Science Fiction set in non-Western cultures can be very interesting, and lately I?ve been lucky to find two that are very immersive, The Wind-Up Girl and Three Body problem. This review will focus on the former.

The Wind-Up Girl (by Paolo Bacigalupi) take place in post-apocalyptic Bangkok. The story is about cultural and character clashes, even among those work towards the same goals. Ths story has been called eco-punk, as it looks at (among other things) the effects of genetically hacked plants, animals and people.

The story involves a power struggle between the Thai government and foreign interests as well as within the government as two ministries vie for power and influence. However, none of the point of view characters are powerful figures in the Thai government, giving that internal struggle less prominence until much later in the story.

A Chinese Malaysian refugee is a key point of view character, as is his boss, an American spy pretending to be an industrialist. The titular character is a genetically modified human (both superior and inferior to us) abandoned by her Japanese owner, and forced to live in degrading circumstances. Of all the characters she is the least predictable and often seems to work against her own self-interests. Other characters include enforcers for the government and shiftless ex-pats who seem to live in alcoholic stupors.

This is a very well-written piece, with immersive scenery playing at all of your senses, as a post-apocalyptic Bangkok tries to fight off rising sea levels, foreign interests, and degrading infrastructure.

An interesting aspect of this narrative is how one character rises from minor sidekick to a force to be reckoned with.

My one quibble with this story, and it is that, a small quibble, occurs late in the story. One of the characters needs to solve a puzzle or there might be dire consequences. She happens to come to the wrong answer, but in acting on it, stumbles upon one of only three people who could correct her. She realizes this opportunity and manages to get the correct information.

This feels unearned. There?s an old writer?s adage that coincidence should never benefit a protagonist, only make things worse. Coincidentally being in the same place a this person, and recognizing the opportunity, with no justification, breaks that guideline and feels like a cop-out (The writer needed it to happen but couldn?t figure out a better way to do it).

There is also a sense that the last quarter of the book is rushed, with too much happening after such a lazy start. Some details that feel like they should be key are washed away, and plot threads are left dangling as charcters complete their story arcs.

Overall, this is an interesting read for the patient reader. Be ready to wait for explanations, be ready to have to fill in missing pieces. It?s worth it.

I once asked a literary agent why some books have ?A Novel? after their title. The fact that it was a novel seemed self-evident. You find it in the fiction section. You?re holding it in your hand, it?s a novel. She replied ?I don?t know?. That?s sat with me for a while now.

I guess that one possibility is that the author/publisher doesn?t want the story to be confused for a novella. What?s a novella? A short novel. To be clear on definitions, I?m using 50,000 words as the demarcation point between novellas (less than) and novels (more than). A lot of great works of fiction, dare I say ?books? fall below that mark: The Great Gatsby, Fahrenheit 451, Slaughterhouse Five, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe among them

A lot of great works of fiction are under 50,000 words.

I started this exploration with my own assumptions about the literature I have read or been exposed to over my life. I?ve been surprised at just how verbose many classic writers actually are. Wuthering Heights is 107,000 words, as is Gulliver?s Travels. Jules Vernes? 20,000 Leagues under the Sea clocks in at almost 140,000 words.

I always assumed that Charles Dickens and Jane Austin wrote novellas more than novels. Certainly A Christmas Carol fits that, running less than 30,000 words, but A Tale of Two Cities clocks in at over 135,000 words, Oliver Twist 155,000 and Great Expectations 183,000. Austin?s Sense and Sensibility almost reaches 120,000 words, Emma almost 156,000 words. Not to be outdone, Charlotte Brontë?s Jane Eyre is over 183,000 words.

Catch-22 is longer than the first two Harry Potter books combined!

You expect books by Ayn Rand, Leo Tolstoy, James Joyce, and Fyodor Dostoyevsky to be long-winded, and they are, but Huckleberry Finn was 110,000 words? Really? Joyce?s Ulysses is just under 265,000 words, which meets expectations, but The Dubliners is a pithy 67,000 words. Had an off week, James?

