IDEAS ON TUESDAY 694

Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them? Regarding Fantasy, this insight was startling: “I see the fantasy genre as an ever-shifting metaphor for life in this world, an innocuous medium that allows the author to examine difficult, even controversial, subjects with impunity. Honor, religion, politics, nobility, integrity, greed—we’ve an endless list of ideals to be dissected and explored. And maybe learned from.” – Melissa McPhail.

Fantasy Trope: AI taking over everything!
Current Event: “Nonsense paper written by iOS autocomplete accepted for conference”
Fascinating Quote: “The atoms of a better universe will have the right for the same as you…”

“In possibly the best story ever, Christoph Bartneck, associate professor at University of Canterbury and ultimate troll submitted a paper to an international physics conference written by the iOS autocomplete function…He submitted it under a fake identity aware that none of it made sense. Didn’t matter though – still got accepted.”
Some Quotes?

“Nuclear weapons will not have to come out the same day after a long time of the year…”
“The atoms of a better universe will have the right for the same as you are the way we shall have to be a great place for a great time to enjoy the day you are a wonderful person…”
“Physics are great but the way it does it makes you want a good book..”
“Power is not a great place for a good time.”

Standing in the back yard, Kumar Manish said, “Physics is just a 21st Century way to explain magic.”

Durga Jyoti shook her head, “Backwards, numbskull!” She smiled as she used her favorite extinct Americanism. “It’s from some old scifi author* who wrote, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

“Same thing,” he said, brushing away her comment. “One of the greatest physicists of the 21st Century started out with a ridiculous statement thinking he was getting away with tricking a bunch of creaky old physicists by playing on his gravity. When he got up to read his paper…” The look on his face abruptly froze.

Durga frowned then said, “What are you doing?” Kumar didn’t budge. After a moment, she realized he wasn’t even breathing, yet he still stood in front of her, mouth open, eyes unblinking. “Kumar?” She waved her hand in front of his face. He still didn’t blink. A moment later, the air around him began to sparkle an the faint sound of high-pitched laughter swelled around. Even as she watched, Kumar was surrounded by dancing lights that, when she squinted, looked weirdly like villa…fairies…

Names: ♀Bosnian ; ♂ Nepali * Arthur C. Clarke: 1962 “Profiles of the Future: An Inquiry into the Limits of the Possible.”

Image: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/98/71/e5/9871e52bbc09c525af21b8f6471eab15.jpg

WRITING ADVICE: Short Stories – Advice and Observation #35A: Chinua Achebe “& Me”

In this feature, I’ll be looking at “advice” for writing short stories – not from me, but from other short story writers. In speculative fiction, “short” has very carefully delineated categories: “short story is under 7,500 words.” I’m going to use advice from people who, in addition to writing novels, have also spent plenty of time “interning” with short stories. While most of them are speculative fiction writers, I’ll also be looking at plain, old, effective short story writers. The advice will be in the form of one or several quotes off of which I’ll jump and connect it with my own writing experience. While I don’t write full-time, nor do I make enough money with my writing to live off of it...neither do most of the professional writers...someone pays for and publishes ten percent of what I write. When I started this blog, that was NOT true, so I may have reached a point where my own advice is reasonably good. We shall see as I work to increase my writing output and sales! As always, your comments are welcome!

Without further ado, short story observations by Chinua Achebe– with a few from myself… Link: https://www.writerswrite.co.za/7-bits-of-writing-advice-from-chinua-achebe/?fbclid=IwY2xjawOG_ERleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyCGNhbGxzaXRlAjMwAAEe6a8Kjw0ebIZ4lVoKz6E0fL-eJGoFJikgGuqEmV4TDmUQJ0-cXElEf87HRws_aem_7AJhyKgyiFAQg0oKPot4_A

Let me set the stage: It’s 1982. I was a freshly graduated from college with a teaching degree in science (I was licensed to teach grades 6-10 (Biology). But I graduated during the years that men and women STARTED their teaching careers…

The ones who’d made it all the way were only just beginning to consider retirement. In those days, the longer they held on, the larger their retirement pension checks would be (they retired based on their “career high” paycheck; the longer they stayed the bigger the check.) They WEREN’T retiring and all I could do was be a substitute teacher…IN ADDITION, I’d been a Christian for only nine years. God called and I answered and joined a band that was called to serve the church in Nigeria, Cameroon, and Liberia. Our first stop was Lagos, Nigeria at Christmas 1983. Prior to our arrival: “August 1983, Shagari [was] returned to power in a landslide victory [but] the elections were marred by violence, vote-rigging, electoral malfeasance [leading] to legal battles over the results, uncertainties…that political leaders may be unable to govern properly [In December, shortly after our arrival in Lagos] a military coup d'état was coordinated by key officers of the Nigerian military and led to the overthrow of the government and the installation of Major General Muhammadu Buhari as head of state.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigeria)

The country shut down. For several days, we couldn’t get anywhere. By then, Chinua Achebe “was a Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic who is regarded as a central figure of modern African literature. His first novel and magnum opus, Things Fall Apart (1958), occupies a pivotal place in African literature and remains the most widely studied, translated, and read African novel. Along with Things Fall Apart, his No Longer at Ease (1960) and Arrow of God (1964) complete the "African Trilogy". Later novels include A Man of the People (1966) [once the political situation in Nigeria had settled] his novel “Anthills of the Savannah” (1987). Achebe is often referred to as the "father of modern African literature", although he vigorously rejected the characterization. Achebe's childhood was influenced by both Igbo traditional culture and colonial Christianity.”

