Author: Dana Hunter

Geologic Paen and Plea

Dana Hunter3 Comments

I’m discovering I can’t write about a place without knowing its geology.

It wasn’t always this way.  I’d just make up landscapes willy-nilly, choosing stuff that fit with vague imaginings of a location and we were off.  I mean, it’s a fantasy landscape and I can do what I like with it, right?  Only then, I got sick of so many fantasy worlds that were not much more than a blob of land with an ocean stuck on.  I mean, no offense to Robert Jordan and dear Professor Tolkien (maytheyrestinpeace), but seriously, is this it?
Robert Jordan’s world
Middle-Earth

Open up most fantasy books, and if there’s a map at all, this is typically what you get: a blotch of land with some mountains and rivers stuck in.  Or, if you rotate it a bit, you might see the trace of a familiar coastline, as somebody’s turned the map of Europe upside-down and copied it. 

And, at first, that was my methodology: draw an irregular splotch of land, color all the open bits blue, and call it good.  No rhyme or reason.  No history.  No geology.

Mr. Bennett changed all that, with his physical geography and his plate tectonics and all that.  It became clear to me that landscapes shouldn’t just do what I wanted them to: there were things to take into account, like rainshadows and latitude and so forth.  So I broke up ye olde big blotch of land and spent an instructive few evenings sailing the bits around a blank oval, seeing what crashed into which and what bits pulled away and ending up with something that resembled a world where the continents behaved like continents dragged around by plates.  Where they collided, in (up?) went mountains.  I even did up a map of the ocean currents.  And while it was just a crude approximation, at least I’d tried.

But that was just the large-scale stuff, the shape of things.  I hadn’t got down to the rocks.  And for Athesea, for the most part, I still haven’t, not yet.  But when I started working on Xtalea in earnest, because I wanted that world to live in all its particulars, I started really thinking geology.  Which is why I started studying geology.  And, incidentally, how I met most of you lot.  Without Xtalea, there would have been no geological explorations and long missives thereupon and hence no adoption by the geoblogosphere.  But I digress.

I’m finding out I can’t really write about a region of Xtalea without knowing the rocks.  I can’t just start a scene in a new place.  No matter how interesting the people involved are, no matter how fascinating the events, unless I have its geology at least outlined in my mind, I can’t get a good start.  I have to know, because the character of a place is so intimately tied to its geology.  I know that now, feel it in my bones.  If I don’t know at least one hundred million years of its history, I might as well be writing about a featureless void.

Right now, I’m about to send my characters over to Nyaanovos, the town in the Southlands where Jiiren Naaltoba was born.  I’ve got an image in my mind: a very narrow inlet, steep cliffs, the waves booming as they pound themselves into this deep gash in the coastline.  Just down the way, there’s a lovely bay.  It’s on one of the mainlands.  And it is very, very old, a place where the ancient bones of the earth emerge.  I get a metamorphic sense, with perhaps some uncomformities and some youngish horizontal sedimentary layers capping the lot in places.  It seems to me a place like mainland Greece, and as I was casting about the intertoobz in search of a suitable bit to serve as a model, I came across Cape Sounion by way of a sea cave.  That at least put me in a general region, and I now have about a gajillion PDFs open on various aspects of Greek geology around Attica. 

Already, just from a few skimmings as I try to fill my abyssal ignorance with some good, solid facts, I begin to get a feel for this place.  There’s a bay – obviously, we shall have a bit of a seafood industry, and fishers sailing past cliffs of very old stone.  It’s the Southlands, and I know a bit of Naaltoba’s family history, so I know there are military people about, but this wasn’t a military town.  So what else did people do?  Think of the geology, and that gives me careers: there will be quarries about, with a healthy trade in cut stone.  Silver mines?  Possibly.  Perhaps even probably.  All of this carefully done, because while resources are important things to have, so is a livable world, and I know Xtaleans take exquisite care of the place, so even in the mining districts we aren’t facing great gaping wounds and polluted streams.  The soils here probably aren’t thick, but a bit of farming goes on, and there are hardy trees clinging to the cliffs.  Is there any forestry?  Not so likely.  But there’s a thriving trade in various plants, and perhaps a vineyard or two back in the hills. 

Think of the geology.  This is a fractious region, a crazy-quilt of jumbled tectonic plates, and coastlines raised or dropped by earthquakes.  The citizens here face a good hard shaking on a semi-regular basis and have planned accordingly.  They face the chaos with equanimity.  And they know the value of building things in such a way that they don’t fall down so easily. 

I think at one point folks on the cape could get a good view of a volcano erupting, way off in the distance.  No volcanoes just here, though, I don’t think.  I don’t get a volcano feel from here, just a seismic feel.  And an old-land feel.  This is where the world stretches its old bones in the sun, groans and sighs and settles back for a good long lounge.  This is the feel I get from this place, and so I’ll be searching for geology that reflects that, and for the mechanisms that led to it.  The world, you see, must make sense.  The world itself is a character, and just like with carbon-based characters, history matters.  Knowing what a person has been tells you a lot about what they are now and might be in the future.  Same goes for a world.  And if there’s something out of character, it must be known and understood and remarked.

