L. Jagi Lamplighter's Blog, page 24

Rabid Puppies: the Enfoaming! — the Slate

Here is the Rabit Puppies slate. Take your pick, or add your own!

BEST NOVEL


Monster Hunter Nemesis by Larry Correia, Baen Books


The Chaplain's War by Brad Torgersen, Baen Books


Skin Game by Jim Butcher, ROC


Lines of Departure, by Marko Kloos, self-published


The Dark Between the Stars by Kevin J. Anderson, Tor Books




BEST NOVELLA


"One Bright Star to Guide Them" by John C. Wright, Castalia House (Spanish)


"Big Boys Don't Cry" by Tom Kratman, Castalia House (German, Italian)


"The Jenregar and the Light" by Dave Creek, Analog October 2014


"The Plural of Helen of Troy" by John C. Wright, City Beyond Time / Castalia House


"Flow" by Arlan Andrews Sr., Analog November 2014




BEST NOVELETTE


"Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus" by John C. Wright, The Book of Feasts & Seasons


"The Journeyman: In the Stone House" by Michael F. Flynn, Analog June 2014


“Championship B’tok" by Edward M. Lerner, Analog Sept 2014


"The Triple Sun: A Golden Age Tale", by Rajnar Vajra, Analog July/Aug 2014


"Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust, Earth to Alluvium" by Gray Rinehart, Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show




BEST SHORT STORY


"Turncoat" by Steve Rzasa, Riding the Red Horse


"The Parliament of Beasts and Birds" by John C. Wright, The Book of Feasts & Seasons


"Goodnight Stars" by Annie Bellet, The Apocalypse Triptych


"Tuesdays With Molakesh the Destroyer" by Megan Grey, Fireside Fiction


"Totaled" by Kary English, Galaxy's Edge




BEST RELATED WORK


Transhuman and Subhuman: Essays on Science Fiction and Awful Truth, by John C. Wright, Castalia House


"The Hot Equations: Thermodynamics and Military SF" by Ken Burnside, Riding the Red Horse / Castalia House


"Wisdom From My Internet" by Michael Z. Williamson, self-published


"The Science is Never Settled" by Tedd Roberts, Baen Free Library


"Letters from Gardner" by Lou Antonelli, Sci Phi Journal #3




BEST GRAPHIC STORY


Reduce Reuse Reanimate (Zombie Nation book #2) by Carter Reid, (independent)


 

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION (Long Form)


Coherence, James Ward Byrkit


Guardians of the Galaxy, James Gunn


Interstellar, Christopher Nolan


The Maze Runner, Wes Ball


The Lego Movie, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller




BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION (Short Form)


A Game of Thrones: "The Mountain and the Viper"


Grimm: "Once We Were Gods"




BEST EDITOR (Long Form)


Vox Day, Castalia House


Toni Weisskopf, Baen Books


Jim Minz, Baen Books


Anne Sowards, ACE/ROC


Sheila Gilbert, DAW




BEST EDITOR (Short Form)


Vox Day, Riding the Red Horse, Castalia House


Jennifer Brozek, Shattered Shields


Bryan Thomas Schmidt, Shattered Shields


Mike Resnick, Galaxy's Edge


Edmund R. Schubert, Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show




BEST PROFESSIONAL ARTIST


Kirk DouPounce


Carter Reid


Jon Eno


Alan Polack


Nick Greenwood




BEST SEMIPROZINE


Sci Phi Journal, Jason Rennie


Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show, Edmund Schubert




BEST FANZINE


Black Gate, John O'Neill


Tangent SF On-line, Dave Truesdale


SF Signal, Jon DeNardo


Elitist Book Reviews,  Steve Diamond


The Revenge of Hump Day, Tim Bolgeo




BEST FANCAST


"The Sci Phi Show", Jason Rennie


Dungeon Crawlers Radio


Adventures in SF Publishing




BEST FAN WRITER


Jeffro Johnson


Matthew David Surridge


Amanda Green


Cedar Sanderson


Dave Freer




THE JOHN W. CAMPBELL AWARD


Eric S. Raymond, "Sucker Punch", Riding the Red Horse


Rolf Nelson, The Stars Came Back


Kary English


Amy Turner Hughes


Jason Cordova

 

 

 

Sad Puppies 3: The Saddening — the Slate

The official Sad Puppies 3 recommended Hugo Slate: Remember: only YOU can combat puppy-related sadness!

Best Novel


“The Dark Between the Stars” – Kevin J. Anderson – TOR


“Trial by Fire” – Charles E. Gannon – BAEN


“Skin Game” – Jim Butcher – ROC


“Monster Hunter Nemesis” – Larry Correia – BAEN


“Lines of Departure” – Marko Kloos – 47 North (Amazon)

Best Novella


“Flow” – Arlan Andrews Sr. – Analog magazine November 2014


“One Bright Star to Guide Them” – John C. Wright – Castalia House


“The Jenregar and the Light” – Dave Creek – Analog magazine October 2014


“Big Boys Don’t Cry” – Tom Kratman – Castalia House

Best Novelette


“The Journeyman: In the Stone House” – Michael F. Flynn – Analog magazine June 2014


“The Triple Sun: A Golden Age Tale” – Rajnar Vajra – Analog magazine July/Aug 2014


“Championship B’tok” – Edward M. Lerner – Analog magazine Sept 2014


“Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust, Earth to Alluvium” – Gray Rinehart – Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show

Best Short Story


“Goodnight Stars” – Annie Bellet – The Apocalypse Triptych


“Tuesdays With Molakesh the Destroyer” – Megan Grey – Fireside Fiction


“Totaled” – Kary English – Galaxy’s Edge magazine


“On A Spiritual Plain” – Lou Antonelli – Sci Phi Journal #2

Best Related Work


“Letters from Gardner” – Lou Antonelli – Merry Blacksmith Press


“Transhuman and Subhuman: Essays on Science Fiction and Awful Truth” – John C. Wright – Castalia House


“THE HOT EQUATIONS: THERMODYNAMICS AND MILITARY SF” – Ken Burnside


“Wisdom From My Internet” – Michael Z. Williamson


“Why Science is Never Settled” – Tedd Roberts – BAEN

Best Graphic Story


“Reduce Reuse Reanimate (Zombie Nation book #2) – Carter Reid – (independent)

Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form)


“The Lego Movie” – Phil Lord, Christopher Miller


“Guardians of the Galaxy” – James Gunn


“Interstellar” – Christopher Nolan


“The Maze Runner” – Wes Ball

Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form)


Grimm – ” Once We Were Gods” – NBC


Marvel’s Agent’s of Shield – ABC


Warehouse 13 – SyFY


A Game of Thrones – “The Mountain and the Viper” – HBO

Best Editor (Long Form)


Toni Weisskopf – BAEN


Jim Minz – BAEN


Anne Sowards – ACE/ROC


Sheila Gilbert – DAW

Best Editor (Short Form)


Mike Resnick – Galaxy’s Edge magazine


Edmund R. Schubert – Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show


Jennifer Brozek (Shattered Shields)


Bryan Thomas Schmidt (Shattered Shields)

Best Professional Artist


Carter Reid


Jon Eno


Alan Pollack


Nick Greenwood

Best Semiprozine


Sci Phi Journal – Jason Rennie


Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show – Edmund Schubert


Abyss & Apex


Andromeda Spaceways In-Flight Magazine

Best Fanzine


Tangent SF On-line – Dave Truesdale


SF Signal – Jon DeNardo


Elitist Book Reviews – Steve Diamond


The Revenge of Hump Day – Tim Bolgeo

Best Fancast


“The Sci Phi Show” – Jason Rennie


Dungeon Crawlers Radio


Adventures in SF Publishing

Best Fan Writer


Matthew David Surridge (Black Gate)


Jeffro Johnson


Amanda Green


Cedar Sanderson


Dave Freer

The John W. Campbell Award


Jason Cordova


Kary English


Eric S. Raymond


Amy Turner Hughes

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J.R.R. Tolkien’s Unfinished Work: The Notion Club Papers

For today's Superversive Blog, we have a guest post by British professor Bruce Charlton, who happins to be one of my husband's favorite authors.

