WRITING ADVICE: Creating Alien Aliens, Part 13: ALIEN Governments…Symbiotic or Parasitic?

In September of 2007, I started this blog with a bit of writing advice. A little over a year later, I discovered how little I knew about writing after hearing children’s writer, Lin Oliver speak at a convention hosted by the Minnesota Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Since then, I have shared (with their permission) and applied the writing wisdom of Lin Oliver, Jack McDevitt, Nathan Bransford, Mike Duran, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, SL Veihl, Bruce Bethke, and Julie Czerneda. Together they write in genres broad and deep, and have acted as agents, editors, publishers, columnists, and teachers. Since then, I figured I’ve got enough publications now that I can share some of the things I did “right”.

While I don’t write full-time, nor do I make enough money with my writing to live off of it...neither do all of the professional writers above...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! Hemingway’s quote above will now remain unchanged as I work to increase my writing output and sales! As always, your comments are welcome!

Part 1: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2020/01/slice-of-pie-creating-alien-aliens.html
Part 2: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2020/02/slice-of-pie-creating-alien-aliens-part.html
Part 3: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2020/02/slice-of-pie-creating-alien-aliens.html
Part 4: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2020/04/slice-of-pie-creating-alien-aliens-part.html
Part 5: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2020/09/writing-advice-creating-alien-aliens.html
Part 6: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2021/02/writing-advice-creating-alien-aliens.html
Part 7: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2021/04/writing-advice-creating-alien-aliens.html
Part 8: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2021/05/writing-advice-creating-alien-aliens.html
Part 9: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2021/08/writing-advice-creating-alien-aliens.html
Part 10: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2021/09/writing-advice-creating-alien-aliens.html
Part 11: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2021/10/writing-advice-creating-alien-aliens.html
Part 12: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2021/12/writing-advice-creating-alien-aliens.html

It would be easy to just copy and paste the forms of government that Human society has experimented with or is currently using, but as I’m talking about ALIENS, maybe the ones we’ve come up with wouldn’t make sense to incomprehensible aliens.

So, let’s look at “hierarchy” as a meme for how aliens might create some sort of “government”. Well then! It appears to be WAY more than that and there is a field of study specifically targeted at this (admittedly unexpectedly complex!) phenomenon.

In the article below, “Aggression heuristics underlie animal dominance hierarchies and provide evidence of group-level social information”, the authors have discovered “…how patterns of aggression depend upon information about the ranks of individuals within social dominance hierarchies…[there are] three main patterns of rank-dependent social dominance: the downward heuristic…close competitors…and bullying…The majority of the groups…follow a downward heuristic, but a significant minority…show close competitors or bullying…[this is] consistent with higher levels of social information use…heuristic use may depend on context and the structuring of aggression by social information should not be considered a fixed characteristic of a species…”

So, these aggression heuristics apply across most kinds of animal life on Earth.

The question is whether they would apply to OTHER forms of life.

Some people may argue that “aliens don’t have to necessarily be AGGRESSIVE”. But as a bio major in college, the ONLY way to become a dominant lifeform ANYWHERE is to get rid of or dominate anything else around that wants to eat you.

So, what about plants?

*harrumph*, you ever have crabgrass on your lawn? Really? It’s a war – with Humans drafted by Kentucky Bluegrass as the “shock forces” willing to throw themselves into the battle for little more reward than aesthetic pleasure or admiration from the rest of domesticated Humanity.

Next question! How about More Highly Evolved Life? You know, like the ones who’re going to come to Earth and give Scientists the magic formula for unlimited energy, unlimited food, and unlimited space, and unlimited power over everyone else on Earth! (mwahahahaha!) [CUE MUSIC: Everly Brothers - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbU3zdAgiX8 ] Yep, the ones who have overcome poverty, hatred, war, avarice…etc…you know, the ones like…um…which one of the alien aliens we worship have come to bring us Universal Peace at NO COST TO YOU!!!?

OK. Life as we know it evolved (the First Commandment of Science). Evolution is life outcompeting other life for the things that make life.

How then, can evolution end in Peaceful Coexistence? Intelligence is supposed to overcome evolution and create peace…but is that even realistic? Of COURSE IT WILL (The Second Commandment of Science).

Evolution = Competition (not cooperation)…

Or maybe Evolution leads to competition that LEADS past it to Cooperation?

Are there any examples of cooperative life on Earth? Is Mutualism a form of cooperation? Let me peek at it and see if I could imagine a space-faring civilization based on Mutualism.

First a definition (from Wikipedia for brevity): "Mutualism is [an] ecological interaction between two or more species where each species has a net benefit…it is often mixed with two other types of ecological phenomena: cooperation and symbiosis. Cooperation most commonly refers to increases in fitness through within-species interactions…Symbiosis involves two species living in close physical contact in a mutualistic, parasitic, or commensal [relationship]…”

Example of symbiotic aliens: the Trill from the STAR TREK universe. The Symbiont lives repeated lives while the Host lives a natural life, creating the effect of a “layered” individual. Could we live symbiotically with an alien civilization? I seem to recall that as a theme somewhere. Anyone? Of course, if you wanted to speak just emotionally, I’m pretty sure a good marriage might be considered a symbiotic relationship…

An example of parasitic aliens: the mitochondria in our cells are sometimes characterized as “good” parasites. At this point, neither one of us can live without the other. But that’s boring. How about some REAL parasite aliens? The eponymous Aliens in the ALIEN franchise are considered parasites. Even in fiction for kids, we have an example of a parasitic “alien”: “Lord Voldemort does this to Quirinus Quirrell in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. This would just be your garden-variety Demonic Possession, if not for the visceral manner by which the parasite attaches to the host: Voldemort's face grows out of the back of Professor Quirrell's head!” Clearly, contacting a parasitic civilization wouldn’t leave us with much of a future. Could WE be parasites off of another civilization? Hmmm…that might have possibilities.