I remember reading Catch-22 decades ago. I don?t remember finding it a long book, yet at just under 175,000 words, it’s longer than the first two Harry Potter books combined (77,000 and 85,000 words respectively). I absolutely remember JK Rowlings? books as being sturdy and wordy. So much for memory.

Do self-publishers tend to go shorter? Some self-publishers are pushing stories that are only 5,000-8,000 words long. These aren?t even novellas, they are technically ?short stories.? Hugh Howey, one of the champions of self-publishing has a five story cycle called Wool. The first book is only 11,000 words. The last, Stranded, is the longest, and at 56,000 words the only one that crosses the novella/novel threshold. The Omnibus version of the five stories clocks in at 158,000 – respectable for one novel, but not very long for five.

On that five note, if you ever look at the structure of Tolkien?s Lord of the Rings, you?ll discover that it was written as five books, but has only ever been published as three or one.

Do word counts matter? What?s the word count of your favourite book, and idd you notice it?s length at the time?

My brother-in-law is what you?d call ?salt of the Earth.? He grew up on a farm. He tinkered with engines as a kid. Naturally, he became an automotive mechanic, then an industrial mechanic (he?s even repaired ship?s engines). Eventually he and my sister bought their own land in the country and he became a mechanic/driver for a rural construction company.

On Saturday his pick-up truck was hit by a drunk driver?

?and we get to our Schrödinger moment?

He?s OK. So is his passenger. They have some minor injuries, mostly, I think, from their seatbelts interrupting their bodies? sudden change in velocity.

In a narrative that we don?t hear as often, the only person seriously injured was the drunk driver. Her injuries were serious enough to rate an air ambulance evacuation.

I don?t know what my brother-in-law and his friend may have gone through in being the first people to see and help the injured. I?ve heard horror stories from friends who were the first on the scene at gruesome accidents. I can only imagine?

I have a vivid imagination.

I lived in South Africa for three years. Once, I was driving from Johannesburg to Rustenburg along a very narrow, notorious country road. There are a series of small creeks that pass under the road, and each little bridge gives the road a bump that can easily send a careless car airborne.

Young invincible men liked to drag race on this road, but it was early Sunday morning and I had the road mostly to myself. At one of the creeks, there was a car in the ditch, upside down. Ethically, I had to stop. It was possible that I was the first person to find this car.

I remember the dread at what I might find. What if the car cabin had been crushed? What if someone was still alive in there?

It was an old model Mercedes Benz, faded gold in colour. The car was upside down, straddling the creek, engine on one side, back trunk (?the boot?) on the other. The whole passenger compartment was suspended about a metre above the ground, undamaged.

Walking around the boot, I found the driver?s side door open, the seatbelt and a jacket hanging out. I didn?t get too close, just enough to ensure no one was trapped inside. There were no people, no signs of blood. Someone had gotten very lucky.

I got back into my car and continued. A few kilometres down the road, at another creek, there?s a car stopping. Someone got out, looked over the bridge, shook his head, got back in. When I pulled up alongside, I asked them if they?re looking for a car in a ditch. They said yes, I pointed up the road.

They drove off laughing.

============

We all have them, Schrödinger Moments, when for a millisecond (or longer) two possibilities are each equally real, then one becomes solid and the other becomes a “there but for the grace of God…”

Rewriting a scene is where the magic happens. First drafts are usually crap (although sometimes they have nuggets of brilliance). Many writing teachers will tell you this, but it?s something that every writer needs to learn for themselves.

Here?s a scene that I wrote three years ago. It?s quite short and rough, but it captures, for my own needs, the essence of what I want to express – that the character Janet is growing in confidence, and that she sees another character, Michelle, as a role model.

Janet had a new mantra, What Would Michelle Do? Michelle?s a tough old bitch. What would she do if she thought her guides were dicking her around? Janet wasn?t certain, but in her mind it involved a gun. The problem was what to do after that. Once you?d turned it into an openly antagonistic relationship, then you couldn?t sleep. Ever. Not if you were the only person on your side.

