NaNoWriMo 2008 - chapter 1

[miriam_e]

I have begun my story for NaNoWriMo 2008. It is called Critically Damaged and you can find it at
http://miriam-english.org/stories/critically-damaged/index.html

It is not a science fiction story in the normal sense. It does contain some elements you'd normally think of as science fiction, but it is set in the current day, the technology is not central to the story, and I believe the things mentioned could be built now anyway. Certainly I know a number of groups are working on it.

My description may be too vague, but I'm loathe to give too much away:

It can take years to create an intricate masterwork.
When it is done, what is its value? And who can say?

So far only the short prologue is up there.
1 - prologue

I hope to post another chapter every 3 or 4 days.

I'd appreciate any comments.

Comments

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

Yay! Thank you. :)

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I hope you enjoy. It will be quite different to what I normally write.

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

:) Well I hope I enjoy too but I feel pretty confident I will. :)

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Gee I love that icon. What is it about cats that affects us so deeply, I wonder?

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

Well I know my kitty is soft and cuddly and playful and sometimes mean and very often kind and seems to have no self consciousness about any of it. She's just herself and she loves me and I love her and it is good. Also cats seem very intelligent much of the time (at least to me) but they don't seem to carry the burden of thinking too much the way humans do. It's nice.
Oh and they're also beautiful and graceful. Really, what's not to like? :)

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

All that applies to crows too. People don't have the same reaction to seeing them though. It has always puzzled me that something so very non-human can be the object of human love the way cats are.

In the past I'd theorised that perhaps people who didn't irrationally love cats tended to die out in antiquity because of rodent-borne diseases. Though of course that's one of those things that is pure speculation and could never be proved, and likewise unlikely to be disproved.

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

Cuddly applies to crows?
Have you been able to cuddle a crow? If so I'm jealous.
Crows rock.
I'm thinking though the very fact that kitties like to be affectionate toward us is reason enough for us to like em. We like cuddles and people liking us.
Also there's something about their big eyes and soft fur. :)
Oh and there is how they are incredibly good at relaxing. Always inspires me to be blissfully lazy. Always has me wondering why I'm not.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Okay... maybe not cuddly... :)

I'm sure the big eyes help, though deep sea fish have big eyes and look like nightmares and owls' big eyes just look startled. The fur is probably part of the attraction, but still doesn't explain anything. Humans are not covered by fur. How could we find it attractive?

Plenty of animals like to be affectionate towards us (pet rats, parrots, pigs) and like cuddles.

It still puzzles me that we have this intense attraction to something so alien as a cat. Those sharp teeth and claws and the ease with which they can draw blood, the lack of any faithfulness in most cats, the inscrutable nature of their minds, and the great gulf that separates their language from ours. All this makes cats unlikely candidates for the adoration we all feel for them.

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

You know kitties have never felt alien or foreign to me. But I was raised with em, so maybe there's something to that.
Honestly all these things you mention seem like attractive qualities to me, for example: " the inscrutable nature of their minds". A mind we will give up trying to figure out, that, really can be a blessing. We know we'll never know what's in their mind so unlike with humans we won't waste too much time worrying about it. One less thing to worry about that still cuddles us.
The way they draw blood easily? Perhaps we wish we could, cause we know we could but we know we pretty much won't but often want to, perhaps it's just a bit of living through them that we do as they do what we feel we cannot.
The big eyes thing, well I do think that helps, especially as they don't look like nightmares but do look a way that humans do call beautiful. I've read that it's been theorized that big eyes in relation to the size of face is one of the reasons we are less likely to hurt children. It's the "cuteness" factor.
Obviously can't be the only reason, but I bet it helps and it might be at play with cats too.

Beyond all that though, my cat is one of my very best friends. It's really that simple. She is good to be around and fun and funny and she clearly likes me and is kind to me, especially so if I'm feeling really down (which thankfully isn't all that much these days). She's willing to be my friend and I hers. :)

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Cuteness is undoubtedly part of it, but why would inscrutable, fluffy little alien killing machines that hate water appear cute to hairless, aquatic, social apes? On the surface of it, it doesn't seem to make sense.