This, I probably don’t have to tell you, is a lot harder than bunging a blob on a map and calling it a day.  But I think it makes for a better, richer tale.  It connects people to their world in ways that wouldn’t be possible
otherwise.  And it shows me aspects of the world that would have gone unrevealed if I hadn’t taken the time to seek them out.  Just consider what happened in the Siaan: I got to thinking about karst landscapes, which led to cave complexes, which led to a major plot development which I shall tell you all about in due time.  That plot development never could have arisen had I not known that we were in a karst landscape where networks of caves could be found.  Who knows what may come of knowing the geology of Nyaanovos, and the province it’s in?  If nothing else, it will allow me to evoke it, whole and complete and shining against a wine-dark sea.  It will provide a better backdrop than a mere generic rocky cliff near a bay.

So here’s what happens next, before any words can be exchanged between characters: I’ll read up on the geology of Attica.  I’ll search the intertoobz for pictures of the Aegean coast, until I have a file full of visual references.  I’ll study up on the local rock types, until I understand them better.  And then I’ll use mere fragments of all that work, because the scene I’m writing now isn’t about the geology of that region.  It’s about a grand old man at the end of his life, listening to the waves thunder and boom in a very narrow inlet, and three people who very much want to meet him.  It’s about the philosophy of war, and how there can be no philosophy in war, and perhaps a little about transformational sacrifices.  It’s about getting an autograph and revealing a secret.  And it’s about going home, long after the people who raised you and the people you grew up with and the town you spent the first decades of your life in are dead or gone or changed nearly beyond recognition, except for some of these old bones of the earth, which haven’t yet succumbed to wave and wind and quake.  It’s about place and purpose and finding peace, settling accounts with the past where you can and letting them go where you can’t.

Would most of this have been possible without the geology?  Yes, but it wouldn’t have felt as grounded.  The world wouldn’t have felt so real.  There’s something very real about a rock, especially one that makes sense in its context.  The geology of a place informs its character.  Nyaanovos wouldn’t be the same place without its geologic history.  Neither would the people who emerged from it, and came to it.

I said in the title to this post that there was not merely a paen, but a plea.  And the plea is this: if you know of any resources on Mediterranean geology, I could use them.  Blogs, websites, geologic maps – whatever you know of.  If you can, and if you have the time, drop me a comment.  Help me build a better world.

Geologic Paen and Plea
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Maryam Namazie on the Islamic Inquisition

Dana Hunter

I’m sending you all away.  For one thing, I’m busy and woefully short of advance posts.  But most importantly, there’s something I think you need to read.

It’s Maryam Namazie’s speech at the World Atheist Conference.  You really should read it in its entirety.  But I’ll put an excerpt here, because I believe this bit needs to be understood clearly by all of us:

Nowhere is opposition greater against Islamism than in countries under Islamic rule.
Condemning Islamism and Islam is not a question of judging all Muslims and equating them with terrorists.
There is a distinction between Islam as a belief system and Islamism as a political movement on the one hand and real live human beings on the other. Neither the far-Right nor the pro-Islamist Left seem to see this distinction.
Both are intrinsically racist. The pro-Islamist Left (and many liberals) imply that people are one and the same with the Islamic states and movement that are repressing them. The far-Right blames all immigrants and Muslims for the crimes of Islamism.
[It is important to note here that Islamism was actually brought to centre stage during the Cold War as part of US foreign policy in order to create a ‘green’ Islamic belt surrounding the Soviet Union and not concocted in some immigrant’s kitchen in London; moreover many of the Islamists in Britain are actually British-born thanks to the government’s policies of multiculturalism and appeasement.]
Both the far-Right and pro-Islamist Left purport that Islamism is people’s culture and that they actually deserve no better, imputing on innumerable people the most reactionary elements of culture and religion, which is that of the ruling class, parasitical imams and self-appointed ‘community leaders’.
Their politics ignores the distinction between the oppressed and oppressor and actually sees them as one and the same. It denies universalism, sees rights as ‘western,’ and justifies the suppression of rights, freedoms and equality for the ‘other.’
Civil rights, freedom and equality, secularism, modernism, are universal concepts that have been fought for by progressive social movements and the working class in various countries.
As a result of such politics, concepts such as rights, equality, respect and tolerance, which were initially raised vis-à-vis the individual, are now more and more applicable to culture and religion and often take precedence over real live human beings.
Moreover, the social inclusion of people into society has come to solely mean the inclusion of their beliefs, sensibilities, concerns and agendas (read Islamism’s beliefs, sensibilities, concerns and agendas) and nothing more.

The distinction between humans and their beliefs and regressive political movements is of crucial significance here.
It is the human being who is meant to be equal not his or her beliefs. It is the human being who is worthy of the highest respect and rights not his or her beliefs or those imputed on them.
It is the human being who is sacred not beliefs or religion.

The problem is that religion sees things the other way around.