While I just checked out ANTHILLS OF THE SAVANNAH today, I DID read THINGS FALL APART and I am currently re-reading it. As it’s a novel, it won’t really be part of this essay. Published in 1958, one reviewer noted that THINGS FALL APART “creates for the reader such a vivid picture of Igbo life that the plot and characters are little more than symbols representing a way of life lost irrevocably within living memory." It happened that the Igbo people had embraced the Lutheran church when the first missionaries arrived, so we spent a substantial amount of time among them. I didn’t learn about Chinua Achebe until I got back to the US, but I picked up a copy and read it. While I was certainly an outsider, I have to admit that when we arrived in Nigeria, things had started to change from from what an earlier group from our sending organization that had arrived several years earlier. The infrastructure that abundant oil had built had started to fall apart as the world experienced a glut of oil and prices had dropped. Often times, buildings stood that were only half-finished.

“Achebe was awarded the Man Booker International Prize in June 2007. The judging panel included American critic Elaine Showalter, who said he "illuminated the path for writers around the world seeking new words and forms for new realities and societies.”

We learned the Igbo people with great joy picking up several of their worship songs that would illuminate Achebe’s novel. While we were in fact, “missionaries”, our mission had nothing to do with “converting Africans” – we were there to serve the local church. Invited by the Igbo church in several towns and villages, we arrived and followed their lead. Often it was simply singing – and then on a couple of occasions, we learned their songs, carrying them back with us to the US.

Decades later, I experienced a meeting with a student that became a TRULY memorable occasion. As a science teacher, I met a student who had come from Nigeria and was Igbo. I told him I’d been there and had learned one of the songs they sang in church.

He told me to sing it! I did, he was amazed – and went home to tell his parents. Graduation was a few months later, and after the ceremony, he ran up to me, followed by a “mob” of people. His parents stepped up and told me that he’d told them I’d learned a song in Igbo – and asked me to sing it. There. In front of the school. On graduation night.

Incredibly embarrassed (no one at the school knew I could sing fairly well!), and (I’m sure) furiously blushing, I started to sing (in a VERY subdued voice!), “Chineke Idimma (Igbo song, meaning, “God you are good.”) The family went CRAZY with delight!

ALL of that to frame the SHORT work of Chinua Echebe. I’ll use one of them to look at my…possibly irritating reflections.

"The Sacrificial Egg" is a poignant short story about Julius Obi, a Western-educated Igbo clerk in colonial Nigeria, who embodies the clash between traditional Igbo beliefs and modern, colonial ways, as he tragically steps on a hidden sacrificial egg, inadvertently taking on a sufferer's misfortune (Kitikpa, smallpox) and realizing the enduring power of his culture even as his world crumbles around him. The story uses vivid imagery, like the mysterious night spirits and the fateful egg, to show how modernization disrupts African life, forcing characters like Julius to confront their roots when Western rationality fails, ultimately highlighting themes of cultural identity, spiritual resilience, and the devastating impact of colonialism.”

I lived in Igbo land for three months. NOT in a hotel. NOT with running water (only occasionally), and most of the time, light was provided because the village had purchased a generator and ran it because we were guests. I never ONCE “evangelized” anyone who wasn’t interested in hearing what I had to say.

My observation here is that PERHAPS Achebe “…sought to escape the colonial perspective that framed African literature at the time, and drew from the traditions of the Igbo people, Christian influences, and the clash of Western and African values to create a uniquely African voice. He wrote in and defended the use of English, describing it as a means to reach a broad audience, particularly readers of colonial nations.” MAYBE the reason he was selected as “…a central figure of modern African literature. His first novel and magnum opus, Things Fall Apart (1958), occupies a pivotal place in African literature and remains the most widely studied, translated, and read African novel”, was that he fed the liberal/left narrative that (ostensibly) feared for the sublimation of “Africa”(there are “estimates suggesting over 3,000 distinct ethnic groups, each with unique languages, customs, and histories, spread across its 54 countries…” by ‘Christian missionaries”.

After the time I spent there, the reading I’ve done since, and people I’ve spoken with who were highly critical of our group going to Nigeria, Cameroun, and Liberia – it has always seemed like a suspiciously racist view of the intelligence of the 3000 ethnic groups to suspect that not a single one of the Igbo, Efik, Yoruba, or other groups could POSSIBLY become a Christian based on the message of the Gospel and that ALL of them “converted” because of the weight of the technology, money, and education of “white folks” who invaded their land…

“No, no, no! We’re concerned because the (implied: easily redirected people of African ethnic groups) were trampled by missionaries whose only desire was to squeeze as many Nigerians, Cameroonians, and Liberians into THEIR neat little boxes…We’d NEVER try and…”

OK – rant is done – I’ve only read this one short story and THINGS FALL APART, but have ordered the collection Girls at War and Other Stories. It’s clear though, that this author captured the eyes of non-Nigerian readers. I look forward to applying what I’m already seeing in THINGS FALL APART to my own short story writing. Maybe I can get something from Brooklyn Center (where we’ve lived for the past 32 years. You might say, “Nothing dangerous (“if it bleeds, it leads”) ever happens in your little suburb, you’re insulated from REALITY! I’ve never even heard of it!” I’ll leave you with this: “Minnesota's most dangerous areas, based on recent crime data, often include the major cities of Minneapolis, St. Paul, and St. Cloud, with suburbs like Brooklyn Center, Fridley, and West St. Paul also appearing on lists due to high property/violent crime rates, alongside northern cities like Bemidji and Brainerd facing significant poverty and crime challenges, with Waite Park sometimes topping overall crime lists.”

