Guy Stewart's Blog, page 52

POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS: Christmas Lights, The Star of Bethlehem, and “The Star” – Another Interpretation

I love Christmas lights! If you ask my family, I would leave them up all year and light them as the mood struck me. I did that very thing one particularly busy year.
Why do I like them? Because they bring to mind the glory of the heavens and connect God and the Universe with the science of astronomy and in particular, they remind me of the Star of Bethlehem that led the Wise Men from the East to the nativity of the Savior.
Christmas lights were not the impetus for Sir Arthur C. Clarke to write “The Star” –“...Clarke noted that he wrote the story for a contest in the London Observer on the subject ‘2500 AD.’ ‘I realized that I had a theme already to hand. The story was written in a state of unusually intense emotion; needless to say, it wasn’t even placed among the ‘also rans.’”
However, the glory of the heavens and the connection between God, super novae, and Christmas certainly was. While Clarke was an outsider [someone who does not hold that the tenets of Christianity are factual; Kinnaman, Lyons, UNCHRISTIAN] when it came to Christianity (“I don't believe in God but I'm very interested in her.”; “It may be that our role on this planet is not to worship God - but to create him.”), he was well aware that as he wrote this (@ 1954) the vast majority of Europeans and those of European descent at least gave lip-service to Christianity, so he wasn’t going to be openly antagonistic.
Maybe he wanted to torpedo the faith of people like me. Maybe he wanted to slap God in the face. Maybe he wanted to win a contest and wrote the most notorious thing he could think of – calling into question the existence of a loving God. By his own admission, he wasn’t dispassionate when he wrote it, though he doesn’t give an indication why he was in “a state of unusually intense emotion” – at least not that I can find (if the reason is written elsewhere, LET ME KNOW AND I’LL INCLUDE IT HERE!)
The story has certainly been dissected (see below). It certainly won the Hugo (science fiction’s Emmy award) in 1956 for best short story. I certainly remembered it. But why I remember it and why others remember it may be for markedly different reasons. I’m pretty sure that when I think of it, it’s in a way I’ve not run across elsewhere.
Most people look at it like this: “Before his journey to the Phoenix Nebula, the priest clearly ‘believed that the heavens declared the glory of God's handiwork,’ (303) but now he has learned that the supernova seen as the star of Bethlehem wiped out a whole civilization when it exploded. Before his journey he could visualize the star as ‘a beacon in that oriental dawn,’ (307) that is, as a symbol of hopefulness and of new life. Now that he has learned the scientific truth, he no longer can see the star as a positive symbol and when…’” “I stare at the crucifix that hangs on the cabin wall above the Mark VI Computer...for the first time in my life I wonder if it is no more than an empty symbol.”
And again, in another review: “What the narrator has learned but not yet communicated to the others is that the supernova that destroyed this civilization was the Star of Bethlehem, which burned brightly in the sky to herald the birth of Jesus Christ. His discovery has caused him to reexamine and to question his own faith.”
Maybe the reviewers are people of faith. I don’t know, but it seems to me that they ascribe an unwarranted fragility to Christianity – that once these incontrovertible, scientific facts are discovered, the entire faith will collapse in on itself and be no more.
Another incontrovertible fact is that I look at the story as something that Clarke may not have intended; something that might not even be acceptable. Maybe the Jesuit priest has tunnel vision; maybe he’s simply exhausted from his journey to the farthest reaches of the known universe. I will argue that instead of dashing God against the rocks of scientific reality, “The Star” foreshadowed the sacrifice that the Son of God would make at the end of His earthly life. Given Clarke was an outsider, I doubt that this was his intent. Then again, it wouldn’t be the first time words launched in one direction ended up hitting an entirely different target.
I’m for the serendipitous interpretation. Besides, it’s not entirely out of line with Clarke’s view of the universe: “I don't pretend we have all the answers. But the questions are certainly worth thinking about.”
Resource: http://www.uni.edu/morgans/astro/course/TheStar.pdf, http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-thestar/#gsc.tab=0, http://mistero.tripod.com/essays/stareval.html,  http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/arthur_c_clarke.html#6vgS9vxWuhKzzXcR.99, http://www.amazon.com/unChristian-Generation-Really-Christianity-Matters/dp/0801072719Image: https://ewscripps.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/aff6073/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1920x1080+0+0/resize/1920x1080!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fewscripps-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fb1%2F5d%2Fde0da8594822b97b67471a5aa4b3%2Flars-leber.jpg

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 476

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.

SF Trope: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_Ship_Galileo
Current Event: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rocket_launch_sites#Additional_rocket_launch_sites_in_North_America, https://osm4wiki.toolforge.org/cgi-bin/wiki/wiki-osm.pl?project=en&article=List_of_rocket_launch_sites, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaceport_Sheboygan

Ilhan Mohamed made a face, then said, “You have to have faith.”

Enok Johnsson shook his head and said, “No, I need a new best friend who doesn’t have ridiculous, suicidal ideas.”

