What Is Even Happening Right Now?

So, astute readers will have noticed that I've been completely silent since February. Where'd I go for three months? This is going to be rambling and less focused than my usual posts, but perhaps my readers will forgive it.

Content warning: pet death, current events

Well...frankly, I haven't been able to figure out how to write about what's been going on. Despite years of editing and writing science fiction, including stories about or related to pandemics, actually enduring one myself was not something I seriously considered. I mean, I grew up in the era of both SARS and H1N1, the latter of which I actually contracted. It was a bit scary, and it sucked, but the deaths were relatively few in number, and fewer still, those who developed serious complications.

Now, I realise the case was different for those living in Hong Kong and China and South-East Asia in general, but that was my experience as a Canadian. I trusted the medical system to handle a disease of significant scale. 

How fact and fiction differ

For starters, the contagiousness of a disease is inversely proportional to its ability to spread. This is something that sci fi usually gets completely wrong - diseases are portrayed as both easy to catch and very deadly. But an extremely deadly disease usually burns itself out. Bubonic plague was an exception to this in part because the way diseases spread in the ancient world is different from the way they spread now - there were a lot more vectors back then because of the lack of knowledge about hygiene. There may be more opportunities to spread diseases now due to the increased population size and contact methods, but human beings have far less contact with blood, other animal species, and each others' bodily fluids than we used to. We know that washing our hands is even a thing we should do, rather than just a cosmetic or convenience factor, and we have functioning sewage and water lines (in many parts of the world, though not all, of course). The world is a lot less gross than it was in earlier eras, and frankly, that's protecting us more than we realise. 

Not enough, of course, to keep us from contacting new bacteria and viruses, and global warming is also increasing our risk of contracting ancient illnesses for which we no longer have immunity. 

The practical upshot

Of course, all of this is intellectually interesting, but living through a pandemic is still flat-out terrifying and hard to deal with. I was already following the news avidly, fearful and concerned about the world, and then...this all happened. 

But that wasn't all. On April 4th, our cat Maxwell Maximilian Maximus passed away, having a heart attack at the age of about 12. We rushed him to the vet's office, but were told it was too late, and he was in heart failure. I'll skip the painful details, but his sudden death shook both my partner and I quite badly. We later realised he'd had his first heart attack in late November, and had actually been in heart failure for some time, but the benefit of hindsight is a sad one. 

Still, having a cat for almost his entire life was a privilege and a joy. Because I hysterically demanded that we fill the "cat-shaped hole" in our home as soon as possible, with tears still on our faces, we went to the non-profit Humane Society to have a look at their cats. I can't recommend that enough for anyone grieving a lost pet - the joy animals have and their appreciation for human company is immense. After a few more visits and some discussion, about three weeks later, we brought home Alfred (Alfred Sylvester Codworth) and Chester (Chesterfield Archer Chestermere), a dignified 4yo tuxedo Ragamuffin-mix and a bouncy 10mo shorthaired tuxedo respectively, both with light green eyes. They get along wonderfully, and although new pets absolutely never replace the old, they made grieving a lot easier. 

Cat pictures, because of course. Top: Chester; bottom: Alfred.

Alfred, named for his calm and butler-like solicitiousness, even seemed to figure out what happened to Maxwell. Of course the house still smelled of Max (to the cats), and coming fresh from the shelter, they started investigating to see where the other cat might be. On Alfred's first day at our home, he sniffed the area by the bookshelf in the bedroom where Max had spent most of his time crouching, and seemed to follow the scent trail to the closet where Max hid in fear (an unusual place, one he never spent time in) when the heart attack was happening. Animals instinctively know the smell of death, and Alfred must have recognised it at some point. He somberly padded from the closet to myself on the carpet by the bed. I burst into tears and hugged him, and the calm creature patiently let me sob into his luxuriant black fur. 

Since then, of course, things have been markedly less glum, and less painfully quiet than during the two weeks and a bit before we brought them home. It seemed like things were looking up. With a 290K fantasy novel to work on, I had professional occupation aplenty to boot. I even re-started my online D&D campaign, feeling that it might help me stay motivated and connected to the world. 

But the world had other plans. 

Current situation, protests

Although I've been planning a blog post on Things I've Been Wrong About, such as police reform, I am in many ways not especially well-equipped to speak on the epidemic of police violence and decades of racial injustice that has provoked Black Lives Matter's triumphant resurgence. Suffice to say for now that I fully support these efforts, and I now understand why merely reforming police is inadequate. I will be writing more about some of thoughts about this and other leftist issues in the future, so I'll keep it short for the time being. 