So what could I do in a world I’ve invented? I call it River, a puffy Jupiter where the technophilic Empire of Man does NOT meddle with genetic engineering (except to clean up diseases and increase the survival factor on various of its worlds). Its decree is that anyone with LESS than 65% original Human DNA (from the original 2014 Human Genome Project results) is NOT Human. They live in the clouds of River by gravity modification and lighter-the-air craft.

The genetically savvy Confluence of Humanity allows not only genetic engineering, but creating lifeforms to live anywhere – there IS no limit to how much a Human can be modified. The main character has had a kilometer-wide, manta-ray-like, hūmbūlance created from his DNA, and internal organs modified to create a “surgical field hospital” with an nitrogen/oxygen atmosphere.

As Humans go, the Humans of River are recognizable (mostly), and interact in comprehensible ways. BUT…living in the skies of a world with no real surface, and that plants and animals are limited to habitats (no matter HOW vast), that are smaller than the world is going to change Human interactions. (Comparison Question: How has having a liquid water surface which makes up seventy-one percent of Earth’s surface, affected Humanity?)

Duh. How has it NOT? The question does not compute!

Let’s get back to government. In the Skies of River, how is the Confluence ruled? You’ve got vastly different populations – some who have no need of setting foot on ANY kind of surface; others who live in biohabitats, balloon-like cities grown from bone and sinew. Also, they have tamed and bred IMMENSE cloudwhales, a native form of life reminiscent of jellyfish; except worm-shaped and literal KILOMETERS long, undulating through the skies. Soil, a RARE AND PRECIOUS commodity, has been manufactured from asteroids (as have metals, taken from the moons of River) and then layered on the backs of even LARGER cloudwhales. They grow the food needed in the skies of River. Because they trade food for technology (has THAT ever happened on Earth? Nah!) harming the cloudwhales is a crime punished by INSTANT DEATH among both the inhabitants of the Empire and the Confluence – which societies inhabit alternate east and west blowing bands of clouds…

So, what kinds of government? The Empire has an Emperor or an Empress, either one depending on an elaborate process. But because the society is not on any one continent (we saw what happened when the British Empire split up onto separate continents. “The British what?” (said with Hindi, Telegu, Bahamian, American, Australian, Guyanese, Canadian, Nigerian accents). So, to keep a united Empire, every Entity (a Conglomeration of Balloons, a Relation of Cloudwhales, a Bunch of Gravity Modified Castles, (or what not) sends ONE representative to the yearly Parliament Platform that rides the Equatorial Belt, to serve a three year term.

The Confluence is slightly less…rigid. A Real Democracy, every member of the Confluence has a vote. The planet-wide voting technology is purchased from the Empire…

Certainly BIG changes are voted on one-hundred percent democratically (“What kind of imbecile would give up their vote and let someone else cast it?” is engraved on the heart of every Confluan, and history is frequently used to remind them what happens when a republic gets too big for its britches (not that anyone really understands what that means…but the IDEA is there)…

So – would an Empire and a true Democracy work on a world with no landmasses and no true borders, and where it approaches an “every being for themselves”; and the “solid resources come from an abundance of moons and a dozens of rings orbiting the puffy Jupiter River?

Is it a symbiotic government? Commensal? Mutualistic? Are the inhabitants of the skies of River living in commensal, mutualistic, symbiotic, parasitic, or “other” kinds of relationships? We’ll talk more later

Source: https://www.pnas.org/content/118/10/e2022912118, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasites_in_fiction
Image: https://cdn.vanderbilt.edu/vu-news/files/20190417214748/artist-rendering-585x299.jpg

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 532

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: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BarredFromTheAfterlife
Current Event: “…theorize that the nuclear war destroyed the afterlife…”, “…some people...have studied and manipulated The Dark to such an extent that they've become functionally immortal…”

Functional immortality: “Research suggests that lobsters may not slow down, weaken, or lose fertility with age, and that older lobsters may be more fertile than younger lobsters. This longevity may be due to telomerase, an enzyme that repairs long repetitive sections of DNA sequences at the ends of chromosomes, referred to as telomeres. Telomerase is expressed by most vertebrates during embryonic stages but is generally absent from adult stages of life. However, unlike vertebrates, lobsters express telomerase as adults through most tissue, which has been suggested to be related to their longevity. Despite internet memes, lobsters are not immortal. Lobsters grow by molting which needs a lot of energy and the larger the shell the more energy, eventually the lobster dies from exhaustion during a molt. Older lobsters are known to stop molting which means the shell will become damaged, infected, or fall apart and they die.”

Juana de Forlán shook herself hard, took a deep breath and said, “I can feel the synthetic lobster juice in me…”

Shaking his head, Koegathe Melamu, “You can’t possibly feel a hundred milliliters of a transparent liquid in your...”

“I know that!” Juana exclaimed. She shook her arms, “My head knows it, but my body says otherwise.” She took a deep breath, shuddering. “I feel like I’m getting younger by the moment.”

“It’s not an elixir of youth! If it worked the way we thought it should, the telomerase will let your cells keep dividing – more or less forever. But it’s not going to make you younger.”

She held out both of her hands, palms up, and said, “Might as well. I’m gonna live forever!”

