Story Time

original cover art by Alejandro de Cañedo

I'm fascinated by the process of story telling. Sharing stories is a core element of the human condition and I like to imagine that the earliest humans made use of stories as a fundamental tool for exploring the strange and mysterious world they found themselves in.

On the time scale of human evolution, written stories are a relatively recent invention. I'm not at all convinced that books (novels) are the best medium for telling stories, so I like to experiment with online software tools such as blogs that provide new ways of sharing stories.

Hyperstories

split brain

The human brain is a connection machine. In some sense, the human brain is a network of connected modules. Experiments with "split brain patients" suggest that it is normal for humans to "be of two minds". If we have multiple consciousnesses, only one of which dominates the flow of our autobiographical memory system, then we must ask: should a good story appeal to our entire mind? If so, then maybe a good story must simultaneously function on multiple levels.

Linearity

cover art by Michael Whelan

A danger in story telling arises from letting your linear left brain take control of the story telling process. We have the ability to reduce any phenomenon to a linear story, but in so doing, we may destroy the higher dimensional structure of what we are trying to describe. But what if our human brains are not suited for dealing which higher dimensional problems and stories? M. A. Foster explored the idea that genetic engineering could be used to create "the next humanoid", a human variant that could more efficiently deal with complex multidimensional problems.

Exode
I've been exploring the idea that "the Editor" could act as an organizing focus for a collection of story tellers who would, as a group effort, tell the story of the Exode Saga. However, I have begun to doubt the wisdom of using a narrative structure that is built mostly upon the limited perspective of the Editor.

See the original (1962) cover
art by Johannes Bruck

I can't stop myself from wondering: why not have multiple narrative threads, with a story that can "simultaneously" be told from several perspectives that are distinct from my own?

Overseers vs Interventionists
In the Exodemic Fictional Universe there is a billion-year-old struggle between Interventionists (bumpha) and Overseers (pek). The Editor must struggle with doubts about the wisdom of allowing Interventionists to alter the historical timeline of Earth. The Editor knows that some sympathizers of the Interventionist cause (such as Ivory Fersoni) have been forcibly removed from Earth so as to prevent them from revealing forbidden secrets to Earthlings. On the other hand, the Editor cannot abide the idea that self-appointed tryp'At Overseers have taken it upon themselves to decide what we humans can learn about alien visitors to Earth.

original cover art by Dirk Schulz

Golden Braid
Would it be possible to create an introductory description of the Overseer-Interventionist dynamic and then allow readers to explore along three different narrative paths:
1) that of the "neural observers" such as Parthney and the Editor
2) that of Interventionists such as Ivory who are certain that Earthlings should be better informed
3) that of Overseers such as the tryp'At Overseers who have no intention of letting folks like Ivory run wild.

Image source
prepared for publication by the Dead Widowers

My natural instinct has been to paint the Overseers as incompetents who must allow the Interventionists just enough "wiggle room" to make changes to the timeline of Earth.

Laziness
My avoidance of taking the tryp'At Overseers seriously is a form of laziness. There must be an interesting story behind the origin of the tryp'At and how a small cadre of try'At took control of Observer Base. Originally, the tryp'At were crafted in order to make it possible to station agents on Earth: agents controlled by the pek, but biologically indistinguishable from ordinary Earthlings.

What if a group of tryp'At agents became "renegades" and began playing the role of Earth Overseers, even though the terms of the Trysta-Grean Pact had originally specified that Observer Base would be decommissioned in the Final Reality?

The Making of a Replicoid
The original replicoids were tools of R. Gohrlay and her cadre of positronic robots. After Grean and the Kac'hin took control of Eternity, they adapted replicoids for their own needs. The Asimov replicoid who travels to Tar'tron was "manufactured" as a replicoid in Eternity.

spy

I've toyed with the idea of an introductory scene during which Asimov's replicoid is on board Many Sails before reaching Tar'tron. However, it might be better to have a tryp'At spy inside Eternity notice the creation of Asimov's replicoid and bring that event to the attention of the tryp'At Council. After Asimov's replicoid has had a chance to interact with the Council and learn their "side of the story", Many Sails could arrive and take Asimov's replicoid off to Tar'tron.

Next: The X-Files: Season 11.

visit the Gallery of Book and Magazine Covers