Science Fiction Microstory Contest discussion
***JUNE 2016 MICRO STORY CONTEST - COMMENTS ONLY
Justin,Does your interest in Military History also include The Cold War? And if so have you heard of Gordon Welchman?
Apparently (whereas Turing was the genius behind 'modern computing') Welchman was the genius behind taking it all (especially cryptography and the secreting of and distribution of information generally) to an industrial scale.
Today's Computing in The Cloud, Network Analysis and Public Surveillance are all examples of legacies of Gordon Welchman's work.
He worked at Bletchley Park during WWII, and apparently it was he who was the driving force behind an approach to Churchill to greatly upgrade Bletchley. After WWII, he became an American Citizen in order to continue working in the field he knew ... and it was for the N.S.A. that he worked during the Cold War.
However in 1982 - around 7 yrs I think after the BBC made a TV program about Bletchley Park - Welchman released his own book called "The Hut 6 Story." In the U.S. the N.S.A. didn't like that he had done that because they wanted a lot about the cryptography secrets to remain secret still, because of the Cold War. They applied pressure to Welchman including reminding him of the very same law that Edward Snowden is now wanted under. Welchman died of cancer a few years later ... but the way the world works has changed because of his great ability: to up-scale what Turing (and very likely 'forgotten' others) did.
I found this video (below) while searching for angles on Turing's work - because I do want to use my Turing story in my attempts at the exercises in "The Weekend Novelist Writes a Mystery" - and wondered what you knew about him and just whether your interest extends to Cold War situations as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUtAH... (the first part is mainly about Welchman's WWII contribution.) The section on the Cold War and on his work for the N.S.A. starts just before 29:30
p.s. I also noticed, in "The Man Who Knew Too Much: Alan Turing And The Invention of Computers," that, Turing had believed, after the death of his idealized school friend, Christopher Morcom at a young age, that he would meet and work with Christopher again one day. That sent shivers down my spine thinking that in my story - once I make it 'novel length' (as per the exercise in "The Weekend Novelist ...") it might emerge that when the character, Alan, meets the character, Artur - who is also gifted and will work with Alan to bring him up to speed with what he has missed due to having been in a cryogenic lab for more than half a century - Alan 'believes' that Artur is actually (a new incarnation of) his former friend! (That Alan's love of Christopher was apparently physically unrequited, though apparently spiritually and emotionally mutual, actually fits well with 'the character, Artur' and his likely reaction, I think! It was almost a bit deja vu-ish when I read that about Christopher and Alan. When I created the character, Artur I had actually forgotten all about the 'Alan and Christopher relationship' ... though I had first heard of it ages ago, when I was first fascinated with the potential of Alan Turing in a futuristic story about where A.I. could go under his influence.)
Hi Heather,I enjoy military history of any era. I just happen to know more about certain periods than others. The Cold War is of course part of all that, and I did know about the work done at Bletchley Park but not the specific scientists involved.
I don't know a lot about the cloak and dagger events during the Cold War, only that they happened. We spied on them, they spied on us, there were unwritten rules that both sides followed and quasi-respected. Now it's all just terrorism. Oh the simple days of Mutual Assured Destruction. :)
Hi Heather,The NSA has a wonderful museum at Ft. Meade with amazing exhibits, historical analysis, and old, old computational systems, some dating back to Turing's day. You can view the website at:https://www.nsa.gov/about/cryptologic...
There's also a great article on Turing at:https://www.nsa.gov/about/cryptologic...
- C. Lloyd
Thanks for the links, 'C' ... (is that name inspired by a cloak and dagger-ish imagining; like the character 'M' in a 007 movie?!)I tend to believe those who think Alan Turing probably fell foul of 'someone' http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/artic... "...The post mortem report said he died from cyanide poisoning, but the note adds that: 'Death appears to be due to violence...'"
(That article said he died in 1954. I thought it was 1952. I'll have to go and check and edit that in my story if necessary.)