“Hey! There’s a launch site in Wisconsin and one in Michigan on the Upper Peninsula. The one in Wisconsin would be ideal, but it’s still used as a science center. But the Keweenaw Rocket Range in the upper peninsula is both hard to get to and it’s mostly abandoned…”

Enok was hunched over his tablet and looked up a moment later. “You do realize that your spaceship launch pad is not far from where the most spectacular shipwreck of the 20th Century took place, right? There’s even a song about it.” He hit play before she could open her mouth. He’d meant for it to be a joke, but after the initial eerie notes of the song, they listened all the way through. They looked up and their eyes locked. Enok said, “Ya know, if I wasn’t gay, I think I’d be in love with you. What’s your plan?”

“You’re willing to go with me?”

“Well, first of all, I don’t see you having a valid drivers license…”

“I do, too! I drive the kids around all the time!”

He snorted, “Yeah, whatever. Like to swimming lessons and Target? That’s maybe thirty meters from your house.” Ilhan glared at him, narrowing her eyes, lips thinning to invisibilty. He held up his hands in defense, laughing as he said, “OK! OK! You’re an experienced long-distance driver!”

She said, “You MIGHT be right, but you don’t have access to the same equipment that I do. If we decide to do this – like really build a spacecraft that could lift off from Earth, go into orbit, and land back on Earth…”

“We’d need like a zillion dollars!”

“If we wanted to do it the old fashioned way like NASA and SpaceX, you’d be right. But there are other ideas out there – and I have a direct line to one of the most…controversial and exciting.”

Enok scowled through blonde bangs, then said in as low of a voice as he could, “So, what’s your oldest brother working on now?”

She leaned closer, “It used to be called ‘antigravity’, but Abbas says that they call it gravity modification today; gMod for short. He’s not working on anything specific, but I got him to talk about it a week ago. They’re just playing with it now, but I got to thinking about applications to space travel…”

“Duh. You could see space travel in a can of pop!”

She looked up, “Now that you mention it…” He held up his hands in his own defense. She laughed, “Don’t worry, I won’t start lecturing for a while yet.” He wiped his forehead. “Don’t relax too much, if you’re going to help me, I’ll need to break you in.”

“Do it gently,” Enok said. “Remember, I’m more of a math-kind-of-guy, not a nuts-and-bolts-kinda-guy. I keep you around because you can get the pickup started even when the garage can’t.”

She looked heartbroken, “You mean…you mean…you don’t love me for my mind?” They laughed hard until she caught her breath and managed, “OK, so, the plan will involve a little simple theft – car part, a welder, and a few other things…”

“Is that all? You’re gonna make a space car? Why didn’t you say so? Let’s throw the stuff in the pickup and get going…”

“I need some time to get stuff together – how does next weekend sound?”

He rolled his eyes, “Sounds like the exact thing I want to do with my weekend – drive a million miles to the wooded point of a deserted rocket launchpad and spend the rest of the time building an insane spaceship!”

Names: ♀ Somalia, US ; ♂ Norway, US
Image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/01/Ariane5_VA221_liftoff2.jpg/220px-Ariane5_VA221_liftoff2.jpg

POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS: Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”, Easter, and Science Fiction

NOT using the panel discussions of the most recent World Science Fiction Convention in Helsinki, Finland in August 2017 (to which I be unable to go (until I retire from education)), I will 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…

“The red light on my portaphone blinked not quite in time with the few Christmas lights I’d strung to decorate my spare apartment.”

This is how Jeff Kooistra’s story – “Easter Egg Hunt: A Christmas Story” (ANALOG SCIENCE FICTION & FACT, December 1997) begins. I’ve read this story at least 20 times since it was first published because, for some strange reason, it evokes in me the “true meaning” of Christmas.

No – not a wimpy secular attempt to re-write the meaning of God sending his only Son to Earth to redeem Humans from their sins. [(WARNING: Possibly Irritating (brief) Essay: I’m weary of repeated attempts to accuse Christianity of stealing various and sundry holy days, celebrations, symbols, and traditions. Humans constantly co-opt and adopt concepts from other cultures. Simple example is that hamburgers, a quintessential American food, originated in Germany. Macaroni and cheese was born here, in the US. We’ve coopted fajitas from the Mexican cattle ranges. The California Roll was adapted from sushi rolls in a Japanese restaurant in LA; fortune cookies as well. Most of the people in my part of the US don’t speak Spanish – but have no problem talking about their favorite taco, burrito, and tequila. A personal favorite of this family is popcorn – how much more American can you get than that? Probably not much more, though the land didn’t have that name when the Cochise tribe – or possibly the Aztecs – were using it regularly. We like to steal stuff. All of us. Atheists love to think that atheism is an outgrowth of Modern Scientific Thought, but it’s not. Even Wikipedia confirms its ancient (aka as “dumb savage”) origins…]

The true meaning it evokes is sacrifice – the main character, while he doesn’t make a sacrifice until the end of the story, eventually gives up the grim past he’s held onto since childhood. The anger and apathy has protected the yearning heart, which finally leads him to go out into a blizzard to save a place he originally had a very low opinion of.