What would Michelle do anyway?

The guides were proving to be useless and possibly disingenuous. These guides had been raised by the Slerc or by their proxies, the Angels. Could they really be trusted?

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Perhaps that?s what they were doing, keeping her closer. But did she win anything by dismissing them? Would she be best served by letting these men, who knew a lot about her operations, run free? Perhaps she needed to keep her enemies closer too. (156 Words)

There are many problems with that scene, not least of which is how short it is. Other problems include the language used (bitch, dicking around) and that generally, it?s not a scene that advances the story.

I?ve sat on that scene, knowing that it needed an overhaul, but not sure what to do with it, until this week. Then I woke up in the middle of the night and re-wrote it as this:

Janet had a new mantra: What Would Michelle Do? She hoped it would serve her well, this mantra.

The twenty-third day of Janet?s search was dawning. What would Michelle do? Michelle would keep going. The previous morning?s sun had shown a ridge on the near horizon, but when sunset came, they weren?t there yet. Michelle would reserve her strength for the long haul. So Janet had let them make camp despite her frustration at the slow pace.

First thing Janet did every morning was take a picture of the distant mountain peaks. She then overlaid the image on the previous day?s to help judge how far they?d travelled. This day she estimated the distance was only seven kilometres. She didn?t need to graph it to know what it would show. They were covering less and less distance each day.

These men, the hardy guides she?d recruited to lead her to the mountains, were turning out to be more of a liability than an asset. So far none had lived up to their promises except the interpreter Aduviri.

As the men started packing tents, burying the previous night?s fire pit, and generally grumbling among themselves, a discomforting realization hit Janet. The guides were slowing down, intentionally.

Whatever awe her guides had felt about her, assuming her to be an Angel from the big city, was fading. She worried that her skin wasn?t pale enough to pass for an Angel, and besides, who?d ever seen a woman from San Piaz?

They were getting bolder, treating her less as an authority and more as a novelty. One had even tried to follow her when she went off to pee. Aduviri had come along and chased him away before she?d decided how best to respond.

She thanked Aduviri later at camp, but he?d brushed off her words. Even he seemed to feel contempt for her and her quest. She couldn?t put it all down to the inherent sexism of their culture. Had the guides been raised by the Slerc or by their proxies, the Angels? Aduviri certainly had lived among the Angles for many years, learning their language and culture. Could he be poisoning the others against her?

What would Michelle do? What would she do if she thought her guides were intentionally hindering her? Janet wasn?t certain, but in her mind it involved a gun. Or maybe that was just a comforting thought, separate of Michelle?s imaginary wisdom. The problem was what to do after you drew a gun. Once you?d turned it into an openly antagonistic relationship, then you couldn?t sleep. Ever. Not if you were the only person on your side.

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. That might not be what Michelle would do, but maybe it was what her guides were doing – keeping her closer. But did she win anything by dismissing them? Would she be best served by letting these men, who knew a lot about her operations, location and directions run free? Perhaps she needed to keep her enemies closer too. For now, at least.

She vowed to get up earlier, press on harder, force them to move at her pace, not allow them to dictate her movements or speed. That?s what Michelle would do. (531 Words)

Not only does this version tell a better story, it advances the plot in more ways (Aduviri?s character arc is just beginning). It also lessens the coarseness of the original piece, and reaffirms, although subtly, that Janet is not white.

The text still isn?t perfect. I even did two edits to it as I was re-reading it for this blog entry. The line ?She hoped it would serve her well, this mantra.? is still clunky. I haven?t decided if ?She hoped it would serve her well.? is better than ?She hoped this mantra would serve her well.?

Is this important? Individually, the small things like which version of the sentence is better aren?t important, but in the big picture of building a well-crafted story, yes, these little decisions add up – to either a good or bad reader experience.

It seems like every old science fiction show is getting a reboot, except perhaps one or two that would actually be good. There have been a few shows that were either ahead of their time or whose premises were so good, that they’ve already been rebooted – The Prisoner comes to mind. And there have been TV shows that have been rebooted despite their reputations – Lost in Space anyone?