You'd think that writing about revolutions would equip me to handle living through one to some degree, but I don't feel especially well-prepared. If I am better prepared than I would have been otherwise, it's hard to say. The truth is, the world's been in a rough spot for as long as I can remember, and by the world, I mostly mean "America," the loudest part. I also am considering a post about what it's been like to grow up as a Millennial, for the purposes of contrasting it with the Gen Z experience, so look for that in the coming weeks. 

Do I think this is the apocalypse? 

Well, the apocalypse is never the end of the entire world, because that's meaningless - if by "the world" we mean "our experience and lifestyle up to this point," then yes, this is an apocalypse - but we've had those before. The start of the Cold War, the First and Second World Wars, the invasion of North America by Europeans - all of those were apocalypses. 

But I also believe that these painful contractions are spasms of death for some of our worst beliefs. The fact that people can even demand justice and be listened to is a significant step forward. However, not resting on our laurels or being content with crumbs is of vital importance, and any momentum gained from demanding either the abolition or restructuring of the police has to be used to demand the restructuring and abolition of prisons and other measures for creating equity. 

There's a lot of work to come. We have to stick together, forgive each other sometimes, keep learning, and take time to rest, because the world just won't stop. 

***

Michelle Browne is a sci fi/fantasy writer and editor. She lives in Lethbridge, AB with her partner-in-crime and their two cats. Her days revolve around freelance editing, knitting, jewelry, and learning too much. She is currently working on other people’s manuscripts, the next books in her series, and drinking as much tea as humanly possible.

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Dark World Sci Fi, Part 3: The Long-Awaited Conclusion

Hello hello!

Well, I promised to examine a new theory on why we’re so into the idea of the end being very nigh indeed. I don’t think it’s merely a natural follow-through of the zombie trend, and in spite of the influences from 40s, 80s, and 90s culture, I’m inclined to say that there’s more to the trend than just mining previously successful movements for more juice and marketable extruded pop culture product.

What's in a trend? 

That which we call popular by any other name would seem as ubiquitous. Zombies rose to fame partly because they hadn’t been done to death before their current rise to fame; unlike vampires, which have enjoyed several waves of popularity, it’s arguable that the undead hoardes hadn’t really had a main-culture breakout since their first surge in popularity.  Dark-world sci fi, as I’m going to call the three genres of cyberpunk, apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic, and dystopian fiction, has maintained an ambient level of popularity but hasn’t really been ‘in’ consistently since the 80s. That’s plenty of time for trend necromancy to occur.

 The final movie in the Blood and Cornetto trilogy by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost will also be coming out at the end of the year. As it happens, that will also be about the apocalypse.  Is the trend rising because it’s time for another pop-culture recycle round, or is there a bit more to it?

Let’s start with how ‘it’s gonna be the future soon’ and the many ways that ‘it’s already here’.

A long time ago, I was talking about posting a ‘cool stuff in science’ article once in a while. My interest in activism and various kinds of rights issues ate most of the room for that, but the other issue I ran into was that I had no idea where to start. Science has been on fire, with stunning discoveries emerging every single week, and this is shaping up to be an impressive decade.

Those who follow the news might be aware of a number of amazing advances in medical technology—from artificial veins to 3-d printed ears to an artificial heart (no, not that one, but a real artificial heart), we’re finally hitting the point sci fi has been racing towards. Artificial blood, a new layer of the retina we didn’t know about, the ability to inject genetic therapies right into the eye for treatment…I remember being a kid in the 90s and feeling starry-eyed wonder at the research projects and shiny tech.  Now, the stuff I’ve been reading about is real as real can be. (We even have basic replicators, dammit! What else do you call a 3-D printer that can make pizza? Now I just want earl grey tea, hot.)

n spite of stubborn industrial stalling, electric and hybrid cars are defiantly ploughing onto the market. More and more countries are switching to solar and wind for power needs, with nuclear in a position of both favour and intense scrutiny. At the same time as all this shiny wonderful stuff, we have some resource struggles beginning.  Oil and gas are significant factors in the Middle East’s most recent turf wars. Add in the damage from global climate change and the undeniable surge in extreme weather catastrophes in the last few years, and you have more pressure on our remaining natural resources.  Alternate power from George Orwell spinning in his grave alone could probably replace half of oil and gas’s energy requirements.

Source. 

But wait! There's a precedent!

Now we get to the fun part—I probably don’t have to mention the recent revelations about privacy that have come out of the states. With America receiving international scrutiny and the president sweating under his collar about the Patriot-Act style policies that have been passed, little things like Microsoft’s Xbox One (a console that had, functionally, the same features as the watching television from 1984) have drawn explosive reactions from online communities. And, of course, the Occupy movement’s influence  increasing distrust of government, revelations of more censorship, and now, heating tensions in the middle east as America and Russia prepare to shadow-box, have all played into the heady atmosphere. Not to mention that Britain's PM recently decided that banning porn and giving it request-only access would be a good way to save the children. Think of the children!