A movie version of “A Christmas Carol” [(David Hugh Jones (as David Jones) David Hugh Jones (as David Jones); Writers: Peter Barnes (written for television by), Charles Dickens (novel)] is a classic story of an old man who has…um…walled his heart off with anger and apathy – in his case directed at Christmas. In the end, he…um sacrifices the packed anger because he realizes that it will lead only one place. But even more, his pain and anger and rejection of the sacrifice the Christ made at Christmas would lead not only to his own literal, grim, and friendless death; but to the death of a child. The child wouldn’t have the chance to even MAKE a choice to reject the true meaning of Christmas.

The second…well, the connection may seem tenuous at best until I tell you something about it…The actor who portrays Ebenezer Scrooge is Sir Patrick Stewart, known to science fiction fans the world over as Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise D from STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION.

So Ebenezer Scrooge [does anyone out there know what the word “Ebenezer” means? “The place Eben-Ezer, being the name of a stone raised by Samuel to commemorate a victory over the Philistines at Mizpeh (1 Sam. 7:12), from Hebrew eḇen ezar, "stone of help," from eḇen "stone" + ezer "help"...” There are lots of theories about where Ebenezer’s last name came from, but suffice it to say that in the English language, it has become synonymous with “miser” and “mean”], after conversations with time traveling specters, chooses a future more in line a man he once was.

His affliction was an ancient one that the Bible warns against: “For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” (I Timothy 6:10). Unlike the rest of us, he gets a second chance to alter one of the futures we saw.

He sacrificed; as Jake Morgan in “Easter Egg Hunt…” sacrificed – both men sacrificed their anger (which, I can tell you, is a comfortingly solid thing to hold onto) in order to make a positive change in their world. Ebenezer to save both himself and the life of an innocent; Jake to save both himself and the lives of many innocents. Ultimately, Jesus came to Earth to offer himself as a ransom; to save the lives of all Humanity.

And THAT is both a Christmas and an Easter message for this holiday season.

Image: http://i1.wp.com/alternativeministryproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/manger_crossbackground.jpg

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 475

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: auto-cannibalism Current Event: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-cannibalism

Kari leaned from behind him while the movie in Forensics flickered on the screen in front of the class, whispering in his ear, “You know, if you bite your fingernails, the pieces will poke through your intestines and you’ll get a bleeding ulcer.”

“Shut up,” Mark hissed back at her.

Mr. Stanton looked up from the paper he was correcting and scowled at the two of them.

After class, Kari tapped Mark on the shoulder and said, “You’re the one who asked me to bug you about it.”

“Yeah, but…” he stopped talking as a pair of freshmen boys ran like elementary kids down the hall, cutting between him and Kari. It was a good thing, Mark decided. He’d almost told her the real reason he wanted to stop biting his nails. Or horking his snot or sucking the blood from a hangnail or any of the other instances of him eating his own flesh and blood. It started out as accidental. He’d been playing boot hockey over Christmas break and he’d been whanged in the nose and gotten a fierce nosebleed. Swallowing the blood to keep from grossing everyone out by spitting it on the ice had started something inside of him.

“‘Yeah, but’ what?” Kari asked when they pulled together again.

Mark shrugged and said, “I’ll tell you at lunch.”

Inside, he heard his Inner Voice say, “No you won’t. You won’t tell anyone about me. You just keep feeding me and when I’m big enough, I’ll come out and we’ll take over the world…”

Name Source: Local, Minnesota  Image: https://cdn.britannica.com/40/11740-004-50816EB1/Boris-Karloff-Frankenstein-monster.jpg

Slice of PIE: The Only Thing Holding Me Back Is That My Characters Are DEAD!!!

Using the Programme Guide of the 2020 World Science Fiction Convention, ConZEALAND (The First Virtual World Science Fiction Convention), I will jump off, jump on, rail against, and shamelessly agree with the BRIEF DESCRIPTION given in the pdf copy of 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 on Friday, July 31, 2020 at 1200 hours (aka 12N).

Terrain of the Heart: Landscapes that Influence Story

The geographical setting of a SFF story can be just as vital a part of the worldbuilding as culture and languages. What real-world landscapes have inspired memorable fantastical settings? Who are the modern authors working in unique ways with landscape, and how does it affect their stories?

Russell Kirkpatrick: Author of fantasy and atlases, several novels in which the main characters are geographers Fran Wilde: Author, Nebula and various other awards for novels, short fiction, and non-fiction
Yugen Yashima: Author and award winner in various speculative fiction genres
Max Gladstone: Writer, award-nominated of fantasy and speculative fiction

Must have been some discussion! Gladstone has created several worlds and appears to be best known for several novels about LAWYERS in a detailed, fantastic universe. Fran Wilde has created worlds both fantastic and alien. Yugen Yashima has written several award-winning stories in Japanese SF publications. Kirkpatrick fantasy in which the main characters are geographers with powers.

