Science Fiction Microstory Contest discussion
NOVEMBER MICROSTORY- COMMENTS ONLY
date
newest »
newest »
message 51:
by
Kalifer
(new)
Nov 16, 2015 06:18PM
I guess we really need the computer in "Person of Interest" to get these guys.
reply
|
flag
Kalifer, Did you see that Anonymous, the hacking group, have declared that they are 'going after those guys'?
But what would be really good would be if Anonymous could somehow get into the minds of 'those guys' so as to change their view of the story they are acting out so horrifically... somehow get them to see the universal stories instead ... get them to step into the understanding of life and story that Joseph Campbell had ... get them to see that creativity not 'destructivity' is the godlier path, no matter by what name 'God' is called. The great irony is that some of the best creativity in maths and science and art of earlier times was from the Muslim world and mindset!
What happened that took the world from seeing an Islamic creativity in working with pattern as illustrated at this link http://www.storyofmathematics.com/isl... to the destruction of patterns of ordinary life, that now happen so fearfully frequently ...and with such an escalation of destructiveness as occurred in Paris this past weekend?
And for all others around the world who have suffered the same or worse at the hands of IS. There's been little égalité in public sympathy for them. But even with the best science fiction will in the world, weaponry can't operate itself yet without some human intervention. All those guns, tanks and millions the West indirectly threw at IS might have been more effective in street level deradicalisation programmes.
Apart from all the Humvees, tanks, rocket launchers, grenade launchers, AK-47s, anti-tank missiles, anti-aircraft, machine guns, oil wells, bank accounts, and social media followers in their trouser pockets, IS now also have the best weapons of mass destruction - European citizens who can travel in and out of almost any country in the world unchallenged. I'm sure I wasn't the only one who knew, a year before the media announced it, that hundreds of EU citizens, many of them disaffected youth, had been captured while fighting for this group.
Time to look at this whole issue in a very different way.
I'm just listening right now to guests on a political commentary show here, talking about one of the very issues you've mentioned, JJ: the extent of the global suffering (the greatest displacement of people since the second world war) and whether the public sympathy doles out rations of sympathy 'unfairly' ... with way bigger dollops of it dished up for France than for victims in Lebanon, Iraq and of course Syria? ... and whether it even goes into crazy territory with one nail polish company suggeting people should paint their nails red, white and blue.In defense of this apparent disparity of compassion-given, to one nation, more than to all others who also deserve that empathy, it could be that that disparity is actually a function of the human need for symbols and symbolism generally (as opposed to it being about the one nation being more valued than others?) And an attack on 'an icon' allows the public to symbolize their objection to that. And the swift response by the authorities 'symbolically gives power' to that objection! So of course people like that ... and 'symbolize that liking' back again. Humans like 'conversation in symbols'! (Hence the popularity of stories.)
By contrast ... what are the globally-known, distinct symbols that allow the public to express 'their objection' to the terrible things that the people of Syria, for example, are subjected to? There aren't any that I can easily think of. Such symbols might exist but they get lost to the collective consciousness in the mishmash. (And part of that mishmash may well be the unchallenged movement of Europeans.) (Its also some sort of tragedy that 'something' in 'Western' education has omitted to give us readily known and available symbols to express despair at the destruction of antiquities http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015... )
What are your thoughts on what that "very different way" could be, in looking at/trying to tackle this 'issue'?
Heather, that's a very rich vein of conceptualisation; but you've expended all your theories on a single sentence in my post, and subsequently highlighted the very issue I was referencing: lack of focus on the ground elements. If you're saying France has become an icon in this global conflict, what does that make IS?
Let's set aside the cocktail of emotions the media likes to whip up (destroying historical antiquities is fairly standard practice for invading conquerors). The nitty-gritty is that IS offers power, money, gore, guns, and unlimited sex with a variety of partners - highly alluring tokens for a particular demographic.
If you consider the main body of my comment, the free movement of EU citizen jihadists and the meagre resources spent on deradicalisation of disaffected youth, you'll be able to expound further on your own question.