If you've read my work, you know how I feel about this. 

With this kind of background, why wouldn’t dystopias have caught the limelight again? Ancient cultures often viewed time as cyclical, an end in sight somewhere in the distant future—Hindu understanding of the cosmos, Norse concepts of Valhalla, Mayan and Aztec cyclical calendars, and, of course, the Book of Revelations all feature concepts of beginning and ending, fiery death and mass holocausts before rebirth. Since the 20^th century, however, we’ve been much closer to and much better at actually achieving this kind of thing. Holocausts aren’t a new invention, but a large population and better technology to coomit them with has made the concept much more relevant. Add media and its power to amplify a message, and you have an interesting possibility.

The really sad thing is how relevant this still is.

 Why so morbid?

Are we fascinated with ‘the end’ because we’re more capable than ever of realizing it? Or is it an attempt to prepare ourselves for ‘it’ just in case ‘it’ happens tomorrow?  It’s important to note the cultural trends in the 80s as well—punk had mutated into New Wave, Japan was extra cool, ‘sci fi’ sound was common as synthesizers were becoming trendy, Goth fashion and music had become an anti-trend, and, of course, the year of ‘1984’ itself flavoured the decade. Throw in the conflict in the middle east, the personal computers that were now readily available, the beginnings of the internet, and the tail end of the Cold War, and you have a perfect recipe for the weirdly dark media that North America and Britain managed to churn out at that point. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that whole ‘AIDS’ thing and the entrance of women into the corporate world, plus the commercialization of starvation and other humanitarian causes:  more factors guaranteed to shake everything up.

When you line up the 2010s and the 1980s, there are a lot of similar patterns. The sense of instability and international conflicts are certainly telling, and hopeless straits definitely inspire more contemplation of ‘the end times’ than an era of peace and prosperity might.  Orwell’s work was based on satire of the Soviet Union. The famous red sash around Julia’s waist, and the even more famous “2 + 2 = 5” were just a couple of the direct references to Soviet organizations and, in the latter case, slogans (referring to Stalin’s famous 4 Year plans).

Really, though, the desire to escape from modern problems, an easy out that sort of involves blurring the difficult and violent parts of the collapse--or casting them in a heroic light--is responsible for our obsession with Dark World fiction. There's also the appeal of a new beginning, the renewal that follows death. 

Source.

Does this mean that the end of the world is coming soon?

That implies that we're going to see tomorrow. I suppose that's an answer in and of itself. I'm not going to deluge you with environmental or activist-related information, but I will say that in order to keep on reaching tomorrow, we need to keep the biosphere and our society in a state where it can run long enough to reach another sunrise--preferably a bit longer. 

The short answer is 'probably not'. We've done reasonably well at muddling things up to a medium extent so far. I'm not going to commit to a firm 'no', but I certainly won't say that total annihilation seems likely. Ask me tomorrow. 

Whatever the reason for our obsession, it's not going away any time soon...and I am very all right with that. 

*****

Thanks for dropping by the nest once again. Don't miss any of the phuquerie. Find me on Twitter, Facebook, and on Tumblr. More interviews and witty commentaries are coming. Keep checking back to see those surprise posts, too. This is your darling SciFiMagpie, over and out! 

"I Can Fix It!": Or, the Magpie's Continuing Kudos to Disney

Hello hello!

Well, I wasn't going to suck up to Disney on purpose. I have an ambivalent attitude towards the company. Sometimes they do things that are very, very right. At other times, they screw up and make 'Latina' characters look white. This time, though, they mostly did things right. Here is my fairly glowing review of "Wreck It Ralph."

Let's start with a couple of caveats.

First, this isn't going to be a plot-based review, it's going to be analytical. I know plenty of people are already flooding the internets with their opinions on this one, so I'll be contributing mine in the most unbiased fashion I can muster.

Second, there will probably be spoilers.

All right. Feel forwarned enough yet? Without further ado, get your geek on, and let's talk about Wreck It Ralph.