Of all the universes I have created, only one has a place strange enough to have become a character in its own right. That is the puffy gas giant River.

The skies of River (probably title of the novel I’ll be writing in that world), are both banded and diverse. I’ve even created a nursery rhyme that describes how the clouds behave: Belts blow east, and Bands are calm/Zones flee west, away from dawn.

River has a fractured, segregated society marginally held together by the harvest of Helium 3 (“Much speculation has been made over the possibility of helium-3 as a future energy source. Unlike most nuclear fission reactions, the fusion of helium-3 atoms releases large amounts of energy without causing the surrounding material to become radioactive…the temperatures required to achieve helium-3 fusion reactions are much higher than in traditional fusion reactions and the process may unavoidably create other reactions that themselves would cause the surrounding material to become radioactive. The abundance of helium-3 is thought to be greater on the Moon than on Earth, having been embedded in the upper layer of regolith by the solar wind over billions of years, though still lower in abundance than in the Solar System's gas giants.”

With the technical problems solved, H3 is the fuel of choice and harvested from the atmosphere of River (where it’s even more abundant than in a standard Jovian atmosphere) as well as easier to mine. There are NO aliens in this universe – though that effect has been ameliorated by one of the two major governments, both of which own and defend a stake in the skies of River.

The Empire of Man maintains the purity of original Human DNA, eschewing biological engineering for materials engineering. In the Empire, one is considered Human if their DNA is more than a 65% match with the Human DNA as recorded from the Human Genome Project, which is a sort of…bible…for defining Humanity.

In the Confluence of Humanity, that’s absurd. Human DNA is so complex it can be manipulated and combined with genes from other Earth organisms to adapt Humanity to virtually any environment. On River that have – there are Humans of every shape, size, and temperament. According those in the Empire, they might as well BE aliens.

So the Bands and Zones of River belong to the two nations and the conflict, while not constant, is constantly challenged. As there is no surface, the Confluence has tweaked a lifeform in River’s atmosphere called a cloudwhale. As large as an American state, they contain cities, farms, and industry.

The cities of the Empire are technological marvels and make use of gravity modification to conquer the skies of River.

Not only has outright war disappeared, cracks in the philosophies foundational to both cultures have begun to erode and recombine in unique ways…

I’ve written eleven stories in this universe, two have been published. I’m going to attempt a story in the skies again as soon as I’m done with the Aster Theilen Sequence of MARTIAN HOLIDAY.

One thing I’ve learned – in order to explore the alien, a reader needs a firm foundation in the Human. Both of the published stories had clearly Human characters – one Imperial and one Confluan – through whom we see the story. As I think on the other stories I’ve written, they’re much less character-driven. I let the idea take over. How I need to focus a “character-driven” story has always been a mystery to me. I suppose as far as novels go, the VORKOSIGAN stories of Lois McMaster Bujold and the FOREIGNER series of CJ Cherryh, and the short series by Julie Czerneda – the CLAN CHRONICLES, the SPECIES IMPERATIVE (my personal favorite) cycle, and the WEBSHIFTERS books are also character driven: Sira and Morgan, Mackenzie Connor, and Esen-Alit-Quar drive their stories…

In the two I sold, the youngster Igaluk Abumayaleh-Jawai, (aka Iggie), and the “pirate” Johnny Ferocious; are very clearly people whose lives are changed. Not necessarily by River, but without the world of River, they would never have happened. Gordon Oyeyemi was a Nigerian soldier whose body cells turned out to have the Henrietta Lacks Quality (HLQ) in that they were infinitely cloneable. In the Skies of River, he and his clone brother Irog – who is a genetically engineered manta ray fifteen kilometers across who has a bubble inside that is a small-scale medical clinic. Gordon had NO idea his brother had been cloned until they were paired and sent into a tense situation that only they could survive – an Imperial Heir has had her brain transplanted into a gengineered body and has vanished into the depths of River…

Maybe my future with these worlds will be to develop those two or three characters and THEN introduce the world through their lives.

Anyway, rather than the sciencey stuff, I need to work on the RELATIONSHIPS of the characters to their surroundings and how they grow more…um…Human.

Resource: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium-3
Program Book: https://sites.grenadine.co/sites/conzealand/en/conzealand/schedule
Image: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/bd/df/17/bddf178db4c8957b57e11e476919fabc.jpg

Slice of PIE: Is The Only Thing Holding Me Back That My Characters Are DEAD???

Using the Programme Guide of the 2020 World Science Fiction Convention, ConZEALAND (The First Virtual World Science Fiction Convention), I will jump off, jump on, rail against, and shamelessly agree with the BRIEF DESCRIPTION given in the pdf copy of 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 on Friday, July 31, 2020 at 1200 hours (aka 12N).

