LSGL BRAINSTORM Th 02.28.08 Premise: Looking for a symbolic way to tell Act II. Starting with trying to figure out what the elders WANT, so I can boil down their personal transformation into poetic metaphors. 1. What do the shoggoths want? The shoggoths want freedom. Simple as that. Why do they want freedom? Hm. TheyÕve lived under hypnotic control all their lives... First they had no minds of their own... Then they were given sentience -- which suggests that the elders could lessen their control. Each action need not be programmed in detail. The shoggoths being given free will means that they are free to try to figure out solutions to problems, to be adaptive and curious. Ideally, that means an elder can just give the shoggoth a simple command, and the shoggoth will be expected to learn how to accomplish it. That requires learning on the shoggothÕs part... And so the elders have moved from being programmers to being teachers. What kind of teaching do the elders use with the shoggoths? Perhaps, although the shoggoths are capable of reasoning, the elders use behaviorist methods -- punishment and reward. ItÕs not hard to imagine the use of punishment -- pain sticks of some sort, being employed when a shoggoth does something incorrectly or sloppily (quite possibly due to the imprecision of the elderÕs command)... But how do you reward a shoggoth? Is there something that shoggoths enjoy? For instance, do they have an affinity with the water? Do they enjoy getting to have free time, where they go off exploring in the underground rivers? Do the elders feed the shoggoths? Is there shoggoth chow -- and shoggoth treats? Are some elders kinder to the shoggoths than others, treating them somewhat like pets? It doesnÕt seem like you can compare a giant shoggoth to a pet dog... But there are people who have taken hippos as pets. And there are people who own horses or elephants (in India) as steeds. 2. Shoggoth stables Do shoggoths sleep? Are they kept housed in stables? How many hours out of the day do shoggoths work? Where are they kept during off hours? When the shoggoths go to their stables, is there a guard posted? Do the elders hypnotically switch the shoggoths off at night? Suppose that the shoggoths are put into some sort of holding area at night, and they are given hypnotic commands to Òsit! stay!Ó... What would it be like for a shoggoth to sneak out and go wandering? How do the shoggoth stables change between the time when the shoggoths are merely programmable robots to when theyÕre sentient slaves? It seems to me that although the shoggoths may not be electrical, being put in their pens would be sort of like putting a hand-held vacuum cleaner back on its charger. But then when they become sentient, the stable becomes more like a slaveÕs cabin on a plantation. I seem to recall that sometimes during slavery times there were buildings that were much like stables that slaves were kept in while they were being transported from one place to another. What is the physical structure of the stables like? Are these cubicles without doors, like for horses? Although, now that I think about it, the stalls in a stable probably do usually have doors... Or wait, no, you just have to tie the horse to the wall -- so no doors are necessary. Maybe the stalls have lockable doors on them, like in a mental institution or a jail, where there are little windows on each door. ...Although, since the shoggoths are fluid/gelatinous, you probably wouldnÕt have rectangular doors -- youÕd have round portals. The holding cells might be like the big vats that beer is brewed in... Or like the huge cisterns that hold oil. Or like water towers. Or like the long cylinders on trucks that transport gas. Or like the holds in an oil tanker. Maybe the shoggoths are allowed to co-mingle... They all just converge in a giant lake together. Maybe theyÕre kept in a natural cave, like a giant underground lake. (IÕm thinking of the underground lake in David LynchÕs version of Dune.) Or maybe there are metal tanks, with a limited capacity. How many shoggoths would you store in a tank? Five? Twelve? Twenty-five? WhatÕs a convenient number to pull out of storage for a job? What sort of relationship do tank-mates develop? What does it feel like to be a shoggoth touching another shoggoth? Is it a pleasurable thing -- a merging like intercourse? Is there a transfer of knowledge? (ThatÕs an idea that IÕm obviously stealing from Deep Space 9 -- the planet of the changelings, where the shape shifters melt into fluid and live in lake of collective consciousness together.) 