But back to the real world of fun and games:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/art...
EDIT: it would be interesting to know if the N.S.A. Museum has any tribute piece to Gordon Welchman's work in paving the way for global networking? Given that he fell out with the N.S.A. and had his Security Clearance revoked (for publishing a book on still classified information) I'd imagine there might be no such tributes. (I think it sounds like a very scary world in Real Life {and perhaps one that Welchman naively thought he would be immune to} ... but an enthralling area for fictional/semi fictional mystery writers and readers; a whole other world to 'the front end' we operate at, in 'ordinary life,' as if some Unspoken Code of Silence and Acceptance, regarding the existence of such Dark Worlds that we know probably 'lurk underneath', is understood.)
@ Justin,I thought it was interesting that had Churchill been killed in WWI, as in your story, BUT Welchman, from Bletchley Park Hut 6, in WWII somehow still was doing his WWII work ... but had a different Prime Minister to appeal to for 'more resources' at Bletchley - a PM who refused such a request - then how would that have changed long reaching outcomes for the world?
What would have been different had Gordon Welchman not have had the 'scaling up' (of computing and networking) experiences he had at Bletchley {as permitted by and encouraged by Churchill}, which ultimately led to the industrial scale of computing and networking processes we know today (as opposed to the smaller, more focused-on-one-thing scale, though vital, work of Turing)? The way the ducks just happened to be all lined up, for Welchman, did lead on to the Americanization of such 'scaling up' (once Walchman moved his skill and experience to America {and to the N.S.A.}, becoming an American citizen to do that, and hence leading to the U.S.-led global, cyber-based/cyber reliant, networks we know today!
Imagine also IF Churchill had not been rejected by the British public after WWII. Had he continued on as PM, perhaps Welchman's frustration (which led him to seek to continue his work in the U.S.) would not have happened had a Prime Minister Churchill, 'after the war', decided to prioritize continuance of Welchman's work! It might have been the U.K. that led the globalization of cyber space? How would it have been different to the way America did it?
Is Carly still here? Carly? Anyone know much about pitch fests (tweeted)?
Did you mean Carrie? (I went and had a look just now over on her website and she seems to have been active there, blogging etc. Maybe she's just having a rest from GR for a while?)
Oops--yes, I did. Thanks. Heather. I've never been good at remembering names exactly, but . . . yes, I mean Carrie. Well--no hurry; we can all quiz her when she returns.
Heather wrote: "Thanks for the links, 'C' ... (is that name inspired by a cloak and dagger-ish imagining; like the character 'M' in a 007 movie?!)I tend to believe those who think Alan Turing probably fell foul ..."
Hi H,
Lol. I use C. Lloyd as my writing name and Corey as my business name to avoid confusing my clients and readers without going to a completely fictitious pen name. So here, in order to maintain an orderly separation, you can call me C, C. Lloyd, Lloyd, or whatever. . . I've been probably called worse.
As to Turing's mysterious passing, he probably succumbed to the same accident described on the Tonight Show by Richard Pryor that caused his horrible facial burns popularly believed to have been caused by 'freebasing'--a dangerous form of crack-smoking:
"Let me tell you what really happened... Every night before I go to bed, I have milk and cookies. One night I mixed some low-fat milk and some pasteurized, then I dipped my cookie in and the s### blew up." - Richard Pryor,
-C. Lloyd
Paula wrote: "Oops--yes, I did. Thanks. Heather. I've never been good at remembering names exactly, but . . . yes, I mean Carrie. Well--no hurry; we can all quiz her when she returns."I believe Carrie is traveling right now. This is probably a busy season for her, hunting, fishing and podcasting about it all. Easiest to reach her via Twitter.
Heather wrote: "@ Justin,I thought it was interesting that had Churchill been killed in WWI, as in your story, BUT Welchman, from Bletchley Park Hut 6, in WWII somehow still was doing his WWII work ... but had a ..."
