News Article 1
And if that article is confusing to you (as it was to me, slightly), you can try reading this more precise one:
News Article 2
Alright Science-Fiction-aires. What does this mean for our stories? Possibly quite a lot, but the thing I don't understand is how they are masking entire events with the breathing room of a millionth of a millionth of a second. Last I checked, that's a pretty brief amount of time. So how can, using the example in the first article, an art heist possibly be masked using this device as it is now? The scientists who inspired the entire project himself said that the machine would have to be "18,600 miles long" in order to mask time for just one second; that's not discreet, and even Danny Ocean couldn't pull off an art heist in one second.
Though the concept is very cool, sadly the thing that confused me most was the way the article was written.
And this is a good point for science fiction as well -- you can have the greatest premise in the world and still have no readers if your medium (your writing style) does not convey it in a way that is understandable and captivating.
These articles do not explain the science well enough, in my point of view. I'm having a hard time imagining how to use this machine in a story since I do not understand how it works. And the example used (the art heist) is more confusing than helpful, seeing as how it doesn't match up with the mathematics that they took the time to discuss (in fractions the human brain can barely understand as it is).
My solution?
Find a comfy chair and puzzle about it.
Think, think, think, think.......
-L
Feed the Grumbies!
Friday, January 6, 2012
Monday, December 12, 2011
This Isn't a Game
So I believe when I first started this blog I mentioned the idea that I would play around with science fiction within video games. That idea will likely never be a huge part of this blog, seeing as how I've decided to go down the road of exploring actual science and how it can be incorporated into creative writing; however, video games are still a huge part of my life and affect how I look at a lot of different things. So don't be surprised when you get a post focused on that every now and again (for those of you who don't *play* video games, I apologize, and you can use this as an excuse to learn more about the gaming community).
I was contemplating the other day what makes a video game more intense for the player. I prefer FPS (First Person Shooter) games not only because the controls are classic, but also because that type of game-play really integrates you into the story. It is easier to feel like I'm actually *in* the game if I'm not controlling the character from above or over his left shoulder. So what do game developers do to take control of the experience and make it more vivid for their players?
Well, for anyone who has played a scary game, the answer is easy. You take away one or more of the classic gamer safety blankets.
Any game maker who has played a game or knows gamers is bound to hear about the things gamers do to make themselves more comfortable when playing video games, especially if it's a particularly 'exciting' game. If they then exploit these habits, they can either make the game more fun or more terrifying (these can be one and the same thing, based on your audience).
So what are these safety blankets? In order of importance:
Number One: The F5 Button
Or, more specifically, manual quicksave. Or any way to save at all. The first thing I find myself doing when I know something bad is going to happen in a video game is reach for F5, which is the traditional quicksave button. If I can't hit that, I'll manually make a larger save file, but F5 is fast, easy, and very satisfying. It gives the player a sense of invincibility, because you can go into the most terrible fight and play it over and over again, knowing that death is not permanent because you'll just get loaded at your last quicksave. Which, if you're *smart*, will have been two seconds before.
So here are a couple examples of the way taking away save points affects your players. The first is a small independent game called Amnesia: the Dark Descent, which most gamers know as the scariest game to be created so far.
Now the content of the game is pretty scary, but really it's not nearly as disturbing as some of the content in games like the F.E.A.R. series, which tries to disgust its players just as much as scare them.
Gore galore
The big difference that separates Amnesia from the rest is based on several factors, some of which I'll discuss later in the post. But the one thing I really struggled with, besides the perfectly timed pee-your-pants moments, the epic scary music, and the monster concepts, was the fact that the game HAS NO SAVEPOINTS. That's right. The intro scene clearly states that the game will 'take care of the saving for you.' No quick save. No save. No control at all. That's right, let's put our virtual lives in the hands of a video game. Video games never troll us, right?
Right?
Is that a monster over there? So sorry...
The second example is the very popular and severely under-appreciated Minecraft, which is also an independent game. It doesn't look scary at all when you first start playing it, but once you actually get some items and night falls, you'll realize that it's not at all the picnic it seems. There are no save points, first of all. And when you die, you lose everything. Soon, you start understanding what it's like to be this girl:
Minecraft Massacre
Number Two: Big Weapons
Save or no save, a gamer will always feel more comfortable with a sure way to defend himself. And the gaming world has come up with some pretty darn cool ways to do that.
I'd feel safe too.
Now, a video game developer can easily ruin their gameplay by giving the gamer *too much* ammo. We like a little excitement, of course -- and if there's a never ending supply of ammunition for our nuclear-bomb-firing B.F.G. then we literally have nothing to worry about. We can run into a room (quicksaving first, of course) full of Strogg Tank forces that are way more powerful than ourselves and feel no fear if we have the right weapons. At that point, we just don't care.