Koegathe shook his head, saying, “Maybe – but we have no idea what the long-term effects of living forever as a lobster might be.” They both laughed, but after a few minutes, Koegathe reigned his mirth in when he noticed the pitch of his voice had been climbing. He took a deep breath then said, “Maybe that wasn’t as funny as it sounded.”

She shrugged, suddenly feeling light-headed.

"What's wrong?" Koegathe said, stepping toward her.

"I think I'm going to..." It seemed like the world around her rushed into a single dot of focused, bright light. Everything else was dark around her. The point of light remained steady for some time -- she wasn't sure how long because her *-sense of time was abruptly gone. Then the light moved toward her. She might have been moving toward the light. It didn't make any difference. It might have taken time. It might have happened instantaneously, she had no idea.

Once the light grew around her, she found herself standing on solid ground of pearly white. In a throne of the same pearly substance, there sat a being. She knew that it was Death. There was certainly some kind of harvest implement laying on the ground beside the throne, though it looked more like a silver weed whacker. Death didn't wear a robe, it -- he? -- wore solid work clothes, more or less like a technician in a computer manufacturing plant, though he didn't have a mask or gloves. He did have protective goggles pushed up on his head. Black, well-trimmed, wavy hair made it look like he was wearing a cap. The name badge clipped to his collar read, "Greaper".

"Cute," Juana said. "You're the Grim Reaper?" She rolled her eyes as only a young woman who grew up in the booming first two decades of the 21st Century could.

He lifted a leg to drape it over the arm of the throne and said, "You've presented me with a problem I've never faced before, young lady."

"What?"

"You're dying -- but you are functionally immortal -- and I have no idea what to do with you."

Names: ♀ Uruguay; ♂ Botswana
Image: https://cdn.britannica.com/40/11740-004-50816EB1/Boris-Karloff-Frankenstein-monster.jpg

POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY: DISCON III – #3 How Speculative Fiction Magazines Are CHANGING

Using the Programme Guide of the 2021 World Science Fiction Convention, DisCON III, which I WOULD have been attending in person if I felt safe enough to do so in person AND it hadn’t been changed to the week before the Christmas Holidays…I will jump off, jump on, rail against, and shamelessly agree with the BRIEF DESCRIPTION given in the Program Guide. I will be using the events to drive me to distraction or revelation – as the case may be. The link is provided below where this appeared!

How Magazines Are Changing:

Twenty years ago, a new age of internet magazines started rising alongside the print favorites. Now there are so many different ways to broadcast, produce, and consume short fiction. How are magazines changing to reflect that? We’ll look at how everything has changed over time, from what stories are popular to delivery methods to submissions rules and processes, and speculate about what may be coming next.

Participants
Brandon O’Brien: FIYAH Poetry Editor (2017-2020)
Jed Hartman: Editor of STRANGE HORIZONS, a weekly magazine of and about speculative fiction
Scott H. Andrews: Editor of BENEATH CEASELESS SKIES (Fantasy)
Vida Cruz: Asst editor of MERMAIDS MONTHLY (Fantasy)
Gautam Bhatia: STRANGE HORIZONS

Fascinating discussion looking at the radical changes from the clear Science Fiction and Fantasy division to what we consider today and call the broad field Speculative Fiction. When did that start? (WARNING: I’m a “hard SF”/traditional Fantasy” reader. It’s not that I haven’t read today’s SpecFic writers – I LOVE Rebecca Roanhorse’ fiction! Ada Palmer…I’m pretty sure I’m not smart enough to understand her writing…Hannu Rajaniemi (Finnish hard SF writer) and relative newcomer, Canadian Derek Künsken, Cory Doctorow (Canadian-British); Peter F. Hamilton (British); and Adrian Tchaikovsky (British).

I DO read David Brin, Octavia Butler, Julie Czerneda (also Canadian), Lois McMaster Bujold (from Minnesota, where I live), Tolkien, Lewis, Donaldson as well as ancient science fiction by Heinlein, Asimov, Herbert, Clifford D. Simak and others.

I also read YA SpecFic, too: Suzanne Collins (of HUNGER GAMES fame); JK Rowling; SKYHUNTER and STEELSTRIKER by Marie Lu and others as my kids and grandkids direct me.

At any rate, I have a clear bias, so take that into consideration as you read my comments!

A few key things they brought up:

“There are more niche magazines today because the limitations of paper magazines have vanished.”

“As a result, BIPOC get to see stories about them…seeing people in stories written about them BY people like them…HOWEVER, those same people need encouragement to submit when they do see themselves.” [I taught in a high school where the population was 65% non-white. I AM a big-old-fat-white-guy (a BOFWhiG), and I asked my students to teach me to be a better listener and to stand against racism. I worked to listen and learn from the students, teachers, and administrators around me. You have no real reason to believe that I was a midwife for several careers of BIPOC (Black/Indigenous People of Color) students; but if you like, I can connect you with some of them. Leave a note in the comments section.]

My biggest problem is that I rarely read online SpecFic…Of COURSE, I read Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora Hardcover edited by Sheree Renée Thomas. I wanted to see my students and friends in the future as well, but until I found this book, I didn’t know HOW to do it. Dark Matter led naturally to Tananarive Due, Nalo Hopkinson, and Nisi Shawl, and I’d discovered Samuel R. Delany and Steven Barnes myself (I SO wish Barnes would complete the cycle he began with LION’S BLOOD and ZULU HEART…I somehow thought that world was ready for the first step into space. I would have loved to have read future history! Nnedi Okorafor enticed me into BINTI’s world and I will willingly go there again (right after I reread the novella’s – but I have to buy it again ‘cause I gave my copy to the school’s library.)

