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Sea, Sky by Rosemary Kirstein
The author of The Language Of Power ruminates about world creation
and comes to the conclusion that there are basically two ways to do
it. You can begin from the top down, or from the ground up.
One day, when I was a little girl, I was
walking along a crowded, grubby beach when I came across a curious
object: two-thirds of a flattened circle, made of what seemed to
be pale gray rubber and sand. I remember strolling along turning
it over and over in my hands trying to fit it into my young picture
of the world.
I brought it to my parents where they lounged on the old blanket
next to the ice-chest, amid neighboring families' dueling transistor
radios. My father's reaction was a shrug, and a dismissive "Trash,"
but my mother's was "Garbage" — quite a different matter: dirty,
probably rotten, and certainly chock-full of germs. She made me
throw it away.
But it was very weird. I remember how very, very weird it was.
Some time later, I was paging through books in my town's little
library. I had run through the astronomy books and out of desperation
started on biology, because it was science. I knew I loved astronomy,
and astronomy was "science," so maybe other sciences would be just
as good. Also, I figured it was about animals. I liked animals.
And there, in a book about sea-life, I found my mysterious object.
It was a "sand collar" -- the egg-case laid by moon snails. I loved
that name: moon snail.
Fast-forward a number of years, and I am wandering around the exhibits
of the Air and Space Museum. This was back when it temporarily shared
space with the Smithsonian, and many of its displays were just stuffed
wherever they would fit. I was circumnavigating the corridor outside
the planetarium, coming across object after fascinating object every
few feet. And among them, casually sitting on a cheapo plastic pedestal:
Telstar.
The communications satellite. Not a mockup of the one they sent
up; a second actual satellite that for some reason was never launched.
And in that cramped, ill-lit corridor, one thing struck me above
all else, coming as a blow to the heart, sudden, hard and deep,
and it was this:
It was beautiful.
Beyond my love of science, and of technology, the object was simply
beautiful. Faceted, faced with many small glittering purple gems
(solar cells). And I thought: That's what we made. That's what we
put in the sky. It's up there now. A jewel, hanging above the earth.
Forward a few more years -- okay, many years -- and I am creating....
a world.
How do you create a world?
There are basically two ways to do it. You can begin from the top
down, or from the ground up.
Beginning from the top down, you set up your situation, and with
that as given, trace down to the root, to the causes. From what
is, you work out how it must have happened; and from that, where
it might go from here.
Beginning from the bottom up, you take facts -- hard science if
you've got it, soft science if you don't -- twist them a bit, wind
them up and let them go. See how it plays out. And from that, discover
how the world of your story must be now.
Pick one method, or the other. Or you can do what I did: use both.
Beginning from the top down: a geostationary satellite above a
world where the bulk of humanity has no science, and only simple
technology. What would they think of it? And what would it mean,
that it could even be there, hanging above a low-tech society?
And beginning from the bottom up: a rubbery, sandy object, an egg-case
laid by a creature descended from sea-creatures. Because of its
reproductive nature, this creature has an instinctive ability to
make objects. And, coming from the sea, it perceives by reflected
sound. So, it might not use its voice to speak -- but if it were
intelligent, how would it communicate? What's available?
These are not the only points of inspiration I used in creating
Rowan's world in the Steerswoman Series. But the moon-snail egg
case was surely the first, and Telstar surely the most striking.
And one last useful thing -- not in creating the world, but creating
the story taking place in the world. It comes from songwriter Hoyt
Axton, who said: "Always write the last line first. Then you know
where you're heading."
I know the last line of the last book in the Steerswoman Series.
But I'm not telling.
The following material is being reprinted from
the Del Rey Internet Newsletter. Thanks to Fleetwood Robbins. To
subscribe to their free, monthly e-newsletter, visit http://www.delreybooks.com.
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OTHER CONTENT - November 2004
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Terry
Brooks gets Tanequil
Fantasy author Terry interviewed about his new novel, Tanequil, the second book
in the High Druid of Shannara trilogy, on growing as an author, and his plans
to return to his earlier Word & Void series.
(AUTHOR INTERVIEWS)
Sea,
Sky by Rosemary Kirstein
The author of The Language Of Power ruminates about world creation and comes
to the conclusion that there are basically two ways to do it. You can begin
from the top down, or from the ground up.
(ARTICLES)
Third
World
One of our famous one page stories by GF Willmetts.
(FICTION)
Black
Cat Investments Ltd. - Your Money Is Safe With Us
One of our famous one page stories by Rod MacDonald.