Terrain of the Heart: Landscapes that Influence Story

The geographical setting of a SFF story can be just as vital a part of the worldbuilding as culture and languages. What real-world landscapes have inspired memorable fantastical settings? Who are the modern authors working in unique ways with landscape, and how does it affect their stories?




Russell Kirkpatrick: Author of fantasy and atlases, several novels in which the main characters are geographers
Fran Wilde: Author, Nebula and various other awards for novels, short fiction, and non-fiction
Yugen Yashima: Author and award winner in various speculative fiction genres
Max Gladstone: Writer, award-nominated of fantasy and speculative fiction

Must have been some discussion! Gladstone has created several worlds and appears to be best known for several novels about LAWYERS in a detailed, fantastic universe. Fran Wilde has created worlds both fantastic and alien. Yugen Yashima has written several award-winning stories in Japanese SF publications. Kirkpatrick fantasy in which the main characters are geographers with powers.

Of all the universes I have created, only one has a place strange enough to have become a character in its own right. That is the puffy gas giant River.

The skies of River (probably title of the novel I’ll be writing in that world), are both banded and diverse. I’ve even created a nursery rhyme that describes how the clouds behave: Belts blow east, and Bands are calm/Zones flee west, away from dawn.

River has a fractured, segregated society marginally held together by the harvest of Helium 3 (“Much speculation has been made over the possibility of helium-3 as a future energy source. Unlike most nuclear fission reactions, the fusion of helium-3 atoms releases large amounts of energy without causing the surrounding material to become radioactive…the temperatures required to achieve helium-3 fusion reactions are much higher than in traditional fusion reactions and the process may unavoidably create other reactions that themselves would cause the surrounding material to become radioactive. The abundance of helium-3 is thought to be greater on the Moon than on Earth, having been embedded in the upper layer of regolith by the solar wind over billions of years, though still lower in abundance than in the Solar System's gas giants.”

With the technical problems solved, H3 is the fuel of choice and harvested from the atmosphere of River (where it’s even more abundant than in a standard Jovian atmosphere) as well as easier to mine. There are NO aliens in this universe – though that effect has been ameliorated by one of the two major governments, both of which own and defend a stake in the skies of River.

The Empire of Man maintains the purity of original Human DNA, eschewing biological engineering for materials engineering. In the Empire, one is considered Human if their DNA is more than a 65% match with the Human DNA as recorded from the Human Genome Project, which is a sort of…bible…for defining Humanity.

In the Confluence of Humanity, that’s absurd. Human DNA is so complex it can be manipulated and combined with genes from other Earth organisms to adapt Humanity to virtually any environment. On River that have – there are Humans of every shape, size, and temperament. According those in the Empire, they might as well BE aliens.

So the Bands and Zones of River belong to the two nations and the conflict, while not constant, is constantly challenged. As there is no surface, the Confluence has tweaked a lifeform in River’s atmosphere called a cloudwhale. As large as an American state, they contain cities, farms, and industry.

The cities of the Empire are technological marvels and make use of gravity modification to conquer the skies of River.

Not only has outright war disappeared, cracks in the philosophies foundational to both cultures have begun to erode and recombine in unique ways…

I’ve written eleven stories in this universe, two have been published. I’m going to attempt a story in the skies again as soon as I’m done with the Aster Theilen Sequence of MARTIAN HOLIDAY.

One thing I’ve learned – in order to explore the alien, a reader needs a firm foundation in the Human. Both of the published stories had clearly Human characters – one Imperial and one Confluan – through whom we see the story. As I think on the other stories I’ve written, they’re much less character-driven. I let the idea take over. How I need to focus a “character-driven” story has always been a mystery to me. I suppose as far as novels go, the VORKOSIGAN stories of Lois McMaster Bujold and the FOREIGNER series of CJ Cherryh, and the short series by Julie Czerneda – the CLAN CHRONICLES, the SPECIES IMPERATIVE (my personal favorite) cycle, and the WEBSHIFTERS books are also character driven: Sira and Morgan, Mackenzie Connor, and Esen-Alit-Quar drive their stories…

In the two I sold, the youngster Igaluk Abumayaleh-Jawai, (aka Iggie), and the “pirate” Johnny Ferocious; are very clearly people whose lives are changed. Not necessarily by River, but without the world of River, they would never have happened. Gordon Oyeyemi was a Nigerian soldier whose body cells turned out to have the Henrietta Lacks Quality (HLQ) in that they were infinitely cloneable. In the Skies of River, he and his clone brother Irog – who is a genetically engineered manta ray fifteen kilometers across who has a bubble inside that is a small-scale medical clinic. Gordon had NO idea his brother had been cloned until they were paired and sent into a tense situation that only they could survive – an Imperial Heir has had her brain transplanted into a gengineered body and has vanished into the depths of River…

Maybe my future with these worlds will be to develop those two or three characters and THEN introduce the world through their lives.

Anyway, rather than the sciencey stuff, I need to work on the RELATIONSHIPS of the characters to their surroundings and how they grow more…um…Human.