The Notions Club — as envisioned by Afalstein

 

JRR Tolkien’s fragments of a novel called The Notion Club Papers:

and my attempt to finish some of his unfinished business

  By Bruce G Charlton

 

Few people know that, just as the second world war was ending, JRR Tolkien broke off from writing The Lord of the Rings and spent about a year and a half working on a modern novel called The Notion Club Papers (NCPs).

 The draft novel material can be found on pages 143-327 of the Sauron Defeated, which is The History of Middle Earth Volume Nine, edited by Christopher Tolkien and published twenty years ago (1992) – and in addition there are a further hundred pages of drafts of the history of Numenor which was intended to have been integrated into the story. This is a big chunk of writing, done at the peak of Tolkien’s powers, so it may be surprising that it is not better known – but of course the Notion Club Papers forms merely one part of a scholarly volume also dedicated to charting the evolution of Lord of the Rings, so few Tolkien fans are even aware of its existence.

Furthermore what we have of the NCPs is a mere fragment: a scrappy ‘set-up’ for a very ambitious fiction which is mostly unwritten. Furthermore, the novel is not just un-finished, but hardly begun in terms of its action. Most novel readers are looking for a complete and coherent story with clear characterisation – and the NCPs do not offer anything of that type.

 *

Why read it then? I can only try to explain what draws me back to this tantalising work again and again.

In the first place there is a delightful sense of eavesdropping on a real-life Inklings meeting, because (as the name implies) the ‘Notion Club’ is modelled upon the Inklings, as reading and discussion groups of – mostly – dons, and meeting in the evening in Oxford Colleges. The style, and even the topics, of discussion at the Notion Club fit very well with what is known of the Inklings at their best.

 Secondly, these fragments are worth reading because the NCPs (Notion Club Papers) is thematically focused on some of Tolkien’s deepest and most enduring concerns and yearnings – in particular his desire to provide England with a mythology that he felt it lacked, and to re-connect the impoverished modern world view with the richer, deeper perspective of the past. There are particular passages, here and there, which jump out at me; and feel like Tolkien talking of his inmost desires and deepest convictions.

 Thirdly, the NCPs were vital in developing the concept of Numenor, including spurring the invention of the language Adunaic as the everyday language of the Island. Among this material is a fascinatingly ‘garbled’ version of Numenorean history. Which Tolkien constructed as an example of the way that the original correct information from the elves might have become distorted by the passage of time and cumulative errors of many generations of men.

Finally, the NCPs were intended to be Tolkien’s fictional link from the modern world to his whole ‘Legendarium’ of the Hobbit, Lord of the Rings and Silmarillion legends. Specifically, it seems that the Notion Club was to describe how the stories of ancient and magical times were transmitted to modern times: partly by the dreams experienced by members of the Notion Club, and probably also by two Notion Club members actually voyaging West across the Atlantic Ocean, discovering a long-lost route and coming to the land of the elves.

In a nutshell, Tolkien intended that the Notion Club papers would be the very first work the reader of Tolkien’s works would encounter – an introduction to the whole body of his ‘mythology for England’ providing a transition from modern life to ancient mythology, and thereby ‘framing’ The Silmarillion, The Lord of the Rings, and the Hobbit to follow.

 *

So, the Notion Club Papers may or may not be interesting to read in its own right, but it is without question of major significance in the development of the Lord of the Rings from a mere Hobbit-sequel into the extraordinary work it became.

Because the NCPs was by far the most ambitious work that Tolkien had attempted up to that point – a book involving both modern ‘science fiction’ and multi-layered and linked ancient history: both real and fictional. The Notion Club Papers were, indeed, themselves a development of an incomplete story begun in 1936 called The Lost Road and now available as volume five of Christopher Tolkien’s History of Middle Earth. So, the combined efforts of The Lost Road and Notion Club Papers represented a whole decades-worth of effort, albeit intermittent, to bridge the ancient and modern, the factual and fictional, in a single complex work which would explain and introduce all his tales of Faery.

But when Tolkien abandoned The Notion Club Papers, it seems that this vast ambition was instead, somehow, channelled-into the emerging Lord of the Rings, enriching and deepening the concept.

*

Given that what we have of the Notion Club Papers is fragmentary and undeveloped, and indeed unsuitable for its purpose as envisaged by Tolkien; I am now going to speculate about where the NCPs were tending; what the NCPs would have been about and what they would have been like – if ever Tolkien had finished the novel.

 What follows is, then is a Treatment, for a possible novel that might be developed from the existing Notion Club Papers; consistent with what I understand to be Tolkien’s purpose in writing them.

*

A Treatment for a possible completed Notion Club Papers

In a nutshell, I believe that the Notion Club Papers were intended to serve an extremely important purpose: to rescue modern England from its spiritual malaise.

At least – that was what the Notion Club themselves would be depicted as doing fictionally – and the finished book would be intended to make this possible in the mundane world. Therefore, I suggest that the NCPs would – ultimately (if finished) – have provided a fictional history of the processes that brought Tolkien's historical myths into action in the modern world.

*

What was Tolkien 'rescuing' England from? This is made explicit in the NCPs:

[Jeremy] …"Sometimes I have a queer feeling that, if one could go back, one would find not myth dissolving into history, but rather the reverse: real history becoming more mythical – more shapely, simple, discernibly significant, even seen at close quarters. More poetical and less prosaic, if you like.(…)

"They're not wholly inventions. And even what is invented is different from mere fiction; it has more roots." (…)

"[The roots are] In Being, I think I should say," Jeremy answered; "and in human Being; and coming down the scale, in the springs of History and the designs of Geography – I mean, well, in the pattern of our world as it uniquely is, and of the events in it as seen from a distance. (…)

"Of course, the pictures presented by the legends may be partly symbolical, they may be arranged in designs that compress, expand, foreshorten, combine, and are not at all realistic or photographic, yet they may tell you something true about the Past."

*

With the NCPs Tolkien was intending to tell us something true about the past, something that we need to know because at present England's past is merely history, when it should be myth. Essentially, The Notion Club Papers were intended to make England's history into myth – i.e. to reverse the process of myth dissolving into history described by Jeremy in the quote above.

Tolkien wanted, that is, contemporary history to dissolve into myth; and the NCPs were (as they evolved) aimed at achieving this. However, in order for this to have happened via the NCPs, they would need to have needed to end-up very differently from how they set out: in literary terms, the NCPs would have required very substantial re-writing, in ways which we can only extrapolate from hints and glimmerings.

*

The basic situation which the Notion Club inhabit is an Oxford (England, Western Civilization) that is out-of-contact with Faery: in more general terms, a society out-of-contact with myth. Hence vulgar, coarsened, materialistic; without depth, meaning or purpose. The action of the Notion Club throughout the novel, I speculate, would have been aimed at restoring this contact between Faery and England; and indeed I speculate that the climax of the novel would have been precisely this re-establishment of contact.

As scholars and writers, the Notion Club would have been aware of the necessity for human contact with Faery (i.e. with myth) in order that their work (as well as their lives) may be profound, imaginative and ennobled – and rise above mere 'utility'.

The means by which the club would restore contact with myth would, I assume, be the usual ones employed by Tolkien, and of which hints exist in the incomplete and surviving NCP text: by a quest, by a hero who is an 'elf friend', and by a 'messenger' between Faery and the mundane world.

*

The Notion Club Papers novel would, then, describe how a link between Middle Earth (this modern world) and Faery was re-established. The shape of the novel would presumably have been the same as Tolkien's other works – some kind of heroic quest in which the hero or heroes come into contact with 'Faery' and an ennobled by contact with 'higher things' and made wiser by their experience.