Links: #PastorChidi @followers @highlight ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinua_Achebe ; https://reolink.com/blog/most-dangerous-cities-in-minnesota/ ; https://english2302.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/the-sacrificial-egg.pdf
Image: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhK6miXJMTMNyB3kzq-r6I2LVCTZJj0CDS0dPV2Qapl6e9rZPuHx2u5QKcKT1QGeDg1_tPMv-lpnuSr_eiBjwPXmex9mcgtuH2-SUtZEpGWV0_HdtJQelVt5K69NulJBUqNju5GNjHgQibXsIo4NeWpTOj4ai85jCRjMHOtwtkqshzxFvZPUSjXZNq6=s320

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 693

Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them. Octavia Butler said, “SF doesn’t really mean anything at all, except that if you use science, you should use it correctly, and if you use your imagination to extend it beyond what we already know, you should do that intelligently.”

Event: Astrophobia is an irrational fear of stars and space and may take different forms, from fear of aliens to fear of space exploration. (https://www.verywell.com/fear-of-space-2671680)

Harper Zakaria pursed her lips. She tapped them for a moment then said, “So you want me to revive this…criminal so that we can escape the dirty sandbox people like you have made of Earth?”

Abdelkader Mäkinen scowled at her. In the past, people would have said his high forehead and wide-set, almost entirely brown eyes made him look like an alien. “I had nothing to do with Anthropogenic Global Warming. My ancestors lived in Northern Finland and Algeria – mostly they were teachers and scientists, so they had nothing to do with AGW and in fact, my great-grandfather started the first windmill farm in northern California in the early Oughts.” He actually sniffed and as Harper rolled her eyes, he continued, “Now that we’ve established my credentials and innocence…”

“You didn’t establish any credentials, sir. You just absolved yourself from blame because of something one of your distant ancestors did.”

“Now see here, young lady! My family…”

“Credentials?” she said, smiling.

He actually harrumphed then said, “I’ve been on the UN Global Climate Reconstruction Committee for fourteen years and was recently appointed Chair because of my brilliance and based on the plan I’ve devised that will…”

Harper held up a hand, pursed her lips, shook her head, then looked up at the tall meta-alien in her office. “So you want me to revive one of the bad-boys from the mid-Twenty-first Century so you can fly him to one of the Martian Colonies and get the Prairiedogs back into space again, right?”

He started at her, his mouth actually open. She considered pointing out that he was a cartoon cliché in the flesh, but was pretty certain he wouldn’t be a buff of TwenCen flat animated cartoons. She let him sputter a few moments, planning on interrupting him if it took too long when he said, “How did you…”

“I don’t spend all of my time watching the sleepers, Senator Mäkinen. I have to have something to do in my spare time. I’ve read up on the astrophobia pandemic.” She smiled sweetly. “I confess that you wouldn’t be able to pay me enough to leave Mother Earth, no matter how filthy she is.”

The man wasn’t going to respond, instead, he scowled more fiercely and said, “You can mock all you want, young lady, but those of us afflicted are all that we have left behind. It seems that somehow the Colonists took the wanderlust gene with them when they abandoned the Mother World.”

She shrugged. “Not my problem, I guess. So you still haven’t explained why you want to revive prisoner,” she glanced down at her ‘pad, then up at him. “AAA000200.”

“That’s not for you to question, young lady! I have here,” he flourished an opad at her. She took it, glanced at it, and handed it back to him as he continued, “An order from the UN GCRComm demanding that you revive and release the prisoner to me.”

“It wasn’t countersigned by the Secretary General,” she said, handing it back to him. She grinned a toothy grin at him, then turned off the effect.

“It’s not necessary…”

She cut him off, “You may think I’m just a button-pusher, Senator, but as I said, I don’t just sit here watching the sleepers all day. I have a BA in pre-Law from Columbia Online and I’m two thirds of the way through Columbia Law School. I have my MD from Brigham and Women’s in CryoMedicine with graduate studies in Revival Mechanics.” She stopped, smiling at him.

He held her gaze for several minutes, then finally began to fidget, still maintaining eye contact. Finally he looked away, pocketing him ‘pad. He looked back at her, a different look on his face. He studied her then said, “I was told you were young and idealistic. I was also told you were smart and stubborn.”

“Correct on all counts.”

“But we need…”

She cut him off, “I agree, Senator. You need this prisoner in order to get the rest of us off Earth again. But I’m not sure you know who you’re dealing with.”

His ‘pad reappeared in his hand and he glanced down at it, “Admiral Concepción Shimizu was decorated…”

Harper glared at him as he continued reading, unaware of her regard. When he looked up finally, his monologue faltered then stopped. “What?”

“She’s a thief, a murderer, and despite the fact that she single-handedly stopped the South African Resurgence from turning the southern half of Africa into a new Apartheid regime, she still single-handedly also severed this world from its Colonies when she bombed the Elevator.”

This time he was prepared and flashed a false grin at her before he turned it off and said, “That is why my plan is brilliant. We will give her the opportunity to redeem herself in the eyes of all Humanity.”