And she quotes from Mansoor Hekmat at the end:

“Moreover, in my opinion, defending the existence of Islam under the guise of respect for people’s beliefs is hypocritical and lacks credence. There are various beliefs amongst people. The question is not about respecting people’s beliefs but about which are worthy of respect. In any case, no matter what anyone says, everyone is choosing beliefs that are to their liking. Those who reject a criticism of Islam under the guise of respecting people’s beliefs are only expressing their own political and moral preferences, full stop. They choose Islam as a belief worthy of respect and package their own beliefs as the ‘people’s beliefs’ only in order to provide ‘populist’ legitimisation for their own choices. I will not respect any superstition or the suppression of rights, even if all the people of the world do so. Of course I know it is the right of all to believe in whatever they want. But there is a fundamental difference between respecting the freedom of opinion of individuals and respecting the opinions they hold. We are not sitting in judgement of the world; we are players and participants in it. Each of us are party to this historical, worldwide struggle, which in my opinion, from the beginning of time until now has been over the freedom and equality of human beings…”  (Mansoor Hekmat, Islam and De-Islamisation,January 1999)

Remember these things, because they’re important.  You need to remember them when charges of racism and cultural imperialism get thrown your way by people who would prefer you not criticize their faith.  Do not let people stop the conversation.

Got that?  Good.  Now go finish the speech.

Maryam Namazie on the Islamic Inquisition

Cantina Quote o' The Week: Richard von Weizsacker

Dana Hunter

Whoever refuses to remember the inhumanity is prone to new risks of infection.

– Richard von Weizsacker

Especially in this age of Godwin’s Law, Holocaust denial, and the distressing tendency of the American right to call everyone and everything they don’t like a Nazi, it’s important to remember the true horrors perpetrated in the name of an ideology.  Richard von Weizsacker, President of Germany from 1984 to 1994, gave a speech on the 40th anniversary of the end of World War II that speaks of the importance of that remembrance.  Here’s the above quote in context:

The vast majority of today’s population were either children then or had not been born. They cannot profess a guilt of their own for crimes that they did not commit. No discerning person can expect them to wear a penitential robe simply because they are Germans. But their forefathers have left them a grave legacy. All of us, whether guilty or not, whether old or young, must accept the past. We are all affected by its consequences and liable for it. The young and old generations must and can help each other to understand why it is vital to keep alive the memories. It is not a case of coming to terms with the past. That is not possible. It cannot be subsequently modified or made undone. However, anyone who closes his eyes to the past is blind to the present. Whoever refuses to remember the inhumanity is prone to new risks of infection.

Never forget.

Cantina Quote o' The Week: Richard von Weizsacker

Los Links 6/10

Dana Hunter

Not as linkolicious as usual, I’m afraid – the Muse is a harsh mistress, and work has been hell.  But we’ve got some good stuff here.

This week’s Controversy on teh Internetz came courtesy of a truly awful WSJ editorial that made me want to go have a good wash afterward. Basically, the complainer (I refuse to dignify the spouter of such drivel with the august word “author”) spent far too many words bitching about how awful it was that young adult fiction explored dark and dangerous subjects.  One comes away with the sense that the complainer prefers all fiction to do nothing more than spoonfeed bland platitudes and pollyanna pablum into the mouths of everyone.

I couldn’t really jump into the #YASaves fray, because young adult fiction never saved me.  I’m one of the fortunate few who enjoyed a nearly idyllic childhood, and my YA reading was devoted to such sillyness as Sweet Valley High (look, I didn’t mean to, it just happened), Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, and suchlike other things.  Although, come to think of it, a Sweet Valley High novel that dealt with the aftermath of death by cocaine did give me reinforcement when it came to deciding drugs were not for me…

Anyway, several excellent bloggers took care of the situation admirably, and I encourage you to read their posts.

Almost Diamonds: Living in the Dark.  In which myths are exploded and a righteous spanking is administered.  I wish we lived in a world that didn’t give Stephanie Szvan so much to get pissed off about.  Since we do, I’m very glad she’s so damned good at turning her rage into hard-hitting blog posts.

Gayle Forman: wall street depravity.  Time for the silent majority to tell the loudmouth minority trying to dictate what’s worthy of reading to STFU.

Kyle Cassidy: if you can’t be witty, then at least be bombastic – The Wall Street Journal Nonsense about YA Literature.  The demolition is complete.  Also, cool metaphors!

WSJ Speakeasy:  Why the Best Kids Books Are Written in Blood.  Sherman Alexie, ladies and gentlemen.  Money quote:  “I write in blood because I remember what it felt like to bleed.”  Read the whole thing.

Science

Clastic Detritus: Friday Field Photo #146: Deep-Sea Landscapes in the Desert.  The ocean. On land. Do I really have to explain how cool that is?

Uncovered Earth: Of Puddles and Probabilities. Lottery tickets, creationists, and a quick lesson in the way odds work.

Highly Allochthonous: If you’re waiting for an earthquake warning, you’re doing it wrong.  Instead of suing scientists who don’t predict the unpredictable, people in earthquake-prone areas should see to, y’know, maybe just possibly preparing for the inevitable instead. Also, don’t miss Chris’s new Geotweeps Discuss site. Too much fun!

Looking for Detachment: Megabreccia II: More Photos and Megabreccia III, the Continuing Saga.  I’d tell you a little something about how awesome these posts are, but I’m still busy wiping the drool off. ZOMG delicious!

Earthly Musings: Hawaiian Geology at Haleakala Crater. And dessert. Yum!

The Atlantic: Chile’s Puyehue Volcano Erupts. And the postprandial cognac.  Some of the most spectacular volcano photography I’ve ever seen.