The discussion raised a specific question in my mind: “How would I write about the colonization of new worlds by Humans that is NOT rooted in colonialism?”

What did the Zulu do to create their kingdom? “Shaka created a stratified society based on a combination of subtle socialisation and ‘reasonable degree’ of force. At the apex were the king and aristocracy, which consisted of the Zulu ruling house and the groups that were incorporated into the Zulu state during the early stages of its expansion. Closely linked to Zulu royalty and its aristocracy were the more important amakhosi (chiefs) and notables, iziphakanyiswa, who were drawn from the chiefdoms that were subjugated in the early stages of Zulu expansion.”

In Liberia, “Liberia is a country in West Africa which was founded by free people of color from the United States. The emigration of free people of color, and later former slaves, was funded and organized by the American Colonization Society….In 1847, the ACS encouraged Liberia to declare independence…The US…intervened when European powers threatened its territory or sovereignty.[6] As a result, eleven signatories established the Republic of Liberia on July 26, 1847…Liberia retained its independence throughout the Scramble for Africa by European colonial powers during the late 19th century, while remaining in the American sphere of influence…Until 1980, Liberia was controlled politically by descendants of the original African-American settlers, known collectively as Americo-Liberians, who were a small minority of the population. From 1980 to 2006, the violent overthrow of the Americo-Liberian regime led to years of civil war…”

When I was there, I spoke with a few bilingual Kpelle and Lorma Lutherans who spoke both their birth language and English. They said that the first thing the freed American slaves did…was enslave those who did NOT come from the US…

During World War II, the Japanese launched a brutal invasion of China. The Chinese in turn attempted to crush the Hmong people (as they are currently doing to the Uyghur as the rest of us celebrate the 2022 Beijing Olympics…), who were chased to Vietnam, Laos, and finally Thailand. Today, nearly a million Hmong live in Laos; another 152,000 in Thailand…but the second largest population of Hmong people – 260,000 – live in the US. 100,000 of them live in California, and the second largest population is in Minnesota…with several families on my block in the most diverse city in Minnesota: Brooklyn Center (NOT Brooklyn, New York, thank-you-very-much!)

How do I write a different future when so many Humans behave alike? We seem to follow certain patterns no matter our race, religion, or the continent we live on. Near the end, one participant noted that, “Everybody should be able to do what they want to – autocracy, or no kind of government at all!”

Indeed, I DO need to read more of the new magazines to see how they solve the problems inherent in feeding, clothing, and serving a population of (as of January 2022) 7.9 billion. Indeed, yes! (BTW, just for the dystopians: this is the year that the movie, “Soylent Green” takes place. In it, “…Roth brings two volumes of ‘Soylent Oceanographic Survey Report, 2015–2019’…the Books confirm that the oceanographic report reveals that the oceans are dying…[and] also reveal that ‘Soylent Green’ is being produced from the remains of the dead and the imprisoned, obtained from heavily guarded waste disposal plants outside the city.” Would the Earth of this dark future REALLY be able to support the 50 billion people posited by this story, with NO GOVERMENT AT ALL?)

I’m not at all certain it could…but I MIGHT be able to write about it, and write BIPOC characters into my own fiction. I highly recommend the book WRITING THE OTHER by Cynthia Ward and Nisi Shawl (https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Other-Conversation-Pieces-8/dp/193350000X) Using it to guide me, and the quote I’ve got hanging over my desk: “One of our classmates opined that it was a mistake to write about people of different ethnicities: you might get it wrong. Horribly, offensively wrong. Better not to even try.” (1992, Clarion West Writers Workshop). 

Shawl and Ward's response: "...the lawn chair must have sagged visibly with the weight of my disbelief. My own classmate, excluding all other ethnic types from her creative universe! I think this sort of misguided caution is the source of a lot of sf’s monochrome futures."

I do not want to be accused of misguided caution...I want to enrich the world of Science Fiction!

Program Schedule: https://discon3.org/schedule/
References: https://www.southafrica.net/za/en/travel/article/shaka-kasenzangakhona-the-founder-of-the-zulu-kingdom
Image: https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQY860vAI2izm2g2mUgxzT14fGVmoGh66B51g&usqp=CAU

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 531

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: The Quest
Current Event: http://contemplativequest.com/, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice's_Adventures_in_Wonderland

Světlana Angelika pursed her lips, looking out over the hectares of forest. In the MSP Vertical Village, it was mostly deciduous trees – oak, maple, patches of white-barked birch, poplar – with a sprinkling of pine trees. The concourse she and Uthman Aali were on was packed with people. Not a hundred thousand, for sure, but too many to think. “We need to go somewhere,” she said abruptly, speaking in the too loud manner of all the inhabitants of Vertical Villages everywhere.

Uthman gave her a look that said, “You’re crazy.”

She slugged him in the shoulder. It was a little kid move – but then, they’d been friends since they were three years old. “No, I’m serious. We need to go somewhere real.”

Without changing his stare, Uthman said, “We can go up to the six hundredth floor...”

“No! I don’t mean here. This is all so...boring. We need to go,” she pause, “through a looking glass.”

“A what?”

“A looking glass! Haven’t you ever read Alice in Wonderland?”

“I might have seen a threevee of it once. Wasn’t it a cartoon?”

“Yes – and no, you haven’t seen this. Lewis Carroll wrote a novel, it’s true. But he was a mathematician. His logic is all over the book. Math. Everything.”

