WHERE IN THE UNIVERSE IS ALL THE DARK MATTER?

I have a theory: Be it romance, love, gender, adventure, drama, science fiction, erotica or sex, t’s been wrapped up in literature and movies for a long time now in the form of gratuitous violence. Darkness, especially in the form of gratuitous violence or overall pessimism in science fiction, isn’t “necessary.” Cities, if they will exist in the future, don’t necessarily have to be foreboding, constantly raining and filled with violent characters. Depending on detailed gratuitous violence to “animate” a work, in my experience, is more of an inexperienced author’s trick, when the actual story is more about how people feel and act in common everyday as well as exceptional situations. That’s the “guts” of THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859). In THE EDGE OF MADNESS, the future is neither dystopian nor utopian. It’s, instead, a plausible extension of all that is playing out today: more technology, more and greater power struggles, more individual hedonism. Neither black nor white, good nor bad, just a story “taking up where TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009) by Raymond Gaynor and William Maltese (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1434403556) left off…NewAmerica, a shadow of its former United States of America, provides a challenging and dangerous future place for three young firebrands to live.” The action, drama, love and romance is in their living.

This whole approach to refocusing on living and plausibility rather than a fixed background of detailed, gratuitous violence or sex to “carry” and “enliven” the story, prompted me to question if THE EDGE OF MADNESS could even be called “science fiction” or “science fantasy.” In the end, I had to invent a new genre, “science futuring” or Sci-Fu, based on the projection of current science and technologies into the future, presenting the story in a manner such that readers “look into a mirror” of tomorrow that will, hopefully, help them make better decision in today’s world.

I recently created a Goodreads’ group (https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...) devoted to exploring this new genre, to which I invite interested authors and readers. Living in a plausible future world presents enough challenges and foibles for millions of sci-fu flash fiction stories, short stories, novellas and novels without the need for inclusion of untoward violence to capture the reader’s interest, and, if the work helps rather than hinders readers in making better and more volutional future decisions, it’s will help break the circle of violence and instead of dis-empowering, will re-empower readers. In my opinion, we very much need more published works that have an intrinsically redeeming component, or humanity will drown itself in gratuitous violence, and, in a completely dystopian sense, cease to exist.

I don’t believe that humanity has to destroy itself. It might, but I don’t believe it has to. Volitional choice is the very foundation of our humanity, our mental and emotional growth, and our evolution. As Vernadsky e don’t need more slaughter. We need more empathy and understanding. As Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky in his 1926 book THE BIOSPHERE hypothesized that life is the force that shapes the earth, Gaia, envisioned by author and scientist James Lovelock in GAIA, THE VANISHING FACE OF GAIA, THE REVENGE OF GAIA and NOVACENE: THE COMING AGE OF HYPERINTELLIGENCE as a living being.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je6CC...

Available as a Kindle eBook for $1.99 through 31 May 2021. Soon to be a Audible audiobook read by the inimitable Peter Pollock. Purchased for manga, animation and cinematic treatment by K. Simmons Productions.