Eruptions: Spectacular images and video of the Puyehue-Cordón Caulle eruption in Chile.  In which Erik explains, and volcanoes are suspected of being willfully inconvenient.

Mammoth: Cubit’s Gap.  Cut one little hole in a levee and watch the river build…

Science House: The Public and Science: A Blind Date.   Improv, science communication, and Alan Alda.  This is made of win.

Freakonomics: Launching Into Unethical Behavior: Lessons from the Challenger Disaster.  The most devastating statement, and how considering business rather than ethics angles can lead to horrifying consequences – even for the ethical among us.

Measure of Doubt: “Stand back everyone, I’ve been trained for situations like this…” And here you thought algebra could never be of any ordinary practical use.

Neurotic Physiology: Does all that coffee really make you hear Bing Crosby sing?  In which Sci wields the Smack-o-Matic upon a study so bad even this layperson’s jaw dropped.

Not Exactly Rocket Science: The Renaissance man: how to become a scientist over and over again.  I loved this for many reasons. The fact it celebrates the creative power of failure is only one.

Grist: No joke: This is the biggest battery breakthrough ever.  If this pans out, electric cars won’t be a ginormous pain in the arse when it comes to recharging.  Truly amazing stuff.

State of the Planet: Making Room for Rivers: A Different Approach to Flood Control.  This seems like a good and necessary idea.  Also, opens your eyes to what artificial creatures we’ve forced rivers to become.

Atheism and Religion

Butterflies and Wheels: Oh is that so.  Here is the money quote for the next time someone howls about their religious freedom being infringed because they’re not allowed to lead a sectarian prayer at a public event: “My religious belief is that god is a non-existent imaginary agent. I don’t get to say that at public school graduation ceremonies or Congress’s morning prayer. Since other people do get to say that god is a real, non-imaginary agent, the state is interfering with my rights to express my religious beliefs.

“It is also, of course, interfering with the religious beliefs of Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Wiccans, Scientologists, Crefto Dollarians, and so on.”

Also don’t miss Right here in River City, in which we learn that Catholic laundries tormented Seattle women. 

Xtra: Rainbows banned at Mississauga Catholic school.   How the Catholic church hates on gay students, and adds insult to injury by not letting them donate the funds they raise to LGBT charities.

The Hibernia Times: Atheism Is the True Embrace of Reality.  Paula Kirby’s journey from near-nunnery to out atheism, delivered without compromise.

Writing

Harvard Business Review: Publishing’s 169 Years of Disruption, Told in Six Freakouts. Read this and relax. Reading will survive. It’s just the incidentals that change.

Scientific American: All About Stories: how to tell them, how they’re changing, and what they have to do with science.  Writing about science?  Read this.

A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing:  Guest Post by Raymond Benson.  In which we learn that success may not come overnight, and get much good advice.

Women’s Issues

PLOS Blogs: Women as natural capital.  I’m okay with using hard-headed practicality to get people to do the right thing.  Especially if it means less female infanticide.

The Washington Post: SlutWalks and the future of feminism.   Feminism fired up and ready to go.  Quite a few money quotes in this one.  And it has made me determined to be a badass.

Politics

Alternet: The Worst Thing About Weinergate? The Total Obliteration of Sexual Privacy by Ideologues Like Andrew Breitbart.  At least I’ll be safe from the prurient prudes if I ever run for office, considering I haven’t got a sex life…  Oh, and for those who are wondering, I don’t give a rat’s ass if Rep. Weiner wants to flirt.  Really don’t.

Society and Culture

Temple of the Future: Red Smoke, No Fire.  How dare A.C. Grayling open a university!  In which snark is employed and protesters smacked.

Los Links 6/10

What Can I Possibly Say?

Dana Hunter1 Comment

In a few weeks, I’ll be seeing Neil Gaiman for the first time in ten years.

For those of you who don’t know, Neil Gaiman is one of the greatest fantasy authors ever, alive or dead.  He wrote Neverwhere, and American Gods, among many other novels.  He’s done film, and television, and just recently wrote one of the best Doctor Who episodes I’ve ever seen.  He wrote the only comic that ever won a World Fantasy Award.  In fact, it was Sandman that introduced me to Neil, and made me realize that comics could tell dark, powerful stories that could change a life, because Sandman completely changed mine.

He’s my North Star.  I think most writers have one author who claims the greatest influence over them.  Neil Gaiman is mine.  I’ve gotten over trying to become him.  It’s been long enough now that I’m comfortable becoming Dana Hunter.  But this ship still steers by him: he’s the one who taught me the power of myth, and that an atheist can still draw on these old stories to make something enormous without killing ye olde atheist cred.  He taught me the value of humility without humiliation, and that power should be wielded very wisely the more powerful you become, and that treating your readers with kindness and respect is far preferable to bitching about how They Just Don’t Get You, or taking them for granted. 

In November 2001, I got on an airplane and went to Chicago despite everyone else’s fear of flying, because he was at the Chicago Humanities Festival with Will Eisner and nothing on earth could have prevented me from going.  There, he said the most valuable thing a writer has ever said:

“Being contentious is what you should be doing.  You should be shaking people up.”

