flying: chapter 10 - artist

[miriam_e]

I have actually had this chapter finished for a week or more, but have been distracted with lots of other things. Yesterday I finally got around to checking it for superficial errors and posted it to my site.

As always it is at:

http://miriam-english.org/stories/flying/index.html

Please let me know what you think.

As I did last time I'll remind you of what has passed before, in the manner of television shows.

NOTE: Don't read the following if you have not read earlier chapters. These spoilers will ruin the story for you.

Previously on flying:

Christine is a schoolgirl who often has flying dreams. She meets another girl who is able to move through solid objects, but Christine fears she is trapped in a dream because both abilities defy physics. They are pursued by people who eliminate Christine, however she is not killed, but ejected from what turns out to be a virtual world. In Crossroads, a virtual world that serves as a kind of index for millions of other worlds she is met by Webster who helps her. He takes her to Indigo who fits her with knowledge about how things really are. Now she visits the real world, hoping to find somewhere she can fit in. There she is met by Natka, an android who takes her on a walk through the forest to a human settlement. There she is given a hut of her own, and tomorrow her new friend, Liana, will show her the art she creates.

Comments

[greylock]

Webster who helps her.

I see what you did there.

I haven't read this, and I don't intend to (for lots of reasons), but have you seen the anime Serial Experiments: Lain?

I never got too far in (it is not the kind of thing you should watch stoned since it makes you feel stoned anyway) but it seems in the same park where more active children might play ball.

[miriam_e]

I see what you did there.

Ummm... I'm not sure what you mean.

Yes, I've seen Serial Experiments: Lain. I enjoyed it, although it was a bit more creepy than I prefer my fiction to be. Also it was very ambiguous, which made it hard to follow -- I like to be able to understand things.

My story is very different from that. It has a young girl as the main character, yes. And it plays with the concept of reality, yes. But I do my utmost to avoid creepiness and ambiguity. It is intended as an old-style hard-SF story. Even though it has a small minority of characters who are not nice I try to maintain a generally upbeat story that has some genuinely good (and hopefully important) things to say about life and the nature of humanity and what we value about the world.

[greylock]

Ummm... I'm not sure what you mean.

Webster? Source if Information? Webster's Dictionary?

although it was a bit more creepy than I prefer my fiction to be.

I think we may be on totally different waves in media. I seem to like the stuff you don't.

[miriam_e]

Webster... Ah. I see. It wasn't actually my intention, but I remember thinking of the association and wondering if it was a bad idea, but thinking that's it's just a name. I normally put a great deal of effort into choosing names that don't have meanings. (In "Prescription" the names were chosen in an alphabetic sequence so that if anybody thought a name had meaning I could just point out the alphabetic sequence. I should have probably been a bit more careful about names in "Flying". Though, I guess Webster could have chosen his name and it could have meaning for him -- I don't mind that. Sometimes I make up an elaborate backstory for characters so that I have a better idea of their motivations, but I didn't with him.

I sometimes like creepy stuff, though it is almost always for other reasons. I will put up with creepiness to get the other good stuff. A perfect example was "X-Files". It was full of illogical, creepy, conspiracy theory, but I still think it was a ground-breaking show because of its lighting, understated acting, and astonishingly inventive plots. It continually remade itself, yet had no problem with returning occasionally to the more simple story structure that had made it a success. And from time to time even made fun of itself (like some of the best episodes, such as "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" and "Bad Blood"). Yes, it was creepy, but it brought so much more to the table that it was worth putting up with the heebie-jeebies. :)

[greylock]

Webster... Ah. I see. It wasn't actually my intention, but I remember thinking of the association and wondering if it was a bad idea, but thinking that's it's just a name.

That, or the 'lil black kid from the '80s sitcom.
I'm tempted to say Emmanuel Lewis.

Yes, it was creepy, but it brought so much more to the table that it was worth putting up with the heebie-jeebies. :)

Have you seen Fringe? It's a bit X-Files. More brightly lit, but when it is brilliant it knocks it out of the ballpark.
It also looks at Flukeman from X-Files, sneers, and says "You think that's sick/gross/creepy?", so it might not be your thing.