There is only really one religion- the church of I hope, and or variably believe, there is a god for humanity and that if so he sees us. All the other idols are dystopia- that feast on negative science fictions in which their clan is the only one with a blessed future, often achieved by feasting on their brothers. They are the spawn of devil.
We have three academies: Mythology, History and Science fiction. None are true. Religion MUST remember that.
"We have three academies: Mythology, History and Science fiction. None are true. Religion MUST remember that."Agreed. You can charm someone into sharing your beliefs, but you can't kill them into it. That comes down to simple bloodlust and the need for control. Right now there's a lot of easy prey.
But if everyone was adhering to the same doctrine, what would these type of leaders dictate next?
Disturbing.
Unfortunately there is always easy prey for harsh prayer. As there are no facts there's precious little danger of us all believing the same doctrine- and that would be stiflingly dull. However, religion has to be humanitarian, whether directed at little green men, a goddess or the Almighty, or else it is far worse than useless.
And we mustn't confuse the pretence of belief through fear, North Korea (political) or Daesh (religious), with monotheism.
As of this morning (PST 4a.m.) a hotel in Mali was attacked by terrorists of some sort and 170 hostages taken. A dozen are released, three killed, rest presumably still inside. Ten men attacked the hotel. It is a luxury hotel popular with diplomats and such. Meanwhile, all sorts of people are using all this to try to bar refugees, even though most the attackers in France grew up in Europe. ---I don't mean to doubt that people's fear is real, although we certainly know well the political footballing done with this.--
Imagine my surprise when I got the latest issue of "Funny Times". If you've read my story, you can see why:http://funnytimes.com/wp-content/uplo...
Thanks for the condolences. I will go read the stories now.
Great story Carol,Its high time the world took much more seriously the power of creative expression-at-the-holistic-craft-level, in general. (And, writing-as-a-craft definately does include 'the physicality of writing'!)
Here is a link about schools in Finland having a plan to, next year, cut out teaching handwriting in schools altogether!!! http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-fr...
and here is another article about the Norwegians having another little think about what they should make of the 'wisdom' of going for such an over reliance on technology (... and bravo to them for even thinking about taking a stand against the idea that all Europeans have to now be, and think, as one!) http://theforeigner.no/pages/columns/...
Its absolutely imperative that this sort of subject (the effect, on creative expression, of allowing a hypertrophying of technology-worship to occur) is recognized as a suitable subject for science fiction.
If it is true that science fiction predicts and/or monitors science fact then it really is up to artists and writers to flag where the future worlds, that we create, are heading! If not, the horror that technology has apparently already begun bringing to Finnish creative-expression education WILL be repeated in the new frontiers: when Earthlings establish themselves as a powerful force in other realms away from Earth. (This is a key reason why I objected to the rule change that was introduced, some time back, inserting 'an explicit requirement': that our stories for the monthly contest MUST be identifiably science fiction. Such an explicit identification simply cannot always be made until after - sometimes long after - an individual artist/writer, who sharman-like, can play the soothsayer role very well, has pre-identified an issue as indeed being within the gamut of science fiction ... as opposed to 'a voting committee of artists/writers' saying what is or is not science fiction! Its time to revert to 'trust in the integrity of the artist' if we want the world's future to include a respect for true creative expression.)
Marianne,My heart goes out to you. I hope you and other's who grieve can find peace.
@ JJ,You asked, "if France is an icon (as I had asserted it is) in this global conflict, what does that make I.S.?"
The answer is that it makes I.S. the iconoclast: the entity that wants to destroy the icon! At the universal (or universal story) dimension, its an epic battle between a mythical champion and challenger, or hero/heroine (France) and antagonist (I.S.) ... or, for those "disaffected youth" fighting alongside I.S., the hero would be seen as I.S. and the antagonist seen as 'the West and its icons.'