Names: ♀ New Zealand, Somalia; ♂ Algeria, Finland; ♀ Paraguay, Japan
Image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_%283%29.jpg/220px-Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_%283%29.jpg

CREATING ALIEN ALIENS Part 42 D: Alien Families and “What Does It Mean To “Be Human?”

Five decades ago, I started my college career with the intent of becoming a marine biologist. I found out I had to get a BS in biology before I could even begin work on MARINE biology; especially because there WEREN'T any marine biology programs in Minnesota.
Along the way, the science fiction stories I'd been writing since I was 13 began to grow more believable. With my BS in biology and a fascination with genetics, I started to use more science in my fiction.
After reading hard SF for the past 50 years, and writing hard SF successfully for the past 20, I've started to dig deeper into what it takes to create realistic alien life forms. In the following series, I'll be sharing some of what I've learned. I've had some of those stories published, some not...I teach a class to GT young people every summer called ALIEN WORLDS. I've learned a lot preparing for that class for the past 25 years...so...I have the opportunity to share with you what I've learned thus far. Take what you can use, leave the rest. Let me know what YOU'VE learned. Without further ado...

I did a Google search with the question ‘What does it mean to be Human?’. I skimmed several rather superficial answers, then ran across this site: Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History Public responses to the question “What Does It Mean To Be Human?”

Try it and you’ll find that there are THOUSANDS of responses. Obviously, some people will repeat what others wrote far, far above them. But the VARIETY of answers to the question is STARTLING!

These quotes below aren’t even representative (nor do they make great sense – but I get the drift!):

Russia: “I think we change all the time and that we are ourselves as long as we remember who we were and are and we are conscious of ourselves.” Too convoluted for my simple mind…

Florida: “To be able to understand Quantum Physics...” I’m obviously not totally Human…

Australia: “The ability to show compassion, love and determination and interconnection, however, the admittance that we are inherently flawed, but working to overcome and accept our flaws and understand the world together.” I’m not sure I can “show…interconnection”? I’m married and have three kids, three kids-in-law, and four grand kids…Am I interconnected? I have a friend who is single, parentless, and suffers from depression. Is HE interconnected? How do YOU “show…love”? After I was a child, my dad never showed any physical form of love. He provided for all of us. Did he LOVE us? Hmmm…until recently, I wasn’t sure. I admit I am flawed – can a brown bear admit it is flawed? What would a “flawed brown bear” look like? A grizzly? An orca?

Jordan: “To be human is to have a soul. Our soul is what guides us make decisions and think logically about a situation. Our soul can also be safe in the freedom that comes from Christ or be lost to the sin of this world.” While I happen to agree with their faith statement, I’m pretty sure proving I have a soul that guides my decisions and think logically would be difficult to impossible. Some chimpanzees have shown some ability of making decisions after thinking logically. Are they Human?

What does this have to do with the subject of family in space? The authors commented: “Within just the past 12,000 years, our species, Homo sapiens, made the transition to producing food and changing our surroundings. We have been so successful that we have inadvertently created a turning point in the history of life on Earth.”

Wow. Just WOW! The authors have laid on a single species (not even the most abundant species on Earth! That moniker goes to “the sheer number of tailed phages, [is] estimated at (10^{31) particles, makes them the most numerous life form on the planet.” Humanity doesn’t even come close to that…

“But we’re Intell-junt!” Hmmm…define “intelligence”.
“We’ve taken over the world! We ARE the most powerful force on the planet Earth!”

I’d argue that: “Throughout human history, four infectious diseases have dominated as the leading killers: tuberculosis, smallpox, plague, and malaria. While tuberculosis claims the highest death toll across history, with an estimated 1 billion lives lost, smallpox follows closely behind, killing approximately 300-500 million people in the 20th century alone before its eradication in 1980.”

So, what IS the impact of Human families on Earth?

In their multiple varieties, Human families have caused both planetary disasters and ushered in bright presents. For example, Adolph Hitler worked hard to HIDE his past. Winston Churchill wrote, “(Hitler) was a riddle wrapped in mystery inside an enigma.” Largely due to his own deliberate and extensive efforts to obscure his origins. the article linked below is a review of a book written by Ron Rosenbaum and lays out some of the roots of a man almost universally hated. As a school counselor, the “discovery in Germany of a journal written by Adolf Hitler's sister…offers remarkable insights into the dysfunctional nature of the Führer's family.”

Of the “10 Best Humans In The World”, author Aastha Arya (Senior Content Writer @ iSchoolConnect) suggests that the number ONE best person was Charles Darwin (of the paper then book, “On the Origin of Species”; 1859) – and lots is known about his family as he was born wealthy, but instead of sitting around basking in inherited wealth, he poured his money into an exploration of the world.

Family SHAPES Humans. Even among other species, family dynamics drive behaviors, viewpoints, methods of thinking, ways of acting, and any number of things. “Altering” creative “reimaging” of Human families won’t make any monumental change in Humanity. In fact, authors who think that they’re predicting GIGANTIC changes in the Human institution of family don’t appear to me to be offering anything either new or strange. It’s the same-old, same-old. There are a plethora of family constellations already on Earth ranging from single parent homes to entire villages (hence the aphorism, “It takes a village”) expected to nurture a child. Even In vitro fertilization (or IVF) doesn’t change a family’s dynamics in any “startling” or “futuristic” way…family is family, no matter how it’s structured; and families living under the shell of an asteroid will not be markedly different from families growing children on a planet where they have to be genetically modified to survive acid rain or submerged cities! Families will be families; just as they have been since the first family was created!