(FICTION)
San
Diego Comic-Con '04
So, it looks like half the people who voted in a Crowsnest poll a couple of
months back have never been to a convention. Which is a little sad when you
come to think of it - there's really nowhere else on earth you get to indulge
your genre weakness like a Con. If only because everyone else there is doing
exactly the same thing.
(CON REPORTS)
One
Page Stories Submissions (or What To Do, What To Write And How to Submit)
This is an experiment on the website for all of you writers and neo-writers
out there. One of the criticisms that I raise when working my way through our
slush pile is that writers need to learn how to tell a story with a limited
word count to make everything count and tell a good story.
(ARTICLES)
I
Remember Superman
Christopher Reeve, 1952-2004 - a lament by: GF Willmetts.
(ARTICLES)
Offworld
Report: Science Fiction and Fantasy, November 2004
Interviews with Stephen R. Donaldson, Clive Barker, Matt Stone and Trey Parker,
Clark Kent's foster father, and John Clute, Dell Magazines' SF boat cruise,
fiction by Peter Crowther, and getting laid at a science-fiction convention.
(NEWS)
Offworld
Report: Weird Science, November 2004
Iran's first satellite, the X Prize is won, a fossil dragon, robot fish, why
space access costs must, and can, drop dramatically, and has the Great Galactic
Ghoul lost its appetite for Martian probes?
(NEWS)
Resident
Evil: Apocalypse (Frank's Take)
Director Alexander Witt takes over this elaborate gory gaming gimmick by ushering
out the second installment Resident Evil: Apocalypse. The labored formula remains
the same regarding a curvy and calisthenics cretin-kicking cutie leading the
charge in eliminating some serious zombie butt.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Shark
Tale (Frank's Take)
DreamWorks tries awkwardly in their blind ambition to continue the delightful
digital-animated ditties in the celebrated spirit that has been previously so
vastly successful at the box office. As a result, the DreamWorks creative machine
conjured up a spry but uneven underwater adventure in the derivatively upbeat
animated feature Shark Tale.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Sky
Captain and the World of Tomorrow (Frank's Take)
In the stylistically ambitious sci-fi fantasy Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow,
Conran concocts a colorful creation dripping with cheerful arty set designs
armed with a refreshing old-fashion storytelling sentiment that drives this
opulent noir to its creative core.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Shaun
of the Dead (Frank's Take)
The devilishly dandy flesh-eating farce Shaun of the Dead certainly fits the
bill as a monstrously subversive parody that delivers the ghoulish goods. With
its British-oriented sense of stinging wry wit coupled with some truly genuine
gloomy gumption, Shaun of the Dead is a delightfully sick-minded yet spry frightfest
that captures the twisted imagination.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Ghost
In The Shell 2: Innocence (Mark's Take)
Mark checks out this popular Japanese anime flick and discovers the animation
is never flat, but demonstrates varying degrees of dimensionality, frequently
within the same frame.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Hero
(Mark's Take)
China tries to make its own Crouching Tiger with a story of an enigmatic stranger
who has killed a triad of assassins for the benefit of China's first Emperor.
The stranger tells the emperor multiple versions of how he killed the emperor's
enemies. Visually Hero is stunning. The telling is operatic in style but becomes
muddled.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Les
Revenants (Mark's Take)
A creative and intelligent recycling of the horror concept of the dead returning,
but this time it is used for non-horror purposes. Les Revenants runs into pacing
problems toward the middle.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Primer
(Mark's Take)
This SF film gets the research environment and the baffling scientific techno-jargon
just about right. The story is hard to follow, but that might not be so unrealistic
either. Definitely this is a demanding and puzzling film that does a lot with
its minuscule budget.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Shark
Tale (Mark's Take)
Dreamscape's latest animated film is set in a sort of undersea urban environment
and should entertain the whole family. The story is familiar but the jokes come
in a rapid fire.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Shaun
of the Dead (Mark's Take)
This film is like a crossbreeding of George Romero and Mike Leigh. Oblivious
lower-middle-class Londoners slowly become aware that the dead are returning
at trying to eat the living. This satire laughs at the tropes of the zombie
movie, but even more at the foibles of English life today. The first half is
very funny and the second half is at least witty.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Sky
Captain and the World of Tomorrow (Mark's Take)
The Art Deco future as it was seen from the late 1930s is the background for
this super-paced sci-fi adventure. The plot is just a chain of action sequences,
one leading to the next, and the characters are one-dimensional. Even the artwork
is a little too dark, but the images are genuinely exciting and they are what
make the film worth seeing.
(FILM REVIEWS)
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