When 'Western Military Might' takes up the fight, this is also something that finds its inspiration at that epic level: the battle between good and evil (or 'story') level of beliefs and their corresponding actions, in this case to protect 'the West' especially given that France is traditionally 'a cherished symbol' of Western values ... i.e., it is an icon.
Now imagine that this epic battle between 'hero' and 'villian' was not happening in real life, but was, instead, a play being put on by a drama class - at the ground level (as you indicated you are interested in) - by a group of 'disaffected youth'. And not just one generation of them, but rather one generation after another with the older ones egging the younger ones on, and the whole 'play', as a result of an undisciplined, distorted version of creative expression, ended up a complete and disastrous mess ... with plotlines (motivations or goals) that were, to say the least, poorly articulated.
(In the 'real life version' of that global conflict, it has its parallel in what Carol said: "With groups who have no discernible or stated goals, it is hard to start a dialogue and stop the destruction")
So what would you do if you were the drama teacher, the politician, the community leader ... trying to guide 'such youth' towards a much tighter, healing, ingenious expression of their creative drive to make a statement?
You might start by asking them if they knew what it was that had literally exhausted their creative ability and turned it into destructiveness. (And this is the sort of question that hackers of an ethical bent could possibly help ask!)
I'd bet that at the heart of the problem is a type of emotional exhaustion! We are living in a time when everyday, ordinary people are expected to do what, in prior ages, only artists (of all types, great and small) did outstandingly well ... and war did less well: marry the individual and local cultural levels of existence with the universal (or collective consciousness) level. And unlike great artists, a lot of 'everyday folk' just don't have a SUFFICIENTLY UNREPRESSED intuitive creative discipline to guide them (hence the un-tempered flow across the canvas of unbordered, unboundried life, by Citizen Europe hell bent on (they incorrectly intuit) an ultimately easier destructive, rather than creative, outcome.
[N.B. I'm using the terms "artist" and "war" here as very broad categories. eg 'colonization' is classifiable, in some circumstances, by some people, as, a creative push by Mankind as the artist but, in other circumstances, and from a different viewpoint, it is seen as war. Likewise, 'religion/religious beliefs' can be experienced as something as healing as beautiful works of art are, OR, as destructive as war is. eg The healing power of prayer or the destructive power that was in The Inquisition, or in the pandemic of child abuse by the clergy.]
The solution is for the real life 'drama teachers' (politicians, community leaders and the like) to take very, very seriously the values of creative discipline and its resultant integrity (as opposed to any other sort of discipline, and use that as 'the lead discipline': as the guide to show how its done.) Of course at first they won't know how to even begin to follow this path!
Congratulations on having found your 'someone special', Carol. That's very nice. You deserve it.
Saw this very interesting storytelling concept(link). Sorry I didn't have time to post a story this month. Maybe I can just post one later this week just for practice. http://www.wired.com/2015/11/the-pick...
Great link Jeremy,As the article says: the concept is "entirely revolutionary"
Now that's the sort of revolutions we should be encouraging ... 'at ground level' amongst our 'disaffected youth.' So much more of a creative medium - for telling stories and acting out performance-art reminiscent games - than 'sabres dipped in blood' or 'hammers struck on ancient statues.'
I like the bit under the heading "Multiple Pathways into a World" that says,
The twist is that each chapter opens with illustrations drawn from either Flora’s or the government’s perspective. This allows the reader to place two illustrations of the same vignette in conversation with each other, by aligning the artwork. “You’re trying to fit together two different illustrations, like a puzzle,” says Horowitz. “It resonates with the narrative, where no one has complete information.”
The video within that article is so fascinating and another intriguing statement within the article is this one,
Horowitz’s philosophy is reflected in the Pickle Index app. Not only is it interactive, but the story it conveys is impossible to experience in one sitting. By controlling the release of the story, Horowitz and Quinn can tailor the reading experience to each user.
Imagine a judge in a courtroom sentencing aligned-to-terrorism youths to "1001 hours of total and dedicated immersion in tailor-made experiences of each of the Pickle Index app and the Silent History app" (where alternative modes of communication must, apparently, be found,) with a view to a lifetime of such immersions. It really could turn worlds, and THE world, towards creative pathways.
