Nnedi Okorafor enticed me into BINTI’s world and I will willingly go there again (right after I reread the novella’s – but I have to buy it again ‘cause I gave my copy to the school’s library.)

It raised a specific question in my mind: “How would I write a colonization of new worlds by Humans that is NOT rooted in colonialism?”

What did the Zulu do to create their kingdom? “Shaka created a stratified society based on a combination of subtle socialisation and ‘reasonable degree’ of force. At the apex were the king and aristocracy, which consisted of the Zulu ruling house and the groups that were incorporated into the Zulu state during the early stages of its expansion. Closely linked to Zulu royalty and its aristocracy were the more important amakhosi (chiefs) and notables, iziphakanyiswa, who were drawn from the chiefdoms that were subjugated in the early stages of Zulu expansion.”

In Liberia, “Liberia is a country in West Africa which was founded by free people of color from the United States. The emigration of free people of color, and later former slaves, was funded and organized by the American Colonization Society….In 1847, the ACS encouraged Liberia to declare independence…The US…intervened when European powers threatened its territory or sovereignty.[6] As a result, eleven signatories established the Republic of Liberia on July 26, 1847…Liberia retained its independence throughout the Scramble for Africa by European colonial powers during the late 19th century, while remaining in the American sphere of influence…Until 1980, Liberia was controlled politically by descendants of the original African-American settlers, known collectively as Americo-Liberians, who were a small minority of the population. From 1980 to 2006, the violent overthrow of the Americo-Liberian regime led to years of civil war…”

When I was there, I spoke with a few bilingual Kpelle and Lorma Lutherans who spoke both their birth language and English. They said that the first thing the freed American slaves did…was enslave those who did NOT come from the US…

During World War II, the Japanese launched a brutal invasion of China. The Chinese in turn attempted to crush the Hmong people (as they are currently doing to the Uyghur as the rest of us celebrate the 2022 Beijing Olympics…), who were chased to Vietnam, Laos, and finally Thailand. Today, nearly a million Hmong live in Laos; another 152,000 in Thailand…but the second largest population of Hmong people – 260,000 – live in the US. 100,000 of them live in California, and the second largest population is in Minnesota…with several families on my block in the most diverse city in Minnesota: Brooklyn Center (NOT Brooklyn, New York, thank-you-very-much!)

How do I write a different future when so many Humans behave alike? We seem to follow certain patterns no matter our race, religion, or the continent we live on. Near the end, one participant noted that, “Everybody should be able to do what they want to – autocracy, or no kind of government at all!”

Indeed, I DO need to read more of the new magazines to see how they solve the problems inherent in feeding, clothing, and serving a population of (as of January 2022) 7.9 billion. Indeed, yes! (BTW, just for the dystopians: this is the year that the movie, “Soylent Green” takes place. In it, “…Roth brings two volumes of ‘Soylent Oceanographic Survey Report, 2015–2019’…the Books confirm that the oceanographic report reveals that the oceans are dying…[and] also reveal that ‘Soylent Green’ is being produced from the remains of the dead and the imprisoned, obtained from heavily guarded waste disposal plants outside the city.” Would the Earth of this dark future REALLY be able to support the 50 billion people posited by this story, with NO GOVERMENT AT ALL?)
I’m not at all certain it could…but I MIGHT be able to write about it, and write BIPOC characters into my own fiction. I highly recommend the book WRITING THE OTHER by Cynthia Ward and Nisi Shawl (https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Other-Conversation-Pieces-8/dp/193350000X) Using it to guide me, and the quote I’ve got hanging over my desk: “One of our classmates opined that it was a mistake to write about people of different ethnicities: you might get it wrong. Horribly, offensively wrong. Better not to even try.” (1992, Clarion West Writers Workshop). 
Shawl and Ward's response: "...the lawn chair must have sagged visibly with the weight of my disbelief. My own classmate, excluding all other ethnic types from her creative universe! I think this sort of misguided caution is the source of a lot of sf’s monochrome futures."
I do not want to be accused of misguided caution...I want to enrich the world of Science Fiction!

Program Schedule: https://discon3.org/schedule/
References: https://www.southafrica.net/za/en/travel/article/shaka-kasenzangakhona-the-founder-of-the-zulu-kingdom
Image: https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQY860vAI2izm2g2mUgxzT14fGVmoGh66B51g&usqp=CAU

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 531

Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them. Regarding Fantasy, this insight was startling: “I see the fantasy genre as an ever-shifting metaphor for life in this world, an innocuous medium that allows the author to examine difficult, even controversial, subjects with impunity. Honor, religion, politics, nobility, integrity, greed—we’ve an endless list of ideals to be dissected and explored. And maybe learned from.” – Melissa McPhail.

Fantasy Trope: The Quest
Current Event: http://contemplativequest.com/, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice's_Adventures_in_Wonderland

Světlana Angelika pursed her lips, looking out over the hectares of forest. In the MSP Vertical Village, it was mostly deciduous trees – oak, maple, patches of white-barked birch, poplar – with a sprinkling of pine trees. The concourse she and Uthman Aali were on was packed with people. Not a hundred thousand, for sure, but too many to think. “We need to go somewhere,” she said abruptly, speaking in the too loud manner of all the inhabitants of Vertical Villages everywhere.

Uthman gave her a look that said, “You’re crazy.”

She slugged him in the shoulder. It was a little kid move – but then, they’d been friends since they were three years old. “No, I’m serious. We need to go somewhere real.”

Without changing his stare, Uthman said, “We can go up to the six hundredth floor...”

“No! I don’t mean here. This is all so...boring. We need to go,” she pause, “through a looking glass.”

“A what?”

“A looking glass! Haven’t you ever read Alice in Wonderland?”

“I might have seen a threevee of it once. Wasn’t it a cartoon?”

“Yes – and no, you haven’t seen this. Lewis Carroll wrote a novel, it’s true. But he was a mathematician. His logic is all over the book. Math. Everything.”

Uthman snorted, “It sounds like science fiction.”

“It’s fantasy – she steps through a mirror.”

“If it’s math and logic, it’s science fiction.”

“There are talking rabbits,” said Světlana. “And a talking, disappearing cat. As well as a talking, smoking caterpillar, talking mice, and soldiers made of playing cards.”

“OK. You win. It’s a fantasy. But what does it have to do with us? What kind of mirror can we jump through? I’m sure there are some here – but...”

“The windows. We can jump through one of those.”

“A window?”

“Come on, let’s go to the outer walls. We’ll leap through one of those!” She turned and ran, Uthman running after her.

Names: ♀ Czech, Roman; ♂ Arabic, Hindu
Image: 

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/98/71/e5/9871e52bbc09c525af21b8f6471eab15.jpg

POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS: The Hero of LORD OF THE RINGS and Savior of Middle Earth ��� Samwise Gamgee

NOT using the Programme Guide of the 2020 World Science Fiction Convention, ConZEALAND (The First Virtual World Science Fiction Convention; to which I be unable to go (until I retire from education ��� which I now have!)), I WOULD jump off, jump on, rail against, and shamelessly agree with the BRIEF DESCRIPTION given in the pdf copy of the Program Guide. But not today. This explanation is reserved for when I dash ���off topic���, sometimes reviewing movies, sometimes reviewing books, and other times taking up the spirit of a blog an old friend of mine used to keep called THE RANTING ROOM���

Often dodged is the fact that JRR Tolkien was a Christian and his fiction held part of himself ��� his Christian self.

The late Gene Wolfe said it best: ���What is impossible is to keep [my Catholicism] out. The author cannot prevent the work being his or hers.��� (https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/sci-fis-difficult-genius -- often hidden behind a paywall���but it���s there)

Tolkien couldn���t hide his Christianity because his faith was one of his core beliefs. Absolutely he and his colleague CS Lewis had problems. Of course, so did the Apostle Paul; Peter ��� the Rock on which Jesus built his Church; and quite famously and loudly, Doubting Thomas.

But THE HOBBIT and LORD OF THE RINGS are rife with Christian allegory, message, and (horrors!) preaching.

It���s also filled with contradictions. It took me until well into adulthood, after reading the books two or three (or four or five���) times, and watching the movies annually for the past decade or so, to realize that the HERO of Lord of the Rings is SAMWISE GAMGEE. Frodo was not a hero and in the end, he nearly gave Middle Earth over to Sauron. But Gollum/Smeagol ��� someone even LESS of a hero than Frodo and MORE under control of the Ring, defeated Frodo���s intent of keeping the ring and becoming a tool of the Dark Lord ��� and Gollum was amply and permanently repaid for his folly.

Cute Frodo ��� Minion Of The Dark Lord���NOT the image we like to keep of him. But the image of Elijah Wood holding the One Ring on the chain, at arms-length in front of his face, suspended over the fires of Mount Doom and with no intention of dropping it?

This image is deeply chilling. Even more chilling because for most of the story, I identify with FRODO. I���m the hero of the tale; the one who carries the ring into Mordor and into Mount Doom and saves the day!

But on further reflection, that���s NOT what happened. Frodo, rightfully so, is so exhausted that Sam has to fight Gollum. Sam has to pick up Frodo and carry him up the side of the erupting volcano (of Doom, if you prefer). Then he falls, beans Gollum, and Frodo runs the rest of the way. Sam follows him, fully expecting Frodo to have thrown the Ring over the edge���

He plunges into despair when it���s clear Frodo will NOT divert the ultimate subjugation of Middle Earth under the vile, satanic reign of Sauron, the Dark Lord. Sam watches as Frodo drops the chain and prepares to put the Ring on; to keep the Ring; to be crushed by Sauron who will use the Ring to rule ALL���

As the moment of Sauron���s victory moves ever closer, the dark minions of Sauron begin to hammer the survivors of the Fellowship of the Ring; the last King of Man is literally under the foot of Sauron; Gimli, Legolas, Pippin, and Meriadoc are falling. The Eye is blazing ever brighter���

Then Gollum knocks Sam unconscious, likely with the intent of KILLING him���and the ancient evil that is Gollum leaps, bites Frodo���s finger off, drops it, then rejoices in possessing the One Ring���and Frodo tackles him���and the both go over the edge of the cliff���

Gollum doesn���t even notice that he���s falling, and even when he HITS the lava, he only has eyes for the Ring���he sinks, and the Ring begins to melt���

And Sam doesn���t run away. He rescues Frodo from the Abyss, from certain, eternal doom. HE REFUSES TO LET GO���

Sound like Someone Else we know? Sam has also remained the repository of all that is good in the Shire, which is remarkably Heaven-like���and Sam is there, knowing EXACTLY what happened and deflecting all glory and honor to Frodo���loving him so much.

And so, Samwise Gamgee, the most humlesest hobbit, sends Frodo on his way to eternal life with the Elves���

I rest my case.

Resource: https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2021/08/good-news-return-king-michael-jahosky-bradley-birzer.html?utm_source=The+Imaginative+Conservative+Newsletter&utm_campaign=fe2fd67cf0-Weekly+Newsletter_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_6c8d563f42-fe2fd67cf0-132633794&mc_cid=fe2fd67cf0&mc_eid=41c39978cb&fbclid=IwAR0HRv2oj5r88QMP1PhykJntjEer-5BNXaMaGZjF_76wuL2mu0X0qnfUZKU,
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