Uthman snorted, “It sounds like science fiction.”

“It’s fantasy – she steps through a mirror.”

“If it’s math and logic, it’s science fiction.”

“There are talking rabbits,” said Světlana. “And a talking, disappearing cat. As well as a talking, smoking caterpillar, talking mice, and soldiers made of playing cards.”

“OK. You win. It’s a fantasy. But what does it have to do with us? What kind of mirror can we jump through? I’m sure there are some here – but...”

“The windows. We can jump through one of those.”

“A window?”

“Come on, let’s go to the outer walls. We’ll leap through one of those!” She turned and ran, Uthman running after her.

Names: ♀ Czech, Roman; ♂ Arabic, Hindu
Image: 

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

POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS: The Hero of LORD OF THE RINGS and Savior of Middle Earth – Samwise Gamgee

NOT using the Programme Guide of the 2020 World Science Fiction Convention, ConZEALAND (The First Virtual World Science Fiction Convention; to which I be unable to go (until I retire from education – which I now have!)), I WOULD jump off, jump on, rail against, and shamelessly agree with the BRIEF DESCRIPTION given in the pdf copy of the Program Guide. But not today. 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…

Often dodged is the fact that JRR Tolkien was a Christian and his fiction held part of himself – his Christian self.

The late Gene Wolfe said it best: “What is impossible is to keep [my Catholicism] out. The author cannot prevent the work being his or hers.” (https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/sci-fis-difficult-genius -- often hidden behind a paywall…but it’s there)

Tolkien couldn’t hide his Christianity because his faith was one of his core beliefs. Absolutely he and his colleague CS Lewis had problems. Of course, so did the Apostle Paul; Peter – the Rock on which Jesus built his Church; and quite famously and loudly, Doubting Thomas.

But THE HOBBIT and LORD OF THE RINGS are rife with Christian allegory, message, and (horrors!) preaching.

It’s also filled with contradictions. It took me until well into adulthood, after reading the books two or three (or four or five…) times, and watching the movies annually for the past decade or so, to realize that the HERO of Lord of the Rings is SAMWISE GAMGEE. Frodo was not a hero and in the end, he nearly gave Middle Earth over to Sauron. But Gollum/Smeagol – someone even LESS of a hero than Frodo and MORE under control of the Ring, defeated Frodo’s intent of keeping the ring and becoming a tool of the Dark Lord – and Gollum was amply and permanently repaid for his folly.

Cute Frodo – Minion Of The Dark Lord…NOT the image we like to keep of him. But the image of Elijah Wood holding the One Ring on the chain, at arms-length in front of his face, suspended over the fires of Mount Doom and with no intention of dropping it?

This image is deeply chilling. Even more chilling because for most of the story, I identify with FRODO. I’m the hero of the tale; the one who carries the ring into Mordor and into Mount Doom and saves the day!

But on further reflection, that’s NOT what happened. Frodo, rightfully so, is so exhausted that Sam has to fight Gollum. Sam has to pick up Frodo and carry him up the side of the erupting volcano (of Doom, if you prefer). Then he falls, beans Gollum, and Frodo runs the rest of the way. Sam follows him, fully expecting Frodo to have thrown the Ring over the edge…

He plunges into despair when it’s clear Frodo will NOT divert the ultimate subjugation of Middle Earth under the vile, satanic reign of Sauron, the Dark Lord. Sam watches as Frodo drops the chain and prepares to put the Ring on; to keep the Ring; to be crushed by Sauron who will use the Ring to rule ALL…

As the moment of Sauron’s victory moves ever closer, the dark minions of Sauron begin to hammer the survivors of the Fellowship of the Ring; the last King of Man is literally under the foot of Sauron; Gimli, Legolas, Pippin, and Meriadoc are falling. The Eye is blazing ever brighter…

Then Gollum knocks Sam unconscious, likely with the intent of KILLING him…and the ancient evil that is Gollum leaps, bites Frodo’s finger off, drops it, then rejoices in possessing the One Ring…and Frodo tackles him…and the both go over the edge of the cliff…

Gollum doesn’t even notice that he’s falling, and even when he HITS the lava, he only has eyes for the Ring…he sinks, and the Ring begins to melt…

And Sam doesn’t run away. He rescues Frodo from the Abyss, from certain, eternal doom. HE REFUSES TO LET GO…

Sound like Someone Else we know? Sam has also remained the repository of all that is good in the Shire, which is remarkably Heaven-like…and Sam is there, knowing EXACTLY what happened and deflecting all glory and honor to Frodo…loving him so much.

And so, Samwise Gamgee, the most humlesest hobbit, sends Frodo on his way to eternal life with the Elves…

I rest my case.

Resource: https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2021/08/good-news-return-king-michael-jahosky-bradley-birzer.html?utm_source=The+Imaginative+Conservative+Newsletter&utm_campaign=fe2fd67cf0-Weekly+Newsletter_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_6c8d563f42-fe2fd67cf0-132633794&mc_cid=fe2fd67cf0&mc_eid=41c39978cb&fbclid=IwAR0HRv2oj5r88QMP1PhykJntjEer-5BNXaMaGZjF_76wuL2mu0X0qnfUZKU,
Image: https://fictionhorizon.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/LordoftheRings06-scaled-1024x576.jpg

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 530

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: Dystopia Is Hard
Current Event: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/28/us-korea-north-pyongyang-idUSBRE96R0BB20130728

Adéla Stoica hung her head. She’d practiced abject submission just like all the other teenagers in the Orientation Class did. Beside her, Enio Cassar did the same thing.