There were so many points in Churchill's life where he could have been killed. He fell out of a tree as a teenager and was bedridden for a month. He could have been shot at the Battle of Omdurman, or killed during his escape prison during The Boer War, and on and on.
If he had died prior to WWI, then someone else would have been First Lord of the Admiralty. Then perhaps the British Fleet would not have been at their war stations prior to hostilities breaking out - as they were at Churchill's express direction - thereby enabling the German High Seas Fleet to sortie and attack the home islands. (Churchill actually war gamed this possibility in 1912, demonstrating the importance of having the Royal Navy at its war stations before any conflict broke out.)
So many historical possibilities!
Thanks so much, Jack. Appreciated.Jack wrote: "Paula wrote: "Oops--yes, I did. Thanks. Heather. I've never been good at remembering names exactly, but . . . yes, I mean Carrie. Well--no hurry; we can all quiz her when she returns."
I believe C..."
@Justin, there were other people alert to the possibility of German invasion at that time.I recently managed to track down (I'd been hunting for it for years) a copy of the book "The Riddle of the Sands" (Erskine Childers, 1903), which was probably the first spy thriller ever written. The book is about some amateur sailors who discover German plans to invade England. The release of the book heavily influenced a number of senior people in the Admiralty.
Jeremy,That sounds similar to how "Ghost Fleet" is currently influencing senior military leaders at the Pentagon.
This brings up a question I've wondered occasionally--very occasionally, but still . . . Did On the Beach (film or book) influence the Kennedys to stand down a bit during the Cuban Crisis? JFK having been, after all, a Navy guy.
I thought that was mostly the influence of his brother.
I've posted a story now.Several real historical characters involved - and some 18th century science too, in a steampunky way :-)
I love it! A smashing good yarn old boy! Teach those colonists a lesson they'll never forget!! :)
Thanks, Justin!Perchance we missed an opportunity back in the day :-)
Can I just ask here, as I have been out of the loop: Is our third anthology a go or a no go?
It's happening, Marianne. Sharon, I, and perhaps JJ too got delayed---jobs stuff, et.--but are back on it again. Sorry for the delay.
This group is relentless and cruel, dragging me away from my spreadsheets and deadlines into wanting to squish this theme and requirements between my fingers to see what oozes out. But I refuse to break my rule of not reading before writing and posting- I won't have your great works influencing my little story.
I'd like to offer my condolences to those of you in Britain following the terrible tragedy - that is being conveyed on early morning TV here - of the murder of one of your M.P.'s, Jo Cox. Everyone being interviewed on the BBC program is saying what a hard working and compassionate politician she was. It's such a tragedy that 'political debate' can get stirred up in people's mind to the point where they express themselves with a gun and a knife!
One or two politicians have mentioned that some politicians should set a better example by being more measured and articulate and less aggressive themselves in expressing differences of opinion ... and that social media outlets, such as Twitter, should stop taking 'no responsibly' for communication standards.
Its terribly unfair that a politician who was herself so articulate be the victim of such a terribly aggressive and hateful 'expressiveness.'
Since we seem to still be in the usual mid-month dearth of stories, I felt compelled to write a Colonial's alternate alternate history rejoinder to Andy's excellent (though woefully one-sided) account of the American Revolution. Any errors in statements concerning Benjamin Franklin, the history of lighter-than-air vehicles, Abigail Adams, etc, etc are entirely the fault of the Wikipedia articles that I consulted for this story.
The story is not an entry for this month's contest.
Andy wrote The story is not an entry for this month's contest."but ... is that statement in itself an alternate truth, Andy? -:) In another reality, Andy did not enter this story in the contest ... lol, life is a rally hard thing to figure out which way's up!
Andy!A funny story indeed and great answer to the British electric weapons. Perhaps I should have made it alternate Revolutionary War/American War of Independence (depending on which side of the pond you reside) history only!