Sources: https://humanorigins.si.edu/about/become-involved/submit-your-response-what-does-it-mean-be-human#:~:text=Being%20a%20human%20is%20being,others%20and%20caring%20about%20them.&text=To%20be%20human%20is%20to,a%20human%20is%20having%20freedom. ; https://historyofvaccines.org/blog/which-infectious-disease-biggest-killer-all-time ; https://www.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/ajp.155.12.1788 ; https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/aug/04/research.secondworldwar#:~:text=Other%20insights%20include%20the%20revelation,cultivated%20in%20Hitler's%20own%20home.%22 Image: https://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/I-sneak-our-little-dog-into-all-of-my-farmily-photo-sessions-602bcae1007d0__880.jpg

IDEA ON TUESDAY 692

Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them. Regarding horror, I found this insight in line with WIRED FOR STORY: “ We seek out…stories which give us a place to put our fears…Stories that frighten us or unsettle us - not just horror stories, but ones that make us uncomfortable or that strike a chord somewhere deep inside - give us the means to explore the things that scare us…” – Lou Morgan (The Guardian)

H Trope: Ghost Towns
Event: http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/mn/taconiteharbor.html

Mary Croft may have been the only certified dredge operator on the North Shore of Lake Superior – but she hadn’t expected to be the ONLY operator in the abandoned town of Taconite Harbor.

The dredge she captained was mostly operated by an “artificial intelligence idiot”, which was why she was required by Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company to actually direct the floating suction dredge boat. The harbor was a small one, the taconite loads mostly taken out by rail, and the robots inside did most of the work in the town.

Her job would take a week and the company wanted her to work as much time as possible, so they’d given her one of the floating suction dredgers with an actual bed, galley and deck. “Henry?” she said.

“Please call me Hal,” said the idiot.

She shook her head. “I’d rather not. I have an original DVD of the old movie 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY.”

“You can’t,” said Henry.

“I can’t what?”

“Have an original DVD. The movie 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY was filmed in 1967 and premiered in 1968. The first true DVD was not manufactured for movies until 1995.”

“You know what I mean.”

“I do not.”

She sighed and shook her head. “Let’s call it a day and shut down operations,” she said, tapping the shutdown key on the flat screen.

“Very good, ma’am.”

Mary rolled her eyes toward the ceiling and stepped out on the deck. Henry would take it from here until the actual docking procedure which she would do in the gloaming. She loved that word, she thought, unfolding and dropping into the lawn chair she kept carefully stored until the end of the day. No one would have said anything if she’d lounged about all day, issuing orders to Henry via her cellphone, but that had never worked for her. When she did a job, she wanted to actually DO something. For the time being, however, Henry was working hard pulling in and storing the collapsible pipe they used to siphon sediment from the floor of the harbor. It was pumped to a barge where it was dried and shipped down to Duluth for further processing or shipment to central North American markets.

The sun had fallen behind the steep shoreline to her left. It was a calm evening, a choice night on the cool waters of Superior. Such a night was rare enough to make her sigh.

Farther out across the water, to her right on the lake, waves rippled like a thin band of diamonds reflecting sunset light.

What was left of the town was now invisible as was the power plant. It had once operated on coal and had had a solar conversion during the third term of America’s first black president. There was no one left living there.

When the three remaining streetlights farther up the shore, intermittently lining the stretch of road that had once been the main street of the long-abandoned town, abruptly lit, she frowned.

When lights on either side of the abandoned basketball court at the near end of the street, close to Taconite Harbor itself, suddenly lit, the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. She went into the boathouse and grabbed a pair of digital binoculars, took them out and scanned the shoreline.

The lights were gone.

Frowning, she lowered the binoculars and rubbed her eyes. When she looked again, the lights were on and in the distance was the slow, faint thup-thup-thup of a basketball bouncing...

Names: ♀ Hebrew, English; ♂ ,
Image: https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51niGRrH6DL.jpg

MARTIAN HOLIDAY - A Novel By G James Stewart (a pen name)

 MARTIAN HOLIDAY will be published on December 23, 2025!

Before then, you  might consider the following:

          The above is my "other" website!

POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS: Homo sapiens galacticus – IDEAS from the 2025 Seattle WorldCon

On October 7, 2007, I started this blog. Eighteen years later, I am revising and doing some different things. My wife and I are now retired senior citizens, our kids are both married, we have a bonus daughter and her wife and we have three grandchildren, (with a fourth on-the-way!) the oldest of which will soon finish his first year in high school, one smack in the center of Middle School; the third almost done with kindergarten. I have forty-five professional publications, plus countless other publications as a slushpile reader, and sometime essay contributor to Stupefying Stories https://stupefyingstories.blogspot.com/. These days, I write whenever I want to – or when I’m not busy exploring the world with my wife or kids or grandkids. I write and read constantly. Then I discovered that I was writing longer and longer pieces. My new focus is to write shorter; and to write HUMOR. On purpose. Maybe I can still irritate people while being funny. It works pretty well for John Scalzi! We’ll see what happens.

