Fantasist's Scroll

Did you ever wonder where the bannana came from?

What about the orange? Or nutmeg? Or coffee? Economic botany is a pretty important part of our lives, though, we might not even be aware of it consciously. I started to get interested in this aspect of herbiculture when I went looking for a replacement for coffee in a fantasy setting. I was suprised to find that there are actual classes taught about economic botany! In fact, one of the best resources is an online economic botany text book at the UCLA botanic garden’s website.
Another “quest” was to find out more about lacquer. I found several references regarding this closely guarded Chinese technology, but the basics can be summed up here. Lacquer was originally made from the sap of a tree. It’s really an amazing substance, too. It makes wood fire-proof and otherwise wear-resistant. It hardens rather quickly and completely, but the Chinese artisans that first started using the plastic-like substance found that letting a certain kind of crab “swim” in the stored mixture keeps it fluid for days longer than normal. For years, the Chinese had a strangle-hold on the trees that produced lacquer sap and, therefore, the lacquerware market. That market dominance was eventually broken, of course, but it makes for an interesting plot or sub-plot.

So, there’s something to think about the next time world creation comes up. What plants fit where and why? Who uses them and how does that effect the rest of the world? And, really, these are just the tip of the iceberg on economic botany. The limit is, literally, the author’s imagination.

Do we actually live in one “slice” of the Multiverse?

Well, according to this article in Scientific American, we just might! Multiple universes have been a staple of science-fiction for as long as the concept of other planes of existence have been contemplated, but physicists think they might actually exist. It’s hard for me to hear the term “multiverse” and not think “comic book”, but the comics industry apparently borrowed the term from quantum physics. Who knew?
Anyway, the article is pretty darn interesting and brings up some interesting thoughts about different ways that this multiverse might exist. Pretty much every possible configuration sounds like something that a science-fiction author has explored at one time or another. The good news is, though, that far from being a deterrent, my familiarity with science-fiction made it easier to understand the rather heady theories being tossed about.
If you’re contemplating any kind of “alternate” anything, including alternate history, this article should give you a jump start on the underlying concepts.

Okay, here’s a new angle…

Here’s a news story from Yahoo about a guy who claims to be a time traveller who “knows” what the market is going to do. He started with an $800 portfolio and in two weeks made over $350 million! What’s interesting is that no one can seem to find any record of the name this guy is using prior to December of 2002. He’s apparently claimed that he’ll tell us where Osama Bin Laden is and how to cure AIDS as proof that he comes from the future. Well, I’m game!

This does point out, though, why that old sci-fi favorite of travelling back in time to buy the right stocks on the stock market wouldn’t work. You’d have to be pretty darn careful or someone, somewhere would notice. On the other hand, it could just be an interesting plot twist. Of course, there’s still the old lottery gambit. You know, going back and getting a ticket with the winning numbers on it. Hmm… That one has some possibilities. Oh, and combine the two and you’d have an interesting tale of greed! Of course, time-travel is really more the realm of fantasy than science-fiction. Asimov came up with some rules about time travel that seem pretty solid to me. He was, after all, an actual scientist and a genius to boot. Also, he’s still one of the most prolific writers of our time. Still, those time travel stories have always piqued my curiosity….

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Military Fish.

Well, actually, they’re still mammals, but you get the idea. William Gibson created a character for Johnny Mnemonic that was a military veteran who happened to be a dolphin. Jones, who showed up again in Neuromancer, if I recall, had advanced sensors and software hardwired into him that was useful for extracting information out of people’s electronic heads. His background was military intelligence, specifically RECON. He found, and tracked, enemy submarines and mines. At the time I read about Jones, he seemed like pretty far-future fiction. But, then I saw this… View image on MSNBC News.

So, military dolphins. I wonder what they’re paid? What kind of retirement benefits do they get? What’s their length of service? Do dolphins have conscientious objectors? The possibilities are mind boggling. And, it’s interesting to see that it’s not as far-future as I thought.

But, isn’t it ironic that we’re using marine mammals in a desert war?

I made a mistake!

I was going through my blog and noticed that I made a mistake in a reference to the Javacrucian Chant and where it originated. I said that it was based on the Litany Against Fear, but it’s not. It is, in fact, based on the little chant that the Mentats do when they drink the “juice of Sapho”, which is what gives them their legendary speed of thought.
That goes like this:
“It is by will alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the
juice of sapho that thoughts acquire speed, the lips acquire
stains, the stains become a warning. It is by will alone I
set my mind in motion.”

As big a fan of the Dune books by Frank Herbert as I am, I’m really rather embarassed that I missed that! I guess it’s time to read the series again!!

Oh, and don’t forget, Sunday, March 16th, the SciFi Channel is playing their original move Frank Herbert’s Children of Dune. Before that, they have their previous original movie, Frank Herbert’s Dune on again! Get those VCRs ready!!

What if there were no difference between nightmares and reality?

I know someone who reacts as though any dream or nightmare she has is reality. A nightmare might haunt her for days, making her irritable and even frightened. If I do something to her in a dream, she sometimes acts as though I actually did it. And, will occasionally hold whatever it is against me.
Imagine a person who cannot, in fact, tell the difference between dreams, nightmares and waking reality. How would that person act? What would their daily life be like? Is this, by definition, insanity? What kind of interaction problems might this person have?
I see, in a character like that, an interesting challenge and type of story. It’s a seed of an idea that needs to be married to a plot, but I can see possibilities here. Especially, if the story, whatever it may be, is told from the first person view. In fact, I think a device like this would only work from a first person point of view. That kind of limiting perspective is neccessary to get the full juice from that literary fruit.

Of course, someone will not doubt tell me that it’s been done to death already. After all, there’s nothing new under the sun.

Why making excuses is easier than writing.

I had an idea for an opening to a story the other day, but I didn’t do anything with it. Why? Well, there’s a lot of reasons, but they all boil down to fear induced writer’s block.
See, it’s like this… I have a series of ideas about stories set in a particular world. I can see whole, huge sections of the world all laid out for me in startling detail. But, I have no idea what anyone’s name is. Or, what their language is like. Now, I could just make it up as I went, but that feels wrong to me somehow. And, I’ve looked into creating a language, or several, from whole cloth. The only problem there is that I’m not a linguist, or even close enough to feel very comfortable creating the language. Still, I’m not quite willing to let someone else create that much of my world for me, either.
Quite a dilemma, no? No. Quite an excuse. I’ve been playing at language creation for literally years. By now, I could have several related languages and dialects, if I really wanted to have them. But, I’ve used that as an excuse to not write. Why? Because, I’m scared, that’s why. If I put work out there, people might not like it. And, it’s been more than ten years since I really wrote seriously. Damn, that was hard to admit. So, what to do…

Comments are welcome, folks.

For those of you who are wondering what that lovely parody from yesterday came from, here it is:
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little death the brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me
and through me. And when it has gone past me I will turn
to see fear’s path. Where the fear has gone there will
be nothing. Only I will remain.
“Bene Geserit litany against fear”
Frank Herbert, Dune