Clearly, the Notion Club Papers would therefore require need a protagonist with whom the reader would identify. That is a character whose thoughts and feelings the reader would get to know in the course of the story. But such characters are lacking (or indirect and inexplicit) in the current NCP drafts.

The existing form of the NCPs, i.e. the literary conceit of their being the formal minutes of club meetings, would therefore need to be dropped or relaxed; to bring in much more direct forms of narrative or reportage. This was already beginning to happen in the later parts of the NCPs, with the introduction of letters from Lowdham (plus some footnotes), and an extended 'dream sequence' which reports Lowdham's inner state during an Anglo Saxon episode. So, in the NCP novel there would be a great expansion of such letters, and also probably diaries and journal entries – so as to bring the reader into more direct contact with the action.

*

In terms of character, the ANC would therefore need to get inside at least one of the main characters of Guildford, Ramer, Lowdham and Jeremy. My guess is that the protagonist would have been Guildford – the recorder, who would become the narrator, and would speak directly to the reader (that is, to posterity) about the collection of minutes, letters, poems, fragments and journal entries which he has gathered and collated with the aim of preservation and propagation.

Probably, Guildford would have remained rather a background character in terms of the action and excitement, and it would have been the extrovert Lowdham in particular who would emerged as the most obvious hero – supported by Jeremy who would, I guess, end-up being the main person responsible for achieving the quest to re-connect with Faery.

I suspect the Ramer character (who is Tolkien’s alter ego and main mouthpiece in the drafts we have) might therefore have receded in importance. His role might be in learning the languages necessary to interpret the documentary material eventually recovered from Faery by Lowdham and Jeremy.

Ramer's role at the end of the ANC would perhaps be as scholarly interpreter of the texts brought back to Oxford from Faery by Jeremy (who seems not to be skilled as a philologist or historical linguist).

*

I would imagine that Lowdham – accompanied by Jeremy – would make the breakthrough to physical contact with Faery (presumably the elven Lonely Ise of Eressea): Lowdham (the mariner) would set sail for the West with Jeremy, be responsible for navigating the boat, and eventually actually land in Faery where he would meet his father – and the High elves. But then Lowdham would stay-behind in faery (with his father) and Jeremy would be the one who returned to England bringing the legendarium – especially the Red Book of Westmarch and Bilbo's Translations from the Elvish.

*

In sum, the Notion Club Papers would be presented as a collection of minutes, letters, journal entries etc. collected by Guildford concerning the Notion Club in general and Lowdham and Jeremy in particular – telling the story of how a link between faery and England was re-established by the efforts of the Club – firstly in dreams then ultimately by a voyage to Faery.

 However, my guess is that the link between Faery would be firstly psychic, and only secondly physical – because the early parts of the NCPs are concerned with the initial glimpses of myth and faery via dreams, then there is a break-through of visionary material from the past into the modern present – so powerful that it had an actual physical effect on Oxford and nearby areas of England (there is a storm which replicates the downfall of Numenor).

This stage would also provide sufficient linguistic information for the Notion Club (with its linguistic, historical and philological expertise) to be able to interpret the extensive documentary material which would eventually be brought back by Jeremy.

*

This requires an intermediary: the Notion Club Member called Dolbear – who (I suggest) turns-out to be a wizard/ angel/ messenger from Faery.

 The character of Dolbear jumps-out of the Notion Club Papers as somebody about whom there is more than meets the eye. Almost everything he says is wise and cuts-deep. He seems to understand more of what is going-on than anyone else. We are told that Dolbear has been ‘working’, independently, with Ramer even before the meetings were reported and also later with Lowdham – on their dreams and interpretations.

Dolbear is also hinted to be a kind of grey eminence at the least; someone greatly respected by the other members (underneath their chaffing) and probably somebody who is – in fact – actually stage-managing the whole process by which the Notion Club re-establishes contact with Faery. In this sense Dolbear resembles Gandalf – who is a wizard or an 'angel' in disguise; in the sense of being a higher being from the undying lands who is a messenger and catalyst. Probably the reader would not have access to Dolbear's inner life – he would (like Gandalf) be observed rather than experienced.

Dolbear would make things happen, by hints and directions and providing key pieces of information – never by force. And at the end of the story Dolbear would return (like Gandalf) whence he came – to Faery. This is (I speculate) the meaning of Dolbear seeming to sleep though the meetings, yet remain apparently aware of everything which is happening in them – indeed more aware of the implications of the meetings than are the active participants.

I suspect that during sleep Dolbear is in contact with Faery and with the Notion Club at the same time. He is therefore a conduit or passageway linking Oxford and the undying lands – he transmits the proceedings of the Notion Club to Faery, and receives instructions of what to do. Dolbear's trance-like states of sleep are therefore (I believe) the specific means by which the inhabitants of Faery are encouraging the renewed contact between England and Faery which the Notion Club themselves seek.

*

The Oxford setting is highly significant, as is the general similarity between the Notion Club and The Inklings. Tolkien saw himself as the inheritor of an English racial memory of Faery. In his earliest legends (now published as Lost Tales) England had indeed been a part of Faery – with a place to place mapping between mythic and modern places, and England was especially favoured for this reason.

Tolkien regarded this inherited memory as coming down his mother's side of the family, and therefore centred in Warwickshire (Mercia). And Tolkien had less strong but similarly mystical feelings about Oxford as he did about the nearby West Midlands of England, and of course he spent most of his working life at the University, and this was where most of his friends lived.

But, mostly, for Tolkien, Oxford had a special role in scholarship related to Faery. And from a practical point of view, Oxford in the early and mid-twentieth century was the perfect place from which knowledge of Faery might have been disseminated throughout the rest of England.

*

So, my guess is that the NCP novel would have described the Inkling's-like Notion Club in Oxford as having first established a psychic link with Faery – with visionary material glimpsed during dreams, then having recovered extensive documentary evidence from Faery, and brought it back to Oxford for secret safe-keeping, translation and dissemination. The benefits of this mythic, faery knowledge would then enhance first the Notion Club members, then the rest of the University, with elven craft, depth, wisdom and mystery.

A special quality in the work of the Notion Club, and Oxford, would have been recognized by the English (who were genetically predisposed to appreciate it) and the effects and benefits would have been spread throughout England by means of Oxford's role in educating the administrators and teachers of the rest of England.

And, in order to re-establish contact between Middle Earth and Faery there would need to be efforts form both sides: both a push and a pull. On the one hand there was a push from the members of the Notion Club, who sensed the shallowness and literalness of their world, the damage of materialism, and the ugliness of industrialization (e.g. Ramer's horrible dream of Oxford through the ages) – and sought to enrich life by contact with Faery. And on the other hand there was a pull from the inhabitants of Faery. The elves were assumed to have benign intentions towards humans and seek to help them. Especially the elven inhabitants of Faery would wish to help Men to adopt an attitude of love towards nature; to become 'elvishly' capable of disinterested craft, art, science and scholarship as things to be loved for their own sakes, rather than as a means to another end.

*

In sum – this possible, projected, actually-published Notion Club Papers would (I imagine) describe how the post-medieval process of 'myth turning into history' would be reversed; and first the Notion Club, then Oxford, then England, then maybe eventually the World – might again connected with Faery, and re-enchanted by elvish wisdom and suffused with an elvish perspective.

**

So, that is my Treatment for a possible completed and functional novel of The Notion Club Papers! 

But it is only one person’s view – and the NCPs could be a rich source of creative stimulus for other people.

For whatever reason, and thank Heavens! – Tolkien broke-off from writing the Notion Club Papers and instead finished The Lord of the Rings – but in doing so he left some very important things unsaid, and some vital connections unmade; there are many dangling threads that could, in principle, be gathered together.