What the Master before them didn’t see was Adéla open her eyes and shoot a sideways glance.

This time she beat Enio to the punch and could barely hold in the giggle that bubbled up inside of her when he opened his eyes an instant later. They were supposed to be contemplating the worthlessness of their own lives in submission to the Great Cause. She sighed – an acceptable sound – because the Masters of the Great Cause thought they’d beaten everyone down.

Standing before the class, Master Farkas scowled at her. He said to the class in Esperanto, the Language of Submission, “Estas bone ke vi kontempli vian propran senvaloreco ĉiutage, kaj konsideru la grandecon de la Lando anstataŭe.”

This time Enio sighed. It was the motto of the regime, “It is good that you contemplate your own worthlessness every day, and consider the greatness of the Country instead.” The education of the youth after fourteen years of the Society of the Great Cause was predictable. Master Farkas continued, “It should make you feel the weight of that responsibility so deeply that your spirit groans with the burden of it. It is only through sacrifice to society that the individual might live best. It is only through society that all wisdom, all knowledge and all discovery might be directed by the National Science Foundation. Through that wisdom, humanity might live again in the luxury to which it had become accustomed.”

Enio muttered, “Ai mund të marrë zbetë e tij idiot horseshit gojën dhe të fus atë deri gomar e tij, ku ai erdhi nga." Like everyone else at the camp, their mother language was the one they cursed and made love in; Esperanto was the language they learned to mock in; English was the language everyone could communicate across ethnic walls in. Of course, there were to BE no ethnic walls because the Great Cause united all of North America into one Cause – the betterment of humanity.

It was too bad Master Farkas was also a linguist from the Old Order. His gaze arrested Enio and he said in the same language, “Merrni ass tuaj i dobët këtu lart tani, ju mut pak.” Enio’s eyes bulged as Master Farkas added, “Your girlfriend can come up here, too.”

“She’s not my girlfriend,” Enio blurted.

Adéla elbowed him and they stood their ground. The line behind theirs shoved them forward and the lines in front of them opened up. She looked at them and said, “Cowards.” But none of them looked the slightest bit afraid. They looked bored. Like they wanted something interesting to happen; kill the mold growing on their lives of dull sameness. Like jackals. When Master Farkas looked up at them though, their faces transformed to slack idiocy then morphed into hanging heads.

He gestured to them and led them out of the classroom, his white lab coat flapping behind him. Two other technicians wearing the shorter, lower-ranked blue lab coats went into the classroom to take his place. Leading them down a half dozen short flights of stairs, he stopped at a metal door and used his passkey to unlock it. Pushing it open, Adéla and Enio could see that a huge screen covered one wall and that a face filled the screen, looking at them. Master Farkas grabbed Enio’s arm and shoved him into the room. Enio sighed and walked in. “I can’t believe you’re doing this…” The door slammed ponderously.

He touched Adéla’s shoulder and said, “You’re next.”

She knew exactly what was coming and shook her head, remembering the really fascinating books she’d read as a precocious two year old. First she grabbed her older brother’s copy of THE HUNGER GAMES and read it, then the other six sequels. She fell in love with Scott Westerfeld’s UGLIES books. Devoured Haddix’s THE HIDDEN. Every dystopian book she could find from HG Well’s TIME MACHINE to the seven LAST SURVIVORS books; she read and cherished in her heart.

Then the Great Cause overtook the countries of North America – and her life had been tedious boredom ever since...

Names: ♀ Czech, Romania ; ♂Albania, Malta

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

REDUX: POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS -- Dream of Suspended Animation; Nightmare of Cryonics

In this feature, I'll be diving deep into my early essays to see if I can find anything interesting or if things have changed in the fifteen years since I started posting. If you find something interesting or want to talk about the post, feel free to respond here or DM me and we can continue the discussion!

This piece first appeared in November of 2009.

Since I started reading books and watching science fiction movies, I have dreamed of going into a suspended animation tube like the Robinson’s did in LOST IN SPACE and sleeping in my starship as it crossed incredible distances – then waking in orbit around a new world.

Even as I grew older, the idea of suspended animation or human hibernation has remained a profound hope. There are hints and clues that this might be possible: dogs have been frozen for brief periods and most of them resuscitated without brain damage. Pigs with profound blood loss from an induced bleed had the volume replaced with frigid saline, the vessels repaired and were wakened. Mice breathing hydrogen sulfide gas had their metabolism reduced ten-fold – though the experiment did not work with larger mammals, it may be a matter of finding the right combination to work for humans. Chemical induction of hibernation holds some possibilities as well. Clearly, animals sleep for extended periods of time; some amphibians are frozen solid and then thaw unharmed. There is a clear movement to growing this technology that will end with procedures that have applications in human and animal medicine, emergency medical services as well as my own dream of long-term space travel.

Enter the nightmare of cryonics. While I’d heard rumors about this decades ago as well as rumors that Gene Rodenberry of STAR TREK fame had been cryopreserved (he wasn’t – a small portion of his ashes were put into orbit in 1997. That orbit decayed by 2004 and those remains were incinerated on reentry), I didn’t actually find any facts until reading the book, GREAT MAMBO CHICKEN AND THE TRANSHUMAN CONDITION (Ed Regis, 1991). There, cryonics was portrayed, if not in shining light then in a favorable light. For years, while gently mocking the concept of freezing bodies and brains for later healing and revival as it occurred in the STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION episode, “The Neutral Zone”; I held little hope that such a process might become feasible.

