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Writing process

Local politics in space opera

“People of Earth, your attention please … As you will no doubt be aware, the plans for development of the outlying regions of the Galaxy require the building of a hyperspatial express route through your star system, and regrettably your planet is one of those scheduled for demolition … There’s no point acting all surprised about it. All the planning charts and demolition orders have been on display in your local planning department in Alpha Centauri for fifty of your Earth years … What do you mean you’ve never been to Alpha Centauri? … it’s only four light years away … if you can’t be bothered to take an interest in local affairs that’s your own lookout.”

Douglas Adams, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

Local politics in space opera

Writing local politics in a space opera is a bit like the scene from The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, where the Vogon in charge of the destruction of Earth tells humans that Alpha Centauri is only four light years away.

No matter that to humans that distance is an impenetrable barrier, for people from other worlds, it’s not.  What happens on Earth is so insignificant as to mean nothing.  The aliens go down as far as the local planning office, and that’s where they stop.

If you’ve read the Hitchhiker’s Guide, you’ll know that the story starts with a similar planning event, but on a smaller scale.  Arthur Dent is protesting the loss of his own house to make way for an overpass.  This event wouldn’t register to the Vogons.  It’s a local event, too miniscule to matter.

There are close on 200 countries on Earth. Each of these has their own government. Oftentimes, these are broken down further into states, provinces, precincts and the like. But we also have an overarching body, the United Nations, who have representatives from most nations of the world.

If aliens arrived today and demanded to speak with a representative who could speak for all of Earth, who would we choose to represent us?

We have two choices.  If the alien stayed orbiting Earth, we’d probably send in someone from the United Nations.  If the alien landed in a specific country, then the rulers of that country might claim to speak for all humans.  At a guess, they’d land in one of the most populous countries, so the rulers of China or India would be speaking for the human race.

It is highly unlikely the aliens would deal with more than one group.

So going back to writing politics in science fiction.  When you’re dealing with multiple worlds, you don’t want to complicate the story with the small stuff. Even if a world, logically, has a number of governments, you tend to compress it together into one ruling body.

Which is why, in Linesman, Yaolin is ruled by a single council and Lancia is ruled by a single emperor.

Yes, but there are such things as democracies. Shouldn’t Lancia be a democracy?

The current ruling body of Earth (or what would be perceived as our ruling body by people on other worlds), the United Nations, is strongly pro-democracy. To many people—myself included—a well-run democracy is probably the best outcome for the political running of any country.

Even so, it’s not necessarily the logical endpoint for a governing body.

You have to work at democracies. If you don’t, they decay.  Little by little the process gets distorted as people in the government attempt to retain power or benefits for themselves. The people in charge subdue any oppression.  They bring in laws that prevent people from dissenting.  They create states of emergency that allow them to subdue information and dissent.  They stop having elections. Then finally, the leader of this no-longer democracy appoints a successor.  His son, or his daughter. Or some other close relative.

Alternatively, you might have a coup.  The army comes in.  A general takes over, stays in charge.  And finally, appoints a successor.  Guess who.

What about a people’s revolution?  We’ve seen a few of those in the past hundred years.  The revolutionaries put the lead revolutionary in charge. What happens then?  Who does he elect as his successor?

Sound familiar?  Of course it does. It happens over and over again.  We’ve seen it happen ourselves. We’re seeing it all over the world now.

People, once handed power like that, tend to pass that power on to their own family unless there are restrictions in place to prevent it.  Like democracy.

What’s the definition of power handed over from parent to child?

A monarchy.

That’s why Lancia is a monarchy.

Of course, the funny thing about monarchies is they tend to morph into democracies over time.

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Categories
Books and movies

Amazon’s weekly charts

Amazon has started bringing out weekly book charts.  The top 20 books sold, and the top 20 books read

They do fiction and non-fiction. You can find them at https://www.amazon.com/charts.

Looking at the fiction lists, there are few surprises in the Books Sold.  These are the books you see in the display area of any bookshop.  The bestsellers are the same online and off.  Included among these are the books that have television or movie adaptions coming out soon.  Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and Neil Gaiman’s American Gods.

