Thinking It Through

The other day, I baited the hook and tossed it out into the far-right end of the pond, to get a weigh-in from my conservative Brazil-raised nurse friend, Senhora N. Fermeira…

From: Aging Child [mailto:AGeneChilde@YouWho.com]
Sent: Tuesday, July 04, 2017 12:44 PM
To: Senhora@Yabbadoo.com
Subject: Intriguing Thought-Experiment

This from the funday sunnies:

I think it's way too simplistic… but also great fodder for many alternate-world novels.

Regards,

Gene

Give peace, O Lord, to those who wait for You; hear the prayers of Your servants, and guide us in the way of justice. — Sirach 36

…and she came out swinging her Bible belt:

From: N. Fermeira [mailto:Senhora@Yabbadoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, July 04, 2017 5:30 PM
To: Aging Child <AGeneChilde@YouWho.com>
Subject: Re: Intriguing Thought-Experiment

It is UTTERLY pagan.

I don't enjoy alternate-world/dimension fiction since I became a Believer. I like my science fiction firmly planted in the real and the really possible. I wouldn't have a problem with a novel imagining an extension of the Created Universe --

"God's work done in God's way will never lack God's provision." ― J. Hudson Taylor

Okay; got it.

From: Aging Child [mailto:AGeneChilde@YouWho.com]
Sent: Tuesday, July 04, 2017 5:45 PM
To: Senhora@Yabbadoo.com
Subject: RE: Wringing the Bell

I hadn't thought of the pagan side of it — which is why I run some of these odd ideas by you, and your well-anchored feet.

Beyond the simplism, I also see wishful thinking in cartoonist Darren Bell's dream. And you're right, further, in this way: anyone can come up with an imaginary, different-world scenario, and then retrofit steps backward to make it credible… to those who don't look beyond the surface, or who have a weak grounding in reality. Well, it's not credible. Intriguing idea, yes, but there are more ideas than there are people… and on average, the quality of those ideas is all over the board as well, and weighted toward not just unreal, but utterly unrealistic.

I think I mirror your perspective, in that I don't read fantasy, except a) Tolkien's; and, b), a teeny handful by sturdy, first-rate SF writers (exactly two come to mind). I want the real, too; and not the haphazard, random, unstructured. I believe the Greeks called that Chaos.

And speaking of Greek fire and Roman candles, I hope there'll be great (and safe!!) fireworks for you and the herd this evening. Ciao bella!

Acropolitanly,

Gene

Give peace, O Lord, to those who wait for You; hear the prayers of Your servants, and guide us in the way of justice. — Sirach 36

Bell certainly thought through a lot of steps; it's not a shallow idea… but, no, not realistic. Still, the best SF, and the pinch of very-good Fantasy, is almost always written from a keen what-if perspective. And though Senhora wouldn't, I myself would read an alternate-worlds novel set in that milieu.

I'm not dismissive of what-if… but it's certainly a mule I can ride too much, far into that kingdom of wishful thinking. And did I mention I don't have a GPS?

My next fishhook into the water was a pair of fantasy novels that I mailed down to her for her summer birthday, Niven and Pournelle's great take on Dante, Inferno, and its more-recent sequel, Escape From Hell. She liked them.