Maybe some sympathetic and informed modern writers may be able to create ways of knitting-up these threads, and thereby completing at least some of Tolkiens ‘unfinished business’. 

 

To read more by Professor Charlton:

Visit his general blog

Visit his Notion Papers Club blog

Buy the book John liked so much: Thought Prison

Or, read it here for free: Free online version of Thought Prison

 

 

Superversive Art Imitates Life

Atheists love criticizing religion, and religious folks enjoy discussing how their spirits have been uplifted; however, very few people seem to want to hear about prayers actually being answered. Because of this, I normally don’t post this sort of thing. However, while at Marscon, I dreamt that I wrote this post. When I woke up, I thought: what the heck, why don’t I actually write it.

*

Sometimes people say that stories of wonder and magic are unrealistic. Because they never happen in real life.

But this isn’t true.

You just have to know where to look.

Below are just a few examples of real life stories where people lived the kind of experience that Superversive stories strive to imitate. 

1) I answered my doorbell one day, and a nice-looking young man asked for some directions. I told him what he wanted to know, and as I turned to go back into the house, he shoved me forward into the entry, followed me inside, and slammed the door shut.

I found myself facing a pistol he had thrust at me. First he told me he wouldn't hurt me or my baby. Then he forced me into a back bedroom where he ordered, "Take off your clothes."

Stunned and horrified, I answered, "No, I can't do that. Please, let me talk with you."

"No!" He jerked at my blouse and gestured angrily with his gun. "Lady, you've got  five  to start undressing.  One!"

No human means of protection or rescue was at hand, and I couldn't succeed in engaging him in some sort of dialogue through which I might dissuade him from his intentions. Our big collie was out "protecting" the back yard. My husband was at the office. And even if the man was bluffing with the gun, I could see no chance of overpowering him, since he was built like a football player.

Struggling to keep my thinking above hypnotic waves of fear, dismay, and hopelessness, I mentally gave myself—and my situation —up to God. I shook my head at the man's demand.

"God is my Life," I managed to say.

"No, He's not.  Two!"

"Yes, He is." The strength was returning to my voice. "And He's your Life, too."

"Three!"

"God loves me, and God loves you."

"Four!"

"God is my Life. God is my Life.

I never heard him say "five," but I heard a click as he pulled the trigger, and the gun did not fire. The man smiled and shook his head in disbelief. He reached out and patted me on the head. Then he said in a subdued voice, "Lady, you're great. I'm sorry."

He turned and started to walk out, and as he did, I felt a tremendous surge of compassion and love for this individual, who perhaps had recognized something of the ever-presence of Christ, Truth.

"Wait," I called. "I have something for you."

He turned at the front door. "Lady, all I need is love."

"I want to help you." Taking copies of the  Christian Science Quarterly  and  The Christian Science Monitor  from the mail table, I gave them to him. "Here is something that will help you." He took them, apologized once more, and left the house.

Good Is Our Defense

CATHERINE F. HALEY

From the March 11, 1972 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel

 

2) I work at an emergency center where 911 calls are answered. For some time I had been consistently trying to replace each claim of crisis with the calm trust that God is in control of His universe. One afternoon we received a call from a troubled young man who was threatening to kill himself. He had a gun and had already fired a shot inside his apartment. While officers were dispatched, he disconnected the telephone. In the flurry of activity that occurs with this type of call, there is little time for prayer. But I reached out with all my heart with the simple thought "God is in control of His universe; He loves that young man."

Within moments the young man called back extremely angry because he wanted to kill himself, but the gun was jammed. The situation was resolved peacefully, with no injuries to anyone. When the gun was brought into the station, tools were needed to extract the bullet—it had not merely jammed but was rendered absolutely inoperable!

Can prayer heal the world?

Diana Davis Butler

From the October 1999 issue of The Christian Science Journal

 

3) During the civil war in our country, Republic of Congo, criminality and insecurity spread. One time a friend and I were talking inside his shop. A man entered who seemed to be a customer checking spare parts for his car. To our great surprise, he pulled out a gun, which he aimed close to the temple of my friend, urging him to kneel down.

I moved forward, trying to reason with the guy. This made him furious. Straightway he turned his gun toward my forehead, asking me also to kneel down. I was silently praying, and in spite of the menaces, I was in peace. The first spiritual intuition that touched my thought was Moses' first commandment from the Bible: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." The second of his ten commands says, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing … Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them" (see Ex. 20:3-5).

…[I am removing the metaphysics and just keeping the events. If anyone wants to read the whole thing, let me know.]

The Science of Christ teaches that this individuality as created and governed by God is harmless. I kept on praying to see mentally only God's man present—not one with a gun intending to do harm.

Soon our aggressor changed in attitude. Even though his gun was still pointing to my face, I felt that his determination and fury were vanishing. He was not uttering menaces anymore, but he was expecting me to obey his orders.

…

I saw that to bow down to this gunman was like bowing to a "graven image," an idol. And I thought to myself, "What's attributing power to this gun? Was it the finger, the arm—or the carnal mind? And what is causing this man to act this way?" Christian Science teaches that man is governed by God, divine Love. The image of this Love cannot depart from the straight line of perfection, and that included this man.

…

Next I noticed a tinge of kindness in the voice of the man. He put down his gun and murmured, "Are you not afraid?" Then without any other word, he stepped aside and moved to the door. My friend stood up, and together we recovered our liberty.

protected at gunpoint

By Daniel Biwila

From the October 31, 2005 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel

 

4) The young man pulled out a gun from his pocket and demanded money. The love I felt as I read the [Bible] Lesson that morning had stayed with me, and in that moment I felt a clear sense of protection. I handed my money to him but remained silent. He then stepped in closer, grabbed my arm, and put the gun to my head, stating that the gun was real and that he was not afraid to use it. “You’re not afraid of me, are you?” he said.

At that moment a thought from God came, telling me to say nothing. I said nothing. Still holding the gun pressed to the side of my head, the man demanded that I lie down on the floor. This time I could feel the gun pointed to the back of my head. But during the next few moments, I had an incredible feeling of peace as I realized that the Christ was present. I knew without hesitation and without a doubt that I was cared for and protected. I found myself quietly speaking these words: “God will not let you take my life.”

As I said that, out of the corner of my eye I saw the man stumble and fall backward into the wall, the gun falling out of his hand. He had been disarmed, and he looked terrified and shaken. He quickly got to his feet, reached out to pick up his gun, and ran out of the building. I immediately got up and went back upstairs to the store, where I called 911 and filed a police report.

Protected at gunpoint

By Candace Mann

From the Christian Science Sentinel – December 1, 2010

 

5) An experience about a year and a half ago brought to me a clearer realization of the truth of the statement in Science and Health (p. 469), "If mortals claimed no other Mind and accepted no other, sin would be unknown." Two men came into our place of business one evening and ordered some goods, but instead of paying for them leveled a gun at my husband. Looking round I saw the gun and what they were attempting to do. It came to me instantly that in reality there was no evil influence or power to impel them to rob us. I talked to them for a few moments, and they turned and left without taking anything. My husband and I were both very grateful for this proof of God's protecting power.

 

In September, 1908, I began the study of Christian Science,…

By Callie W. Dicken

From the June 23, 1928 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel

 

6)London, 1976. I was on my way to the Underground station to catch a train to work, when a man stopped me and asked if I had seen anyone in the area matching my description. After showing me his International Criminal Police Organization identity card, he told me he was helping with the investigation of the current IRA bombing campaign targeting Underground stations. There had just been a bomb planted at the one nearby, he said, and a suspect matching my description had been spotted leaving the station. Now, it seemed, I was under suspicion of having planted the bomb.