Resource: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium-3
Program Book: https://sites.grenadine.co/sites/conzealand/en/conzealand/schedule
Image: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/bd/df/17/bddf178db4c8957b57e11e476919fabc.jpg

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 474

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: Fantastic Comedy
Current Event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpIJNGMh0IQ

Aarav Tlak shook his head and said, “Horses don’t talk.”

Kyla Das sniffed and said, “Shows what you know.”

“There’s no such thing as magic; there’s no such thing as a talking ani...”

“To reiterate what I said, you’re showing your ignorance by making such a categorical and sweeping statement. Are you including animals who have been trained or recognize commands?”

“Of course not! Animals can be smart and trainable, they just can’t talk.”

She gave him a long look then said, “So you’re saying that no animal on Earth can communicate?”

“No! You’re twisting my words. Animals communicate in a thousand different ways – some we can’t comprehend, like elephants talking below our level of hearing. But you’re talking about...about...about...talking like we’re talking and animals don’t do that.”

“How do you know?”

“You know what I’m talking about!”

“I could say that you’re a bit of an animal,” Kyla said with a smirk.

“I am not!” Aarav exclaimed.

She snorted then said, “You’ve never had to deal with yourself after you and your gf haven’t had a chance to make out.”

Sputtering, Aarav exclaimed, “That’s not fair!”

“That’s what criminals all say.”

He glared at her, took a deep breath, glared a while longer and finally said, “Proof would be you introducing me to some animal and then me and the animal having a conversation.”

“You’d accept that as proof?”

He gave her a funny look and she burst into laughter. Blushing furiously, he said, “Of course I’d accept it as proof! I’d hardly be a dispassionate scientist if I ignored an actual animal actually speaking to me.”

“Any animal?”

Aarav scowled, “I don’t like the direction this conversation is taking. What do you mean by that?”

She held out a stethoscope and said, “Put these into your ears.”

His eyes grew wide, he took them in hand, and said, “This isn’t funny anymore.”

“It’s not supposed to be. Warm up the end of that thing and put it on my belly – and prepare to be amazed.”

Names: ♀Philippines, Bangladesh; ♂ India, Croatia
Image: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/98/71/e5/9871e52bbc09c525af21b8f6471eab15.jpg

WRITING ADVICE: Writing the Alien – God, Jesus, Earth, and Intelligences “Out There”

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!

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/3a/eb/...

As a Christian since I was seventeen and a science fiction fan and writer since I was thirteen, I understand the SF community’s objection to Earth-based religions. Mostly the arguments grant that religion is fine, but it’s a totally local phenomenon, that is, the only Christians in the universe exist on Earth. Any kind of universal religion would be impossible.

I can appreciate the argument. It seems obvious that Jesus, Mohammed, Siddhartha Gautama, Moses, Brahma, Laozi, and others, being Human, and creating their religions at various times; are in their essence no different from the Pastafarianism of Bobby Henderson. I think the majority of SF readers and writers probably fall in somewhere on the spectrum of “I’d rather wait and see” and thinking there will be a plurality of religions along the same lines as the Prophets in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (and of course, they aren’t really prophets, just manipulative aliens); the religion of DUNE (a mishmash of Human religions with bits of Roman Catholicism, Islam, possibly a bit of Buddhism with sprinklings of various other Human faiths) – and the idea that matter is all there is; there isn’t anything invisible, and “spirituality” is an aspect of Human consciousness alone.

The Wikipedia entry gives (probably) a fairly complete list of SF religions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_religious_ideas_in_science_fiction

CS Lewis had a very different point of view regarding aliens. In an essay called, “Religion and Rockets” (see THE WORLD’S LAST NIGHT AND OTHER ESSAYS) it was Lewis who asked the question, “How can we, without absurd arrogance, believe ourselves to have been uniquely favored?” and “...if we discovered that no form of redemption had reached them, then the human task might be to evangelize them…redemption, starting with us, is to work from us and through us [to the extraterrestrial beings].” He continues, “Those who are, or can become His sons, are our real brothers even if they have shells or tusks. It is spiritual, not biological, kinship that counts.”

Of course the belief of Lewis (and me) is that there is one God who made the universe – and every intelligence is given a “Garden of Eden Test”. We failed; Venusians passed. His idea about the salvation of Earth (and any other fallen intelligences) is actually best illustrated in his answer to a young person regarding the fantasy world of Narnia: “I’m not really representing the (Christian) story in symbols. I’m more saying, ‘Suppose there was a world like Narnia and it needed rescuing and the Son of God…went to redeem it, as He came to redeem ours, what might it, in that world, have been like?’”

I wrote a story some time ago that looked at a sort of map that intelligences who develop interstellar travel eventually discover. It shows stars where fallen and unfallen civilizations exist. I revised it recently and sent it out, and got a “that was close, but no thank you” from the editors.