But there are a couple of shows that deserve to have reboots – because they had strong story ideas and were just a little ahead of the technology needed to present them well. Let’s look at those:

Max Headroom

First shown in the UK in 1985, then tweaked and shown in the US in 1987, Max headroom was a show whose premise was:

In the dystopic near future, a crusading TV reporter investigates news stories with the help of a wisecracking computer version of himself. (IMDB)

The show tackled issues like media manipulation, corporate greed, the surveillance society and the extreme distribution of wealth. Although how we got to the state of the world shown within was not directly addressed, you were left to believe that the root cause was all of the above.

The show?s limited budget was mostly spent on simple computer graphics and paying the actors (Matt Frewer – later of Eureka, Amanda Pays and Jeffery Tambor). Watching the series now, you see the potential written all over it, even as you laugh at the sets and the technology.

U.F.O.

This 1969 TV show, about a secret war between an Earth-wide military organization called SHADO and aliens could easily be seen as the precursor (or back story) to the X-Files, had Mulder discovered an actual human resistance to the aliens instead of cover-up upon tiring cover-up.

Set in the near future (1980!) the show was told from the perspective of the commander of the Human forces, Ed Straker (Ed Bishop). The alien?s intent was never clearly spelled out, although at one point, they appeared to be harvesting human organs. Humanity has three lines of defence – a moon base with interceptors, a fighter on the nose of a submarine that can be launched anywhere in the world, and moble ground units – kind of like minivan tanks.

One of the main criticisms of this show, and one that I?ve never understood was that its creator, Gerry Anderson, made Thunderbirds (which rated a live-action reboot!) and other Supermarionation TV shows and therefore a live action show by him couldn?t be good. It was. And its planned sequel, Space 1999, went on to find the audience that U.F.O. deserved.

There have been a few attempts to reboot U.F.O. most recently in the 2010-2012 time period, where there was a movie project under development that had Joshua Jackson?s name attached to it. It was even listed on IMDB for a while, and had a promo poster, shown above. Alas, it came to nothing.

~ sgp

UPDATED Given the topic of how a singular death can change history, people usually jump to Archduke Franz Ferdinand?s assassination, which precipitated what eventually became known as World War I. But any historian I?ve spoken to has said that the war was inevitable and that Ferdinand?s death merely escalated the timeline by a few months.

Let?s look at a much more modern situation, one that could have consequences in our lifetimes. Joe Biden?s son?s death may be seen in hindsight as one that changed the course of history.

Joe Biden Jr., had every intent of running for the presidency. It was his time, his turn. He had started a charm campaign to bring himself out of POTUS? shadow. He was playing up his sense of humour, and his fatherly role for the public to absorb. He had shown himself to be a team player as Obama?s VP, and he had the fiery rapscallion nature that appealed to the McCain conservative crowd.

Then, in May of 2015, his son, Joe III (called Beau) died of brain cancer, and Joe went into a deep mourning.  I?ve never lost a child, though I have lost a parent. I understand the deep funk that comes from such mourning.

Joe Biden Jr., decided to sit out the Democratic primaries, and possibly, just possibly, history was changed.

What would a Joe Biden candidacy have looked like? In the primaries, it would have given the status quo a second champion, possibly dividing Hillary?s support. It could very easily have given the Bernie Sanders campaign a few more wins, and if those wins had been early enough, momentum to take the nomination away from Hillary.

Could Joe Biden have been the candidate? Sure. he?s less tainted than Hillary. There could have been a mass exodus of her supporters to him.

I?d pay good money to see a Joe Biden / Donald Trump debate. If Trump had said any of his stupid lines to Biden, or denied his own words on stage, Joe would have called him out, laughing at him. I don?t know how Trump would handle that, but it would have been fun to see. There?s a fifty percent chance it would have come to fisticuffs.