My first reaction was to burst out laughing, as I am the most unlikely person ever to plant a bomb. But the man quickly gave me to understand that this was no laughing matter—that he was placing me under arrest and would be taking me to the local police station for questioning. He used every possible means to terrify me, and by now I was beginning to sense that I was in serious trouble.

…

I felt as though I was looking at the man through a cloud of black smoke, as though the smoke was the evil trying to impose itself on that man, when actually, in God's eyes, he was a blameless, innocent individual. I actually saw him as God's perfect creation, incapable of evil, and quite separate from the "smoke" that stood between us. The smoke alone was the problem—some belief in evil that needed to be dispelled.

The man then demanded to see proof of my identity, and, as I had none with me, took me back to my flat to get my passport. He examined it, bombarded me with questions, and then told me to kneel on the floor. I realized that I was in danger of being beaten at the very least if I did not do what he said, and fear began to breach my defenses. I reached out to God for help, and the man suddenly said that he was going to ring to see if I had a police record. While he did this, he had me stand against the wall with my hands above my head, and this reprieve allowed me to go back over the verse from Daniel, and affirm the truth of it. The fear disappeared at once, and I was again in complete control of my thinking.

The man said that he would have to ring back again in a couple of minutes to get the result. When he did so, he said that the police had confirmed that I did not have a criminal record, and that the person they were looking for had been apprehended. I was free to go. We left and walked back down the road toward the station together. He then went off in the direction of the police station, and I went on to work. The entire incident had taken just over an hour.

When I discussed the incident with the police, one of the detectives told me he'd just learned of two young women in a distant suburb who had been viciously attacked and beaten by a man claiming to be a police officer. Their stories mirrored my story exactly, except, of course, for the outcome.

…

 Twenty-two other young women had been attacked by then, and all of them had been injured, most of them seriously. They told me that I was the only one that they could ask to identify the suspect, because all the other women were terrified at the thought of seeing him again. I went home very concerned, and realized that I had more praying to do.

…

On Tuesday morning the police phoned and asked me to again come and identify a suspect, and this time, it was the right person. He had, among other things, a number of false police identity cards in his possession. A detective showed me how these compared to his own, saying that they were so similar that no member of the public could be expected to tell the difference. The police asked the man whether he recognized me, and he answered that he did, saying, "She was the only one I couldn't touch." He confessed to all the attacks and was sent to prison.

OUT OF HARM'S WAY

Victoria Jay

From the October 2005 issue of The Christian Science Journal

*

For years, I wondered what happened in the mind of the criminal in these cases? It really puzzled me. There they were, going along, planning to commit rape or mayhem and…bam! Something gave.

What did it feel like from the inside?

Sometimes, we should be careful what we ask for.

We were rushing out the door, and we were late. The five year old was out the door, and I had the baby ready, but the Cherubim*, who was probably three or four, was just standing at the top of the stairs, not doing any of the things I needed him to do for us to go. He wasn’t even dressed.

We did not yet understand that he was autistic and that at fourteen, he would still not be talking much better than he did—or didn’t—at three. But we knew something was wrong. We were constantly praying for him, and having a CS practitioner pray for him. He may—even now—be the most prayed for boy in the state.

Usually, I was completely gentle with the Cherubim. But I was in a hurry, and I just lost it.

I grabbed him in his red one piece PJs and lay him on the ground,  and I started screaming like a mad banshee.  I shouted at him, asking why he didn’t listen to me, and why he never did what I asked him to do. I was as angry as I have ever been.

And he laughed. He looked at my angry contorted face, and he laughed happily.

He was laughing at me. For just a billionth of a millasecond, I was as furious as humanly possible. Then…

It was gone.

The anger just vanished. I wasn’t angry at all. One moment my thoughts had been red with anger. Then, there was nothing let but joy. We both laughed together. I helped him get dressed, and we left on our errand.

Now, when I read such testimonies, and I get to the part where the guy decided not to attack the woman and instead drove her home (I have read more than one like that), I don’t wonder what happened in his thoughts.

I know.

*

And that, folks, is what we want to do with our fiction.

Superversive stories, at their best, will do to their readers what prayer did in the testimonies above, what laughter did for my son:

Catch the darkness unaware and lift it out of itself into something higher, something glorious.

 

*–yes, we know that the word cherubim is plural. Thank you for your concern.

 

Guest Post: Special Needs in Strange Worlds

A post about Cornelius Prospero, Miranda's blind brother from the Prospero's Daughter series, and his journey through Hell at Bookworm Blues's Special Needs in Strange Worlds column at SFSignal:

http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2015...

 

 

My Marscon Schedule

My official schedule for Marscon 2015 (Williamsburg, VA)

Saturday

11AM – Jefferson Davis 2

Wonder Years: How YA Writers Address Teen Concerns in Fantastic Literature

 

1PM – Restaurant Annex

Reel World Challenges: Adapting Films from Fiction

 

3PM – Jefferson Davis 2

Pets in SF/Fantasy (M)

 

4PM – Jefferson Davis 2

It Behooves Us to Speak of Them: Horses in Fantasy

 

6PM – Room 467

Dystopian Roundtable

 

Sunday

Noon – Jefferson Davis 2

Best Books for Kids

 

1PM – Jefferson Davis 2

25 Great YA Characters

Superversive Guest Post: Magic: The Superverting, or, Superversion isn’t just for literature anymore!

Today we have a guest post by Mr. Pierce Oka — showing us how flexible Superversiveness truly can be!

This post first appeared at Pierce's blog Dragon's and Dogma.

Magic: The Superverting,
or,
Superversion isn’t just for literature anymore

By Pierce Oka

 

In middle school, my friend Ethan introduced me to what would become my favorite game of all time, Magic: The Gathering. I had heard about it here and there before; it was an “older kids” game by the same people who made my Pokemon cards, but I had never seen it. We had a blast with it for a brief time. Every few years I would return to it briefly, but it wasn’t until college that I found a group to play with consistently. Presently, I’ve competed in a Games Day, a prerelease, and a Pro Tour Qualifier, and play competitively on a semi-regular basis; Magic is my favorite tabletop game, bar none. Yet, from the handful of games I played in my youth, why did I keep returning to this game, even when I had barely anyone to play it with? The excellent design and enjoyability of the game is a satisfactory enough answer, but I believe there is something more. Truth. That which mens’ minds and hearts are naturally drawn to with an inexorable force. To borrow a phrase from Tolkien, I believe Magic, like all great works with enduring appeal, contains in it a splinter of the Light, whose shining beckons to something deep in the hearts of all men, even if they do not realize it. Yet this Light is indeed splintered, refracted, “to many hues, and endlessly combined

in living shapes that move from mind to mind”. The full Light would be too powerful, too blinding. Few, if any, could approach. Many might flee it. So the Light goes out in the guise of a fairy-story wizard, gathering a crowd with fantastical displays of fireballs and fairies, conjurings of goblins and great beasts; and with the crowd so enthralled, imparts a bit of itself to them. In a word, I believe Magic: The Gathering is superversive.

 

 

 

 

Art by Greg Staples

Superversive is a term coined by essayist Tom Simon in The Art of Courage as an antonym to subversive. Superversion is, he proposes, the proper response to combat the subversion of morality and truth that has been occurring in the arts over the past decades. We must write stories praising and uplifting that which is good and true, stories about courage, and these must be stories, not sermons, for one only preaches sermons to an already invested congregation. Anyone can read a story.

So far, the Superversive Movement has been a literary movement. I propose there is no reason why it should not also branch out into other forms of art and media, and offer Magic: The Gathering as an example of a superversive game. Authoress L. Jagi Lamplighter offered three marks of a superversive story that, with modification, can be used to assess whether or not a game is superversive. Lamplighter’s three signs are:

1.A Superversive story has to have good storytelling.

2.The characters must be heroic.

3.Superversive literature must have an element of wonder.