Let's go back to Amnesia. Let's talk about the fact that we have no defense or offense. That's right. No weapons. No traps. No NOTHING. We can't even use our creativity to find ways to kill the monsters with items that are just lying around! Not to mention that the monsters in Amnesia can kill you in a couple hits every time and will also eventually cause you to go insane and curl up on the floor if you are not careful.
He just gives me the warm fuzzies. Of death.
Only one player has managed to figure out how to kill these things, and it's so specific you can only do it in one room of the game. So, really, it's not so much a useful technique as it is a temporarily satisfying mode of revenge.
Killing Monsters in Amnesia
Number Three: Pause
The pause button is one escape all gamers have that can never be taken away from us. It gives us the chance to change our pants if we hear a scary noise, take a breather, and go back to a game feeling more prepared. But game developers never bother messing with this one probably because, one, the relief doesn't last that long anyway, and two, they don't want a lawsuit on their hands if someone actually dies of fright.
Number Four: Lighting
Gamers love well lit games. We can see everything in it, and if there are no shadows that means there is no reason to hide. Unfortunately, if we love scary games too, that means we have to give up the safety of light.
If you have the urge to put torches on practically every surface in minecraft, you are proving the theory right. They're called Safety Torches.
And what is one of the chief offenders of this rule? Amnesia, of course -- it's not called the scariest game for no reason. You actually have a light adjuster presented to you at the beginning of the game. You can either make the game really light like a pansy (like me) or you can play it the way it was *meant* to be played and virtually blind yourself in the shadows.
Mommy, I'm scared.
Another reason dark games are evil? You have to turn all your lights off to be able to see anything. Leaving you sitting there, alone, in the dark, scared out of your mind.
Did you leave that closet door open before?
Number Five: Corners and Small Rooms
These make gamers feel secure for several reasons. Let's start with corners. It's obvious: a corner gives you something to put your back against and there are only a few directions that a monster can come after you from. Not only that, but you can see them all from that corner.
One way game developers can exploit this comfort is by making their game path a series of halls. Like, oh crap, here it is again, Amensia. Walking down a hall can scare anyone -- it's disorienting and you can't look forward and back at the same time easily. Or even efficiently. Likely, if anything scary is going to happen, it will happen then.
What's around that corner?
Gamers also prefer small rooms to big ones because, in olden days, if you entered a large, open room, it was a classic Boss time. Or if there was something shiny in the middle of the room, bad things were likely to happen. You could pretty much always predict where the big battles would be based on how large the room was. Big rooms also have no place to hide, unlike small rooms.
I've got a bad feeling about this...
So next time you're playing a game you can rate your experience based on these five gamer safety blankets. If it's violating even one of them, chances are you'll jump at least a couple times during the game. And it will be awesome.
Feed the Grumbies.
-L
I was contemplating the other day what makes a video game more intense for the player. I prefer FPS (First Person Shooter) games not only because the controls are classic, but also because that type of game-play really integrates you into the story. It is easier to feel like I'm actually *in* the game if I'm not controlling the character from above or over his left shoulder. So what do game developers do to take control of the experience and make it more vivid for their players?
Well, for anyone who has played a scary game, the answer is easy. You take away one or more of the classic gamer safety blankets.
Any game maker who has played a game or knows gamers is bound to hear about the things gamers do to make themselves more comfortable when playing video games, especially if it's a particularly 'exciting' game. If they then exploit these habits, they can either make the game more fun or more terrifying (these can be one and the same thing, based on your audience).
So what are these safety blankets? In order of importance:
Number One: The F5 Button
Or, more specifically, manual quicksave. Or any way to save at all. The first thing I find myself doing when I know something bad is going to happen in a video game is reach for F5, which is the traditional quicksave button. If I can't hit that, I'll manually make a larger save file, but F5 is fast, easy, and very satisfying. It gives the player a sense of invincibility, because you can go into the most terrible fight and play it over and over again, knowing that death is not permanent because you'll just get loaded at your last quicksave. Which, if you're *smart*, will have been two seconds before.
So here are a couple examples of the way taking away save points affects your players. The first is a small independent game called Amnesia: the Dark Descent, which most gamers know as the scariest game to be created so far.
Now the content of the game is pretty scary, but really it's not nearly as disturbing as some of the content in games like the F.E.A.R. series, which tries to disgust its players just as much as scare them.
Gore galoreThe big difference that separates Amnesia from the rest is based on several factors, some of which I'll discuss later in the post. But the one thing I really struggled with, besides the perfectly timed pee-your-pants moments, the epic scary music, and the monster concepts, was the fact that the game HAS NO SAVEPOINTS. That's right. The intro scene clearly states that the game will 'take care of the saving for you.' No quick save. No save. No control at all. That's right, let's put our virtual lives in the hands of a video game. Video games never troll us, right?
