There was a little spot of green, and I sat me down there. The minute I did, it gave away under me and I fell down and kept falling. I fell asleep, to be woken up from time to time by others falling with me, who would wake up too and needed to talk. We talked about the most inane of things. The rocks and edges sticking out looked inviting, but no one grabbed them, since no one was panicked. (It's a good thing they didn't, for their arms would have been ripped off). So we fell and then forgot all about the fact that we had started falling at some time and after several years down the line, we thought this is how we'd always been: we'd been born, inexplicably, falling, and we'd die falling too. Then, a few heretics went ahead and postulated that there was something called 'a surface' on which we would someday land. Theories and tirades and diatribes raged while the same bland rocks and edges passed us by. Now we have two factions: the Surface Huggers and the Free Fallers. At least it makes falling that much more intriguing. Every day they come up with a new angle to the problem. I've never revealed that it is perhaps only I who remember that little spot of green which had given away under me.
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Monday, August 25, 2014
Understanding SF
SF to me is a jelly like creature which stands for life itself. And every time it moves we see something different. Here is a list of all the shapes it takes.
1. Utopia: Humans are bored with the good life. Utopias don't exist as a result, even when they might.
2. Animals: Aliens are a nice way of appropriating man animal interaction but lending it a certain multi-dimensional hue using language or an attempt to get at it.
3. Loss: An often elegiac look back at a 'simpler' time, with untainted, lush landscapes and noble savages.
4. Whimsy: Technology allows for whimsical inventions which reflect human vanity back at humans. Talking phones and washing machines, in the vein of Carroll, but given the heft of credibility.
5. God: Change is the sole constant, and man (woman?) cannot sit still. The need to control can go both ways, and say more about who we are when we meet who we can be. We play God and we have petty human regrets in the process. Ironic.
6. Consciousness: To think or not to think. Can happiness be measured? Is a genetically manipulated human being who is ignorant of most things but as happy, inferior?
7. Literature of Obsession: For a change, a literature about men and women obsessed with other things than themselves. The fact that it ends up saying a lot about themselves anyway doesn't necessarily take away from this.
1. Utopia: Humans are bored with the good life. Utopias don't exist as a result, even when they might.
2. Animals: Aliens are a nice way of appropriating man animal interaction but lending it a certain multi-dimensional hue using language or an attempt to get at it.
3. Loss: An often elegiac look back at a 'simpler' time, with untainted, lush landscapes and noble savages.
4. Whimsy: Technology allows for whimsical inventions which reflect human vanity back at humans. Talking phones and washing machines, in the vein of Carroll, but given the heft of credibility.
5. God: Change is the sole constant, and man (woman?) cannot sit still. The need to control can go both ways, and say more about who we are when we meet who we can be. We play God and we have petty human regrets in the process. Ironic.
6. Consciousness: To think or not to think. Can happiness be measured? Is a genetically manipulated human being who is ignorant of most things but as happy, inferior?
7. Literature of Obsession: For a change, a literature about men and women obsessed with other things than themselves. The fact that it ends up saying a lot about themselves anyway doesn't necessarily take away from this.
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