My three signs, modified for games (tabletop, video, or otherwise):

1.A Superversive game has to have good gameplay. It must be fun to play, and, ideally, be well designed.

2.Heroism must be praised. I say the game must promote heroism, rather than that the characters must be heroic, because in games, the decisions of the characters rest in the hands of the player, and a game can often demonstrate the goodness of heroism despite, or even because of, a player’s decision to have a character act in an unheroic manner (for example, Bioshock, or Telltale Game’s Walking Dead games).

3.Superversive games must have an element of wonder. To quote Lamplighter:

Specifically, the kind of wonder that comes from suddenly realizing that there is something greater than yourself in the universe, that the world is a grander place than you had previously envisioned. The kind of wonder that comes from a sudden hint of a Higher Power, a more solid truth.

There might be another word for that kind of wonder: awe.

I would also ponder these words of Lamplighter’s husband, and fellow Superverter, John C. Wright. Here he is using the word poetry in a broader sense to refer to all forms of story, and so I would apply these words to superversive gaming:

It is not natural (that is, not instinctive) for a boy to feel it is sweet and decorous to die for the ashes of the fathers and the altars of the gods; but this must be inculcated into him, along with a sense of honor that forbids him to steal even when he is hungry and even when no one is looking. Otherwise, in a land of no patriots where all theft is licit, the soldiers will not march and the workingmen will not work.

Poetry, when it is licit, is the attempt to train the young imagination to prefer fit and decent metaphors and images, and to have the decent and apt emotional reactions to objects, concepts and events he may encounter.

Now, I said I believed that part of Magic‘s enduring appeal is its superversive nature. How does it stack up against these criteria?

1.Good gameplay.

Magic passes with flying colors. The longevity of the game (20+ years), its comprehensive rulebook, legions of players, popularity of competitive level play, and depth of strategic scholarship all attest to the strength of Richard Garfield’s original game design, and work of all those who came after him. Let any who doubt give the game a try.

2.Promotes heroism, goodness, truth, etc.

Let’s take a stroll through the Gatherer, and see how Magic treats of such things as heroism, courage, and the forces of goodness (all images from Wizards). I’m limiting myself to seven cards here, but where they have come from, there are many more.

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When was the last time an Inquisitor was the good guy?


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Or a saint a character?

 

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They’re not all white cards from Innistrad


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Some of them are green


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Few other fantasy games even touch on grace, let alone make it awesome

 

 

 

A beloved and iconic card

 

Heroism, courage, and goodness are common themes in Magic, and are always depicted positively. But, some might object, does not Magic also depict such things as demons, death, necromancy, and the undead? Does not putting these things in the hands of players as resources to win the game with count as subversion? On the contrary, I would argue that both the inclusion of these things in the game, and the way in which Magic depicts them, contribute towards its superversive nature. To quote from the newest member of the Superversive Movement, April Freeman:

But it’s not only about the good and the light. To have a story you must have conflict, so there must be struggle and darkness. The light must have darkness to fight against. For that is the reality of the world.

Let us consider how Magic depicts the forces of darkness, both artistically, and mechanically. Is there any danger of confusing the good with the bad? Is evil clearly depicted as such? (all images from Wizards)

 

 

 

The classic demon card, now with flavor text to really ram home just how dangerous working with this fellow is. Note use of classical imagery. No sexy, sympathetic demons here.

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In general, demons all come with some kind of downside, some more extreme than others


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Heck, this fellow’s name is a cautionary tale in and of itself. It really doesn’t get more stereotypically medieval than that.


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The villain designs draw from classic imagery that make no bones about the bad guys being bad guys




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Edward Cullen this is not


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The bad things *look* bad


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Remember man, that you are mortal

I do admit that the darkness may be too much for some, but I believe that on the balance, the depictions are consistent with the reality of things, and serve by contrast to make the good things shine all the brighter. What good is an Elite Inquisitor without any vampires to stake?

3.Wonder

 

 

 

Image from Wizards

Joke aside, an element of wonder can be found in Magic in two ways. The less common way is for gameplay to just happen to work out in a way that creates a scene of awe. Example: I play Army of the Damned, you drop a Sunblast Angel on me the next turn, driving them away in blaze of angelic glory. In the course of the hobby, such occurrences are rare (unless, I suppose, one tinkers one’s decks to lend themselves to such occurrences. I built a rather nice Catholic-themed humans and angels deck I enjoy playing), thus making them even more special. However, the chief way in which Magic achieves a sense of wonder is through its excellent art direction. There is beauty to be found here, and leaps of imagination into far off lands. Nothing quite inspires awe so much as beautiful vistas and fantastic creatures. I tip my hat to Magic, and SFF gaming in general, for keeping classical realism alive and in the hands of the common man in the face of so much 21st century ugliness. The following images, I do believe, speak for themselves (all images from Wizards).

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The counsel for superversive Magic: The Gathering rests its case. Fellow members of the Superversive Movement, what say you?

For more from Pierce, visit his blog.

I recommend in particular, his extremely funny review of The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug.

Comments

Superversive Blog: Special Guest Post by Amy Sterling Casil

Nothing Good Ever Happened At the Point of a Gun

by Amy Sterling Casil

What happens in Minsk, is felt in Minneapolis. What happens in Hong Kong, reverberates in Houston. What happened in Paris on January 7, 2015 broke my heart. The terrorist attack on the offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which took the lives of 12 (as of today) didn't take as many lives as were lost on 9-11 or the July 7, 2005 London bombings, or the March 11, 2004 Madrid train bombings. But it is the slaughter of those whose "weapons" were pens, pencils, paintbrushes and words. Charlie Hebdo is the French weekly magazine that has been under threat by Jihadists for years. In 2006, they reprinted the original Danish satirical cartoons featuring the prophet Mohammed and added some additional images seen as offensive by Jihadists.

 

Many of us remember well the events of September 11, 2001, during which thousands of innocent men, women and children lost their lives to unbridled terror and madness. The youngest who died on 9-11 was 2 1/2 year old Christine Hanson, who was traveling with her parents Peter and Sue aboard United Flight 175, which struck the World Trade Center South Tower. The oldest was 85 year old Robert Grant Norton, a passenger on American Flight 11, the plane that struck the North Tower. Neither could be seen as much of a threat to Islamists; the only remotely military-related attack on that horrible day was American Flight 77 which hit the Pentagon, taking the lives of more than 150 military and civilian personnel and all aboard the plane, including a group of 5th and 6th grade children and their teachers, who had been on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to see the California Channel Islands, sponsored by National Geographic.  These were the "threats" whose lives were taken in a war they knew little to nothing about; a war we still do not fully-understand.

 

I was a classroom teacher at Chapman University and Saddleback College in the fall of 2001. While I never experienced the sense of "entitlement" that the Chapman students showed prior to 9-11 from my Saddleback students, who were primarily working students attending college part-time, I saw a change in all students – wealthy and less-wealthy alike – after that terrible day. Students who didn't do their homework suddenly started. "Average" students became straight-A performers. I noticed a new tone of respect for the work in the classroom, and for fellow students' opinions and ideas. I can best describe the reaction to the attacks as "becoming fully-present." This "afterglow" of awareness lasted two or three semesters before fading back into "normal student behavior."

Being present means we must take the pain along with the pleasure of living. The murder of the creative artists, the mockers, the happy, sardonic Gallic humorists at Charlie Hebdo, is the intersection of madness and evil with "normal" life. It is almost inconceivable to us in the west that anyone would murder over any cartoon — we have a long tradition of egregiously offensive visual and written material intended to evoke laughter, not bullets. It is inconceivable to Islamists that they could tolerate any type of mockery of their beliefs; they cannot conceive of their enemies in the west who gladly mock anything thought to be sacred. For every limited, small Mohammed cartoon mockery, there are literally thousands of sacriligious images mocking Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, and other sacred Christian images. The "Piss Christ" artwork is legendary — a lot of faithful Christians and others with a basic sense of respect for others' beliefs didn't like that image one bit — but the creator Andres Serrano, who put a crucifix in a jar of his own urine, took a photo, and called it "art," is very much alive, well and showing in major museums around the world.