3. Mental hygiene and the war of resubjugation Is it ever the case that a shoggoth will attack other shoggoths? For instance, if the hypno-programming breaks down and a shoggoth goes insane, might it start tearing apart other shoggoths? How do you kill a shoggoth? Is it even possible for one shoggoth to harm another? Certainly the elders could atomize the shoggoths with their ring guns... But I donÕt see any way that a shoggoth could manipulate electricity or fire for cauterizing another. Insanity could spread, though. If one shoggoth is insane, it might spread to other shoggoth minds, making it ÒnecessaryÓ for the shoggoths to destroy the whole lot. The war of re-subjugation might in part be attributed to the spread of a contagious mental disease amongst the shoggoths. ThatÕs interesting -- physical diseases in human beings are contagious -- but mental diseases arenÕt. But if youÕre a creature who can share thoughts by touching another, then certainly contact with you mind becomes a somewhat dangerous affair. ÒMental hygieneÓ becomes a legitimate concern! I was thinking a few minutes ago that perhaps the elders have maintained a practice of keeping shoggoths separate from one another. Isolating subjugated persons from one another is a core strategy for maintaining dominion. It is my understanding that the origins of using regimented desks in schools has its origins in this mindset: students must be isolated from one another in order to maintain control over them. Keeping shoggoths in separate cells would be a means to maintain Òmental hygieneÓ if touching poses a Òmental healthÓ risk... Keeping them in separate cells would also keep sentient slaves from organizing a rebellion. However, if the elders keep shoggoths separate in order to prevent their organizing, then this suggests that the elders are anticipating such a possibility... Which would suggest that they have had experience with it in the past. I donÕt think this is the case. The shoggoths are not like slaves that have been forcibly captured and removed from foreign lands -- theyÕre the creations of the elders, and the elders would not generally doubt their own abilities, thinking that they could create anything that would be dangerous to themselves. When the revolution comes, I think the elders are pretty completely unprepared -- and the consequences are cataclysmic. During the first war of resubjugation, it seems to me that the elders would not be putting down a rebellion... ItÕs more like theyÕre wiping out dutch elm disease or smallpox. The proliferation of Òmentally illÓ shoggoths is seen not as a prison break out -- but as an infectious outbreak. Consequently, the elders arenÕt going to be concerned with wiping out every single shoggoth that exists... If they miss a few in their sweeps, thatÕs not a big deal: they can just come back later and do another sweep. The goal is simply to prune back this branch of the shoggoth family tree so that the infection doesnÕt spread. So long as infected shoggoths are kept away from the main herd, who cares if a few rogue blobs are roaming the ocean? One would think that the Òwar of resubjugationÓ would help prompt the elders to move from using programmable shoggoths to using sentient teachable ones. Hm. That phrase, Òwar of resubjugation,Ó might sound a little wrong given the way that I am depicting the crisis. ÒWar of resubjugationÓ is a phrase that was coined by the human explorers in ATMOM, though -- itÕs easy enough to say that they misinterpreted what they saw, since culling the herd and a war would look much the same in sculpture, with no native speaker to interpret. To call the events of the Òwar of resubjugationÓ a Òcrisis,Ó though -- that does make sense. Certainly some elders probably died in the course of these events... Which is what would prompt them to take action -- perhaps overreacting, even, since they see their own die so infrequently. 4. Shoggoth taboos and break downs. Perhaps during the days of programmable shoggoths, a powerful taboo against touching each other is instilled in the shoggoths... Perhaps similarly a sense of shame and self-disgust... Or perhaps thatÕs just a side-effect of seeing other shoggoths as Òuntouchable.