Right?
Is that a monster over there? So sorry...The second example is the very popular and severely under-appreciated Minecraft, which is also an independent game. It doesn't look scary at all when you first start playing it, but once you actually get some items and night falls, you'll realize that it's not at all the picnic it seems. There are no save points, first of all. And when you die, you lose everything. Soon, you start understanding what it's like to be this girl:
Minecraft Massacre
Number Two: Big Weapons
Save or no save, a gamer will always feel more comfortable with a sure way to defend himself. And the gaming world has come up with some pretty darn cool ways to do that.
I'd feel safe too.Now, a video game developer can easily ruin their gameplay by giving the gamer *too much* ammo. We like a little excitement, of course -- and if there's a never ending supply of ammunition for our nuclear-bomb-firing B.F.G. then we literally have nothing to worry about. We can run into a room (quicksaving first, of course) full of Strogg Tank forces that are way more powerful than ourselves and feel no fear if we have the right weapons. At that point, we just don't care.
Let's go back to Amnesia. Let's talk about the fact that we have no defense or offense. That's right. No weapons. No traps. No NOTHING. We can't even use our creativity to find ways to kill the monsters with items that are just lying around! Not to mention that the monsters in Amnesia can kill you in a couple hits every time and will also eventually cause you to go insane and curl up on the floor if you are not careful.
He just gives me the warm fuzzies. Of death.Only one player has managed to figure out how to kill these things, and it's so specific you can only do it in one room of the game. So, really, it's not so much a useful technique as it is a temporarily satisfying mode of revenge.
Killing Monsters in Amnesia
Number Three: Pause
The pause button is one escape all gamers have that can never be taken away from us. It gives us the chance to change our pants if we hear a scary noise, take a breather, and go back to a game feeling more prepared. But game developers never bother messing with this one probably because, one, the relief doesn't last that long anyway, and two, they don't want a lawsuit on their hands if someone actually dies of fright.
Number Four: Lighting
Gamers love well lit games. We can see everything in it, and if there are no shadows that means there is no reason to hide. Unfortunately, if we love scary games too, that means we have to give up the safety of light.
If you have the urge to put torches on practically every surface in minecraft, you are proving the theory right. They're called Safety Torches.
And what is one of the chief offenders of this rule? Amnesia, of course -- it's not called the scariest game for no reason. You actually have a light adjuster presented to you at the beginning of the game. You can either make the game really light like a pansy (like me) or you can play it the way it was *meant* to be played and virtually blind yourself in the shadows.
Mommy, I'm scared.Another reason dark games are evil? You have to turn all your lights off to be able to see anything. Leaving you sitting there, alone, in the dark, scared out of your mind.
Did you leave that closet door open before?
Number Five: Corners and Small Rooms
These make gamers feel secure for several reasons. Let's start with corners. It's obvious: a corner gives you something to put your back against and there are only a few directions that a monster can come after you from. Not only that, but you can see them all from that corner.
One way game developers can exploit this comfort is by making their game path a series of halls. Like, oh crap, here it is again, Amensia. Walking down a hall can scare anyone -- it's disorienting and you can't look forward and back at the same time easily. Or even efficiently. Likely, if anything scary is going to happen, it will happen then.
What's around that corner?Gamers also prefer small rooms to big ones because, in olden days, if you entered a large, open room, it was a classic Boss time. Or if there was something shiny in the middle of the room, bad things were likely to happen. You could pretty much always predict where the big battles would be based on how large the room was. Big rooms also have no place to hide, unlike small rooms.
I've got a bad feeling about this...So next time you're playing a game you can rate your experience based on these five gamer safety blankets. If it's violating even one of them, chances are you'll jump at least a couple times during the game. And it will be awesome.
Feed the Grumbies.
-L
Saturday, December 10, 2011
What do you get when you combine an English major with complex physics?
You get an entire creative thesis based on time travel.
Perhaps the end of a semester and heading into the Christmas holidays is a bad time to decide that ye olde blog needs some attention. But my New Year's resolutions are all starting early: sticking to my diet, finally losing weight, and writing more.
Back to said thesis statement.
I'm heading into my second semester as a Junior in college and I've already started the research process for an extensive project that, I plan, will be the main attraction to my creative writing portfolio (which you can peruse as you please here). It will consist of several short stories exploring the problems, theories, and possible results of time travel. Which means lots of essays on Temporal Metaphysics that are entirely out of my depth, but hey, I try to be a well rounded person.
So here's an interesting theory: temporal loops. Or, at least, what I understand of temporal loops. Imagine a time-line, just your average black line with little labels of dates and events.