Few people draw, or publish, any cartoon, with the anticipation that a gunman will show up at their door to put a stop to future efforts. Charlie Hebdo had been under threat for years, suffering a firebombing in 2011 and numerous threats. The cartoonists knew what they were doing – in this sense, they were freedom fighters. They knew the gunmen could be at their door on any given day. So too, did the police, who assigned guards who lost their lives in the attack.

Today as I think of my French colleagues and their families, suffering because of funny cartoons, I grieve for them and my heart breaks, but I also wonder which is worse? To do what you believe in, at the cost of your own life, or to do what feels expedient, what it seems that others want, or to do what others tell you is what you should be doing, and live a long, safe life – no gunman at your door?

For at least the past year, I've been thinking about the more insidious, slow, permanent and all-inclusive sort of censorship. The censorship we apply to our own selves – whether consciously or subconsciously.

I can speak only as a female writer of my time. I cannot say what it is that men self-censor from their work. I cannot speak to the self-censorship of those who are of different racial, ethnic and family backgrounds from myself, or of different generations and nationalities. We here in the United States live in a country whose formal, legal defense of self-expression is almost absolute. But what the law tells us we can do has little to do with what we do of our own accord. Some take a glaring, elementary approach, like "Piss Christ" artist Andres Serrano. It takes little thought or effort to incorporate bodily fluids with revered images – this is what Serrano's "art" is known for. Many people probably wanted to kill Serrano for his use of Christ's image (and other Christian images), and ironically, French protesters apparently did destroy one of the offending images. But they did no harm to Serrano himself.

It's more like – what stories are we telling because they are our stories, the ones that only we can tell – and which are we telling because . . .

We've attended a writing conference and been advised of the right and wrong way to create "work that sells"
We've noticed "what's selling" and emulated that (zombies, vampires, angels, demons, art thieves, etc.)
We've seen that a certain type of story/character has become popular
We're writing about a "certain type" of hero or heroine
We want to "make money" and are writing things we think will attract a large audience
We're featuring characters similar to those popular or known in the past, not based on people in our own lives
We're writing stories inspired by other people's work in film and television
We've noticed writing "advice" columns, or are following an agent or editor's blog and responding to their instruction

From the woman's perspective, from my perspective, I can look back at 20 years of work and have clearly identified – I have yet to sell a story, much less a novel, with a female protagonist over age 25. I haven't sold a story about a mother of any child professionally except for "The Color of Time," which appeared in Zoetrope 15 years ago. I'm not a romance writer, so that has always ruled out stories with older female protagonists (even in that market, a tougher sell than younger protagonists) in romantic circumstances. Even now that I look back, I self-censored myself with some of my best work, "Perfect Stranger," a story told by my all-purpose Dad Gary, who spends the 5,000 words thinking about what it means that his son has had dozens of genetic treatments – first, to save his life, then to "improve" him in various ways (taller, thinner, smarter, better-looking, no zits, etc.). Gary's thinking that maybe his son Denny is a monster now, and no longer the boy he and his bossy wife gave birth to 15 years before. He's thinking, "Maybe I should kill him." I can't say where a mom and daughter in that circumstance would go – but I can see it would be a very different story.

Nobody's going to shoot me for writing about a 70-year old female archaeologist. I do not seem able to sell that work professionally in the North American market. I have written two stories on the same concept (parent clones child for companionship, then falls ill with cancer and must make a choice regarding their cloned child – the best transplant option). The one with the father and son: that's a Writers of the Future-winning story. The better one, with the mother and daughter? That appeared in small press after years of submissions to all the usual, best suspects, and is in one of my short fiction collections.

It's quite obvious that anybody who wants attention can urinate in a jar and stick a little model of Mohammed in it, take a photo with their iPhone and become world-famous. This would be at the risk of firebombs and bullets, of course. But the rewards – oh! Such riches that could come …

Writing something about somebody who's outside of the "expected" categories, not doing the "expected" things and avoiding the obvious urine/sacred image approach? To take my 70-year old archaeologist example, that story is based on a real person who is no longer with us, Dee Simpson, who was the archaeologist for the San Bernardino County Museum in Southern California. She often laughed when people would call her the female "Indiana Jones." Well, he's a movie franchise. I can't even publish a single story inspired by her extraordinary life, memory and fixation on finding "Early Man" in the Southern California desert with the help of famous archaeologist Louis Leakey. No bullets killed that story. The world as it stands did. Nobody wants to hear about some old lady digger and bones that never were.

Every book made today that achieves any level of sales is marketed based in what readers have bought/read in the past, or to special niche audiences. And contained within this world as it is, is self-censorship on a level that few can imagine. It is inside ourselves, the stories we think are "worth telling." The stories we think that others want to hear.

Whereas, the true stories that need to be told: those may often go unsaid, or if they are said, they go unheard. That is, to my understanding, what the Superversive movement is about. So many stories that are told are not affirming life and positive values and actions and real heroism, of the quiet or not-so-quiet variety. They affirm what these killers tried to do in Paris. Force others to do what they want at the point of a gun. They indicate killing and death is some type of solution to anything. They worship violence, cruelty and efforts to dominate and control.

When I learned that "Charlie Hebdo" meant "Charlie Weekly" as in Charlie Brown, I realized why my heart broke so when I learned of the tragedy today. And I realized – there is no bullet or gun or knowitall blaring out hatred to the world who can truly prevail.

You see, there was someone who did work outside of the "expected" and who told gentle, life-affirming stories that remain vastly popular today. That man was Charles Schulz. The "hero," such as he was, was the very ordinary boy with a good heart, Charlie Brown, and his friends, including a little dog with big dreams, a great concert pianist, a thumb-sucking, blanket-carrying sensitive kid, and a bossy little girl who always knew best.

The last job my mother had before her death from pancreatic cancer in 1962, three months after I was born, was working with her lifelong friend Bill Melendez on the first "Peanuts" cartoon. For my whole life, I have had this little letter from Charles Schulz written after her death. In her sketches, I found a chameleon. Yes, she drew such.

As to the great stories, there was no great movement to tell stories about a little hobbit (not even a person!) who saved the world before Lord of the Rings. There weren't dozens of books about a Southern young woman born to privilege whose entire world fell apart, who fell in love with a Northern "carpetbagger" before Gone With the Wind. There weren't hundreds of stories about a poor boy who traveled down the great river with a black man, learning lessons about life, before Huckleberry Finn.

They will catch these murderers in Paris. But there will be more violence; there always is.

Also, there will be life. There will be love. There will be courage and sacrifice and honor and friendship. There will be stories about old lady detectives in addition to Miss Marple and Jessica Fletcher – even perhaps ones who fall in love or save the world. There will be stories about strange little obsessive Belgians in addition to Hercule Poirot. There will be more cartoons, more irreverence, more of all of it …

Chameleon Publishing will be doing an enhanced e-book benefit, with art, poetry, fiction and music, to benefit Charlie Hebdo, the survivors and the families of those killed, and the magazine itself. If you would like to participate, please contact me at amysterlingcasil@gmail.com or via Facebook or Twitter. Nothing good ever happened at the point of a gun, but plenty good has happened because of those willing to face those guns and other, more shadowy shapes of evil.

 

Comments

 

The Book of Feasts and Seasons!

In the mood for holiday stories, some disturbing, some inspiring?

The Book of Feasts and Seasons by John C. Wright.