A nice addition. I hope some other stories will come in as well by the deadline.
lol I suppose we should be sparing a thought for the likes of Sharon (message 124 above) who "refuse to break [their] rule of not reading before writing and posting" even though they have been so "dragged ... into wanting to"! by the "[R]elentless and [C]ruel" who just keep right on discussing tantalizing details of whatever is locked (to the more Principled & Unposted members) behind the door to that thread marked "Stories."
@Andy G: I felt compelled to write a Colonial's alternate alternate history rejoinder to Andy's excellent (though woefully one-sided) account of the American Revolution. "Woefully one-sided", sir?
There is a balance to redress, not lest in the unfortunate record of conventional history. :-)
Good story - it seems we both have women to thank for winning the war, though in different directions.
@Heather. It is shocking news. The rhetoric of division, hatred and demonising others becomes more strident every day, and forms the backdrop for extreme actions by disturbed people.
I guess the rest of us have to go out and be more positive and creative and compassionate to overcome the negativity.
"I guess the rest of us have to go out and be more positive and creative and compassionate to overcome the negativity."Exactly, Andy ... exactly! It's pretty much what her dear husband bravely said she would have wanted.
But it's hard to do. I was so shocked. Earlier in the evening I had been watching a show called something like "We were Trumped" about how Donald Trump aggressively just mowed down acres of pristine Scottish countryside (justifying it by saying that the long term residents there had messy houses and yards - which may or may not have been true, depending on how you view 'what's neat', but they cared about the the wildness of the place and the birds and animals that lived there ... whereas trump just bulldozed trees that birds had slept in the night before and literally buried them in a pit!)
Trump had even the police in his pocket who protected his destruction and not the residents when the earthworks (all for Trump's Scottish Golf Club & Course) ripped up their water and electricity supply and - deliberately it seemed - piled metres high dug up sand dunes right next to their houses to block their view. The police even arrested, in a very rough manner, a journalist who was filming it. How quickly a Hitler-like persona can control the Powers That Be, not just most of 'the masses.'
The Aberdeen Council seemed also to have been similarly brain (or was it bank-account) washed over into supporting Trump and even the local Robert Gordon University. One former head of the uni (John Kennedy I think his name was) handed back his honorary doctorate because Trump was awarded one. But the then current uni head (I think it was all happening in the late 1980's) didn't have the courage to put in an appearance and face Kennedy.
Afterwards, when Jo Cox was murdered I must admit I harboured some dark wishes about who would have better lived and who would have better died. But then I felt ashamed ... and encouraged by her husband's brave words.
But you do get really sick of aggressive forces always 'seeming' to win the day ... but as you said, Andy, "I guess the rest of us have to go out and be more positive and creative and compassionate to overcome the negativity." True.
Mine's up.The difference between this world and that of my story mainly boils down to normal weather, believe it or not.
In our universe, the climate was "off" for three years - 1239 to 1242. Spring came very early in each of those years, and involved an unusual amount of rain.
The Mongol retreat (there were only two sieges of Bratislava - Pressburg or Pozsony to people back then - in our universe) apparently was mostly due to disgust at the muddy ground, which interfered with their ability to ride. They pulled back several months before a messenger could have reached Europe with news of the Khan's death.
Oh, and Snorri. I was always infuriated by the manner of his death (September 1241). Writers should never have to exit that way. In an ideal world, perhaps, he would have asked for assistance in interpreting the runic warning message that somebody sent him, and then chosen exile instead of death.
Jeremy,A great story, and thank you for the historical background for clarity! Interesting how much rain and mud have impacted history.
Jeremy, is this line in your story,"Snorri's native Norsk, and the monk's Anglisc shared many words,"
a reference to the fact that Bacon
"set out his own new model for a reform of the system of philosophical and theological studies, one that would incorporate language studies and science studies, then unavailable at the universities." ?? (N.B. that quote is from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rog...)
