The Politics of Character

While reading a work, be it short or long form, one character attribute that should become immediately apparent is the political stance of that character.

Whoa, you say, politics? I am not writing some political work, I am just telling the tale of a simple space marine who battles hyper-intelligent alien bees trying to invade our dimensions (Ed: Yes, please, tell me more...). 

Authors, especially the new or under-read, have a tendency to argue the studious un-political nature of their work. The reasons may vary. Perhaps they do not want to upset potential readers and customers. And why not, Orson Scott Card went from beloved author to homophobic bigot in a lot of minds based on religious beliefs that informed his political position. (even this criticism  pales in comparison to the amount of real and digital ink spent on the fascist nature of Ender's Game itself.) 

Alternatively, perhaps an author has a general uncomfortableness about speaking on political issues or a genuine desire to write tales having an apolitical affect. 

However, it is impossible to write good, character driven, para-fiction without having those same characters take a political position. It is impossible to build a successful world for your characters to inhabit without having a political position.

Situating a character into the world you have built requires more than just placing motivation in her head and obstacles at his feet. You have to ground your characters within the philosophical framework of the world they live and the options they have available.  In the same way that it is impossible to ignore the economic standing of your character (try reading Jane Austen and not come away with a useful understanding of the rentier economy of Georgian England), it is impossible to untangle the politics of a character from their motivation.  

Politics includes more than where one (the author or the character stand) stands on the hot button social issue of they day. Politics means a political outlook. A particular view of the world as it is seen through the character's eyes (if it is a first person narrative) or multiple character's experiences. The political view of the character does not need to be endorsed by the author, but the author does need to explain the political position of the characters. 

Is your hero battling a dystopian government? Why is the government horrible? Is it the fault of the government, or some outside agent that is causing grey skies and sad people. If it is the government, why is it doing this? Sometimes in the rush to have people battle on post-apocalyptic roof-tops, authors forget to do the hard work of building the foundations of conflict. If only America has fallen into ruin, Why? What was it about the politics of America that caused this downfall? What policies does the government implement that make it evil, or good? Unelected dictator? So your hero is a pro-democracy advocate? Elected counsel of evil Corporations?  Complete Anarchy and Individualism and ultra-property rights? Collective action, Forced Community? It is impossible to have your characters stand against something without also standing for something else. 

To build great characters, you need to build a political dossier along with a physical and economic dossier. Once you character has a stance on the issues, not of your day, but of her day, then the conflict from those stances becomes easier to envision and capture. 

Moorsgate ((c)2015)

Chaos Classifieds II

Attention surfers of the Internet:

Deep within the bowels of the Internet, past decrepit Geo-Cities  archives; below Live Journal post regarding your unwavering love for Hansen; tucked in a forgotten corner of a low-baud rate server, there exists a lively classifieds bulletin board.

However, this is no ordinary "missed connections", "soiled futon " market place. This is market for wonders, for forbidden objects found where brave men fear to tread. It is a market for outdated technological marvels, arcane works, eldritch objects from beyond the borders of the ordinary.

The denizens of these boards engage in a brisk trade, seeking to acquire or unload nameless horrors, insane robots from a nightmarish future, hire teams of blind ninja assassins, or just adopt a couple of genetic monstrosities.

The Moorsgate Media Twitter feed occasionally retweets requests that come across our desk. Below is just a taste of the terrifying and degenerate ads that populate these boards. Re-tweets are not endorsements.

Needed: wealth management professional specializing in immortality. Looking for long term relationship .

Needed: user manual for oblivion class doomsday device. #chaosclassified

Needed: #API documentation for Necronomicon. Unable to force quit hell portal generator in IE6. Concerned. #chaosclassified #SciFi #html5

Sale: cognitive enhancement device, side effects; increase in baseline #evil Instruction manual and box included.

Previous ads can be found here:
http://moorsgatemedia.blogspot.com/2014/01/chaos-classified.html

[ssf] Dr. Jergen's Device

______________________________________________________________________________

To: HRJergen@[redacted].[redacted]

From: [Redacted]

CC: [Redacted]

Dear Dr. Jergen,

We are patent attorneys retained by the Corporation for the purposes of securing protection on any intellectual property developed by employees and ensuring that such intellectual property is properly assigned to the Corporation and recorded as a corporate asset.

