Brothers

Because, apparently, it isn't Lent unless I've written a short story.

You know in the holos, when the good guy finally catches up with the bad guy and winds up to deliver a solid blow right to the bad guy’s kisser? You know what they never show in those movies? How much belting the bad guy hurts.

That was the first thing I noticed after I sent my brother reeling backwards. Dadgum, my fist stung like it had been slammed in the door of dad’s hovercar.

“What the heck was that for, John?” my brother screamed, blood trickling from his mouth, trying to act all innocent-like.

“You know perfectly well, James!” I screamed back, trying to ignore the pain in my hand.

“Like spit, I do! I’m not some Tellurian mind-reader.”

I scowled at him, as if the look could bore a hole through his head. “Mary,” I said.

He rolled his eyes. “You’re not hung up about that, are ya? What’s the big deal?”

I lunged for him, but didn’t catch him off guard, like the first time. He blocked my jab, but I caught him with my left hook. He stumbled to the ground, and now both my fists hurt like the dickens.

Read the rest here.

What Do You Make of the World?

In which I plow ahead, forcing myself to write a short story, not because I think it's good, or interesting, or even because I enjoy it, but because if I'm going to start something, then, gorammit, I'm going to finish it even if it kills me.

I’ll never forget my first day at the Academy.

“The world,” began Professor Sullivan, “is what you make of it.”

The elderly doctor leaned on the podium. It bobbed up and down as the anti-gravity thrusters adjusted to the meager weight of his wiry frame. His eyes swept over the attentive audience--my classmates and myself--drinking us in. And we were eager to be drunk on his words.

He turned to the screen behind him and, with a sweeping gesture of his hand, wiped a static image of the world into existence. The orb was crudely drawn, jagged lines cordoning off areas of flat-shaded blue and green.

“Centuries ago, this is how we saw the world: fixed and unchangeable. Mankind was the slave of relentless and ineffable powers, over which he had no control, or means to keep them at bay.”

He folded his arms behind his back and turned towards the image. The profile of his dimly lit face was overcome with concern. “Those were dark times.”

He waved his hand across the board once more and the image changed again. The jagged lines smoothed into curves and the flat hues blended into an infinity of shades.

“But in the midst of these dark ages,” the professor continued, “came some remarkable minds. Minds who were able to master the laws of nature. Minds that saw the malleability of the universe and thus opened themselves to a world of amazing new possibilities.”

He turned back to us, a glimmer in his eye and a mischievous grin on his face. “But even they were held back by their shackles to the old way of thinking: that there were some absolutes which mankind simply could not overcome.”

Behind him, the world expanded and contracted. Bulges formed and crept under the surface, as if some great mass was trying to burst forth.

“It was only at the turn of the last century that the wisest of the wise finally stumbled onto that great, liberating truth that freed humanity forever, to be the master of nature, instead of her slave.”

The world changed colors, from blue to red to violet, then shapes, from a sphere to a cube, to a flower. The light show grew in intensity and vibrancy, shining through the professor’s wispy-white hair, finally becoming a fiery explosion, a flaming wreath around his face, which was darkened by shadow. He was a terrifying sight to behold.

“Centuries of human progress were poured into discovering this truth. It represents the sum total achievement of all knowledge.”

He held out his hand and the flaming rose jumped into it, burning itself into ashes. The light vanished with the flames and the room was darkened, save for a single shaft shining through an open window behind us which illuminated his open hand. He stood motionless. The room was dead silent.

The ashes began to stir. They crawled around in a circle on his hand, moving faster and faster, until they became a tiny cyclone. From the midst of the whirlwind, a dove burst forth and flew over our heads. We gasped and turned to follow its path out of the window.

The professor spoke slowly and clearly. “The world is what you make of it.” He smiled and looked at the moment no different than any other kindly old gentleman. Once more, his eyes washed over us.

“Now it is up to you, the greatest minds of your generation, to use this truth. Make the world into something greater.”

Read the rest here.

# # #

For those of you keeping score at home, I started writing this story over two years ago, about the time I made this blog post. The story was originally called "Delusions of Reality" and was going to be about a boy at an academy who learned to "change the world" by make-believing it was something else, until he realized that it was all make-believe and nothing ever changed. I realized this was dumb and stupid and violated the cardinal rule of story-writing: the artist serves the muse, not the agenda. But, I still liked the conceit and the twist at the end, and reworked it.