There seems to be an 'un-mentioned'? tragic twist to your tale, arising from there:
viz., that Snorri 'fell upon his own shortcoming' in not being well versed enough in rune-language or cipher runes' (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cipher_...) to have (years later) read the life-saving warning (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snorri_...) ... even though his companion Roger Bacon was a champion of 'including language' in things - way beyond the norm at the time (as noted in the first link, the one in the first paragraph, above) ...
OR did you mention it, cryptically, in this line in your story, "I wonder what else your powder [read 'intellectual power'?] can throw," said Snorri, thoughtfully. " ?? ...
Adding weight to my suspicion that you might have cryptically mentioned 'that tragic twist' - given the circumstances of Snorri's death (as given at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snorri_... ) - is the fact that Anglisc did have a power (of understanding) between them, in its own right, had they 'chosen' to let it work that power! (see http://www.omniglot.com/forum/viewtop... )
There was instead an almost Romeo Juliettesque-like 'mis-timed' opportunity for understanding between them! I wonder how the weather might have got them conversing more - initially in Anglisc? ... leading up to some Rune-cipher lessons/probing questions from Bacon? Maybe a few days of glorious sunshine and longs walks in the countryside with a cut lunch?
Another excellent story, Jeremy!
Thanks Justin and Heather.My understanding is that by the 1200s people speaking Old Norsk and late-early English would have had a struggle understanding each other, even though there were many words in common.
Both Bacon and Snorri were highly literate people, who likely each spoke many languages. As far as I know, Latin was generally the fallback "lingua franca" for educated people from different backgrounds who wanted to converse. I suspect that they both would have spoken French (Bacon was actually teaching at the university in Paris in 1242), so that was also a possibility.
The tragic underpinning was a factor when I was writing it. I considered some alternate endings that played that up more, but elected not to bump any characters off this month!
Probably unlikely for Snorri to have spoken Old French, though there would have been linguistic touching points with the Norse/Norman influences on the development of French.But as you have him travelling much further south in the alternate history, who knows what languages he might encounter and absorb on the way?
Latin, though, would be all that was needed
@Andy, the founder of the school at Oddi (where Snorri studied) was educated in either France or Franconia. There's actually a good chance that Old French was taught at that school.
Justin, I just realized this month's topic might be a bit like the TV show called Drunk History - I've never actually watched it but just saw it advertised as "where comedians tell a tale from (real) history but tell it while they're blind drunk!"
This is an interesting thing; the only surviving recording of Virginia Wolf's voice! https://www.brainpickings.org/2013/04... She is speaking about 'words.'WORDS: "... because the truth they try to catch is many-sided, and they convey it by being themselves many-sided, flashing this way, then that. Thus they mean one thing to one person, another thing to another person; they are unintelligible to one generation, plain as a pikestaff to the next. And it is because of this complexity that they survive. Perhaps then one reason why we have no great poet, novelist or critic writing to-day is that we refuse words their liberty. We pin them down to one meaning, their useful meaning, the meaning which makes us catch the train, the meaning which makes us pass the examination. And when words are pinned down they fold their wings and die. ..."
I was surprised by the sound of her voice: sounding more like the compliant voice of 'an actor' ... reciting the words, than like the intent voice of 'the composing creative' whose actual words they are!
But then, as she said in that piece of her recording's transcript which I have copied and pasted here, [words & I imagine that includes their 'physical expression'] "mean one thing to one person, another thing to another person ..."
As usual, another excellent article from an excellent site for anyone interested in writing ... and everything: brainpickings.org
I've started wondering if maybe this should be an sf and history authors group! Just jokin'--but seriously some of the alternate history tales are so extremely good, and in ways quite different from the styles, modes, and emphases of our other stories here over the months/years! And Andy and Andy, there's a new revolution happening, I've been told--but interesting, well-executed (as it were, or wasn't) retelling of the old.
Jot, your tale cracked me up. lol--cool. More seriously, those millions of cells and which connected must be an early alternate-history example for us all.