Every time I try to go for the soft option and avoid writing something because it might upset someone somewhere, I hear those words.  Then the only question is, “How do I want them shaken by this?”  Fiction shouldn’t be tame or safe or easy.  That’s not the fiction I want to read.  That’s not the fiction I want to write.  And Neil Gaiman kept me from believing I had to write it.

So I might possibly get a chance to say hello to this North Star of a man.  What does one say?  I already told him one of the most important things: “Thank you.  You’ve never disappointed me.”

What now?

I think there’s only one thing I could say:

“Neil, stop trying to give Steven Moffat all the credit for all the awesome in ‘The Doctor’s Wife.’  And thanks for shaking me up.”

What Can I Possibly Say?

Rocky Relationships

Dana Hunter1 Comment

I meant to get on with Volcanic Venerations, email some people (Ann, George, everybody, I still love you!), catch up on blog reading, etc., but the sun is shining.  The birds are singing.  I’ve been cooped up in the damned house without sunshine for absolute months.  And tonight shall be another marathon writing session which will leave my wrists howling in agony.

So I went off to visit some old friends.

I wish I could tell you more about them, these wonderful neighborhood boulders o’ mine.  But they’ve been ripped out of context and plunked down in the middle of a city, and I am teh suck at field identification.  So what you’re getting is some pretty pictures and some guesswork.  Feel free to add corrections, identifications, and so forth in the comments.

Right.  Let’s begin with a friend I haven’t seen since last summer.



(Now you know what my key ring looks like, too.  It was all I had on me for scale.)

This big beauty resides on the edge of the Seattle Times parking lot.  I have no idea what it actually is, because I don’t think the property owners would take kindly to me whacking off bits with a rock hammer, but it’s got many points of interest.



It’s got these patches that all sort of sparkle.  I think these are deposits of some sort – they don’t seem to be part of the original texture of the rock.  Seems to be a fine example of a druse.

Here’s an overview with a key for scale:



And on other bits of the rock, there’s all these little copper-colored flecks, which I hadn’t ever noticed before and am now completely in love with:



I’m no geologist – I can just about figure out some of the large-scale stuff and identify a few basic rock types.  So I may be completely wrong.  But from what I’ve learned, I do believe this boulder may have spent some time stewing in hydrothermal fluids.  And I doubt it’s local bedrock, nor would anyone in their right minds have paid to ship it so it could stand like a great lump at the end of a newspaper parking lot, so I’d even go so far as to say it’s a glacial erratic.  Someday, mebbe, I’ll haul an actual geologist over there, and we’ll learn its gripping true story.

With that big boulder to explore, you might not turn your attention to the smaller rock nearby.



But let’s say your attention is drawn by its odd but pleasing shape, and then you notice a pale patch of discoloration on top.



And if you bend down to inspect that patch further, you’ll see an utter delight:



Sugary little crystals!  Once again, I think this is something that came out of solution and deposited itself on the rock – it’s otherwise pretty fine-grained.  Suppose I should head out there with a hand lens next nice day and have a closer look, eh?

On the way back home, I stopped off to chat up a very old friend indeed:



This boulder is one of my great favorites, and long-time readers of the blog have probably seen it around before.  If it had ever stopped raining this spring, you would’ve seen it before now – a few weeks ago, it had flower petals all over it, and just looked remarkably pretty, but I didn’t feel like risking the camera in a downpour.  Maybe next year.  Today, however, was a treat: the sun was really going to work on its colors and textures.



After all these years, though, I still haven’t figured out what it is.  I know it’s very fine-grained and seems to have lots and lots of iron.  It’s tough, solid, and gives me igneous vibes.  Then again, it could be something completely different.  Ideas?

Here’s a macro:



And, finally, a little delight I noticed for the first time last year, and never fails to make me smile when I walk past it:



Click to enlarge that one.  Really, do.  It’s just amazing.

Those are a few of my favorite friends.  One day, I’ll know their stories in greater detail.  I’ll be able to puzzle out their histories from the few clues I’ve got.  But this is why geology fascinates me: because it’s beautiful, and there’s so much more below the surface sparkle.

Rocky Relationships

Dojo Summer Sessions: It Was Never About…

Dana Hunter4 Comments

I spend a lot of time worrying about making things as realistic and accurate as possible.  Tear my hair out about the science I don’t know and the science that directly contradicts the direction the story wants to go.

So it’s a bit of a relief to read something like this:

It was never about how accurate the science was in science fiction.
It’s about the wonder and excitement of the unknown. It’s about the attitude of characters like Spock and Data, how they attacked problems head on and came up with creative solutions. It’s even about building a interdimensional portal in your basement. That’s what inspired me to want to become a scientist. And maybe this means we’ll never have warp drive or transporters like they have on the Enterprise. But we’ll create something better.

And no, that’s not a writer apologizing for being a complete ignoramus who just can’t be bothered to get the science right.  It’s written by a scientist in a post entitled “How Science Fiction Made Me Want to Be a Scientist.”

So how did a lot of dreadfully inaccurate science lead a kid to grow up to be a really real scientist?

Because science fiction isn’t just about science.  It’s about possibilities, no matter how far-fetched.  It’s about characters using the science of their story worlds (even the science the writers just made up on the spot) to discover, to overcome, to do really awesome shit.  Science fiction doesn’t need 100% accurate science to work.  It needs internal consistency, and an enormous sense of wonder, and strange new worlds (or strange this world, for that matter).  It’s about asking “what if?” and spinning out the implications.  It’s not afraid to hit the really hard issues head-on.  Creatively, even.  It’s about doing impossible things.

And it’s about people.  At core, they’re what matter.  You can have the most deplorable sciency-sounding sillyness going on, and it won’t matter as long as the people in the story are interesting and facing attention-grabbing situations.

Science is gorgeous, and I want to get as much as possible right.  A lot of science is far more fascinating than anything my imagination can dream up.  But I can’t know everything.  I can’t be an expert in every discipline.  There will be times when I’ll have to fudge it or fake it.  There will be times when I’ll have to say, “Look, that sort of thing doesn’t happen in our universe, but it happens in theirs, m’kay?”  Times when I’ll have to say, “It’s only a story, and you should really just relax.”  Times when I’ll have to quote that essential line above: “It was never about how accurate the science was in science fiction.”

All I have to do is write a ripping good tale with enough science to make it all work.  Just enough science to spark imagination, and get people exploring on their own, and make them wonder, and make them want to know, and inspire them, and fire them up and fire them off to a life they otherwise wouldn’t have had.  Not all of my readers will become scientists, but I hope most of them will put the books down with a greater appreciation for it.  I hope they come away seeing the world through new eyes.  I hope at least a few, possibly many, wonder “What if…?” and go on to make advances in science that wouldn’t have otherwise have happened, all because they wanted to find out what would happen if they tried to make my made-up science work in the real world.  I hope I inspire some folks to careers in science that have nothing to do with anything in my books, except for the fact they fell in love with science there.

No, it doesn’t have to be accurate, not completely.  It just has to tell a ripping good tale.

And a good thing, too, because otherwise it would be impossible to write this stuff in the course of one human lifetime…

Dojo Summer Sessions: It Was Never About…

Accretionary Wedge #34: Encore

Dana Hunter1 Comment

So I post the Accretionary Wedge #34, pack up the tents and roll the carnival out of town, and what happens?  People who should’ve been part of the show turn up.  Seems we’ll have to roll back in, then, because these acts shouldn’t be missed!
Image Credit

Due to Twitter not notifying me of a critical message, Anne Jefferson’s brilliant “Bacteria in the sky, making it rain, snow, and hail” got left at the side of the road. And that’s bad, because it’s headspinningly weird! Biology contributes to hydrology which is part of geology contributes to biology and around and around we go!  The remarkable interconnectedness of all these things – life, water and rocks – can make dizzy.  Kinda feeling like I’ve been standing in the center of a really fast merry-go-round now…

Speaking of standing in the center of things that make you feel funny, Helena’s Weird AND Scenic scenery at Craters of the Moon will leave your head spinning happily.  What’s weirder than a landscape that looks like “black vomit” and is so heavy that it’s sunk a 100km region right down?  Rafting volcanoes, dragon skin, a maclargehuge rift – that’s weird and no mistake!

While we’re on the subject of craters….  My Intrepid Companion likes to pretend he’s got nothing to say about geology, but he does.  And he seems to think a maclargehuge hole in the ground caused by a meteor isn’t weird, but when you think about how rare it is to find one this perfectly preserved on Earth, what with all our various agents of erosion, it totally is.  So, go feast your eyes on what happens when outer space geology smacks in to Earth geology.

Garry Hayes at Geotripper rather made my jaw drop with this one: Weird Geology: Accretionary Wedge #34…Our Human Nightmares.  Because I hadn’t put geology and pareidolia together before, but he did, and it’s fascinating.  Beautiful.  And just a little deliciously scary.

So you see, my darlings, why this carnival had to roll back in to town.  The world is far more weird (and wonderful) than we’d revealed in our original installment.  And over this next year, keep your eyes open for odd, outrageous, and ooo-inducing geology, because we’ve not yet exhausted this topic, and you could run away and join the weird geology carnival next summer.

Accretionary Wedge #34: Encore

While We Wait for the Carnival to Come to Town…

Dana Hunter

Due to a breakdown, one of our sideshows is coming in late, so Ye Olde Accretionary Wedge #34 Addendum won’t be up until later today or tomorrow.  It will be worth the wait.  And if you missed the first go-round but have something you’d like to submit, please do feel free!

Due to a breakdown in my mad time management skillz, I haven’t got anything to fill the gap.  And I’ve got five hours of hard writing ahead, which means I can’t whip up anything brilliant.  So I’m going to ask your input instead.

Y’see, I’m fast running low on quotes for Cantina Quote o’ the Week.  And I figured, rather than scouring the intertoobz for more quotes, I’d invite you, my darlings, to submit your own favorites.  Anything you like.  I can’t promise I’ll use them, but I’d love to see them all.  I likes a good quote, me.

And now, ’tis time for a quote from my best friend: “I’m off – and I’m leaving, too.”

See ye at the sideshow.

While We Wait for the Carnival to Come to Town…

Los Links 6/3

Dana Hunter

You know, this would’ve been on time, if Blogger had published yesterday like I told it to.  Ah, well, on with the show.

Monday was Memorial Day, of course, and a lot of people wrote some incredibly excellent things round it.  Here, in their own words:

Almost Diamonds: Fallen Warriors.  “People have died every time our country has been persuaded to recognize the right of another group to be considered full human beings.” Wherein people who didn’t fight on actual battlefields but fought and died for our freedoms nonetheless get a look in. 