I know you can describe all the factors that you feel when you are near your cat. I feel the same way when I visit my ex- who has a gorgeous cat who has helped her numerous times when she's been suicidally depressed. But the description, although interesting in itself -- and I find myself nodding and smiling in agreement when reading your list above -- is not actually an explanation of the affection we feel for these amazing creatures. In fact I wonder if an explanation is even possible. I gotta admit the puzzle is almost as attractive to me as the cute felines themselves. :)

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

Hmm, some felines do like water. Tigers and jaguars and fishing cats and such. Even some house cats.
Personally I just think they have superior grace and I think humans recognize that.
Hell, if we're gonna start asking such questions, why are trees so beautiful, or the sky or the land or.. anything really?
But anyway, beauty is and yes its a mystery and that's fine. :)

The icon, by the way, is a clouded leopard. That's a wild type kitty.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Yes. I must admit I'm swayed by the idea that proportions and grace have some part to play, but those don't explain me going all gooey at the sight of a cat's face.

What is weirder is that I think cats are gorgeous, but one of the few repeated nightmares I have is being pursued through the bush by big cats. I invariably wake dripping with sweat from those dreams because we are utterly defenceless against big cats. They run, climb, even swim, faster than us -- and they are born murderers. Yet I am deeply attracted to them and see them as intensely beautiful. Weird, huh?

Why are trees so beautiful, or the sky, or the land? :) Those are easier to explain. We are wonderful learning machines. As such an incentive to find wonder and enjoyment in the world around us is a perfectly natural survival trait. But yes. I'm sure it's part of the same question.

Probably the big cat I find most beautiful is the cheetah. Those elegant legs and slender body, the teardrop face markings... [sigh]

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

You know, I'm thinking you have a particular kind of orientation to the kitties.
To me they've always felt like kin. Yes they're beautiful and admirable and such, but I don't actually go gooey over em. At least not in the way it sounds that you do. Also I'd never call em "born murderers". That sounds just too human a concept for one and when I think of them, I just don't think that. Even though my kitty would be an incredible huntress if/when she got the chance.
Nor do I have such nightmares.
Which is only to say that we are different.
Which I only point out really because, well I don't think if we could explain humans attraction to em that by explaining that we could explain your orientation to em.
It seems rather particular.
Also some people really don't like cats. Those people seem to be the ones that like dogs more, or so I've noticed.
But in any case I can't explain it even if there does seem to be plenty of reasons.

Were you the woo type person I'd suggest having a dialogue with cheetah. See what she/he wants to tell you. But that's a rather woo idea, I know, so I suspect it won't attract you.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

You're right. I do have a soft spot for cats. It is similar to the soft affection I have for all life, particularly animal life. I even find it heart-rending to kill insects. This feels to me to be a very sensible way to be. However a few animals hold special attraction for me, beyond what seems reasonable or logical. Cats are such animals. It is a mystery to me that I could respond so positively to it when I see a well-fed cat hunt, catch, and torment a smaller animal to death. I know they are not responsible for it, but surely that cruelty would cancel out the pleasure I get drinking them in with my eyes, or stroking and playing with a cat. But it doesn't. I adore dogs too, but in a different way. I don't think I've ever met a dog that approaches being as beautiful in appearance or movement that the most ordinary cat is. Dogs give me pleasure through their wonderful minds -- the way they are so amazingly well-fitted to us (or are we fitted to them?).

Heheheh :) I suspect I'm really a "woo" type person, but my science background has largely supplanted it.

I appreciate this conversation. It helps me think this through much more... though I expect never to actually solve it.

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

:)
Yah, well beauty and ferocity aren't mutually exclusive. As you've noticed.
I do think dogs are wonderful in their way, as you do. But yes, I'm much more attracted to the felines as well.
Now my boo, I think he feels the opposite. He favors the canines, even while certain felines have and do hold place in his heart. Though really he likes animals in general far more than he likes humans. He's kind enough not to mention it to most humans though. :)

Hmm, with the woo, I've got so many perspectives on it.
One can always just use the woo type stuff from a psychological Jungian type angle.
Like, one could dialogue with cheetah (or whomever) as an aspect of our own psyches, and see then what we're trying to tell ourselves.

:) I like talking with you too. Thank you.