Now even that faint hope is smashed like a pumpkin on Halloween night. In his  book, FROZEN A True Story: My Journey Into the World of Cryonics, Deception and Death, Larry Johnson (with Scott Baldyga), brings to light truly horrific details perpetrated by the California company, Alcor. The very last hope that ANYONE might die and then be revived by future “magical medicine”, has been permanently dashed when shown the conditions under which the cryopatients were processed. The only way anyone might ever be recovered from Alcor is by finding a cell and cloning an entire new person. Then the purpose of cryopreservation would be defeated – the memories and personality of the patient would be entirely lost.

Worst of all though, now that the charade is revealed and doubtless about to collapse, any chance that current scientists might advance any real discoveries leading to breakthroughs or the development of a real science of cryopreservation are gone, perhaps forever. And THAT makes me mad. How about you?

One last question: if someone were cryopreserved and then resuscitated, would their soul come back from heaven, hell, paradise, limbo or nirvana?

==RESPONSES==

WILL they come up with good science for it? Or will it now fall by the wayside like other promising technologies of the past that happen to hit a bad stretch

==

Like, I still wonder: WHERE'S MY FLYING CAR?

==

Cryopreservation on the level suggestion by science fiction is worth a muse at best. But it concerns me when modern medicine and science assumes the role of God. I don't believe any one man has the responsibility to dictate life or death, save Jesus Christ.

Still the medical implications of such an advancement would be monumental. But as it sounds from the book written about Alcor, what horrors will we go through to discover such technology?

Finally, if one were to be cryopreserved what WOULD happen to the soul? On the one hand, if it resided in heaven, I for one would be upset if I was resuscitated, and on the other, quite relieved (and possibly traumatized) if I returned from hell. I guess I lean more towards limbo, but I suppose it all is in regards to what you believe about the soul.

==

I think that's an excellent idea for a story: a theological take on someone being, well, resurrected after the cure for the disease that killed them is discovered.

==

Isn't there a, well, a folktale, a Church myth, if you will, that after Lazarus was resurrected he never smiled again because the Earth was so horrible after Heaven? Perhaps it would be like that...

Image: https://gajitz.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/lost-in-space-suspended-animation.jpg

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 529

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: immortality
Current Event: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immortal_DNA_strand_hypothesis
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3109559/

While the Wikipedia entry explaining the Immortal DNA strand isn’t exactly a current event, the second entry IS and though it is a medical paper and written in medical language, it happens to be significant to the life of our family.

To make this understandable to lay people, I’d like to use those worn-out tropes of horror: vampires.

Let’s just say that the vampire DNA strand is immortal, but because so many vampires were killed in the 19th and early 20th century by various vampire slayers such as Koshiko Kamiyama, John Averill, Twelve String Digby (http://www.fvza.org/tophunters.html), Van Helsing and Buffy, it has become widely spread and doesn’t produce vampires any more.

It’s lengendarily reported that the vampire slayings were in response to an outbreak of vampires in the 17th and 18th Centuries (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/the-real-vampire-slayers-397874.html).

It is the 21st Century now and people travel everywhere all the time. A chance college meeting leads to romance for a couple with old, Eastern European roots – Curtis Allen is the result and he discovers his vampiric leanings not long after his mom is transferred to the 3M headquarters in Minneapolis. He attends a prestigious private high school…but the story begins when his dad has to tell him about the birds, the bees and the bloodlust…

“Listen, Vlad, you’re thirteen now, there are things you need to know about yourself…”

Vlad snorted, “Dad, I know all about sex, so you don’t…”

“I know you know all about sex! This has nothing to do with sex. It has to do with a family…problem.”

Vlad frowned and said, “What are you talking about?”

His dad cleared his throat. “Listen, son, this is hard for me to talk about, but it has to do with when you get passionate with a girl…”

Vlad laughed. “Dad, you know I’m gay, right?”

His dad sighed, “A father can hope, can’t he? It doesn’t matter the orientation. It’s just that when you get passionate, you can…nibble on people.”

Vlad had no idea why it happened, but he was abruptly so embarrassed, his pale skin flushed red. His throat got tight, and he suddenly found that his hands, sitting in his lap, were worthy of intense study. He managed to croak, “Dad…”

“Listen, son, I can’t sugar coat this, so I’m just gonna say it out loud…”

“Don’t, Dad!”

“You’re a vampire, son, and when you ‘nibble’ on people, you’re passing the virus to them.”

Of all the conversations he’d imagined having with Dad, this was one he’d never thought to rehearse. He opened his mouth then closed it. Finally he managed, “You mean anyone that…has ever had a bite…is gonna become a vampire?”

Names: ♂ Romania 

Image: https://cdn.britannica.com/40/11740-004-50816EB1/Boris-Karloff-Frankenstein-monster.jpg

POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY: DISCON III #2 – Assistive Technologies

Using the Programme Guide of the 2021 World Science Fiction Convention, DisCON III, which I WOULD have been attending in person if I felt safe enough to do so in person AND it hadn’t been changed to the week before the Christmas Holidays…I will jump off, jump on, rail against, and shamelessly agree with the BRIEF DESCRIPTION given in the Program Guide. I will be using the events to drive me to distraction or revelation – as the case may be. The link is provided below where this appeared!

Assistive Technologies: The vast majority of the world’s population uses some kind of prosthetic or assistive device, from glasses, to mobility aids, to those jar-opening doohickies. How should they change our conceptions of disability and what using a prosthetic device really means? What bleeding-edge assistive technologies are out there right now that may seem like science fiction? Do engineers overthink it, and are some technologies impositions. And when is simpler, better?

