I'm working on a book
... and it's probably not what you expect.
Let me break all the book-writing rules and tell you about my work-in-progress before it’s past the first trimester of gestation. I need accountability. This will also let you know what’s going on in case I’m writing fewer essays.
Mermaids, walking trees, spaceships, and demons
I’m working on a sci-fi retelling of Hans Christian Anderson’s The Little Mermaid, in the same vein as Joan Vinge’s The Snow Queen. The setting is loosely inspired by the medieval cosmos of Lewis’ space trilogy.
Tirzah of The Storm is the eldil (goddess, if you will) of a watery planet at a primitive evolutionary stage. Her main charge is to protect a mysterious grove of walking trees from the extreme floods and volcanism of her world. When a traveling star gives her a man-made helmet commissioned by the Ivim Yaash, the rebel spirits of Earth, she becomes obsessed with human technology.
Meanwhile, down on Earth, troubled tech billionaire Luke Ortelius is working under the influence of the Ivim Yaash to send spacecraft outside our solar system. Blinded by a desire to atone for his daughter’s tragic death, he refuses to question the motives of the seemingly benevolent “life force” that gives him his ideas.
The two plots (and planets) collide when the Ivim Yaash use Ortelius’ spacecraft to steal the walking wood from Tirzah’s planet, and she chooses to follow it to Earth.
What plans do the Ivim Yaash have for the walking wood? What secrets does it hide? Will Tirzah be able to rescue it, or will she fail and be turned into seafoam?
Stay tuned to find out.
Theme: Biological Life Versus Technology
Although none of you (well, very few of you) have read any fiction by yours truly, the themes of this novel do intersect with my nonfiction essays.
First, Tirzah’s planetary rule is an allegory for motherhood, a feminine hero’s journey that’s not been told enough. I won’t give much away. But because she has no idea how much life will continue to evolve on her planet, she dismisses her job as low-status compared to that of Rancaster, eldil of her planet’s volcanic twin. He makes weapons in volcanic forges, which is so much cooler than herding walking trees (toddlers move sooo inefficiently lol).
The story is also a critique of Silicon Valley’s techno-optimist religion of innovation at all costs. In a 2020 song, “Rät,” singer-songwriter Penelope Scott sings about the glamorous allure this has to the naive, who see all of technology’s promise without considering its negative ramifications.
I come from scientists and atheists and white men who kill God
They make technology high quality complex physiological
Experiments and sacrilege in the name of public good
They taught me everything
Just like a daddy should
Both Ortelius and Tirzah are sucked in by one of the main lies of our age: that technology is inherently good, but that biological life requires a justification for its existence. As I write in Is The Future Autistic?
Once the existence of human life requires requires a logical defense, civilization is in big trouble. It’s a sign that the cultural default is to think human life isn’t inherently dignified, that it’s something at the best optional, and at the worst, plain bad. Although most of society now rejects the eugenics of the early 20th century, it doesn’t reject the more fundamental demand that we justify procreation, make logical, data-based arguments in its favor, giving credence only to utilitarian advantages … [This worldview tells us that] ultimate truth is found only in controlled, peer-reviewed studies, and ultimate good is found only in the optimization of mechanized systems.
Here's a recommendation for you, prompted by your mention that your book is partly about the techno-optimist belief in innovation at all costs. It's the text of a speech by Maciej Ceglowski and it is the best thing that I've ever read on the internet.
https://idlewords.com/talks/web_design_first_100_years.htm
Have you read Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler?