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

[qu-is.livejournal.com]

nice. would love to have one of those gadgets btw.
I like the references to europeans wanting to change aus rather then loving it - they tried to make it familiar. Ironic that their decedents are so obstinate about wanting new immigrants to integrate into the 'aus culture'.
Looking forward to reading more.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :)
I'd love one of those gadgets too. Even better gadgets to come later in the story. :)

Hoping to post the current chapter in a couple of days. I'm running waaaay behind. But I will definitely finish this story. The more I write, the more I enjoy it.

Yes. We Australians often seem to live in a surrogate Europe, abstractly liking Australia only from afar. It drives me to utter distraction. And, yes, don't get me started on the dopes who say immigrants should adopt "Australian" culture. What such fools don't seem to have noticed is that there is no Australian culture. We mostly hate the true Australia, and when imbeciles like our former prime minister talk of Australia he is pointing to the European landmarks like the Sydney Opera House designed and built by Europeans here, or the vast tracts of eroded land cleared by white settlers. (The earlier humans aren't blameless either. In their 60,000 years of farming the landscape with fire they weakened the topsoil and altered the ecology to an explosively flammable one, after exterminating all the large animals.)

I have to say that there are increasing numbers of people who do like the Australian landscape now and do want to save it. I grew up in the bush and I can't imagine living anywhere else. It is just wonderful here (other than the flammability problem). Wild horses couldn't drag me back to the city again.

Aus culture

[revbobbob.livejournal.com]

As an Ameican, I don't have a dog in that fight. We have no culture. At all.

Re: Aus culture

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Actually, I don't entirely agree with you. I don't think there's much US culture, but I do think it exists. There are a number of pleasant aspects, like "valley girl speak" (it was much maligned at the time, but I always loved) which became so much a part of US culture and even spread out internationally. You can see some precursors of it in the wonderful writings of O'Henry and the way he played with words. More recently Joss Whedon has helped to carry that torch too.

Idolising cars, particularly big cars, is a peculiarity of US culture (which unfortunately has spread to Australia). It spawned the road movie, and drive-in services, among other things. Of course this love of impractical vehicles is showing itself as less benign than one would have thought some decades ago.

And there is the less pleasant side: the warrior culture, which seems to suffuse so much of life over there. Guns, instead of being seen as horrid devices used to kill and maim, are often presented as sexual objects (look at any James Bond movie). Even worse, the strong military culture in US means that being a mass murderer should be a point of shame, yet the most exploitative, antisocial, large-scale acts of destruction somehow get excused again and again using nothing more than the Nuremberg defense: "I was just following orders". That is a very dangerous part of US culture. With great power comes great responsibility, but the US seems to have embraced the power without caring much about the responsibility... like Rome, before it.

Re: Aus culture

[(Anonymous)]

I found one more bit of American culture, or at least I think it is: kitteh - the language lolcats speak. But any more it's worldwide. Kind of like the Four Tops, but much sillier.

/me expects a chapter of the novel to be written in kitteh.

BAI!

Re: Aus culture

[revbobbob.livejournal.com]

Hai, That was me. Sorry. Switched web browsers.

Re: Aus culture

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

heheh I guessed.

By the way, I thought of some more US culture: Blues music. That was a new development that had incredible ramifications around the world as it gave rise to Rock'n'Roll and many other forms.

Re: Aus culture

[revbobbob.livejournal.com]

What if one day we decided that instead of choosing to fight a war in one place instead of fighting it in another place, we choose not to fight a war in *any* place? What if we decided that none of us are free until all of us are free? What if we decided that getting along with other nations doesn't just mean setting it up that corporations will do better, it means setting it up so that people will do better?

Re: Aus culture

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

You represent one of the reasons why even with all that is so scary in the US I still have a lot of time and affection for the people over there. The US may have some of the nuttiest, most power-crazed kooks on the planet, but it also has some of the most well-informed and sane ones too. You, dear Bob, are one of the ones I'm proud to consider a friend.

Re: Aus culture

[revbobbob.livejournal.com]

I don't think of you just as a friend, but as one of the best people I know. Why are you reading this and not writing MOAR "CRITICALLY DAMIDGED"?

Soft smiles from my Teddy bear to yours.