- [!] Status Log - created:: 2021-03-14 - status-updated: 2022-01-20 - curent-status:: nonfic/articleSeed - [I] Relate to the other piece I had inspired by Ada Palmer's _Terra Ignota_ series, which is currently on my otter.ai drive. - Relate that to [the importance of context in ethics](https://newsletter.eleanorkonik.com/ethical-systems/) newsletter, specifically the whole "the trolly problem isn't real" part. - Another thought reflecting on Perhaps the Stars: why wasn't a big argument in favor of the "outpath" a "having our eggs in one basket is dangerous" kind of statement? I realize that lockshell was designed to protect against extinction level metoers and presumabluy the Utopinans watched space for big ones, and I guess there are ways to Dyson Sphere a weak sun to make sure it's sufficient in the long run, but what happens if there's just literally an insane supervolcano or some other crisis condition we can't even imagine that wipes out the planet? What happens to humanity then? - [S] Marketing - [[Ada Palmer]] is responsive on twitter. One of the difficulties of using writing to share ideas about better systems, idealized government, and more perfect social structures is that a world designed to minimize things like class conflict and unfairness hamstrings the ability of a writer to succeed at one of the core tenets of storytelling: creating narrative tension. A great example of this hard-to-strike balance is Ada Palmer's Hugo-nominated [Terra Ignota](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26861260-too-like-the-lightning) series. > in these books I'm attempting to depict a future that has developed very well on some fronts, but badly on others, with some great successes (150 year lifespan! World peace!) and some great failures (Another world war, censorship...) Two of its greatest failures/tensions are on the fronts of gender & religion. From a Goodreads Review by [Altea Ann](https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/3846743-althea-ann): > In the world of 'Too Like the Lightning' criminal justice has settled on sentencing lawbreakers to service, rather than prison. Criminals are required to work at whatever tasks they are asked to do. Mycroft Canner is one of these criminals. But his situation is a bit unusual in that he works for one of the most influential families in this society. And in this society, influence is everything... Due to enhanced communications and travel technology, among other advances adding up to a post-scarcity economy, geographic nationalism is obsolete. People form families (or maybe they're closer to communes and/or corporations) and alliances based solely on common interests and specializations. Nearly any kind of social arrangement is accepted, but in this tolerant, peaceful society, the strongest taboo is against talking about religion or any kind of 'supernatural' beliefs to anyone except a professional 'sensayer' (a kind of priest/spiritual counselor.) ## optimizing for what? First, I had the privilege of meeting Ada Palmer at WorldCom. Second, the intera ICT notice series, including perhaps the stars is wonderfully complex in its nuance and has many many points to make. But the one that sticks with me is the question of the trunk core, and whether or it is better for humanity to pursue the painful path of the stars, versus burrowing inward and bettering ourselves. It's a theme I see come up often in science fiction. But I'll need to think about some specific examples. But I'm definitely familiar with the theme of complacency versus glory goes back to Achilles in the Iliad, which is a major inspiration for the piece, but I want to tie it into the thing about glory and Achilles and my parents had peace. Because too little fiction, really can get at the idea that maybe we should settle for happiness, and maybe we should pursue peace. You know, the, the characters drive themselves and asleep and one of the beauty full things about the utopians who are the faction that is pursuing space, is that they really do prioritize, sleep and play as sort of their like fundamental oath that they will take the time for sleep and pray to recharge themselves. But that's not the same thing as being content and being happy. And all of the protagonists of not just the story, but so many stories are people who drive themselves we tell all of these stories about the entrepreneurs about the groundbreaking people, like we as a society, really place high value on people like Elon Musk, and people who get through life on stimulants, and grit and drive. And where are the stories teaching people how to take care of themselves. They don't make for good stories in our ethos in our western way of storytelling. We have all of these, you know things about glory, and the pursuit of glory. There are stories and articles about other ways of storytelling that aren't the hero's method, I can take some of them up. But you know, one of the interesting things about the Bible is that on the seventh day he rested. And that's not the main point of view of the Bible, or Genesis or any of the stories really, they're not about normal people. But what if they were? What if we imagined a world in a way of storytelling that is those small stories, and they are the kinds of things that we see in short fiction and magazines in the non novel form. And I think it's one of the reasons to embrace short fiction, because it allows us those moments of subversion. They don't fit to the normal plot structures that we've become used to. They have stories and I should really find some examples. They have stories of people just living moments. And maybe those moments are a better place to find our heroes and find our mentors and find our sense of what we should be. I think most of us have that experience of taking inspiration from the actions of characters and stories we've read how many of us have internalized the idea that with great power comes great responsibility, thanks to Spider Man. And all of you know the other characters who, who give us something to map our lives to. For me, it was Robert Highlands to sell Beyond the Sunset, which is a story about his sort of normal heroes, mom, and there's the usual headland weirdness. But at the end of the day, a huge chunk of the story is devoted to things like good parenting, and what budgets look like and the importance of household things. The protagonist is, you know, born in the late 1800s. And she you know, is a spy and you He does things with her life and funds things but but she gave me a roadmap for being a woman in America that almost no other book has. And those stories that we read matter and they impact us and it's my best argument for why we should read more short fiction Don't forget that Ada Palmer published a book on how to take care of yourself with mental health for the article I'm writing inspired by two like the lightning.