Now imagine that you draw a semicircle sitting right on top of it. This is the path of a time traveler. He breaks away from the main time-line at point A and rejoins it at point -A (it can't be point B. B comes after A, and he's gone back in time. See?)
Just the very fact that he has broken away from the time line causes many problems, such as:
1.) By going back in time he has temporarily erased himself from the immediate future (let's call that point B, since it looks so lonely). Not only is his once possible future (point B) forever changed and possibly forever abandoned, but he has also linked his past (point -A) with with a new future, creating a conflict between future and past. In effect, past and future become the same and the words now mean nothing to the time traveler.
2.) He has now inserted two 'copies' of himself into one point in time. The implications of this are, as of this blog post, unknown.
3.) And finally, there is the loop itself. You can pretend it acts like temporal erosion: once created, it isn't certain whether it will cease to be immediately. Will it vanish as if it never was traveled? Will it gradually cease to be over time? Or is it a permanent track that, once beaten down, will stay there for all eternity?
This last question, of course, could be answered if one knew what sort of matter the time traveler is traveling *through*. It could be imagined that, since there is a version of the time traveler that will always go back in time at point A, the time loop will never have a chance to close. But that observation also brings up a series of *other* problems.
1.) Assuming the time loop never closes, will the time traveler be caught up in it again when he returns to point A, forcing him to forever move between point A and -A indefinitely?
2.) If so, does this mean that all his 'past selves' will be caught up with his once 'future self,' causing him to multiply infinitely until he reaches the number where the death of his older selves is equaled by the addition of his younger selves?
3.) If not, then how does the universe handle the fact that his life will continue to play out to its end over and over again separated only by the length he traveled like a broken record?
Though he will not experience it directly, the time traveler has, in effect, gained a sort of immortality and placed the entire universe on repeat.
And this is all the things I thought of based on *one* paragraph of *one* essay I read on Temporal Metaphysics and Causal Time Loops.
Get ready. There will be more!
And feed the Grumbies.
-L
Perhaps the end of a semester and heading into the Christmas holidays is a bad time to decide that ye olde blog needs some attention. But my New Year's resolutions are all starting early: sticking to my diet, finally losing weight, and writing more.
Back to said thesis statement.
I'm heading into my second semester as a Junior in college and I've already started the research process for an extensive project that, I plan, will be the main attraction to my creative writing portfolio (which you can peruse as you please here). It will consist of several short stories exploring the problems, theories, and possible results of time travel. Which means lots of essays on Temporal Metaphysics that are entirely out of my depth, but hey, I try to be a well rounded person.
So here's an interesting theory: temporal loops. Or, at least, what I understand of temporal loops. Imagine a time-line, just your average black line with little labels of dates and events.
Now imagine that you draw a semicircle sitting right on top of it. This is the path of a time traveler. He breaks away from the main time-line at point A and rejoins it at point -A (it can't be point B. B comes after A, and he's gone back in time. See?)
Just the very fact that he has broken away from the time line causes many problems, such as:
1.) By going back in time he has temporarily erased himself from the immediate future (let's call that point B, since it looks so lonely). Not only is his once possible future (point B) forever changed and possibly forever abandoned, but he has also linked his past (point -A) with with a new future, creating a conflict between future and past. In effect, past and future become the same and the words now mean nothing to the time traveler.
2.) He has now inserted two 'copies' of himself into one point in time. The implications of this are, as of this blog post, unknown.
3.) And finally, there is the loop itself. You can pretend it acts like temporal erosion: once created, it isn't certain whether it will cease to be immediately. Will it vanish as if it never was traveled? Will it gradually cease to be over time? Or is it a permanent track that, once beaten down, will stay there for all eternity?
This last question, of course, could be answered if one knew what sort of matter the time traveler is traveling *through*. It could be imagined that, since there is a version of the time traveler that will always go back in time at point A, the time loop will never have a chance to close. But that observation also brings up a series of *other* problems.
1.) Assuming the time loop never closes, will the time traveler be caught up in it again when he returns to point A, forcing him to forever move between point A and -A indefinitely?
2.) If so, does this mean that all his 'past selves' will be caught up with his once 'future self,' causing him to multiply infinitely until he reaches the number where the death of his older selves is equaled by the addition of his younger selves?
3.) If not, then how does the universe handle the fact that his life will continue to play out to its end over and over again separated only by the length he traveled like a broken record?
Though he will not experience it directly, the time traveler has, in effect, gained a sort of immortality and placed the entire universe on repeat.
And this is all the things I thought of based on *one* paragraph of *one* essay I read on Temporal Metaphysics and Causal Time Loops.
Get ready. There will be more!
And feed the Grumbies.
-L
Friday, July 22, 2011
NASA, You Break My Heart
I know it's been a while since I posted. But this is a big deal!
