Fantasist's Scroll

Not sure where this fits, really, but it’s interesting.

Ever wanted to get a close look at the inside of a prison without going to jail? Well, now, according to this article on Wired News, you can. The state of Tennesse has a “virtual tour” of their maximum security prison. You can look in on Death Row, the Rec Yard, the Gym, and the Perimiter, among other virtual destinations. It’s the real deal, so be prepared. You can check it out for yourself here.

What do you use to get the Job done?

Slashdot, a geek news service, has an interesting article about writer’s choices of tools. They mainly focus on word processors, of course, but it goes beyond that. There are some rather insightful comments about the article, too. Especially, the comment made that, basically, all we need in a word processing program is Open, Save, Bold, Italic, Underline, Spellcheck, and Print. What else do you really need to get the message accross? That’s all I use in this blog, for instance. So, do we need to spend big money on the latest version of Microsoft Word? Not really. We can do just fine with the free Wordpad, if we’re willing to use an actual dictionary instead of Spellcheck.
So, what are you waiting for? Go start writing!

Well, I actually finished this book sometime ago, but just got to writing the review.

Hey, it’s been a busy month! In any case, Aliens and Linguists: Language Study and Science Fiction by Walter Earl Meyers is a really good book and worth hunting up in the used book market. Published in 1980, it’s a little out of date and very out of print, but still a good look at some of the way linguistics has been used, and abused, in science-fiction. Of course, there is also the prerequisite discussion of the most famous conlanger of all, J.R.R. Tolkien. But, mostly this book focuses on science-fiction.
A fair part of the book is spent criticizing the lack of good language use in science-fiction. Highlights include aliens that all speak our language. Or find it ridiculously easy to learn. But, also, the lack of language variation is hammered home as well as other similar errors. Another area of criticism is the lack of up-to-date use of theories and linguistic science in current, at the time, science-fiction. Linguistics, as well as the other so called “soft-sciences” were just getting their hooks into science-fiction at the time.
But, Meyers finds plenty to be happy about, as well. Sure, most writers took the Worf-Saphir theory way too far, but at least they were aware enough of it to use it. There are other good examples of linguistics in science-fiction as well.
Most interesting to me, was Meyers discussion of how aliens might approach language. First, there is every reason to believe that they will have language. It takes a lot of communication to get off a planet! Second, Meyers indicates that, while that language may be wildly different from our own, there’s a good possibility that we can learn it, eventually. Meyers also explores alternate methods of using language, including how telepathy might work from a linguistic point of view.

In all, it was a great read. Especially if you want to write fiction about a “realistic” created world. Language is a part of every culture that we know of, so it must be part of a created culture, as well. A completely enjoyable book and a fascinating subject.

Here’s a disturbing little thought for anyone who wants to create literature for a living…

It’s one thing when songs are pirated, or movies, after all, we all know how much those artists make and waste, right? Well, okay, maybe they’re harder up than a lot of us think. Still, this article on Slate about publishing piracy really disturbed me.
I’ve seen this trend coming, really, but it still scares me. As the economy gets tighter, more and more people can justify in their own minds taking advantage of the pirate networks. It started with the incredibly inflated prices of software, then music and movies, and, now, books. The problem is this: in each case, there is a smaller and smaller margin. For one thing, the print industry is even harder to break into than the music industry, which is pretty damn hard to crack. What’s more, there’s an even smaller market for printed material than for music. (Not in my house, but, then, I’m a geek who wants to be a full-time writer.) I know, first hand, just how little an individual author makes off a published work. Piracy cuts directly into that small percentage of revenue.
So, read the article, think about it, and “go forth and sin no more”.

Happy Birthday H.P. Lovecraft!

Howard Phillips Lovecraft was born today in 1890, in Providence, Rhode Island. He was the creator of the Necrnomicon, which is a ficticious book which he used as a prop in his writing. It was, however, so believable that there are still people who insist that it is a real book and that they’ve seen a copy. (It’s not and they haven’t. What they saw was a way for someone to make money of their gullability.)
A very nice website on his life and work can be found at HPLovecraft.com, which includes a list of all his writings. The title of this enty is based on one of those titles (The Colour Out of Space.) If you haven’t read his work, you’ve been living under a rock. Get out from under it, get yourself to a bookstore or library and read something he wrote!

Brian Marsden, apparently.

In this article on Scientific American, he talks about running the Minor Planet Center, which tracks comets, meteors and other near-Earth objects. I’m sure that the job is mainly trigonometry and physics, but it fascinates me that it even exists.
And, what a great bunch of ideas for science-fiction it stirs up. Of course, there’s the ever present idea of a meteor hitting Earth, but that’s been done to death. Or, that the folks who work here make first contact with extra-terrestrials. But, I imagined something more like a galactic air-traffic controller. I mean, if one has lots of space travel, it could become necessary, right? And, think about all the things they’d have to keep track of in three dimensions! Certainly there must be enough tension and action in such a setting to find a story.
Well, something to ponder, anyway.

Kind of creepy, really.

But, I can see how it would be usefull. This article on the Sydney Morning Herald describes a new way to generate power from blood. Sure, the first comparison is to the Matrix, but it’s more likely to be used like the Six Million Dollar Man. This process really doesn’t create much power, so it can only power small devices. In fact, the article speculates that it will only be used to power internal “devices” or “enhancements”.
So, now, imagine a cell-phone implanted into your jaw and mastoid cavity that’s powered by your own blood flow. I can see it in the near future. Fascinating concept, actually. What else might this enable? What enhancements would you want to see installed? The answers to those questions are science-fiction stories ripe for the picking. Go forth and write!

Try reading the news!

This article on MSNBC describes as close to evil as I think mankind is capable of being. Of course, the article is about Saddam Hussein’s infamous sons who were insanely sadistic. In fact, if anything, if one were to use them as the antagonist in fiction, they’d have to be toned down to seem more believable. These two, especially Uday, were so beyond our understanding that it’s hard to get our minds around their evil. In many ways, they’re the Adolf Hitler and Herman Goering and Heinrich Himmler of our generation.
So, when you want to make a villian, nothing you can come up with will top real-life, but maybe that’s a good thing. And, remember, the larger and more horrible your villian, the bigger and better your hero needs to be as well.