Nate
asked
L.S. Kilroy:
Hi! I read and loved The Vitruvian Heir! I was wondering how you came up with some of the more interesting parts of the Vitruvian world you created in your book...like the galateans, particularly the Arnaud story, and all the strange technologies that are futuristic but also seem old fashioned?
L.S. Kilroy
Hi Nate! Thanks so much for reading and I'm glad you enjoyed it. This is a great question.
It's strange how inspiration strikes. For the galateans, I wanted to include some type of servant class of programmable automata that were incredibly lifelike and frightening in the fact that they, at one point, were able to be hacked and cause massive destruction. And the name "galateans" is derived from the Greek myth of Galatea, the statue brought to life by the goddess Venus after her sculptor, Pygmalion, fell in love with her. The Arnaud story, however is a little more sinister. It's, in a way, my special homage to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, but also I got the idea from a creepy post I saw on Facebook about La Pascualita - the corpse bride of Mexico. Apparently, La Pascualita is an eerily lifelike mannequin that has been in the window of a bridal store for the past 75 years - ever since the owner's daughter, Pascuala, died from a black widow spider bite on her wedding day. Bearing a striking resemblance to the deceased, the mannequin is only allowed to be changed behind closed doors by a trusted few. Her fingers have wrinkles on their knuckles and yellowed nails. And rumor has it that La Pascualita has even been known to change positions on her own. I thought this was so macabre that I wanted to incorporate an element of it into my story and I used Arnaud and the other galateans who have human souls imbued into them for that purpose.
As far as the other technology - the yoctosteam. I was thinking of how nanotechnology is being developed now and I figured that possibly in the future, there would be smaller particles than nanos used, which are yoctos. But I am not a scientist, so the idea of little yocto mites that carry information and are used to power vehicles, weapons, and such is a complete fabrication of my mind. And this is a world that has seen many natural disasters and catastrophes on a global scale so I was operating under the impression that digital would be wiped out. Yet these other technologies have been able to evolve. There's also almost a magical element about it, too - especially Artemis' engineering and the programming talents of Oliver Woodlock. I'm the author and I can say that I'm not even sure how they're doing it. But I think it must have to do with the transferring of one's own energy into another object, or sending energy that can then manifest in a different location as with the "manifests" - the way the mail operates. I suppose there's a heavy steampunk influence with the Neo-Victorian aspects of this world, but the technology brings a little cyberpunk into the mix as well. I sure hope this answer will suffice! Thanks again for reading!
It's strange how inspiration strikes. For the galateans, I wanted to include some type of servant class of programmable automata that were incredibly lifelike and frightening in the fact that they, at one point, were able to be hacked and cause massive destruction. And the name "galateans" is derived from the Greek myth of Galatea, the statue brought to life by the goddess Venus after her sculptor, Pygmalion, fell in love with her. The Arnaud story, however is a little more sinister. It's, in a way, my special homage to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, but also I got the idea from a creepy post I saw on Facebook about La Pascualita - the corpse bride of Mexico. Apparently, La Pascualita is an eerily lifelike mannequin that has been in the window of a bridal store for the past 75 years - ever since the owner's daughter, Pascuala, died from a black widow spider bite on her wedding day. Bearing a striking resemblance to the deceased, the mannequin is only allowed to be changed behind closed doors by a trusted few. Her fingers have wrinkles on their knuckles and yellowed nails. And rumor has it that La Pascualita has even been known to change positions on her own. I thought this was so macabre that I wanted to incorporate an element of it into my story and I used Arnaud and the other galateans who have human souls imbued into them for that purpose.
As far as the other technology - the yoctosteam. I was thinking of how nanotechnology is being developed now and I figured that possibly in the future, there would be smaller particles than nanos used, which are yoctos. But I am not a scientist, so the idea of little yocto mites that carry information and are used to power vehicles, weapons, and such is a complete fabrication of my mind. And this is a world that has seen many natural disasters and catastrophes on a global scale so I was operating under the impression that digital would be wiped out. Yet these other technologies have been able to evolve. There's also almost a magical element about it, too - especially Artemis' engineering and the programming talents of Oliver Woodlock. I'm the author and I can say that I'm not even sure how they're doing it. But I think it must have to do with the transferring of one's own energy into another object, or sending energy that can then manifest in a different location as with the "manifests" - the way the mail operates. I suppose there's a heavy steampunk influence with the Neo-Victorian aspects of this world, but the technology brings a little cyberpunk into the mix as well. I sure hope this answer will suffice! Thanks again for reading!
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