From the 2025 Seattle World Science Fiction Convention (aka WorldCon) “Pocket Program”, I found Galactic Settlement by Hitchhiking Among Passing Star Systems “Ditch the faster-than-light travel, cryosleep, or generation ships! Every few hundred millennia, a star passes so close to Sol that comets from the visitor’s Oort cloud fly through our solar system. In those intervals, travel between solar systems is easier. Thus, we—or aliens—can settle the galaxy in spurts: hop to a new system when it’s close; settle and grow in the new system; and when that system passes other stars, seek new footholds. This hitchhiking spans the galaxy in under a billion years. We’ll discuss technical, biological, cultural, and ethical factors that arise in such a future.” [Brian Tillotson: Fundamental Physics & Advanced Space Settlement. Physicist whose career spans 40 years of developing advanced concepts for space and aviation. In that time, he’s used dirt as rocket propellant, levitated water with a magnet, and deflected shock waves with a birthday balloon. He has over 30 technical publications and over 100 U.S. patents (plus one fiction piece and a poem).

Such a civilization would have to be extraordinarily stable…for Humanity it wouldn’t work AT ALL. The entire of our current Human civilization is approximate 300,000 yrs from nondescript primates to 6000 years of recognizably ‘civilized’ Homo sapiens. We wouldn’t have had the chance to leave YET… “every few HUNDRED millennia”…

This of course, is the broad, panoramic image of an advanced civilization hopping and skipping through galaxies, colonizing them as they go, spreading their seed.

I see two challenges here: first is that WE are the result of one of those colonization efforts, and when we eventually leave the Solar System to colonize new worlds…or should I say, “strange new worlds”, as giving STAR TREK a nod as a legitimate result of the expansion of galactic settlement. Humans, Klingons, Andorians, Tellarites, Cardassians…the whole pantheon of “strange new civilizations” are a realistic result of the expansion of the borders of a sort of “progenitor” intelligence. The show even touched on that possibility in the Next Generation episode “The Chase” (Season 6, Episode 20).

The other possibility seems more likely: it’s pretty much wishful thinking and vain hope that Humanity will survive long enough to spread beyond our tiny planet and its atmosphere. Even the ISS is technically still in Earth’s atmosphere: “…402 kilometers above the surface, the ISS is still within Earth's atmosphere, albeit in a very thin part of the atmosphere called the thermosphere. The thermosphere has a very low density, meaning that atmospheric molecules are scarce…”

But what MIGHT a civilization have to be like to “colonize a galaxy”?

First, of course, they would need to have extraordinarily long live – measured in MILLIONS of years. Their rate of reproduction would have to be very slow. Even Earth’s Greenland shark wouldn’t be a great candidate: “This species is the slowest on Earth to reproduce, taking approximately 150 years to reach sexual maturity and begin breeding.” While a typical shark who would have been ready to make babies just this year would have been born in 1875. A blip in the life of a galaxy…

But lets just give it a shot…say a Human civilization took 6000 years to mature, then advance far enough in it technology to see an INTERGALACTIC flight as being reasonable – let’s be generous and give us a 1000 years. So, sometime in the 31st Century, we could be ready to go. (Given the PAST 1000 years, I’m not sure that’s a realistic assessment of Human capabilities, but let’s keep going with it.)

1000 years ago, you and I would be recognizably Human-normal looking, so no problems there. We’d probably be more-or-less like ourselves. “In the last 1,000 years, humans have seen several evolutionary changes: smaller teeth and mouths, lactase persistence to digest milk into adulthood, adaptations for living at high altitudes or in response to diseases like malaria, increase in average height and the loss of wisdom teeth.”

We’d pretty much look the way we looked today if we were able to set off on an intergalactic colonization tour. But what kind of changes would have to happen between 2025 and that remote future where we could send SHIPS into space to settle an colonize the GALAXY; becoming a sort of Homo sapiens galacticus. THIS

Inspiration: POCKET PROGRAM https://seattlein2025.org/files/SeattleWorldcon2025PocketProgram.pdf; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Space_Station ; https://www.space.com/space-exploration/international-space-station/space-mysteries-how-does-the-iss-stay-in-orbit-without-falling-to-earth ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recent_human_evolution#:~:text=Human%20traits%20that%20emerged%20recently,8%20Further%20reading 

Image: Personal file. Credit: ©Caleb Wilson, October 12, 2025, all rights reserved

IDEAS ON TUESDAY 691

Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them? Regarding Fantasy, this insight was startling: “I see the fantasy genre as an ever-shifting metaphor for life in this world, an innocuous medium that allows the author to examine difficult, even controversial, subjects with impunity. Honor, religion, politics, nobility, integrity, greed—we’ve an endless list of ideals to be dissected and explored. And maybe learned from.” – Melissa McPhail.

F Trope: dark lord
Event: “In November 2012, satellite photos revealed a half kilometer long propaganda message carved into a hillside in Ryanggang Province, reading, ‘Long Live General Kim Jong-un, the Shining Sun!’. The message, located next to an artificial lake built in 2007 to serve a hydroelectric station, is made of Korean letters measuring 15 by 20 meters, and is located approximately 9 kilometers south of Hyesan near the border with the People's Republic of China.” (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/23/north-korea-hillside-homage-kim-jong-un)

Ardian Goodpaster tapped on his tablet-computer – t-comp – and said, “Look, you have to read this!” He held it out to her.

Noemi Zweifelhofer grunted, hunched over her own t-comp. She said, “Doar stai un minut!”

Ardian’s eyes grew wide and he whispered in German, “Ich denke nicht, dass Sie Rumänisch in diesem Augenblick sprechen sollten! Wir sind in genug Schwierigkeiten, wie es ist!”

Noemi finally looked up, her dark eyes flashing and said, “Do you think speaking in English would be all right?”