Would Bernie have beaten Trump? Maybe. There were a lot of polls that said yes, but that was based on first impressions. Would a Bernie/Trump race have had more substance? Probably not. Trump would have been as bombastic as ever, but this time throwing words like ?commie? and ?socialist? around.

Would Joe have beaten Trump. I think most certainly so. Fiscal conservatives would probably have been happy enough with Joe to have voted for him instead of the loose cannon Trump.

But we?ll never know, because of one unfortunate death.

UPDATE: Joe Biden agrees with me.

Remember the poster in Mulder?s office in the X-Files? ?I Want to Believe? it declared over the image of a UFO. Well, truly, I want to believe, too.

Star Trek Beyond has been on my mind a lot lately. Paramount?s treatment of Star Trek, and specifically the JJ Abrams reboot of the concept in 2009, has been irritating me more and more. I know I?m not alone. You see it on Reddit, you see it in film sites. People aren?t happy with how the franchise has been treated in the JJ Trek universe and much of that unhappiness came into focus with the first trailer for Star Trek Beyond.

There are many sundry complaints, I won?t enumerate them here.

But a few things have happened recently that offer optimism. The May 20th fan event offered, if not a mea culpa by Paramount, then at least a nod to correcting what had gone wrong before. Beyond the symbolic naming of a street in the Paramount lot after Leonard Nimoy, there were some other positive signs.

Paramount?s lawsuit against a fan film has infuriated a cross-section of the fandom, as the fan film, Axanar, seemed to be hewing truer to Trek tradition than Beyond was. Paramount addressed that in two ways. First, JJ Abrams announced that director Justin Lin had personally stepped in on Axanar?s behalf and that a compromise of some sort was imminent. If all goes well, we may yet get Axanar, something that seemed unlikely days earlier. Second, the new trailer for Star Trek Beyond showed a different side to the film, one that played closer to old Trek conventions.

It?s too early on both counts to jump up and down, to celebrate, but damn, I Want to Believe. Here?s a couple of images I made encompassing that idea. They?re free to share non-commercially, if you’re interested, but not to profit off of.

Why do some creepy songs fail to get a reputation for being creepy? Whenever you mention the topic of creepy love songs, everyone brings up ?Every Breath You Take? by the Police. But there are worse, and you probably know some of them. in fact, you probably like some of them. Let?s look at three of them: Cherish by the Association; Take a Letter, Maria by R.B. Greaves and To Be With You by Mr. Big.

Cherish by the Association, was released in 1966, so it?s the oldest song here. If you don?t know it, listen here – it?s very pleasant. It just happens to be about a guy stalking a pretty girl and wishing that he could mold her into someone who would be attracted to him. yeah, nothing creepy there.

Take a Letter, Maria is almost as old, released in 1969. The song is about a man who believes that he?s caught his wife cheating, so he decides to run off with his secretary – after dictating his divorce announcement to her, for her to type up and send his wife. There are some weird innuendos in the song, suggesting that he may have strayed first, but hell hath no fury like a cuckolded man. He?s so mad, he?ll write a letter – well, his secretary will write a letter, then he’ll sleep with her.

Mr Big?s To Be With You is probably my least liked song (beating out Trio?s Da Da Da). This song is flat out creepy, yet everyone treats it like a love song. Does he ever say he loves her? No. Does he ever say ?you and me forever?? No. Does he ever say anything other than ?I?m the next in line to be with you?? No. What does that mean, ?Next in Line to be with you?? It means that he sees her as a commodity that can be experienced if you wait long enough – hey, my number?s next! Woohoo!

Now reading up on this song for this article, I noticed that the song was written by a teenager who had a crush on his older sister?s friend, and that makes the song somewhat more forgivable. But this isn?t a song that adults, or anyone mature, should embrace as anything other than teenage horniness.

I?m sure there other creepy songs (Radiohead?s Creep is a bit too obvious). The video for Justin Timberlake?s What Come Around made the song creepier, since he?s basically stalking and perving on Britney Spears in that one.

What songs creep you out?