Superversive Blog: Guest Blog–Facing the Cold Equations

Facing "The Cold Equations"

by 

S. Dorman

Tom Godwin's "The Cold Equations" is perfectly balanced on the premise partly suggested in its title. Assigned for a course I've been auditing, the only thing troubling one's suspension of disbelief is lack of verisimilitude in its setting, particularly the .1 g.  We lack lower gravity and capsule interior setting cues to help us "feel it" imaginatively. The absence of these imaginative hints slightly limits the story's power.  Cory Doctorow's (anachronic extra-textual objections) for its believability do not apply for me because the story is crafted in a way to capture my own belief.

A teenage girl has stowed away on the Emergency Dispatch Ship.  She is a linguist just out of school and hopeful to work on a space station but is yet unlearned in the parameters of survival in space.  The EDS is a capsule designed, and loaded to precise mathematical parameters, in order to carry emergency supplies to outlying space frontiers. The failure of security measures to restrain her trespass is not manifest in this story except in the disturbing revelation of her presence. Which may say a little something about the culture of the story's time and our own with regard to the prevalence of surveillance.  This 1950s' story showed only "a sign that was plain for all to see and heed:  UNAUTHORIZED PERSONNEL KEEP OUT! "

But here she is. We failed to keep her out, keep her from going on an impossible errand. She is young and bright and unaware—not unaware that she's not supposed to be here … but that it is impossible for her to go on living because she is.  The limits of the space vacuum, the capsule construction and fueling configurations, these cannot accommodate her life and errand.  She has stowed away because she wants to see her brother on the planetary frontier.

Her name is Marilyn but, almost throughout the story, she is called "the girl" and "sis," and her errand is love. She has done what she has done out of love for her brother, and she will pay for that errand, and that love, with her life in an uncompromising way. I was about to modify with cruel or brutal, but these words don't apply—being human and emotional qualities—and the story is quietly telling us that cruelty and brutality have nothing to do with the sentence spoken or imposed on her when she entered and hid in the EDS.  Marilyn is told she must be jettisoned before atmospheric entry if the frontiersmen of the outpost are to survive.

The words "sentence," "spoken," and "imposed" also are qualities of the human, especially the middle word with the flanking words having to do with how creation is designed and put together in order to support all—the girl, the transporter, its pilot, the planets, explorers and those technicians who are the leading edge of a human future on the story's planetary frontiers.

"The law of gravitation was a rigid equation and it made no distinction between the fall of a leaf and the ponderous circling of a binary star system. The nuclear conversion process powered the cruisers that carried men to the stars; the same process in the form of a nova would destroy a world with equal efficiency. The laws were, and the universe moved in obedience to them."  P. 463.

Dr. Amy Sturgis, who teaches Mythgard Institution's Science Fiction, Part 1: From Modern Beginnings through the Golden Age (1818-1966), recounted that John Campbell, the story editor, kept sending Tom Godwin back to finish the story in the only way it can end. Godwin was having a hard time writing it so. The difficulty may be found in his powerful unsentimental yet tender expression of love between all the humans portrayed. Godwin did not like the inevitability of the outcome of "disobeying" the human rules, based on the physical laws; of the penalty for opposition and challenge to these laws. In this case, of being what one is when one loves. I include a link to another extra-textual objection on moral grounds, with what one commentator thinks of it. 

Had it been not a story but real life, it would have been good if everyone acted in accordance with the way things are: security measures, common sense with regard to rules, the little nudge of conscience that warns I'm not supposed to be here.  The physical aspects of creation must be learned in order for people to move about safely in creation. A woodstove will both warm the house and burn flesh if touched.  Children are taught not to touch hot stoves, not to get too close to the cliff edge, to look both ways when crossing the street. In real life, acting smartly by established rules would have been a good non-story. Wisdom, understanding, mental and emotional properties would have seen to an everyday outcome not worth reading… unless it were written by one's child. (Children know how to write stories "in which nothing particular ever happens," and no one seems to mind, as Sam Gamgee is known to have said about Lothlórien.)

This is the manner of life when well lived. But the excitement and power of "The Cold Equations" is in its contrasting the law-bound makeup of everything with the healthy expression of love. Another writer, say Alfred Bester, author of "Fondly Fahrenheit," (published side-by-side with Godwin's story in The Science Fiction Hall Of Fame, Volume One, and originally published in the same year) may not have done it this way. Bester may have unbalanced the narrative with cynical turns and terms, a non-neutral character disguised or hidden with a gloss of more modern sensibility, a surface neutrality. But if Bester had written the "Cold Equations" story, a reader, on finishing, might feel a non-neutral horror or revulsion.  A very different kind of narrative power.

One of the semester's graduate students posed the question of "situational ethics" being engaged in "The Cold Equations."  Wrongdoing, such as trespass on earth, might be excused, having no misdemeanor consequences expanded to mortal punishment (as per this story). This suggests laxness on the part of physical laws, an unreal supposition, as suggested in an Arthur C. Clarke short story, "The Sentinel," where the narrator says that "a six-hundred-foot drop on the moon can kill you just as thoroughly as a hundred-foot fall on earth." The point is not the distance of the fall, or the reduction of body weight, but the cold calculation of the law, the immutability of gravity involved with these bodies. In a simplification, gravity might be said to work out its mathematical equations in keeping all the physical cosmos completely engaged in its astounding range of massive and minuscule parts.

The question of situational ethics brings up (for me) the construct of moral law. The complexity of moral law is something to be considered and carefully construed in my metaphorical application.  Morality, I think, is a belief of God's, much as God's belief in gravity is why gravity works. This posits God is a person with beliefs… but one with the power to make universal.  Unlike persons who can but try to parse morality. The Christian believes the worlds were framed by faith, and that, we "live and move and have our being in God."  The Christian thinks of these laws—such as gravitation, thermodynamics, atomic structure—holding the universe together. The Christian may think, an eye for an eye. That is, in the working out of the moral law, an eye will be taken for an eye taken. I don't mean that persons other than God are to work out this equation. I mean the law itself will carry its own punishment much the same as the hundred foot fall punishes when gravity's law is violated. …But at the moral law's own peculiar rate, without the punishing rapidity that belongs to gravity.  Does this suggest that the moral law is as impersonal as a physical law? It does. And yet.

Yet.  The personification of the law is just that.  A person.  Or persons, with a job to do.  And, reasoning from there, it means gravity itself is a person. A person finely spread throughout the universe, making the whole thing "go." We might even call this person "the graviton," and desire to capitalize it. "The Graviton."

Godwin achieves his balancing narrative with heroic qualities that may appear stoical to some readers. Others will recognize the underlying steadiness, stateliness, and endurance of love in the face of physical, material laws that cannot be contravened.

I said, "face."  Yes. Oddly, apparently these physical laws are, in one place at least, bodily expressed with faces.  Personified in a narrative. Persons with intelligence charged with particular duties keeping creation from chaos.  If you can imagine my premise.  Described in the JKV first chapter of Ezekiel, this vision might be read to advantage alongside initial verses in Genesis.  With my italics placed here for emphasis:

"Behold, a … fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire.  Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance; they had the likeness of a man.   …And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides; and they four had their faces and their wings. Their wings were joined one to another; they turned not when they went; they went every one straight forward. …When they went, they went upon their four sides: and they turned not when they went."

We see the intent, a purpose with precision, the immutability of these persons, these equations, this calculus. The visionary faces of these physical laws are described in this chapter of Ezekiel. They also have faces in C.S. Lewis' Perelandra.

And JRR Tolkien took up his pen to depict a fictive personification of the moral law in The Silmarillion.  Of Eru Ilúvatar the narrator has said in quotation, "But Ilúvatar knew that Men, being set amid the turmoils of the powers of the world, would stray often, and would not use their gifts in harmony; and he said, 'These too in their time shall find that all that they do redounds at the end only to the glory of my work.' " 

All this.  But.  I believe also in miracles.  And—because God is a person—forgiveness.  Perhaps the greatest glory of all.