Which reminds me (as does much else, since I finished reading the book only a day or so ago), have any of you read Willis's novel Passage? Mind-blower.
All of Willis' work is good. I tend to read her lighter stuff over and over, but only to read her darker work once (because it's emotionally rough, not because it isn't brilliant, because it certainly is brilliant). Passage was a bit of both.
I'm grateful you mentioned that book, Paula - "Passage" by Connie Willis. I hadn't heard of it, nor her ... but now "I've downloaded it on Kindle and so glad to be reading it. I love her writing style and the suspense of it all building up (not in a thriller sort of way, but almost in a believable daily life way with all its ho-hum ... and then the thing that is not so ho-hum in amongst it) and wondering where its going, and what it must be like to be on such a journey, and ... (and especially for me now because in a few days time I have to have a cardiology test called a carotoid sinus massage where you lie on your back and the cardiologist presses on a spot on your neck ... and nothing might happen OR at the other extreme the crash cart might be needed ... and ...! I'm a little bit apprehensive about it. So yeah a 'relevant' book for me to be reading right now!)
I read Passage when it first came out, about 15 years ago. I was sort of disappointed. I was, unfairly, I supppose, expecting it to be another Doomsday Book, which I feel is truly one of the classics of science-fiction. Passage seemed by comparison to meander and be flabby in parts, and could have used a bit tighter editing. The premise and its playing out are seriously ingenious and Willis is, if nothing else, a very competent stylist, but the book just didn'tquite work for me.
Its an interesting adventure also (eg as the opportunity to do so is provided in this book) to always wonder about what 'problem' the Creative is trying to solve ... via their creative work.At https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passage... [SPOILER ALERT WARNING: FURTHER INFO AT THAT LINK GIVES THE PLOT AND THE ENDING AWAY] notes the inspiration (and hence the problem to be solved) as a very ordinary one: unending worry about 'how Death was' for a loved one who has passed ... and the impossibility of bringing the debilitating pain-of-worry to an end via, even an extreme, Effort to do so ... which might lead to the question within oneself, "then what can I do?"
To me that 'ordinary concern' is represented, by Willis, precisely via the very "meandering" and the "flabby" (that Andy mentioned) of everyday life! Then the contrast of the 'solution' Joanna chooses (to answer her own problems to be solved within the context of an understandable impatience to do so): an extreme solution! Understandably extreme ... and where it all runs to from there.
"Connie Willis's inspiration for Passage came in part from her mother's death, when Willis was 12. Willis felt frustrated that relatives and friends tried to comfort her with platitudes, so she wanted to write a novel that dealt with death honestly and could help people understand the process of death and mourning.[4]
The character of Maurice Mandrake was inspired by Willis's anger at psychics and mediums who take advantage of vulnerable people," Wikipedia says.
Did someone who posted their story fairly early on delete their entry? Unless I am going mad (a distinct possibility) I could have sworn my story was "message 14" ... now its "message 13" - a bit spooky!
@Heather: I am (almost) certain that Richard had 2 Adolf Hitler stories at some point, seems like he deleted one of them. Unless, of course, I imagined the other one :o)
So, my story is up - enjoy! I hope it makes sense outside of my head, too.
Karl´s story #18, the Mexican Standoff is kind of like a joke too. Well done Karl. I got a good chuckle from it.John
I got rid of the story that had the least of the required elements- and it did distort time (sci-fi) rather than reorganise it (alternative history)AND- we are only allowed one story.
There are half a dozen really really really good ones and ALL have merit. Probably means that a 'nice' polite interactive person that also happens to have a great story will win this month, rather than a truly most outstanding one. Bugger- I'll have to buy Justin's book.
Thank you for your kind note. I imagined an older Al Pacino for this character.
In the story, historical precedence in the entire galactic quadrant changed, not just a moment of earth history per-se. It's a big-picture thing.
- C. Lloyd Preville