Jeremy, Heather, your conversation leads me to recommend "The Man in the High Castle" if you can stand it. It is a good example of "if the bad side wins." In this alternate history case, the Nazi's and Japan conquered the rest of the World. I think the P.K. Dick story (set in 1962) is rather chilling and Ridley Scott has done a good job producing the TV series. If ISIL wins the world (very unlikely) the results would be similar. I've read and seen movies and episodes of alternative histories but this one is the most realistic and vivid. I believe that's because he did a lot of research but became so sick at what he read that he never did volume II as intended.
Yeh, a little too chilling, Kalifer! Haven't seen the R Scott version, though. Jot, I emailed you my vote last night--presume you've got it.
Thanks kalifer,I will get myself a copy of the P.K. Dick story.
But just one question - genuinely asked,
did something about what I wrote (and what Jeremy wrote ... though I can only speak to my interpretation of what he wrote, and not to his own intention or meaning in writing it) make you interpret what I wrote as advocating 'going soft on ISIL' or some other such 'pathway', that if followed, would 'let the bad side win'?
I've just had a look at the Amazon preview of Dick's book and was glad to see (at http://www.amazon.com/Man-High-Castle... ) at least this comment by a reader:Later, you'll think a bit about the book, and realize that the novel wasn't really about what you thought it was (which is good to hear ... because the book opens with some horrific racial stereotyping!)
Another reviewer mentions
[the irony of] Dick's conjecture that if the United States had lost WWII, we would all be listening to Japanese audio equipment and driving German cars now (Just as well we didn't lose the war then!)
That same reviewer also says,
Dick was clearly influenced by two earlier works of alternative history, Sarban's The Sound of His Horn and C. M. Kornbluth's "Two Dooms". In turn, The Man in the High Castle has influenced any number of later works, not just Norman Spinrad's The Iron Dream and the novels of Harry Turtledove, but Ursula LeGuin's The Lathe of Heaven as well.
This is a very complex, suspenseful novel ...
I am glad to be able to look forward to exploring the complexity that that reviewer felt was expressed by Dick in this work (and in those other works mentioned.) But that apparent complexity seems a bit incongruous with what you seem to be saying, Kalifer, when you say,
"I believe ... he did a lot of research but became so sick at what he read that he never did volume II as intended."
That's could be like saying, that, he lacked the courage of his creative integrity to express 'a truth' that his artist's mind perceived (and an artist's mind truly and inherently is a scientific, laser-like instrument that can cut through crap) 'just because' it made him uncomfortable! ... or, and I hope this isn't true, it could be that you are seconding his power (as a respected author) to yourself: to empower your simpler interpretation of the complexity he (apparently) wrote in this work.
It just doesn't ring true to me that an author/an artist would be more 'sickened' by a truth he sees than 'compelled' by it!
HI Marianne, my condolences to you at this time. I have not written a story this month but I have submitted my vote. I did thoroughly enjoy the stories submitted.
Heather, before we move on from this matter, let's clear the table. You seem to have shifted my original post into a dissertation around creative expression and the ideology of good versus evil. It should sober you to know that in certain quarters IS are known as the 'New Europeans' - based apparently on the rampaging terror they're creating.
That kind of ideological weaponry has been used for centuries in the battle for hearts and minds. All currently irrelevant. Right now IS are powerful, they're topping the blood-thirsty killers/threat to the rest of the world list, and they're wandering around the bloody back garden. They're shooting up schools and rock concerts, creating carnage among innocents. People you wouldn't expect, or want to be on their side, are. Rashid the jihadist, f.k.a Kwan, Ahmed, Jason. His suicide bomber girlfriend Fatima/Tracey.
Applying objectively the story/plotline approach you reference, this makes IS a far greater icon for their targetted demographic than France.