A few weeks ago a television show premiered reveling in the final launch of a space shuttle to our station in orbit. Did any of you feel a pain in your stomach watching this? Our final ascent, and they laud it with pride.
What I feel is disappointment. I'm sad that we could push aside what has been described as 'the final frontier' with a shrug and a grin. Think about that description -- there once was a time when men were leaving everything they had to just get a peak at what no person had seen before. The wild used to drag us away with its mystery and power.
Since when did that power become confined to the boundaries of our atmosphere? The drag of the stars is not pulling enough people hard enough.
It pulls me, though. I go in my mind, through words, but it would be the pride of my imagination to see more, to be able to go to those pitch black depths penetrated by burning horizons of gas and dust through the steps of another. Who will go?
"Those were the voyages"
What's next for NASA
A few weeks ago a television show premiered reveling in the final launch of a space shuttle to our station in orbit. Did any of you feel a pain in your stomach watching this? Our final ascent, and they laud it with pride.
What I feel is disappointment. I'm sad that we could push aside what has been described as 'the final frontier' with a shrug and a grin. Think about that description -- there once was a time when men were leaving everything they had to just get a peak at what no person had seen before. The wild used to drag us away with its mystery and power.
Since when did that power become confined to the boundaries of our atmosphere? The drag of the stars is not pulling enough people hard enough.
It pulls me, though. I go in my mind, through words, but it would be the pride of my imagination to see more, to be able to go to those pitch black depths penetrated by burning horizons of gas and dust through the steps of another. Who will go?
"Those were the voyages"
What's next for NASA
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
*poof*
Back after a bit of craziness. Exams were a tad stressful, but I got through just fine. Hopefully with the summer starting that means I can post here more and more often. We'll see. One of these days I'll start some sort of actual schedule for posting and stick to it...
Anyway, I'm just checking in to let you who actually do read my blog (?) know that I am indeed still alive and interested in letting you guys in on my scientific and creative discoveries of the recent times.
Maybe weekly...
Check out these two articles. Both are incredibly interesting and inspiring -- the scientific future is bright, even if it's a long way off.
First Habitable Planet Discovered...Maybe
Here
Bionic Hand for Amputee
Here
Anyway, I'm just checking in to let you who actually do read my blog (?) know that I am indeed still alive and interested in letting you guys in on my scientific and creative discoveries of the recent times.
Maybe weekly...
Check out these two articles. Both are incredibly interesting and inspiring -- the scientific future is bright, even if it's a long way off.
First Habitable Planet Discovered...Maybe
Here
Bionic Hand for Amputee
Here
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Purpose
What exactly do I want to write about when it comes to these stories?
My last post has me thinking. Now, to be fair to myself, I picked a story that was in itself based solely on plot. Even the characters were not developed to a detailed extent. The combination of fantasy and science fiction throws a little wrench in the idea of picking out intriguing scientific theory.
So what am I looking for?
1. The Story
I'll first of all discuss what the story is about.
2. Why does it work? Or not work?
From a literary stand point, why do we enjoy this? What makes the story flow? Or, why is this particular story not as good as others?
3. What are some key scientific points that classify it as Science Fiction?
Now here is what I really want to talk about! I'm no scientist; while I can often get the basic idea in even the most complicated scientific theories that are used in stories, I want to know more. And I'm sure you do too. Let's research a bit together!
4. What are the best/worst examples of writing in this story?
And of course, quotes and small sections of the stories will run freely throughout. I love words, above all, and will always post something that popped out at me while I was reading. Or, if I am discussing a story from the negative side, I'll be sure to point out why it disagrees with me.
Plot summary is something that, in school, has been demonized. My professors tell me to stay away from it, and they are mostly right. I'll try my best to tell you the story without spoiling the reading for you, but stories in every aspect of their being is what this blog is all about. If you don't want spoilers, I suggest you read the story before the post!
Of course, my discussions will hardly be enough to take away the joy that comes from reading the original words in such masterpieces.
Musings! That's all from me.
L
P.S. GRUMBIES
My last post has me thinking. Now, to be fair to myself, I picked a story that was in itself based solely on plot. Even the characters were not developed to a detailed extent. The combination of fantasy and science fiction throws a little wrench in the idea of picking out intriguing scientific theory.
So what am I looking for?
1. The Story
I'll first of all discuss what the story is about.
2. Why does it work? Or not work?
From a literary stand point, why do we enjoy this? What makes the story flow? Or, why is this particular story not as good as others?
3. What are some key scientific points that classify it as Science Fiction?
Now here is what I really want to talk about! I'm no scientist; while I can often get the basic idea in even the most complicated scientific theories that are used in stories, I want to know more. And I'm sure you do too. Let's research a bit together!