“Hey, Siri?” “OK, Google”…those are the two this family uses. Assistive technologies help us do things we do more efficiently. They are a technological solution to a problem SOMEONE perceived and created an answer to.

Of course, the assistance can’t POSSIBLY come for free, can it? Do we invite these technologies into our lives while surrendering privacy – while surrender protection against an intimate invasion into our lives and unconsciously supply information about our lives? Lastly, who decided what technology we needed?

This session was specifically designed to talk about people who have life challenges (aka disabilities or a bit less insulting, are differently abled) and the technologies that have been invented to “help” them.

First of all, it seemed the most important thing to this panel was to: ASK PEPOLE WHAT THEY NEED!

The way the assistive technology world works today is that some brilliant geek invents something and then says, “OK, what problem is this going to solve?” Companies work the same way, coming up with this tech or that tech, then marketing it for a perceived need; rarely asking their target consumer, “Is this something you need?”

The example one of them gave was that someone had invented a wheelchair with treads: https://9b16f79ca967fd0708d1-2713572fef44aa49ec323e813b06d2d9.ssl.cf2.rackcdn.com/1140x_a10-7_cTC/20180123lf-Wheelchair03-1569211736.jpg That’s all fine and good, BUT…they have a tendency to tip (narrow wheelbase) and they suck the batteries dry in very short order. Nice try, but no one seemed to ask the operators what they wanted…

It's a case of what one the panelists called, “Cool Tech vs Needs of the Users”. One of them noted that the CYBERPUNK genre was about AUGMENTING people rather than “fixing” them. Compensating for a disability and not the ableist attitude that someone with a disability has to be “fixed” or that the condition is a problem that demands a solution.

Another example is deafness. There are individuals who wish to remain deaf: the deaf community has its own language, traditions, and leaders: just as ANY community on EARTH has its language, traditions, and leaders. I live in Minnesota about fifteen miles out of downtown Minneapolis and St Paul. To someone who lives in Los Angeles or New York or Tokyo, my life might seem stunted, bereft of REAL entertainment, convenience, and opportunity. Surely no where near as rich as if I lived in one of THOSE cities. It’s a matter of perspective.

One of the panelists asked the question, “If you want to jump like an Olympic high jumper and have your legs removed and replaced with biocybernetics legs, are you disabled? What kind of impact will augmentations have on the Olympics themselves? Is a world record still a world record if it’s achieved by someone who has, say, springs for legs?

Another problem the panel saw was the common practice of “magical healing” in fantasy fiction and in science fiction, the limbs are replaced and “make them better”. What’s wrong with how they ARE? One panelist noted that Dr. Xavier of the X-Men never walks again, using his wheelchair as an extension of himself rather than something made to “fix him”. This of course, highlights another issue for people with disabilities: for the most part, they are INVISIBLE, which people are happy to do. It’s easier to not think about someone with a disability rather than look forward to expanding their relationships.

Last of all, “Ableism colors what ‘solvers’ come up with.” The assumption by someone with legs or someone who can hear, is that someone who has no legs or who is deaf WANTS THOSE THINGS BACK. So the ableist solver blazes on ahead, and then presents a person with a disability with their AMAZING solution, then step back and wait for the accolades and praise. When it doesn’t come, they’re angry and figure the person they worked so hard to fix is an ungrateful slob…

Moving back to cyberpunk, brain chip implants, like the “memory chip” in Lois McMaster Bujold’s novel, MEMORY. “Miles Vorkosigan is appointed Imperial Auditor so he can penetrate Barrayar’s intelligence and security operations. The head of it is Miles’ former boss, and he is failing physically and mentally. Miles sets out to find out why -- and who, if anyone, is behind his rapid decline. The discovery that the man’s memory chip is degrading creates problems on galactic, local, planetary, political, and personal scale.”

That “chip” is something technology is exploring today. Bruce Bethke raised this question here: https://stupefyingstories.blogspot.com/2021/12/todays-free-story-idea.html?fbclid=IwAR3Ijk87lQtPEU1ARhPD4pc3Q3u88jAmZsCOJuYSOHIO9pqCof-Tzp17sro at STUPEFYNG STORIES…

“By 2041 most good subjects citizens will have a tiny real-time streaming editor—let’s call it a ‘SED’ chip—implanted in their brain, probably in the arcuate fasciculus, between Wernicke’s area and Broca’s area. Thanks to this wonderful little invention our citizen of the future will be completely unable to either intentionally or inadvertently blurt out any career- or life-destroying BadThink, or even to understand any such words, if somehow heard.”

If you don’t have the chip, will you be considered disabled? What’s the solution for people who are unable to have the chip, or worse, just can get used to using it? One thing all the participants agreed on, is that while Star Wars and Star Trek have made the disabled vanish, WE as writers can include them in our stories; with the caveat: IF YOU NOT DISABLED, DO NOT WRITE A "DISABLED STORY". If I may interpolate "Don't tell a disabled story", maybe this would do: "You cannot imagine what it's like, so don't try to 'be disabled' in your work."

Consider your average senior citizen who is 80 years old or older. Born in 1942, their young lives saw the use of the first nuclear weapon. The end of a world war, the invention of…well, countless things. Here are 66: https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/g24668233/best-inventions/

So, what exactly constitutes a disability today. WHAT WILL CONSTITUTE A DISABILITY IN FORTY YEARS? Something to think about; something to inspire you…though possibly something to depress you!

Program Schedule: https://discon3.org/schedule/
Image: https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQY860vAI2izm2g2mUgxzT14fGVmoGh66B51g&usqp=CAU