Decrepit Old Fool: Memorial Day 2011.  “War is crazy; it is crazy-making. It drains reason out of what passes for civilization. The stories matter. They let us know about courage, who have never been there. And yes, many wars should not ever have happened. The stories punch holes in the fantasy that it’s all some kind of glorious video game. If we’re going to do this to human beings, let’s be damn, damn sure there’s a real reason.”

Stupid Evil Bastard: Thoughts on Memorial Day 2011.  “I’ve heard enough to know that it’s a whole lot of not fun covered in a thick layer of fuck this shit. I know enough to know that war is something that should be a last resort when all other options have been exhausted. I know enough to realize that it has impacts far beyond the battlefield that affect people individually, and nations collectively, long after the guns have gone silent.”  Yes.

Slobber and Spittle: Memorial Day 2011.  “America’s saddest acre won’t be closing anytime soon.”  And there will be more fallen soldiers to remember next Memorial Day.

It seems appropriate to post a link to this paper (pdf): The Psychological Cost of War: Military Combat and Mental Health.  It’s bloody expensive, both in dollars and human terms.

This week, the person voted Most In Need of a Good Sharp Smack appears to be Sen. Tom Coburn, whose ignorance of science knows no bounds.  He hated on the National Science Foundation.  Well, we can give as good as we get.

NeuroTribes: Why the GOP Hates the National Science Foundation.  “The truth is, the current incarnation of the GOP, frozen in its pose of perpetually indignant outrage, doesn’t want additional perspective, more data and nuance, and — Heaven forbid — dissenting voices.”  Damn you, reality, and your liberal bias!

The Tightrope: Attacks on science and Coburn’s ignorance.  Amazing how much ignorance can be revealed in a short post, but then again, Coburn’s a motherlode. 

Take it to the Bridge: Transformative Science.  Which is precisely what Coburn doesn’t understand even a tiny little bit.

NeuroDojo: What the Coburn report has in common with arsenic life.  When we expect science to produce nothing but bright, shiny breakthroughs, things like Coburn and the arsenic life debacle happen.  Neither one is good for science.

Respectful Insolence: Need to pander to your base? Attack funny-sounding science funded by the NSF!  Orac utterly destroys Coburn’s attack on the NSF.  The ground Coburn stands upon is scorched.  He is finished.

Science

Slate: The Discovery of Arsenic-Based Twitter.  The story of #arseniclife, and what it means for science.

Neuroself: Jonah Lehrer is Not a Neuroscientist.  Really not.  So don’t get worked into too much of a lather over that “wisdom of crowds” article in the WSJ.

John Hawks Weblog: No echoing the echo chamber here. No, seriously, forget those “intertubz are maeking u stoopid” articles.

The Guardian: How to spot a psychopath.  A long but fascinating read – psychopaths are intriguing.

Guardian: Children don’t need Brain Gym to spot nonsense.  But they do get censored for pointing out utter bullshit.

BoingBoing: Tornadoes, climate change, and real scientific literacy.  This post does a phenomenal job of tying together several important concepts.  Read it.

Uncovered Earth: It May Usually Rain, But It’s Not As Wet As You Think.  This is the one post you need for comprehending Pacific Northwest Weather.  Also, Sunday Science Photos, May 22 – 28.

Glacial Till: Meteorite Monday: The OSIRIS-REx Mission.  Pure awesome!

The Atlantic: Endeavour’s Final Mission.  These photographs made me gasp and grin and think, “ZOMG humans did this! We are teh awesome!”  Absolutely, utterly beautiful.

Skepticblog: Litigation gone wild! A geologist’s take on the Italian seismology manslaughter case.  The clearest take I’ve read yet on the rabid stupidity that is putting scientists on trial for not predicting the unpredictable. 

Neurotic Physiology: SCIENCE 101: Cranial Nerve V, the Trigeminal.  Science gone Bollywood!  Brilliant!

NPR: Science Deniers: Hand Over Your Cellphones!  We so totally should make them do this.  Might make people who don’t know jack shit about science but like to piss on it anyway think twice if they’d lose their iPhone in the process.

Laelaps: Stressed Lemurs and Grass-Eating Humans.  Amazing what we can learn from teeth – like our cousins had more in common with horses than we thought.  Also, at Dinosaur Tracking: Dinosaur Diamond: Moab’s Potash Road. 

Respectful Insolence: The bride of the son of the revenge of cell phones and cancer rises from the grave…again.  No, your cell phone won’t kill you.  Relax and keep talking.

Pharyngula: Is your cell phone cooking your brain?  For the last time: NO IT’S REALLY NOT. Seriously. 

Scientific American: An Epidemic of False Claims.  We need to change the funding and incentives, or science will continue to suffer.

Clastic Detritus: Surprising, Important — or Weird and Fun.  Blogs can step up for science when editors fail.

The Gleaming Retort: Great Moments in Science Writing: The Alpha Cavewoman Fiasco.  Write a stupid article butchering science, get pwnd by a master.  That’s all I’m sayin’.

Highly Allochthonous: Simulating river processes…ooh shiny, stream table!  ZOMG I want one of these! Amazing way to show how water and geology mix.