4. What are the best/worst examples of writing in this story?
And of course, quotes and small sections of the stories will run freely throughout. I love words, above all, and will always post something that popped out at me while I was reading. Or, if I am discussing a story from the negative side, I'll be sure to point out why it disagrees with me.
Plot summary is something that, in school, has been demonized. My professors tell me to stay away from it, and they are mostly right. I'll try my best to tell you the story without spoiling the reading for you, but stories in every aspect of their being is what this blog is all about. If you don't want spoilers, I suggest you read the story before the post!
Of course, my discussions will hardly be enough to take away the joy that comes from reading the original words in such masterpieces.
Musings! That's all from me.
L
P.S. GRUMBIES
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Semley's Necklace
There is something out there in the world of creativity that, for some reason, always seems to draw the worlds of Science Fiction and Fantasy together. The relationship between the two can be hard to grasp -- we only recognize that it exists. Fantasy and Science Fiction can often seem mutually exclusive, but that is only because both worlds have been type cast with their goblins and unicorns, robots and alien races, respectively. The two are, however, very similar in that they both rely heavily on the act of making that which is already around us more incredible. The only difference is that Fantasy does not have to concern itself with what can actually be, but only what it can make you believe.
There have been many attempts over the years to combine the genres of Fantasy and Science Fiction. I don't think I can bring to mind a single one that has made it to 'high fame and fortune' (who needs that anyway?). Why is this? Put simply, because it's very hard to successfully combine the two. You'd think when you put two genres that *seem* to go hand in hand so well into the same play ground that they would naturally get along. But like any toddlers (which is what I think all genres really are: childish imps that need to be raised properly) that may seem to have fun at the beginning, inevitably someone starts crying.
This is where we bring in the baby sitters, the ones who have handled a hundred petty squabbles if not more. These are the writers who have, time and again, solved the problem that lies before us and created a beautiful piece of combined Science Fiction and Fantasy art.
My personal favorite author who dabbles between the two genres is Ursula K. Leguin, author of the mildly popular series the Earthsea stories and one of my favorite science fiction books of all time, The Left Hand of Darkness.
Sifting through her many, wonderful novels, however, which generally side either with Fantasy or Science Fiction, you can come across a few short stories that have hidden themselves quite well, including one that is the most perfect marriage of the two genres that I have ever read.
"Semley's Necklace" is one of LeGuin's more obscure pieces, apparently, for there aren't many good references to it that I can link to you here. There is a slight description of it here, in this description of one of her full length novels. So other than that, you'll just have to take my word for it!
Semley is a princess of one of the many intelligent species that make their histories on the planet of Fomalhaut II. Of course, that is not what they call the planet, but the name given to their home by the men called 'Starlords.' But the castles that once held riches are being swept clean, gradually, with every season that the Starlords come to collect their taxes.
"Hope came hard to the Angyar of Hallan and all the Western Lands, since the Starlords had appeared with their houses that leaped about on pillars of fire and their awful weapons that could level hills. They had interfered with all the old ways and wars, and though the sums were small there was a terrible shame to the Angyar in having to pay a tax to them, a tribute for the Starlords' war that was to be fought with some strange enemy, somewhere in the hollow places between the stars, at the end of years. 'It will be your war too,' they said, but for a generation now the Angyar sat in idle shame in their revel-halls, watching their double swords rust, their sons grow up without ever striking a blow in battle, their daughters marry poor men, even midmen, having no dowry of heroic loot to bring a noble husband."
This is the tragedy that Semley lives within and marries into; as the daughter in law of the lord of Hallan, she knows well the harsh poverty that shames her people, and the poverty that shames her own person as well, for she, like all the other brides, has no dowry to speak of, and must look in envy upon the few women who do still retain wealth of any kind.
It is a memory, a rumor, that eventually moves Semley to take the journey that she plans to honor her husband, Durhal, with: a great sapphire necklace, an heirloom of her family that was lost before her birth. Ashamed at her own inability to bring beauty to her husband's side, wealth in the form of a dowry she was never provided, Semley takes the step on her own and leaves the palace for what she believes will be a few days. She travels first to her homeland, and asks there, then to the land of the Fiia, the Lightfolk. They know where the stone may be -- with it's creators, the Clayfolk.
"'Do not go among the Clayfolk, Semley,' he said, and for a moment her heart failed her. The Fian, drawing his hand down slowly over his eyes, had darkened all the air about them...'In the mountains of the far land Fiia and the Gdemiar parted. long ago we parted...Longer ago we were one. What we are not, they are. What we are, they are not...think that not all roads that lead down lead up as well."