We were recently asked by Chief Counsel [Redacted] to evaluate the likelihood of receiving patent protection on your "entity retention device", cover sheet above.  

We have been made aware of the circumstances surrounding the development and intended use(s) of such a device and have evaluated it with that information in hand.

Let us be the first to say that we appreciate that the device development timeline was necessarily shortened due to [Redacted], and the design and implementation decisions made were under truly harrowing circumstances. 

We also appreciate that the end result was highly successful in assisting in the resolution of  [Redacted]. However, we do not believe your invention will pass muster at the Patent Office for number reasons.

Principally, the "mechanisms of operation" of your invention are not explicitly described nor fully explicable given generally agreed upon natural and scientific laws. 

Furthermore, certain subsystems (denoted in the various annotated scripts ) of your invention operate using substances that are not readily available, or have attendant ethical challenges that make duplication or acquisition by persons outside the Company, unlikely.  

It should be noted that the Patent Office could evaluate such extraordinary claims, if demonstrable evidence were provided. 

Technically, we are in possession of such evidence, in the form of video footage from the most recent event which highlights the use of the device in sequestering and transporting [Redacted]. However, knowledge of [Redacted] is a closely guarded corporate trade secret. We are under professional, ethical and contractual obligations to not to disclose the nature of these circumstances to the public.   As you were well aware, the consequences for failing to adhere to these edicts are significant. 

As such, we would only have your unverified statements in support of a patent. Therefore, we have advised the General Counsel to not proceed and to close this file. 

Please do not view our decisions as minimizing the effort you put towards resolving [Redacted]. We look forward to working with you and your team in the future on the [Redacted] project, which we believe to be quite lucrative and impressive technological development. 

 Your Truly, 

On Criticism

The Art of Thinking Clearly by Rolf Dobelli. .

Recently, there has been an uptick in discussions about benefit of diverse characters in fiction. For example, see here .

Sound arguments for a more inclusive universe of fiction are legion.  There exits, beyond the compelling arguments about diversity of subject, arguments to be made about diversity of authorship.

Obviously, a talented writer of any background, can tell a gripping story about a culture different for her own. However, is something lost in experiential translation when the rich and comfortable tells stories of the poor and oppressed?  Should we assume that the meritocracy of talent operates with an invisible hand and just hope that the privileged operate in a world without blinders?

We could debate this topic for years and never get to a satisfactory resolution. Instead, the issue raises an interesting thought experiment about the usefulness of criticism. Specifically, what obligation does a critical consumer of fiction have as its creator? Do consumers of media featuring or authored by POCs have an obligation to view the work with a less critical eye, least they discourage the telling these stories? (This isn't necessarily a question grammar, structure and pacing, but one of reason, weight and intent.)  

Or should those tales featuring the least represented carry the dual weight of being entertaining and profound? If they don't, have they failed in some respect.  Is it not enough to tell a good, fun story? Does it need to shatter preconceptions, subvert tropes, and open minds?  Can POC fiction ever exist outside of itself, telling tales of pulpy mages and wisecracking aliens, without the necessity to parse the hidden meaning, the social commentary of a people's agenda.

It is often true that POC are judged twice as harsh (illumination here) when it comes to critical analysis of their work,  is this the same standard that must be applied to works that feature their likenesses?

Do reviewers have to look at a work and demand it be something that it isn't? Of course, the one argument is that there are so very few works that feature POCs, anyone who undertakes the effort should be given the benefit of the doubt. We shouldn't demand that works be complete realizations of social commentary mixed in with compelling narratives. Sometimes, it is okay to not require sub-text with our text. On the other, literary gatekeepers can and do demand certain shibboleths to be tackled when POCs feature heavily in the plot synopsis or author page. Recognition, even when bounded by expectations, can solve problems of access. Should a reviewer stand in the stead of the literary community and demand that every self-published vampire vs robot novel also speak to the eternal existential struggle for justice and equality?