Look at what I've written again for the more salient points. Weapons cannot pick themselves up. Governments in the West need to cut off the reserve head, arms, and legs of IS here - even by applying some of that ideology you so wonderfully demonstrate. I mean that as a compliment.
I have loved ones who've been actively eyeballing this for years in the thinnest line of all, so I'm a bit short on patience with the mentality of: "The jihadists can't get my head because I'm sticking it in the sand - but hey, here's my Marie Antoinette ass on a plate")
As for your theories on creative expression, the listed icon Adolf Hitler displayed plenty of that in his spare time. Look how many millions reaped the benefits.
Mod
I think you might have shifted my position, JJ: comparing what I am saying about 'the healing power of creativity' to Adolf Hitler! Wow! If I actually cared more about my 'comfort' than about the truth of what I am saying - as an artist/author, and therefore, as, anyone in touch with their creativity - I would be insulted. But I don't care about whether or not I am insulted. I care about what I observe to be true and my right to express it - in non violence mediums - without being told to "move on" (read "shut up now!")
You have misunderstood what I am saying and seem to be trying to turn my position into a fight from which we - if it was a fight - would need to "move on."
Crikeky, surely this is a forum for the reasonable exchange of ideas (such as the way in which Jeremy McLain joined in) about, amongst other things, the role of the artist/author in society, the role of creativity in challenging 'ways of looking at thing' (that is the role of creativity in Renewal.) Please don't see what I am saying as me using 'idealogical weaponry' nor as my taking a position of "The jihadists can't get my head because I'm sticking it in the sand - but hey, here's my Marie Antoinette ass on a plate." You are using, as people often do, a straw man argument: mis-stating someone's position and then arguing against that mis-statement.
An observation of mine (and likely at least some other people's as well) ... NOT an idealogical position is that Humanity is at a crossroads in at least 2 key areas, for which we - especially artists/the artist within us all - need to articulate how we perceive, and how we might actualize, our BEST (not our Hitler-like) capacity for creative solutions to (these 2 broad) problems.
problem 1.) We are on the edges of colonizing 'outer space.' Do we do it in the same way in which we colonized 'the Earth' which did, for all its benefits, do harm in the process?
and
problem 2.) we need to ask better questions (in order to get better answers) about how we can/might de-radicalize (and work to prevent a future worse pandemic of radicalization of) the disaffected and disenfranchised. It does not imply any excluding of an military (or other forces) fightback against the evil-doers and the evil they are already doing.
Artists/authors don't theorize! They observe!! They then make creative statements (in their creative works) about the situations they observe and how RENEWAL - the raison d'être of art - may or may not occur! Its as simple and as complex as that.
Did anyone else actually go to that link http://www.wired.com/2015/11/the-pick... that Jeremy McLain posted and soak in all the possibilities raised by the article there?!?
Everyone has nearest and dearest who have been through a lot! (I know I sure have!) That's a reason to do the job of the artist: explore Renewal in all the ways you possibly can ... rather than seeing such exploration as some sort of idealogical warfare!
Why can't there be more posts here, like Jeremy McLain's: which was (as far as I interpreted it) a sharing of 'a picking up of a way of seeing something' and turning it upside down and inside out? Its boring and irritating when there is, instead, a palpable push to close down, to 'cut off the head of', discussions about different ways of perceiving problems ... and the possibilities, the hopes, for solving them.
Peace and healing for everyone on Thanksgiving.
Mod
Richard Bunning
Chris Nance
J.J. Alleson
Richard W.
J.F. Williams
Greg Krumrey
Carol Shetler
S.M. Kraftchak
Ron Jones
Please email me at author.jotrussell@gmail.com or send a message via GoodReads, LinkedIn or if you can mental telepathy.
"if you can mental telepathy"The only problem with telepathy is the lack of a paper trail...
Kalifer, I hadn't read the book (...High Castle) yet. Not too much time to 'read' these days but try to get audiobooks when I can. I did see that Amazon has made a series out of it which came out last week, hopefully they can do a good job of it. I saw the pilot show they had made awhile ago. They got enough interest in it to make a first season (10 episodes).