The image above sparked these thoughts and while I’m certainly no Lewis, I’ll keep exploring the possibility that there are fallen and unfallen intelligences…I don’t THINK anyone is doing that right now. So we’ll see. As the holiday season rolls in, I might be sharing some other thoughts about this as well – and probably testing our a few more stories.

Me, writing on a different aspect of this: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2014/12/a-slice-of-pie-is-there-perfect-alien.html
References: https://instituteforfaithandculture.org/blogarticles/is-christianity-compatible-the-existence-of-aliens, https://scientificgems.wordpress.com/2016/09/04/lewis-aliens-and-the-fermi-paradox/, https://www.christiantoday.com/article/c.s.lewis.letter.testifies.narnia.lion.as.christ/4724.htm I tried to use this article as a reference, but it’s literally RIDDLED with inaccuracies, beginning with the date Lewis wrote the response – 8 June 1960 (THE ESSENTIAL C.S. Lewis, Ed. Lyle W. Dorsett)
Image: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/9f/22/3b/9f223b1e57a36e14db3eb13715fbe3f9.jpg

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 473

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.

SF Trope: Archaeological Arms Race (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ArchaeologicalArmsRace)
Current Event: http://io9.com/carbon-nanotubes-were-an-ancient-superweapon-1707615687, http://www.ryot.org/autistic-teen-becomes-youngest-astrophysicist-world/394809, http://msc.tsinghua.edu.cn/sanya/StringMath2015/speakers.aspx

Puteri Etini shook sand from his hands and stood up, brushing it from his jeans. “What are we supposed to do with it once we get it?”

Marama Daeng looked up from the excavation and said, “This sword was supposed to be able to split the hair of a vicuna into identical halves with ease.”

“And The Massachusetts Institute of Technology needs it…why?” She shrugged and continued her work of brushing debris from the object they were unearthing. “You think it has anything to do with the superstring energy project in Moscow?” She snorted then sneezed, doubling over the hole, intent.

She straightened up and looking into the distance, she said, “They’ve tried magnets – super-cooled and room-temperature, dipole and monopoles; they’ve tried coherent EM radiation at every frequency imaginable from radio to gamma; electrical fields of every strength. They have captured a string, balanced between Earth and the Sun. Everyone is in Vysokaya Lomonosov Moscow State University – and everyone’s enemies have gathered around to see what they do.”

“Who’s the idiot who thinks a depression in the space-time continuum can be touched by something physical?”

“Jakob Barnett.”

“The man who can’t speak? He’s...he’s…” Pateri said.

“…the intellectual equivalent of Hawking, Kadanof, Ellis, Dyson, Leung, Becker, and Silk all-rolled-into-one are the name’s you’re thinking of.”

“How...”

“If I knew that, then I wouldn’t be digging in the sand in a remote corner not far from the Syria- Iraq border, south of the Euphrates River. I can only believe that he can do what he says. How about you?”

He sniffed, grinned, and drew the .45 from his shoulder holster…

Names: ♀Malaysia ; ♂ Tahiti
Image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/01/Ariane5_VA221_liftoff2.jpg/220px-Ariane5_VA221_liftoff2.jpg

POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS: The BEST Captain In STARFLEET is NOT Named Kirk or Picard!!!!

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)), 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…

A friend of mine from the school I used to work at posted the meme/photo above several weeks ago and added underneath it:

“Fight me.” -- n.l.n.

As a long-time fan of all of the series, I had to serious consider her argument. The following is my train of thought (edited, boiled down then expanded with references into a coherent essay that will likely irritate as many people as it lifts up!) Onward then!

Captain, father, diplomat, religious figure? 
For three seasons, he held the rank of Captain, and was then promoted to Commander for the last three. In my humble opinion, he blew Kirk (old and new), Picard, Janeway, Archer, and Lorca out of the water -- PLUS, he didn't have a starship to flash around, just a dumpy old space station that broke down every other episode.

Picard was given the top-tech FLAGSHIP of the Federation. Kirk captained the first starship to actually go on an exploratory mission. Lorca’s job was to save the Federation from a devastating war with the Klingon Empire. Archer took the very first starship and led the very first mission out of Human space under the watchful eye of the Vulcans, who stood ready to mop up any mess Archer got into. Janeway, with an amazing ship had to rip disaster out of the mouth of diplomacy as practiced by the Federation and the Cardassian Empire.

Sisko got a ruined space station, intentionally sacked by the departing Cardassian former owners, a deeply suspicious population below who wanted nothing more than to get rid of all these frickin’ aliens and go back to Life As We Knew It…

Oh, and his “liaison” with the Bajoran Transitional Government was one of their most celebrated…terrorists…who saw the Federation as just another version of the Cardassians.

“Here you go, Sisko. Let’s see what you can do with this, hehehehehehe…”

Woops, I forgot: along with an actively hostile civilian government on the world below; and actively hostile military government a few moments away by starship (which neither he nor the Barjoans have access to); there’s also a clandestine observation by an actively hostile alien alien who can detach bits of itself that can take the shape of ANYTHING in order to spy on you.