Star Wars (1977) introduced us to many interesting characters, among them, a perhaps under-appreciated C-3P0. In the original trilogy, Threepio had agency. he had purpose, and he played a key role in bringing down the empire. Threepio doesn?t always make wise decisions, but he does keep the action moving forward (or at least keep up with it). He?s intelligent, articulate, the intellectual partner of R2-D2. He tells R2 what to do, gives directions (?Come on, R2, we?re going?) and takes initiative – talking his way past the guards in the security room of the Death Star.

So what went wrong?

Our very first introduction to C-3PO was in the Tantive IV as she was being attacked. Threepio was one of two protocol droids escorting an astromech (not that we knew this, just that there were three droids – two human looking ones and a small trashcan). So, the first thing we learned about Threepio was that he was not unique. The two droids made the comedic sidekick roll, although it?s not as often as you  may remember. Much of their reputation for comedy came after the film, in appearances and analysis of the Campbellian rolls that needed to be assigned.

This mostly continued in The Empire Strikes Back (1980), although being separated from R2 for most of the film meant that he had to play comic relief off of random partners – Han and Chewie mostly. Threepio started the film intelligently, if pessimistically, trying to comfort the princess when Luke and Han both go missing.

It was his disbelief in R2, mixed with egocentrism, in the last reel of Empire that seemed both misplaced and the turning point in our interpretation of Threepio. Now he was whiny, ineffectual. it was a reputation that would stick in spite of his work in Return of the Jedi.

Jedi (1983) starts by reinforcing the new dynamic. R2 is wise, trusted, competent. Threepio is cowardly, incompetent: not to be trusted with plans. Perhaps from a story-teller?s perspective the whole Jabba?s fortress sequence would have been less suspenseful if there wasn?t someone raising doubts. But Threepio wasn?t just raising doubts, he was intentionally clueless.

Later in the movie, Threepio appears to have a redeeming moment. Han and Leia have been captured by imperial troops. The rebel plan to destroy the forcefield, allowing their allies to attack the incomplete Death Star, has been stopped dead in its tracks. Except? Threepio, and the Ewoks have a plan. (I want to call it a cunning plan in full Baldrick voice). Their tactics of surprise win out the day, and the rebels win! Yay Threepio!

But the only ones congratulating him at the end of the film are the Ewoks. You know, the wookie stand-ins that everyone dismissed as marketing toys.

Threepio?s already been written off by the humans.

Chronologically, we now go back to Episode I, The Phantom Menace and (incidentally) Threepio?s origin story.

Anakin Skywalker built Threepio.

Wait! What? Wasn?t Threepio one of many protocol droids? Haven?t we seen others throughout the original trilogy? Anakin made him? Anakin? Threepio really has nothing to do in this film except say hello and disappear. R2?s origin story is also presented, and matchng the evolution of the first trilogy, it?s a hero?s story full of bravery and overcoming the odds. R2 stays with the main characters and continues his hero?s journey. Threepio gets left in slavery with Anakin?s mother.

Attack of the Clones manages to reunite Threepio with Anakin and eventually R2-D2, but otherwise, his presence is a wash. When the two droids do perform their role of comic relief, it’s always in the context of heroic R2 and incompetent Threepio.

Revenge of the Sith sees Threepio playing nursemaid to Amadala (Another discarded character). Threepio may have had a whole minute on the screen.

When did he change from this whiny creature in films I-III into the competent droid we saw in IV? And why was this competency constantly undermined? If this is a character arc – he’s growing into a competent member of the team – then Episode VII should have a very competent Threepio.

In The Force Awakens we get prequel trilogy Threepio. Now he?s self-centred and oblivious to the undercurrent around him (To be fair, you could say that about his actions in the middle parts of Empire also). Popping his head between the estranged couple, interrupting their reunion? surely that?s NOT what a protocol droid would do. Maybe we should blame his red arm.

I knew going into The Force Awakens that R2 would be taking a back seat to BB-8. I didn?t expect Threepio to have a large part, but just being a whiny background character in a handful of wide shots?

Threepio deserved better. Thoughts?