Happy Thanksgiving (tomorrow)to all that celebrate this traditional holiday. :-)
Vote sent- Son in law stable but dealing with high fever. Stay extended another 24 hours.
I just sent in my votes, really good stories this month as always!
Just posted my comments on this months stories over in the Content Discussion thread. This is a MUCH easier format to post in. Please remember that my comments on your wonderful stories is just my point of view/ opinion and feel free to take it or leave it.I would second the suggestion of having word count posted either at the beginning or end of a story and also would suggest that everyone include a 'by line' to clearly identify the author since the way GR identifies our posts in not necessarily clear.
Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate.
Mod
Richard Bunning
Chris Nance
J.J. Alleson
Richard W.
Greg Krumrey
Carol Shetler
Ron Jones
Please vote today or you might be disqualified tomorrow. Happy Thanksgiving everyone...
Wishing everyone and your families good health and, whether you celebrate Thanksgiving or not, a good long weekend.
Hey, Jot:E-mailed by vote to you.
Hey, everybody:
Happy Turkey Day!
Hoping your son in law is doing better, Sharon.I guess nearly all the votes must be in by now, Jot? So I'm going to list some comments on SOME (not all) of the stories. If anyone hasn't voted, don't read these--beware, possible spoilers. I've commented on stories that either got my vote or on which I may have something useful to say.
To preface, there were no "failed stories" this month, though two otherwise fine ones had either many grammar and spelling errors, or else a tacked-on irrelevant end-piece; all the others flowed smoothly and well. Further, there were NO stories that were confusing or difficult to follow. Often, there are one or two, but not this time. --In this regard, Sharon is right (and thanks, Sharon) that my own story can be confusing in the beginning; I should have added, and will be adding, a sentence early on clarifying there's a brain/mind transfer involved, yes.
So for comments on specific stories:
--"To Arrive Where We Started"--emotionally strong with an elegant sense of a primary story echoing a larger story *and* world, the main tale echoing the narrator's tale--a sort of layering resembling that in Collins's first Hunger Games book.
--"The Hundredth"--beautifully constructed, genuinely moving, elegantly simple and effective.
--"The Games Masters Play"--a nightmare, despair-making, powerful, traditionally beautifully scary sf.
--"Legacy"--simple, very well written, elegant, with a show-stopper ending.
--"Sweet Memory"--another deceptively simple, moving, beautiful story.
--"The Watchtower"--like Poe's tales, this story pulls off the veils between self and world and lets human guilts and fears take over--powerful.
--"A Scarlet Blossom, Disremembered"--extremely moving and well written.
--"Bingo"--what a story!--really well done.
--"The Place Where Hope Goes"--a terrific, emotional story that (in my opinion, only) went on a bit long.
--"Even Artificial Things"--tough and darkly beautiful, a very strong story.
--"In Memory yet Forgotten," "Dark Side of the Earth," "The Fearful Symettry that Dared," "Rude Awakening, "Forget Me Not," "Regeneration," "Mindwipe," "Lego man," "Last lady in waiting"--every one of these stories had some facet--characters or feeling or ambience--that has pulled me into its universe.
Really a terrific group of stories this month; all are winners, in a real sense.
I find that if I miss one notification nothing else comes through. Perhaps some of us, me, need extra jolts to remind us to vote.
Does anyone else have this problem? I believe that everyone does.
If it gives you a notification, it won't send another one for that specific thread until you've read the thread. I guess that's intended to prevent it from spamming people.
Thanks Sharon & Paula for the comments. Always appreciated. Good luck with your son-in-law, Sharon.
Sharon and Paula, thank you for the comments. I appreciate them greatly as I think they are tougher to write than the stories. Regarding the gender ambiguity: that probably resulted from the extensive cutting. The first draft was over 1K. Cutting can throw off the substitution of pronouns, epithets and names. Cut a line with the character's name and you may have to change the use of pronouns that follow it. And it doesn't help that "Connie" is more often used for a woman's name.