Yet despite the advice, Semley continues on and comes to the world of night. Here the creatures known as Clayfolk reside, and much like dwarves they make their world with mining and machines. At other times in the book, the Clayfolk are described as 'friends of the Starlords,' and it is obvious from their place of residence why the Clayfolk and the Starlords get along so well. Both are advanced in technology -- the Clayfolk have machines to do their bidding, just as the Starlords do. It is suggested later that the Clayfolk were 'steered' to become Industrial, and that their main art lay first in the creation of great beauty such as the necklace that Semley seeks. It would not be a far stretch of the imagination to assume that the Starlords are the reason that the Fiia and the Clayfolk split.
After long discussion, the agreement is made that the Clayfolk will take Semley to where the necklace is.
"'How far a journey, Lord?'
His lips drew back and back. 'A very far journey, Lady. Yet it will last only one long night.'"
And this is how she comes to the Museum, and meets Rocannon and Ketho, somewhere several leaps of space away from Fomalhaut II.
I have done far too much plot summary as it is, so let me continue more quickly. This story is just so full and bright that I can't help but highlight as much as I can. At the end of their meeting, Semley leaves with the necklace in her possession, knowing nothing of the time she has actually spent away from her home. As she returns to the ship upon which she has been brought by the Clayfolk, Rocannon and Ketho have a moment of understanding:
"What I feel sometimes is that I...meeting these people from worlds we know so little of, you know, sometimes...that I have as it were blundered through the corner of a legend, or a tragic myth, maybe, which I do not understand."
This is the best quote of the whole story. So beautiful -- in all honesty, you could supply the same thought to the world upon which we live. There are so many cultures that we do not know well, some that we haven't even contacted yet, and the brief brushes that we can claim in our experience may be the tip of a story that you will never fully know.
Semley returns to her land to find her husband dead, her baby daughter grown, and her friends old and gray. She has been gone for nine years.
"...weeping aloud, [she] turned and ran from Hallan, over the bridge and down the long, broad steps, and, darting off eastward into the forest of the mountainside like some wild thing escaping, was gone."
See why I love this story? It's just as Rocannon says -- the corner of some tragic myth. Ursula K. LeGuin does a magnificent job of combining Fantasy and Science Fiction, and she probably succeeds in the way she does by choosing one to emphasize and one to write about. While the story is given to us in a very Fantastical tone, it is no doubt a Science Fiction story. Why? Because all throughout the tale there are signs that these magical occurrences that Semley is witnessing are not the results of a god, or a powerful fae creature, or some other Fantastical being, but the works of technology and science. Her descent into the long night that takes from her the life and husband she had left to honor is only the result of light year hopping.
Who knows where the Museum resides, or why there is even a Museum in the middle of space at all. That is a tale you'll have to find in the novel that this short story is a prelude for: Rocannon's World.
That's all from me. I do apologize for the amount of plot summary here. I'm figuring out more and more what it is exactly I want to discuss in relation to these stories, and the last thing I want it to be is plot-driven. If you have any suggestions on what to discuss, please let me know! I have a few ideas, but I'd love to hear yours as well.
Be well, and don't forget the Grumbies!
L
There have been many attempts over the years to combine the genres of Fantasy and Science Fiction. I don't think I can bring to mind a single one that has made it to 'high fame and fortune' (who needs that anyway?). Why is this? Put simply, because it's very hard to successfully combine the two. You'd think when you put two genres that *seem* to go hand in hand so well into the same play ground that they would naturally get along. But like any toddlers (which is what I think all genres really are: childish imps that need to be raised properly) that may seem to have fun at the beginning, inevitably someone starts crying.
This is where we bring in the baby sitters, the ones who have handled a hundred petty squabbles if not more. These are the writers who have, time and again, solved the problem that lies before us and created a beautiful piece of combined Science Fiction and Fantasy art.
My personal favorite author who dabbles between the two genres is Ursula K. Leguin, author of the mildly popular series the Earthsea stories and one of my favorite science fiction books of all time, The Left Hand of Darkness.
Sifting through her many, wonderful novels, however, which generally side either with Fantasy or Science Fiction, you can come across a few short stories that have hidden themselves quite well, including one that is the most perfect marriage of the two genres that I have ever read.
"Semley's Necklace" is one of LeGuin's more obscure pieces, apparently, for there aren't many good references to it that I can link to you here. There is a slight description of it here, in this description of one of her full length novels. So other than that, you'll just have to take my word for it!
Semley is a princess of one of the many intelligent species that make their histories on the planet of Fomalhaut II. Of course, that is not what they call the planet, but the name given to their home by the men called 'Starlords.' But the castles that once held riches are being swept clean, gradually, with every season that the Starlords come to collect their taxes.