Bonus points to those who get the references. Certain persons who did their theses on Fermat should get a few of them.

As always, constructive criticism is appreciated.

Book Reviews

From the sublime to the ridiculous.

I've been on a reading kick lately, and since I'm a blogger I know you're all dying to know what I think about whatever.  So here are some (very) short reviews:

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea - Jules Verne

A fascinating story by the father of science fiction.  Part nature documentary, part high-seas adventure, it's kind of like a 19th-century underwater Star Trek.  Highly recommended.

Bartleby The Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street - Herman Melville

Funny short story about the passive-aggressive office worker that won't be pushed around, and the power of behavioral precedent.  It has a poignant touch to it, too.  Good story.

A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

A popular classic is both for good reasons, one of those stories where you can call it "heartwarming" without being just an over-used cliche.  Read it.

Daemon - Daniel Suarez

It's about a dying brilliant computer game programmer that takes revenge on the world by writing what is both the ultimate virus and the ultimate computer game.  What's really scary is that all of the technology in the story exists.  It's totally possible!  I do believe this will get made into a movie, and there is a sequel on the way.  Highly recommended for nerds, geeks, other techies, or paranoid conspiracy theorists.

The Zombie Survival Guide - Max Brooks

The son of Mel Brooks writes the ultimate survival guide on how to survive the coming zombie apocalypse.  Hint: be prepared, and aim for the head.  Great dry humor.

A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking

A summary of physics from the Greeks to string theory, this book is basically a recap of how man has tried to understand the workings of the universe.  It's well-written and easy to understand, although it's a little frustrating for someone like me who knows enough about the topics to have serious questions, which to answer would require detail well beyond the scope of this book.  Oh, and he repeats the usual nonsense about Gallileo (Church vs. Science!).  I have the original 1988 edition, so I don't know if this was corrected along with the changes made in later editions.  Still, everybody should read this book.

Orphans/Fugitives/Titans of Chaos - John C. Wright

Sort of Harry Potter meets Star Wars meets The Box of Delights, it's one of the most imaginative stories I've read, it's hard to figure out exactly which genre it's in.  Maybe fantasy, maybe sci-fi?  The characters are interesting, and it's just impossible to tell where the story is going to go.  One of the characters can move and see in four dimensions, which presented some difficulty for me since I visualize everything I read.  It also has the most ominous line I've read lately: "Prepare the thousand-dimensional object!"  Recommended.

Watchmen - Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons

Who reads the Watchmen?  I did, and it was actually pretty good.  I had read the whole debate about the book vs. the movie, and I already knew most of the plot (including the ending), but it was still very interesting.  What you get out of the story depends on your world view.  The point of view of the story is very nihilistic and cynical, although the characters are quite deep and draw you in.  I thought the ending was disappointing, in part because I don't see the universe in the way the author portrays it in this story, although as a whole I enjoyed reading the book.  Although I haven't seen the movie, from what I've heard it's much much more violent than the comic.  The worst violence in the comic is described or implied, and not depicted.  And Nixon isn't portrayed as evil (he's hardly portrayed at all).  Recommended for those who are interested.

Currently reading:

The Night Land - William Hope Hodgson

Set one million years in the future when the sun has burnt out (written in 1910, they didn't how long it would actually last back then), one of the last survivors of the human race sets out across a land of perpetual darkness to rescue his beloved.  It's very atmospheric, early sci-fi, and I'm only halfway through it, so don't tell me how it comes out.

Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card

A fellow geek chastised me for not having read Ender's Game, so I just started that one today.  I don't have anything to say about it yet.  Don't spoil it!

Idiot of the Day/Week/Month.

Haven't had one of these in a while.

Click here to kill even more brain cells.

Key quotes: “We spent a lot of time in the ’90s trying to distance the network from science fiction, which is largely why it’s called Sci Fi,” Mr. Brooks said. “It’s somewhat cooler and better than the name ‘Science Fiction.’ But even the name Sci Fi is limiting.”

[...]

“When we tested this new name [SyFy], the thing that we got back from our 18-to-34 techno-savvy crowd, which is quite a lot of our audience, is actually this is how you’d text it,” Mr. Howe said. “It made us feel much cooler, much more cutting-edge, much more hip, which was kind of bang-on what we wanted to achieve communication-wise.”