Eruptions: Carbon dioxide as a volcanic hazard at the Dieng Plateau (and beyond).  It’s not just lava, lahars, and big booms that make volcanoes dangerous.

Women’s Issues

New York Times: Badminton’s New Dress Code Is Being Criticized as Sexist.  Because it is.  When they start sexualizing the menfolk, then I might give them the benefit of the doubt.

Salon: Abortion saved my life.  If religious shits want to force women to view sonograms, they should be forced to read stories like these.

Good Media: Why White Men Should Refuse to Be on Panels of All White Men.  Step up to the plate, pasty boyz.

The Guardian: The incredible shrinking presence of women SF writers.  Wherein we learn that books written by women get short shrift in “best of” polls.  Quelle surprise.  Take especial note of this comment.

Biodork: Remembering Dr. Tiller.  It infuriates me that doctors trying to do a good service for women get targeted by religious fucktards who love to proclaim themselves “pro-life” while killing human beings.

Aetiology: You’re also too pretty for math.  How our culture tells little girls they shouldn’t do nerdy boy things like study math and science.

Inner Workings of My Mind: I’ve Gone and Done It Now: What It’s Like Without the Muslim Headscarf.  An inside look you should really have a look at.

Atheism and Religion

Why Evolution is True: Evidence against New Atheism: Exhibit B?  In which Chris Mooney is given yet another righteous spanking, and a study is studied.

Choice in Dying:  Through the Looking-Glass.  In which a vicar on a train is taken to task for being a lousy source of comfort to a grieving woman.  Also,  It’s all of a piece …

Sam Harris: Morality Without “Free Will”.  Yes, indeed, there is such a thing.  Religious people, take especial note – especially if you’re tempted to go on about how people can’t be good without God.

Metamagician and the Hellfire Club: D’Souza on callousness and compassion, atheism and morality.  Spoiler: D’Souza gets it completely wrong.

EvolutionBlog: Ye Olde “Atheism is a Religion” Canard.  Jason Rosenhouse puts a stake through its heart.  Again.

Writing

The Passive Voice: Publishers and Agents are Trying to Figure Out How to Skin Their Own Authors.  Possibly even flay them alive.  However, while they flay, you can pwn: How to Read a Book Contract – For Avoidance of Doubt.  Booyah!

The Atlantic: Why Are Spy Researchers Building a ‘Metaphor Program’?  And why did I stick it under ‘writing’?  Because it’ll make you think about metaphors in a whole new way.

A Brain Scientist’s Take on Writing: Do Flashbacks Make Your Butt Look Big? (aka, Baby Got Backstory…)  All writers who have ever/are now/will ever struggle with how much backstory to put in the story need to read this post.  In other words, all writers need to read this post.

Dean Wesley Smith: Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing: Killing a Career.  It’s not as easy as you think.

Literary Abominations: Principles of Contracts: Everybody Knows Peggy Lee (or should).  Because if you don’t, you just might find yourself signing away the rights to every format your creative work could end up in ever.

The Chronicle: The Nature of E.B. White.  Bet you didn’t know there was a lot of science behind Charlotte’s Web.  But there was.  No matter how fluffy your fantasy, it could benefit from knowing about how the real world works.

Writer Beware: Contract Red Flag: Net Profit Royalty Clauses.  Be very sure you understand just how the publisher intends to calculate your royalties before you sign, or you could end up with pennies.  Literally.

A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing: Ebooks and Self-Publishing Part 3 – Yet Another Dialog Between Authors Barry Eisler and Joe Konrath.  All I can say is, Amazon must be making publishers afraid.  Very afraid.  And if they’re not terrified already, they should be.  Authors, meanwhile, may scream for joy.

NeuroTribes: Practical Tips on Writing a Book from 23 Brilliant Authors. Some of the best writing advice you’ll get, from people who made it happen.  Like a smorgasbord, there’s lots to pick and choose from.

Politics

Speakeasy Science: Jessica Alba and the Chemistry Thing.  Celebrities, science, and the pathetic fact we have to sell common sense with sexy but badly informed people.

Bad Astronomy: Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA): on climate change, makes wrong even wronger.  Lest you thought it was only Coburn being a raging dumbass this week.  And why giving Rohrabacher the benefit of the doubt on possibly being taken out of context doesn’t make him any less of a mega-moron.

Liberal Values: Doctors Moving Left For Many More Reasons Than The New York Times Reports.  Cuz Dems are better for business, and some people are smart enough to realize when tax cuts taketh away more than they giveth.  Among other reasons.  Heh.

Society and Culture

Outside the Interzone: We Had Been Told This Mighty Ocean-Liner Even God Himself Could Not Sink.  A fantastic post on sinking ships, hubris, and why it’s important not to think too much of ourselves.

Mike the Mad Biologist: Do Pro-Education ‘Reform’ Progressives Actually Know Any Teachers?  If they did, they probably wouldn’t be spouting such utterly stupid shit about them.

Washington Monthly: The consequences of education cuts.  Parents are now paying for things that should be part of the educational package.  Schools can’t afford fucking paper towels and soap.  When will we have to admit we haven’t got a public education system anymore?  And when will we demand it be restored?

Los Links 6/3