Ardian snorted, “Better than speaking Romanian. We can get in trouble for that…”

“You don’t think believing that Kim Jong-un is an incarnation of The Dark Lord will keep us out of trouble?”

“I didn’t say I believed it – just that it seems…logical given what Mom and Dad say about how he acted when he went to school here.”

“Your mom and dad were his friends! He hated my dad!”

Ardian shook his head, “I’d probably dislike your dad, too if he stuck my head in a toilet and flushed it…”

“That was a kid’s prank!”

“…fourteen, fifteen and sixteen times on ten different occasions in honor of the illustrious North Korean leader’s birthdays?”

Noemi glared at her best friend, then burst out laughing. Finally she said, “All right, it wasn’t a kid’s prank. But all of our parents agree he was creepy and mean.”

Ardian tapped the t-comp and said, “You really believe that the inscription means what they say it means?”

“‘Long Live General Kim Jong-un, the Shining Sun!’?” He stared at it then slowly shook his head. Noemi continued, “I know my Korean is adequate…” Ardian snorted, but she overrode him, “But I’ve cross-referenced this in half a dozen dictionaries.”

“So what do you think?”

She zoomed in on the image of the inscription then swung to the right, saying, “When it’s written like this, left-to-right and with the order of the characters – and given that the archaic form was used intentionally, it reads, ‘Long dominate Kim Jong-un, Darkest of the Dark Lords’.”

“And no one else in the world reads it that way?”

She held out her iPad, “I wouldn’t say that.” Their eyes met and for a moment locked. Ardian felt the blood drain out of his face. She handed him her own iPad. “Read it.”

He kept his eyes on hers then finally looked down. The headline was in German, from a recent edition of Die Welt. “Different Interpretation of North Korea’s Paean of Praise?” He read, looked at her.

“Scroll to the next document. Two weeks later.”

He did and read, “Interpreter Found Murdered”…

Names: ♀; ♂ Today, both are entirely Swiss names

Image: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/98/71/e5/9871e52bbc09c525af21b8f6471eab15.jpg

Slice of PIE: “Free Guy” Is Just “Stranger Than Fiction”…But With VR Headsets…

 

I WILL NOT use the World Science Fiction Convention Programme Guide to jump off, jump on, rail against, or shamelessly agree with the BRIEF DESCRIPTION given in the pdf copy of the Program Guide. This explanation is reserved for when I dash “off topic”, sometimes reviewing movies, sometimes reviewing books, and other times taking up the spirit of a blog an old friend of mine used to keep called THE RANTING ROOM…

My wife and I love both “Stranger Than Fiction” (2006) and “Free Guy” (2021) movies. In case you’re too young to watch old movies, here’s the plot of “Stranger than Fiction”: “IRS auditor Harold Crick suddenly finds his mundane Chicago life to be the subject of narration only he can hear: narration that begins to affect his entire existence, from his work to his love life to his death.” This film stars some real names: Will Ferrell, Emma Thompson, Dustin Hoffman (none of the “Free Guy” targets know who he is), and Maggie Gyllenhaal. (For the 2022 generation: Ferrell is best known as the Elf in “Elf”…; Emma Thompson is best known for lots of things, but for the target audience of “Free Guy”: Professor Trelawny at Hogwarts)

“Free Guy” (2021): “In the extremely popular video game, Free City, a NPC named Guy learns the true nature of his existence when he meets the girl of his dreams, a human player. This player's interactions with Guy has massive effects on him, the game, and real world as they play it.” This film has some big names as well, Ryan Reynolds (for the target audience, he’s Deadpool); Jodie Comer (Rey’s Mom in STAR WARS: “The Rise of Skywalker”); and Taika Waititi as the Calm Blue Rock Guy in 2 of the AVENGERS movies…

SO…how are “Stranger Than Fiction” and “Free Guy” basically the same movie – one made for people who read books, then other for people who play video games?

A fairly short list of events in both movies might serve my argument:

FIRST:
Harold Crick in “Stranger Than Fiction” is a fictional character – both in the movie; and in the book in the movie.

Guy in “Free Guy” is a fictional character – both in the game; and in the real world.

SECOND:
Harold figures out he’s a fictional character. Guy does as well.

THIRD:
Guy finds out he’s going to die when the game shuts down (or before if Antawan catches him). So does Harold – but his person isn’t a real villain. She’s an accidental villain. Actually, Dustin Hoffman serves as a sort of “low-key” villain, insisting Harold HAS to die if the book is going to be a fabulous piece of literature.

FOURTH:
Both Guy and Harold object to dying.

FIFTH:
Someone CRAZY is in charge of Harold’s story – she just thinks she’s writing her newest novel. Guy’s not even supposed to BE a character – until he puts on the glasses and goes from being a Non-Playable-Character to a FORCE in the video game…albeit, he’s not technically controlled by ANYONE at first. Then Antwan sends his controllers in.

SIXTH:
They both meet the story creator eventually – Harold at the very end, Guy when he falls for one of the creators after he has the glasses.

SEVENTH:
Neither Millie nor Keys; and not Karen Eiffel have ANY CLUE that their fictional characters are in fact an artificial intelligence and a real person…until the very end and they are ALL totally freaked out.

EIGHTH:
Both Harold and Guy have a happy ending: Harold gets Ana; Guy gets Millie…and then it turns out he’s actually KEYS…who gets Millie and Guy gets his best friend back.