"Hope came hard to the Angyar of Hallan and all the Western Lands, since the Starlords had appeared with their houses that leaped about on pillars of fire and their awful weapons that could level hills. They had interfered with all the old ways and wars, and though the sums were small there was a terrible shame to the Angyar in having to pay a tax to them, a tribute for the Starlords' war that was to be fought with some strange enemy, somewhere in the hollow places between the stars, at the end of years. 'It will be your war too,' they said, but for a generation now the Angyar sat in idle shame in their revel-halls, watching their double swords rust, their sons grow up without ever striking a blow in battle, their daughters marry poor men, even midmen, having no dowry of heroic loot to bring a noble husband."
This is the tragedy that Semley lives within and marries into; as the daughter in law of the lord of Hallan, she knows well the harsh poverty that shames her people, and the poverty that shames her own person as well, for she, like all the other brides, has no dowry to speak of, and must look in envy upon the few women who do still retain wealth of any kind.
It is a memory, a rumor, that eventually moves Semley to take the journey that she plans to honor her husband, Durhal, with: a great sapphire necklace, an heirloom of her family that was lost before her birth. Ashamed at her own inability to bring beauty to her husband's side, wealth in the form of a dowry she was never provided, Semley takes the step on her own and leaves the palace for what she believes will be a few days. She travels first to her homeland, and asks there, then to the land of the Fiia, the Lightfolk. They know where the stone may be -- with it's creators, the Clayfolk.
"'Do not go among the Clayfolk, Semley,' he said, and for a moment her heart failed her. The Fian, drawing his hand down slowly over his eyes, had darkened all the air about them...'In the mountains of the far land Fiia and the Gdemiar parted. long ago we parted...Longer ago we were one. What we are not, they are. What we are, they are not...think that not all roads that lead down lead up as well."
Yet despite the advice, Semley continues on and comes to the world of night. Here the creatures known as Clayfolk reside, and much like dwarves they make their world with mining and machines. At other times in the book, the Clayfolk are described as 'friends of the Starlords,' and it is obvious from their place of residence why the Clayfolk and the Starlords get along so well. Both are advanced in technology -- the Clayfolk have machines to do their bidding, just as the Starlords do. It is suggested later that the Clayfolk were 'steered' to become Industrial, and that their main art lay first in the creation of great beauty such as the necklace that Semley seeks. It would not be a far stretch of the imagination to assume that the Starlords are the reason that the Fiia and the Clayfolk split.
After long discussion, the agreement is made that the Clayfolk will take Semley to where the necklace is.
"'How far a journey, Lord?'
His lips drew back and back. 'A very far journey, Lady. Yet it will last only one long night.'"
And this is how she comes to the Museum, and meets Rocannon and Ketho, somewhere several leaps of space away from Fomalhaut II.
I have done far too much plot summary as it is, so let me continue more quickly. This story is just so full and bright that I can't help but highlight as much as I can. At the end of their meeting, Semley leaves with the necklace in her possession, knowing nothing of the time she has actually spent away from her home. As she returns to the ship upon which she has been brought by the Clayfolk, Rocannon and Ketho have a moment of understanding:
"What I feel sometimes is that I...meeting these people from worlds we know so little of, you know, sometimes...that I have as it were blundered through the corner of a legend, or a tragic myth, maybe, which I do not understand."
This is the best quote of the whole story. So beautiful -- in all honesty, you could supply the same thought to the world upon which we live. There are so many cultures that we do not know well, some that we haven't even contacted yet, and the brief brushes that we can claim in our experience may be the tip of a story that you will never fully know.
Semley returns to her land to find her husband dead, her baby daughter grown, and her friends old and gray. She has been gone for nine years.
"...weeping aloud, [she] turned and ran from Hallan, over the bridge and down the long, broad steps, and, darting off eastward into the forest of the mountainside like some wild thing escaping, was gone."
See why I love this story? It's just as Rocannon says -- the corner of some tragic myth. Ursula K. LeGuin does a magnificent job of combining Fantasy and Science Fiction, and she probably succeeds in the way she does by choosing one to emphasize and one to write about. While the story is given to us in a very Fantastical tone, it is no doubt a Science Fiction story. Why? Because all throughout the tale there are signs that these magical occurrences that Semley is witnessing are not the results of a god, or a powerful fae creature, or some other Fantastical being, but the works of technology and science. Her descent into the long night that takes from her the life and husband she had left to honor is only the result of light year hopping.
Who knows where the Museum resides, or why there is even a Museum in the middle of space at all. That is a tale you'll have to find in the novel that this short story is a prelude for: Rocannon's World.
That's all from me. I do apologize for the amount of plot summary here. I'm figuring out more and more what it is exactly I want to discuss in relation to these stories, and the last thing I want it to be is plot-driven. If you have any suggestions on what to discuss, please let me know! I have a few ideas, but I'd love to hear yours as well.
Be well, and don't forget the Grumbies!
L
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