Posts tagged ‘science fiction’
DISASTER IN REAL-TIME
In my novel, The Beast Awaits, I try to convey the atmosphere of impending doom which exits for populations thousands of mile away from the initial incident. As with everything I write it needs editing. I find that even to be true with work I have published. The process never stops. I recently had an experience which brought to mind the atmosphere I tried to create. I must go back and see if I can now find better words.
The incident I am referring to is the recent rash of tornadoes our country has experienced. I’ve always been a weather junkie and during the tornado outbreak I tuned to the Weather Channel. The meteorologists were following the storms in real-time, analyzing the radar and issuing warnings. A strange feeling crept over me as they recorded evidence of debris circulating in the air picked up by the tornado. These debris clouds were people’s lives being changed forever, perhaps the people themselves being destroyed, all as it actually happened.
Occasionally they would have people on the ground right after the storm passed and, together with the residents, survey the damage left behind. I sat in the comfort of my family room watching up to the minute changes in people’s lives.
In The Beast Awaits, I deal with events such as this and the emotions they create, the ‘I’m glad it’s not me’ feeling and try to convey the atmosphere that ‘your turn is coming soon’.
Car accidents also come to mind, how everyone slows down to survey the damage, mostly I’m sure glad with the ‘glad it’s not me’ feeling. In The Beast Awaits that emotion is short-lived, for just down the road will be your turn.
MY WRITING STYLE
Presently, I’m in a quandary about the subject of this piece, my writing style.
Every writer has his or her own style, the way of expressing in word the thoughts they are trying to convey. How does this characteristic of the author originate? Is it some deep-seated voice that represents your essence, or is it merely a manufacture of all the authors whose works you have read?
My reason for pondering this question is that I am in the process of editing my novel, Sweet Depression, and in this endeavor I am attempting to cure what others have pointed out to me as a major fault – my brevity. I tend to concentrate on the core of the story and leave out details that would give the story more life. But where is the line you must be careful not to cross when that life would morph into a boring existence?
Take a look at your bookshelves. If you’re as voracious a reader as I and share my fault of not being able to part with a book once read, those shelves are overflowing. Science fiction and horror are my writing genres, but lately some of my stories have spilled into the murky boundaries of the thriller. But back to science fiction. I look at the science fiction novels of fifty or more years ago and those of today and see a distinct difference. Older science fiction is more concise, more to the point. Of course, you have the epic series Dune written by Frank Herbert and continued by his son which are massive in length, tomes of a complex series. But I look at H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds which is little more than a novella and see the more typical length of science fiction of a bygone era.
Recently I have talked to writers whose work are massive and needed to be cut for publication. My work doe not require deletion but rather addition. But how much to add without diluting down the story or slowing the action, that’s the quandary.
While thinking this piece through I may have come up with the answer to my problem. It is not the length that is important, rather the content and the skill of the writer. Talent is the bottom line. The writer must take the readers by the hand and lead them down a path without detours causing them to lose their way. And when the readers reach the end of that path, if the writer has been successful, they are left with a treasure.
THE STARS MY DESTINATION by ALFRED BESTER
I’m trying to include in my science fiction reading some of the classic works by some past authors in the genre. Science fiction has been with us long enough that it has a history we can follow and chart the progress of the genre incorporating prediction of the future and science fact, observing when fact becomes fact.
The book I presently wish to discuss is The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester copyrighted in 1956.
In this work we find the main character, Gully Foyle, marooned on a derelict spaceship, its sole survivor. He thinks he is about to be saved when he spies an approaching spacecraft. He signals, but they just pass him by. Able to read the name of the craft, Vorga – T – 1339, his mind is consumed with the desire to revenge this abandonment. This becomes the overwhelming theme of the book.
Through the remainder of the book he survives by the twists and turns of fate and ultimately discovers why the spacecraft passed him by. The ship was about to dump 600 refuges into the blackness of space on the orders of the woman he falls in love with once he returns to earth, not knowing that she was the cause of his abandonment.
An interesting process introduced in this work is ‘jaunting’. This is the ability to think yourself to another location discovered by an individual caught in a precarious situation. He thinks of the safety of another location and suddenly finds himself there much to his surprise. However, this ability is limited by the fact that you must know the coordinates of the location you want to go to. You cannot go to the unknown, but Foyle somehow can.
THE GREEN BRAIN by FRANK HERBERT
The Green Brain another science fiction novel by one of the giants of the genre.
This novel deals with a subject overly used today, many times in the guise of making a profit. Right or wrong, that is my opinion. The subject Herbert deals with long before it was in vogue is the environment.
My paperback copy was published in 1966, with part of the story appearing in 1965 in Amazing Stories as a novelette, Greenslaves.
The story begins with the world wanting to protect the production of food from destruction by insects. Countries begin to eliminate all insects in farm areas and then populate the land with genetically altered bees. China is at the forefront of this effort and one of its scientists, Chen Lhu, travels to Brazil to assist in insect elimination. What he doesn’t reveal until far into the story is that the process does not work. This revelation only comes to light after he and other scientists are trapped in the jungle by strange insect populations. These insects, along with other bizarre occurrences are put into play by the green brain. This intelligence has the ability to manipulate insects and much more.
Herbert’s novel predates real world efforts to manipulate the environment with nonnative plant and animal species in order to control some condition in the habitat that man finds troublesome. More times than not the cure is worse than the problem.
One interesting sideline not pursued to a great extent but mentioned is the existence of a group of environmentalists called Carsonites.
Rachel Carson published Silent Spring in 1962.
INFO ABOUT ELMO’S SOJOURN
Here is a link for an interview I did for Melange Books.
You might learn a little more about me (lucky you) and about Elmo’s Sojourn.
Enjoy.
FEBRUARY RELEASE FOR ELMO’S SOJOURN
Just a little promo for my story being released this month by Melange Books.
http://www.melange-books.com/authors/walttrizna/elmossojourn.html
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