Jot, following what Richard's said, I've just noticed that on the 25th you listed me in the not yet voted. But I sent my votes in on the 23rd. Should I post them here?Carol, missed it before (did a happy 'hmm' in the story :-)) but good luck with your new love. So nice to hear happy tales in these horrible times.
Heather, I will always be fascinated by your mind - it is an encyclopaedia of fresh concepts for me, so thank you. btw, I also have French friends, English friends living in France and French European relatives, so my anxiety branches off in many directions globally.
Sharon, I hope all is well with you and yours.
Paula, thank you for doing alleviating some of us with the guilt of not doing feedback. Great comments in such a hard month. All the stories need wallowing in again.
Thanks JJ for that comment ... and of course your comments in general here which I find can (over time) cause my thoughts to step outside my own way of thinking, at least a little bit. (And I think I But I can say with honesty, I think, that I do it with good intentions. Its because I've always been amazed and intrigued by how we (humans) can crazily juxtapose 'good ways' and 'bad ways' of 'trying to integrate' that which is universal to us all and that which is particular (ie, things particular to individuals, to particular cultural perspectives, etc.) I grew up in (and later married into) a microcosm of (often subtly expressed) extremes of that juxtaposition ... which is a weird juxtaposition itself! So I've been observing that forever. I know from all that time 'in the front row' of the theatre of life, that 'conservative integrations' (as opposed to 'creative integrations', ie ones that are open to 'the possibilities of a renewal' of how things are perceived and done) can be very destructive, and often subtly so.
ALL my stories are about that. I thought my story this month was the best I have written so far ... and so I was disappointed, Sharon, that you, in particular, thought the ending was weak, because I thought it was very powerful and totally on theme.
The Fearful Symmetry (can be anything: the amazing beauty {the easily recognized} and intrigue {the endlessly unknown} contained within the physical symmetry of a face, writ large in a tiger's face) OR as in the case of my story (and as in the case of some of the current key turning points for 'global society') that Fearful Symmetry is very much referring to the equal and opposite powers of the Familiar and the Universal.
The main protagonist was the mother in the story, because she was the one who had 'most forgotten' the Universal Force even though she was every night (especially) reminded of it by the vista of a wide expanse of endless, universal night sky right outside her kitchen window (wall to ceiling glass doors and windows!) where the well placed flowers and foliage and (albeit contained within a chlorinated pool) water (a symbol of universality and the unconscious mind) 'attempted' to integrate it with her familiar world inside her house and family.
The young daughter was a secondary character because she quickly and completely accepted the integration of 'Universal Fear of an Unknown, or Ghostly, or Other Worldly Force' (whose rule was that she had to hurry to get to bed by nine o'clock else it would devour her) with its beautiful counterpart, which appeared to her as that 'it' in the form of something almost familiar - a big snail - capable of making 'pretty pictures.' Child-like, her mind just copes with that 'fearful symmetry' with complete fluidity!
The father, likewise was a secondary character because he also 'admitted' the fear-inspiring nature of that universal force, but adult-like he had some solid defences in place to help him try and deny it: alcohol and reliance on technolgy (and having a wife with a stronger personality than he has) to help him 'escape' thinking about it.
But the mother was the main character who had to go through a character arc, because she totally denied any possibility of any such universal force that could impact her familiar world. She had everything so ordered (even with built-in safe escapes from that order like indulgence in fatty fried food for breakfast on the weekends) that her loss of memory of 'the vast unknown' - which is the other side, the scary side, of the equation of The Symmetry - was essentially complete ... until she was forced ONCE THAT SYMMETRY ACTUALLY DARED TO COME OUT OF THE SHADOWS (and that's a play on words on the word 'fearful', in that's 'it's as afraid to dare us as we are afraid of 'it'.) The very last sentence, therefore - to me - was very powerful because finally she (even momentarily) lost control of 'the familiar' and re-REMEMBERED 'the universal'! A possibility of her starting again with a different sort of 'clean slate' was now in place.