[...]

“We need an umbrella brand we can attach to new businesses: Sci Fi games, Sci Fi kids. It does no use to attach ‘Sci Fi’ because there’s hundreds of sci-fi Web sites and sci-fi publications. So it’s changing your name without changing your name,” Mr. Howe said.

There are no words in Elvish, Entish, or the tongues of Men for how much of a tool this guy sounds like.

A Moral Quandry.

Perhaps I've been reading John C. Wright's blog too much (why aren't you?), but a question of morality popped into my head yesterday and has been bugging me since. It concerns science fiction/fantasy.

If voluptuous space alien babes were to land on the planet Earth tomorrow, could I (assuming I'm single), morally wed one? The answer I devised for this question was based on the intercompatibility of the species. Since marriage is an institution designed to promote the family, and since we know through faith and reason that the sex act must be ordered towards procreation, I think the morality of that marriage would depend on if the voluptuous space alien babes (VSAB from here on in) are biologically similar enough to humans to be able to procreate.

(Note that the chances of some random ET landing on Earth and being able to produce offspring with humans are probably something in the order of one in the XKCD number, where the XKCD number is the Ackermann function, with Graham's number as both arguments. This is one problem with Star Trek, where people are always mating with other aliens. There is no way Spock, being half-human, half-vulcan, is even remotely biologically likely.)

So with the easy question out of the way, we come to the hard one. What if you don't know if you're biologically capable of producing offspring with VSABs?

Of course, with modern technology, we could probably answer this question just by examining the genetics of the two species. But suppose that technology is not available.

Perhaps I should go back to what inspired the question in the first place.

In World of Warcraft (those of you who didn't see that coming obviously don't know me very well), one of my main characters is a Draenei, while The Resident Murloc's is a Night Elf. We typically play these two characters together, and I began to wonder whether they could marry. (Note that I am presupposing, even though Christianity doesn't exist in the Warcraft universe, that sex is intended for procreation and any use if it that contradicts that purpose is illicit and contrary to the natural law, which is independent of religion.)

Within the lore, I don't know if it has been established if Night Elves and Draenei are biologically compatible enough to produce offspring with one another. (I know other races are compatible; Garona is a half-human, half-orc.) So, the question poses serious ramifications for Golyath, being an upstanding and noble Shaman who wishes to do what is right by Nevlonniel. How can he, morally, determine if he is biologically compatible with a night elf, and until that is known, how does that affect his prospects for marriage to this lovely night-elf?

(For all zero of you who are interested, I used to play another Night Elf, Legolamb, along with Nevlonniel. I imagine that Outland changed Lego, and he became cold and distant from his former love, until he finally left her (his change is manifested in his new haircut). In reality, I got tired of playing the most useless class in the game, and wanted to actually feel like I was contributing something in a raid.)

This question has plenty of other contexts aside from WoW, too. For instance, what if some humans were taken by Ra through the Stargate, where they lived separated from their Earth-living relatives for tens of thousands of years, before being reunited, only to discover that they have evolved along different paths and are not biologically compatible with each other? In this case, they might even still be considered the same species.

It does have interesting ramifications, too. We know that homosexuality is disordered because it involves the desire to use the sexual facilities in an unnatural way, that is, in a manner that is contrary to the nature of the sexual act (that nature being the unity of the spouses and procreation). But what about my heterosexual desire for the non-biologically-compatible VSABs? Even though that union is innately contradictory to the nature of sex, is my desire for the well-endowded female aliens also perverse? Suppose we take it one step further and say that they look like Earth-women, only hotter, how is my... how am I supposed to know the difference?

It would also make for an interesting science fiction story. Space Babe lands on earth. Earth man falls in love with, and weds, Space Babe. 193 pages of hot alien-tentacled love later, they determine their species are biologically incompatible. Action sequences ensue, perhaps involving Space Pirates. And of course the Space Babe is also a Space Princess, so it can be considered part of the New Space Princess movement of speculative fiction.

Someone call Mr. Wright. I would write it myself, but with 4 and 2/3 books left to go in my own series, it will be a while before I can get to it.

Why yes, it has been slow at work recently.