Part 1: Geek Wankage Supreme With Pac-Man's Cherries On Top (Literally)

This is pretty self-explanatory. An inherent strength and weakness of Wreck It Ralph is that it is unabashedly targeted to geeks and nerds. With its arcade-game theme, Disney is making no bones about its target audience. This one is for 'us', the geeks, and if you're not at least somewhat familiar with classic arcade games or arcade-style games, you're not going to enjoy this nearly as much. Thankfully, since most people have heard of Mario, Sonic, Pac-Man, Mortal Combat, and the various kill-the-aliens/zombies games, even international audiences are probably going to have something of an idea of what's being referenced. Still, this movie is firmly rooted in pop culture to an extent I'm not sure I've seen before, travelling the line between fan-fiction and homage in a tap-dancing sort of way. I really can't decide whether it was a good thing or a bad thing that it flagrantly played to geek knowledge bases. It exists as a sort of shrine to the place these games have in our consciousness, and I'm going to let the professionals and history weigh in on whether this is a good or bad thing. Keep in mind that the film was in development starting in the nineties, and was only released now. Clearly, times have changed enough for it to be really marketable, and that says something. What, I'm still working on.

Source. I live for Wiki, seriously.

Part 2: Equality Epic Win Time

Okay. Now that I've gotten my first reservation out of the way, let's talk about geek culture a bit. It's fairly egalitarian, but still pretty ethnocentric to 'white' North American culture (though this is definitely improving). The cast for this one is definitely lacking visible diversity, which annoyed me. (That said, the short before the film, "Paperman", actually had not-entirely-whitewashed design elements for the characters, which was a nice little detail.) Most of the classic characters--when they were human at all--tended to be white, which you can't do much about, but the 'amorphous blob' and background characters should have had it mixed up a bit more.

Okay. I've mentioned that, and now I can glow and gush about the feminism epic wins. I don't think I need to mention that Jane Lynch is amazing in this, and an absolute scene stealer. The cast is fairly equal in female/male casting proportions, it passes the Beschdel (two named women must talk to each other about something other than a man) very easily, and best of all, the 'external' character, the gamer who sees some of the action going on--is a little girl. The little red-headed girl wears pink and is equally comfortable playing Hero's Duty, Wreck It Ralph, and Sugar Rush. It's so satisfying to see a tiny change like that, something that reflects the world accurately. There was a tiny bit in which two fat male geeks were rude to her and excluded her from 'Sugar Rush', too, which made me wonder if it was an intentional stab at the sexism in gaming.

Part 3: We Can Has Moral Complexity

I just mentioned the Sgt. Calhoun character, and I will again. She bears a second look just to emphasize that she's an ass-kicking woman who isn't made into either a man (her metaphors are hilariously feminine, and she still has a heart) or a mom by the end of the movie. I can't even tell you how happy that made me. Like Vanillope, Calhoun is sassy, and we lose nothing by two witty women in our main cast. Throw in an unexpected romantic path, and you have yet another proof that yes, there is hope for Hollywood after all.

Vanellope von Schweetz is an equal triumph; Sarah Silverman is very Sarah Silverman-y, though, and it's hard to get past. Even without that, the fact remains that this movie has a character with a 'disability', who is almost explicitly treated as a 'special needs' person, and referred to as a 'glitch'. Sure, the glitch turns out to be a superpower, and we have to deduct a half-point for that. Still, the fact that Vanellope is bullied and excluded by the other girls in a very realistic way was actually surprisingly moving.

Finally, I'm going to mention that the eponymous character, Ralph, is the one and only character I've seen in an 'accepting your place in the world' movie who didn't make me want to stab my eyeballs out with forks. I can't really compliment John C. Reilly's performance enough, but the way he stays true to the character's hopefulness while giving Ralph both bitter anger and darkness is brilliant. As well, the candy-car smashing scene that makes Vanellope cry might be one of the saddest fucking things I've seen in a while. I admit it, I teared up in the theatre.

Source. This is actually less sad than what happens when Ralph lies to Vanellope and disappoints her. LESS SAD.

Conclusion: Prognosis is Positive

I said I was going to be balanced, but I have to admit, for its flaws, this movie really swept me up. Sure, it speaks to 'my' subculture, but it also has a really solid story. The Candy Rush set is delightfully rich and well-imagined, to the extent that I was craving candy for the rest of the night. The blended elements are strange and creative enough to make things work. They managed to make unusual, original characters work in a strangely fused world. It's somewhat bogged down by referentials, but it's such a love song to video games that the references really make the movie. I can nitpick further on the equality issues and the feminism, frankly, but the rest of the implementation was very solid. The pacing is excellent, and designs and lighting really fit. There is a lot of love in the small details of this movie. It's a solid 9 out of 10 stars/rings/coins/mushrooms in my book. Stop reading my blog and go buy a lizard-loving ticket, you electric donkey-bottomed fools. Seriously. This is not a film you want to miss.

*****

Thanks for dropping by the nest once again. Don't miss any of the good kind of crazy. Find me on Twitter, Facebook, and on Tumblr. Don't forget to check back for short stories, more politics, analysis, scraps of science, and even some reviews. This is your darling SciFiMagpie, over and out!