There is one unexpected (to me) entrant.  Dr Suess’s, Oh, The Places You’ll Go comes in at number eight.

It’s when you get to the Books Read list that the results start to differ.  Putting aside the question of how Amazon knows what you’re reading—Big Brother is definitely watching us—the results are interesting.

Here’s the full May 14 list of the 20 most books read on Amazon.

  1. The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood
  2. The Fix, by David Baldacci
  3. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman
  4. Beneath a Scarlet Sky, by Mark Sullivan
  5. Golden Prey, by John Sandford
  6. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, by J.K. Rowling
  7. Into the Water, by Paula Hawkins
  8. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, by J.K. Rowling
  9. It, by Stephen King
  10. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, by J.K. Rowling
  11. 16th Seduction, by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
  12. Big Little Lies, by Liane Moriarty
  13. Beach Lawyer, by Avery Duff
  14. Dead Certain, by Adam Mitzner
  15. A Court of Wings and Ruin, by Sarah J. Maas
  16. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling
  17. A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles
  18. A Man Called Ove, by Fredrik Backman
  19. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, by J.K. Rowling
  20. The Black Book, by James Patterson & David Ellis

Sure, the bestsellers are in there, but look how many Harry Potter books there are.  Five.

There also looks to be a slight lag on buying books and reading them. I’m sure if we had charts from the previous weeks we’d see authors like Sarah J. Maas on the Books Sold list.

Movie/television adaptions The Handmaid’s Tale and American Gods are joined by Stephen King’s It.  Again, because we don’t have the prior week charts we can’t tell if these are new readers reading books they have just bought, or if readers who already owned the book are rereading it. I suspect it’s the latter.

It’s Harry Potter that’s the interesting.  I know J. K. Rowling still sells a lot of books, but I think a lot of those reads are rereads. People who own the books already, have read them before, and are re-reading them.

It’s what we do, as readers, with a book we like.

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Categories
Fun stuff

It’s May. It must be Eurovision

It’s Eurovision time.

This year has gone fast. It seems only a few months back I was talking about last year’s Eurovision Song Contest. It’s one of the must-watch items on our television calendar, but lest you think all Australians watch it, they don’t.  Enough of us watch it that we’ve had an entrant in each of the last three years, but none of us know what we’d do if Australia won. (I know, we’re not part of Europe. As some journalist once said, just go with it.)  But it’s not a massive event on our social calendar. Not like, say Grand Final, or Melbourne Cup, which everyone watches.

We watch the final, which is on Sunday night Australian time.  It’s a delayed telecast, so we try not to watch until then. Or hear who won.  That’s why, as I post this, the competition is probably over, but I don’t know what’s happened yet, and I’m talking as if the semi-finals haven’t even happened.

So trends?  Men with high voices.  It felt like every second male sang high.

I’m a sucker for a power ballad.  There are a couple that get close, but no standout for me.  This year, my two stand-outs are songs that may not even make the finals.

How does rap yodel sound?

Ilinca, featuring Alex Florea, from Romania.

Or what about a little operatic background from Jaques Houdek, of Croatia? I’ve heard a version of this song without the deeper voice in the background.  I love the slightly-operatic version best.

Enjoy it, if you’re watching it. Have fun.

Categories
Fun stuff

Guardians of the Galaxy 2

Yesterday we saw the Guardians of the Galaxy 2.

I’ve got a new favourite character.

I adore baby Groot.

The opening scene was gorgeous. A James Bond-style action sequence, with baby Groot dancing along to the music on the sidelines, and each of the main characters stopping in the middle of the battle to pick him up and take him out of danger.

Needless to say, I enjoyed the movie.

As I sat there, watching some of the fight scenes, I couldn’t help being a little envious.  In a movie like Guardians of the Galaxy, the fight scenes are over the top.  A novelist has to justify the odds.  If your characters are fighting and they’re outnumbered or out-skilled, you have to explain how they can win.

(Obviously, this thought comes directly from the fact that we struggled to have our protagonists in our next book win some of the fights when they’re up against some superior forces.)

Stay right till the end of the credits to see all the codas, .

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