Jake Sisco’s best FRIEND was altered by his relationship with both Siskos that he chose to become the first Ferengi to enlist in Starfleet Officer (and he eventually became a captain) which of course, ended up ameliorating the ”money-grubbing” nature of the Ferengi so much so that Rom, Quark’s brother became the new Grand Nagus.

Oh, another thing, Sisko was the ONLY one of the set who dared to take the REALLY daring voyage of marriage and family life. Added layer: he was very recently widowed and his son was shocked by the loss of his mother so, just staple "bereaved" on to the other minor things he was dealing with...(Kirk tried the marriage and kid thing VERY briefly and admittedly failed except for the making-a-kid-part (apparently accepting fatherhood for an undisclosed amount of time, then ditching THAT SUCKER like an irritated Orion Slave Girl (though it’s the MEN who are slaves to the women, apparently)).

In addition to the above, his son chose to be a writer while his son’s best FRIEND became a Starfleet Officer (eventually captain) which of course, ended up ameliorating the ”money-grubbing” nature of the Ferengi so much so that Rom, Quark’s brother became the new Grand Nagus; as a religious icon called the Emissary of the Prophets and completely fulfilled the Prophecy by sacrificing his Humanity to them.

When confronted with the clandestine observation by an actively hostile alien alien called The Great Link whose stated intent was to destroy all Solids; and who detached bits of itself, one of which ended up on DS9 calling itself Odo and was able to take the shape of ANYTHING in order to spy on Humans aboard DS9 and became so loyal to them that he very nearly refused to halt a plague given to The Great Link because he’d fallen in love with a Solid. His respect and love for Nerice and Sisko made him reenter The Great Link with the cure for the plague and saved ALL of them, bringing about the end of the Dominion, the downfall of the Cardassian Empire (again), and the integration of a bit of Starfleet into the Prophets of the Wormhole.

Let’s just tote this up. Sisko: saved Bajor, reformed Bajoran terrorist, altered Ferengi social fabric, became religious icon then fulfilled sundry prophecies including Final Prophecy of entire Bajoran civilization, reformed and saved communal alien life form, earned respect of Cardassian Empire, all WITHOUT A STARSHIP and using a dilapidated, booby-trapped, former prison of a space station as a base.

So tell me again, EXACTLY what did Kirk, Picard, Janeway, Archer, and Lorca do for Life, the Universe, and Everything?

Last of all, from a Reality Standpoint, Sisco has been relegated to being an unsung hero of the Federation. Why doesn’t he receive more accolades? How MANY real biases did he topple? At the very least, two. He was the ANTI-absent black father. He was the ANTI-uneducated black male. Despite all of this, not only was Sisko, or more correctly, Avery Brooks pretty much forgotten, he should have in fact, been a major hero in the STAR TREK canon.

But he’s not. People rave all the time about Kirk or Picard. Not ONLY did Sisko/Brooks end up being a fictional INVISIBLE MAN he actually tried to bring this up in the infrequently mentioned DS9 episode, “Far Beyond the Stars”.

Brooks commented, “If we had changed the people's clothes, this story could be about right now. What's insidious about racism is that it is unconscious. Even among these very bright and enlightened characters – a group that includes a woman writer who has to use a man's name to get her work published, and who is married to a brown man with a British accent in 1953 – it's perfectly reasonable to coexist with someone like Pabst. It’s in the culture, it’s the way people think. So that was the approach we took. I never talked about racism. I just showed how these intelligent people think, and it all came out of them.” However, it wasn’t supposed to be entirely about racism. Brooks added, “The people thought it was about racism, well maybe so, maybe not [….] But the fact of the matter in 'Far Beyond the Stars' is that you have a man who essentially was conceiving of something far beyond what people around him had ever imagined, and therefore they thought he was crazy.” This episode was Avery Brooks' personal favorite, “I'd have to say, it was the most important moment for me in the entire seven years…It should have been a two-parter.”

Rene Auberjonois commented, "Brilliant episode. One of the best of the whole series and Avery did a fabulous job of directing it." Michael Dorn said, "It was wonderfully shot." Penny Johnson commented, “This was beautifully handled and beautifully shot. But it still, in the heart, it got me.” J.G. Hertzler commented, “I thought it was one you could have built an entire series from. There was a scene toward the end where he falls apart with the camera right in front of his nose. It was just riveting.” The same scene was also extremely memorable for Nana Visitor. Armin Shimerman thought highly of how the installment serves as a reminder of prejudice, especially racism, the actor commenting, “That's what that episode does terrifically well…it’s perfect science fiction. I think it stretches the imagination of the viewer and breaks down the fourth wall to talk about the real heroes of any TV shows, which are the writers.”

...Benjamin Sisko and Black Panther should have had a face-to-face...*sigh*

Reference: https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Far_Beyond_the_Stars_(episode)
Image: https://memegenerator.net/img/instances/78192652.jpg