There are only two differences:

Karen Eiffel and Millie/Keys are HORRIFIED to find out that Harold and Guy are REAL. While Karen lets Harold survive getting hit by a bus instead of dying; Millie and Keys set Guy free (actually all of the Free Life characters).

Karen Eiffel isn’t actually evil, Antwan is.

So, if it’s been done twice, in two very popular and award-winning movies, what are they trying to say to us?

“Free Guy” was almost universally considered a fluff movie – pure fun, no thought, just a good-old time. Esmerelda Gomez at SocioMix however, disagrees: “…the NPCs are more than coded programs for gamers to play with…this theme is centered on civil rights being messed with…by the government…[and] how citizens will fight for them…interactions and movement for change create more room for others to have the ability and rights to…live better lives.”

“Stranger Than Truth” is instead considered a piece of existential thought: “…there’s something very poetic about the understanding of one’s place in the universe, but it’s far more dramatic when such understanding occurs only days before that life ends…Each of these characters ends up doing little things to save one another. There's an underlying theme that the things we take most for granted are often the ones that make life worth living and actually keep us alive.”

The two quotes above might be swapped – STT is certainly about free will and civil rights, and how interactions and movement create room for others to have better lives. FG is certainly about understanding one’s place in the universe, and it absolutely IS more dramatic when Guy understands just before his life ends.

For both, I’d say that there is indeed an underlying theme that the things we take for granted are things that make our lives worth living.

And so, I rest my case…

References: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranger_than_Fiction_(2006_film), https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0420223/, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Guy, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6264654/, https://www.sociomix.com/diaries/entertainment/the-philosophy-of-the-movie-free-guy-on-reality-purpose-and-change/1633291983#:~:text=Free%20Guy%20Displays%20The%20Change%20An%20Individual%20Can%20Make.&text=Yet%20Guy's%20interactions%20with%20other,the%20NPCs%20he%20interacted%20with.
Image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/1c/Free_Guy_2021_Poster.jpg/220px-Free_Guy_2021_Poster.jpg, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/ff/Stranger_Than_Fiction_%282006_movie_poster%29.jpg/220px-Stranger_Than_Fiction_%282006_movie_poster%29.jpg

IDEA ON TUESDAY 690

Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them. Octavia Butler said, “SF doesn’t really mean anything at all, except that if you use science, you should use it correctly, and if you use your imagination to extend it beyond what we already know, you should do that intelligently.”

SF Trope: inside a computer system
Event: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23343-interspecies-telepathy-human-thoughts-make-rat-move.html
Old Event: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willard_(1971_film)

Amelia Qasoori curled her lower lip, tucking it under her teeth then tapped them as she stared at the Apple 27 inch Cinema Display screen. She tapped another key on her computer.

Artem Torres tossed his backpack on the lab table, peeked over her shoulder then went to his own computer and booted it up. His screen was much smaller however and there were multiple images. All of the images were of rats.

Amelia glanced over at him and wrinkled her nose and said, “I don’t know how you can stare at those ugly things all day long.”

He smirked at her and said, “I can open the cages and play with them if you’d like.”

“You’re both obscene and disgusting at the very same instant,” she said, leaning closer to her screen and tapping a section of an image. The screen was covered with tiny squares.

“What’s even more disgusting and obscene is that we’re trying to do the same thing with organic and inorganic matter.”

Amelia nodded slowly as she tapped another square then made an entry on an old-fashioned yellow notepad with an even older-fashioned pencil. She made a few more notes, then typed for several minutes. The images on the screen whirled wildly and when they were done, Artem leaned back on his lab stool, looked at the image and said, “I don’t see any difference.”

Amelia made a raspberry. “That’s because you’re a wetwareologist. You people couldn’t feel your way off a kindergartner’s graphing calculator.”

“That’s not true! I use computer modeling all the time!” He waved at his smaller computer screen. “Just because everything I do is reality instead of virtuality doesn’t mean it’s not important.”

“I’m not talking about ‘importance’ here, Art! I’m talking about relevance. What I do is relevant. What you do is...cute in a sort of old-fashioned way.”

From behind them, a stentorian voice spoke, “My two favorite high school geniuses continue to banter mindlessly, ignoring my strict instructions to MELD the techniques and technology to form something new.”

Artem and Amelia jumped to their feet, spinning around. In unison they said, “Hello, Dr. Willard.”

He nodded to them and passed between them. He was tall. Unusually tall, well over two meters tall. He patted both of them on their heads. “So, my tremendous twins, what do you have for me today?”

“Look, Dr. Willard, I can make a fine rat robot for you! There’s no need for...”

“Dr. Willard, if you get me some really great tech who won’t talk back every time I ask for something, I could have a ‘borg rat ready for you in two shakes of a…a...”

“A rat’s tail, Mr. Torres? There’s no need for me to have a biological brain, Ms. Qasoori?” He stood back and studied her screen. Then he stepped sideways and leaned forward to study Artem’s screen. Straightening, he said, “What I need, dear pupils, is a seamlessly integrated part organic-part inorganic creature to do a very, very interesting job.” He favored each one with a cold glare, then left the lab, adding without turning around, “A word from me can get you into the most select graduate study programs in the world.” He stopped in the doorway, and still without turning around, said, “A word form me can get you barred from the most pathetic study programs in the world.”

Names: ♀ Australian (NSW), Pakistan; ♂ Russian, Spanish
Image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_%283%29.jpg/220px-Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_%283%29.jpg