Our thoughts are mixed. The role of criticism to should be to lift all boats; each review challenging the author to rise and make his colleagues rise.  But criticism also should function as an iceberg to the hull of ego. Shouting that you are tackling hard issues does not give you a waiver to actually tackle them. Voices need to be heard, and be heard well.

Moorsgate Media

Chaos Classified

Deep within the bowels of the Internet, past decrepit Geo-Cities  archives, below Live Journal post regarding unwavering love for Hansen, tucked in a forgotten corner of a low-baud rate server, there exists a lively classifieds bulletin board.

However, this is no ordinary "missed connections", "soiled futon " market place. This is market for wonders, for forbidden objects found where brave men fear to tread. It is a market for outdated technological marvels, arcane works, eldritch objects from a beyond the borders of the ordinary.

The denizens of these boards engage in a brisk trade, seeking to acquire or unload nameless horrors from the Deep, insane robots from a nightmarish future, hire teams of blind ninja assassins, or just adopt a couple of genetic monstrosities.

Below is just a taste of the terrifying and degenerate ads that populate these boards.

For sale: partially operational #weather #machine, fog only, needs new #reactor ,bearer bonds or gold only. #chaosclassified #fantasy #SciFi

Wanted:personal assistant. Salary negotiable, good health plan; small arms, #hacker, #combat skill needed. #chaosclassified #fantasy #scifi

Wanted: #architect / #Design firm for construction of private #research facility in #Antarctica. #biohazard experience preferred, sign #nda

Wanted: team of #blind #assassins for #temporal hit. #payment on #timestream alteration #eunuchs preferred #chaosclassified #Scifi #fantasy

Check here, or the Moorsgate Media Twitter feed for more Chaos Classifieds.

Modern Rosetta Stones

The resetting of the yearly clock (regardless of the particular clock with which you subscribe) is a great time to evaluate the course of history and how modern society fits into that unbroken chain.

The original Rosetta Stone was created in 196 BC to memorialize a debt relief program instituted by the Ptolemy Kings of Egypt.


(The Ptolemy Kings were not Egyptian, but Macedonian. They were the descendants of Ptolemy who was one of Alexander the Great's generals, Cleopatra would be the last of his line).

The practice of erecting large documents stones was a ancient tradition in the second century BC. There is archaeological evidence that "stele" had been erected discussing tax relief for at least 2000 years prior, at the dawn of the Old Kingdom.

Until the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, researchers had no way of understanding the content of Egyptian hieroglyphics. The Rosetta Stone provides nearly identical statements in Egyptian hieroglyphics, demotic script (a kind of Egyptian document script) and important ancient Greek.  From ancient Greek, Roman scholars transcribed many ancient philosophies and histories. These Latin and Greek texts were then translated by Arabic scholars and eventually were deposited into the libraries of the great European institutions of higher learning.   Thus, a writing system 4000 years old, with no living practitioners was resurrected.

Without this stele and others of its kind, we would never have been able to decipher, as quickly or as easily, the complex Egyptian hieroglyphic system.

Of course, one's thoughts necessarily turn to our own languages and how easy or difficult, it would be

revive our own written language 4000 years in the future. We make few, if any, multilingual stone monuments.

One exception is the Georgia Guide Stones. This immense granite block, commissioned by unnamed individuals, contains the same inscription written in 8 different languages, including English, Chinese, and Spanish - the most common languages used in the modern world.

However, one stone structure in the Georgia woods is not something that humanity should rely on to ensure that the vast corpus of accumulated knowledge written in modern English is preserved for generations.  Researchers from the Principality of Zhang-Sanchez in the year 6014 might not have access to this single granite monument. (Why? Because Aliens stole all our granite in the great Granite Caper of 5679 /Global Warming /Zombies / Fear of stones?). 

What people of the future will have access to is our trash. Our rubbish might make all the difference in deciphering any number of languages. For example, the picture below was taken of a crib being thrown out in NYC. Where it will end up is anyone's guess. However, within the steel and plastic confines, is a plastic sheet written in Spanish, English and French. Carted off and buried in a landfill it will wait with its precious knowledge codex until someone digs it up, and realizes ancient man (us) had instructions for everything, including how babies should sleep.

If you have examples of modern day Rosetta stones, leave them in the comments.

Moorsgate Media (c) 2014.