Ó Hearing a shoggothÕs personal journey from self-hatred to feeling that Òslime is beautifulÓ could be interesting. The taboo could be put in place after the mental disease outbreak that leads to the war of subjugation. That way, when the shoggoths are later given sentience, it is a very deeply rooted neurosis that they have to overcome. How often do shoggoths go mad? Is it one in a thousand that becomes schizophrenic? One in a million? Where do the shoggoths typically break down? In the mines when they are being asked to go into life-threatening situations? Is the break down most often in situations where survival instinct and the instinct to obey come into conflict? If so, a shoggoth would typically break down in a place where it is reasonably isolated from others. Or, is the break down actually a result of emerging sentience coming in conflict with obedience? Perhaps the shoggoths are themselves evolving over time, and sentience is emerging on its own... So when the elders ÒgiveÓ the shoggoths sentience, itÕs less a matter of giving animals intelligence, and more about caving in to the fact that these creatures have developed intelligence -- it simply becomes easier to work with the intelligence by giving it orders, than to continue trying to suppress it. 5. Generations of elders ThereÕs a Òconventional wisdomÓ IÕve run across in certain anti-oppression books, suggesting that the oppressed always know more about the oppressor group than the oppressor knows about itself. ...In some ways, pursuing the nature of the shoggoths may be valid way to triangulate what it is that motivates the elders. However, the past three pages have little relevance for the movie -- they only contribute to the book (which seems to be growing in substance in my imagination increasingly). I think I need to refocus my attention on the real problem of the day: figuring out what it is that motivates the elders. Simply said: what do they want? [Or, to quote the Vorlons and Shadows from Babylon 5, ÒWho are you?Ó ÒWhat do you want?Ó] Perhaps what the elders want changes over time? It seems like there might be transitions as generations progress, one generation responding to the previous. Given that the elders are extremely long-lived -- I havenÕt decided yet if theyÕre functionally immortal -- it seems like ÒgenerationsÓ might be a somewhat foreign concept to them. Very occasionally, an individual elder might decide to reproduce as a personal project... Maybe reproduction for the elders is geared towards the needs of specific projects? For instance, a scientist decides that they want to pursue a new line of research... Or they want to mount an expedition... They have the luxury of spending 10, 20, or 50 years growing their new team from their own spores! This raises an interesting possibility that I hadnÕt considered before... The elders in the hive could all be the children of a single dissident elder. Note that they still need to go out and eat, so they might not go undetected. TheyÕd need to hunt... Perhaps this would be part of what leads to the dissenterÕs defection -- theyÕre appalled at letting the shoggoths do the hunting for the elders, and want to go back to the old ways of hunting for oneself. Note that this would mean remaining on the surface, which is getting increasingly cold. If itÕs the navigator/guru character I keep playing with, Òthe worldÕs oldest elder,Ó who was one of the first pioneers on Earth, then there might be a character-based justification... This individual traversed space, and was helped terraform this planet -- theyÕre not going to shy away from adapting to the new climate. One flaw in the concept of this individual parting ways with the city folk to start a new colony: the cave has no bas relief, no furniture... Nothing to suggest that itÕs actually lived in on a daily basis. Of course, the pioneer remembers coming to Earth when it was just stone and water... Back when you had to rely on solar power, sitting out on the stones soaking up solar radiation for several hours a day, like a solar power generator array. Asceticism might well be part of this elderÕs schtick. Given that this elder has lived through so much, I canÕt help but imagine him being physically battered an maimed... Missing limbs and wings, an eye or two... IÕm tempted to think that s/he might not have the equipment to reproduce anymore. Well, they probably could have at least one of the five wings still able to produce spores... Or if the elder has been irradiated at some point, then perhaps they have gathered an acolyte or two around them, who have begun the work of producing new disciples. Maybe the acolytes were selected in part due to their physical attributes. Certainly having to convince people to follow you is more interesting and dramatic than simply having babies. You have to make a convincing argument -- which for the audience is interesting, because you get to hear a compelling Òthis is why we should take this actionÓ statement, which can be set in conflict with someone elseÕs idea of what should happen. 6. Theoretical digression: Òthis is what I think should happenÓ IÕm very happy with the Òwhat do they want?Ó question, which feels like it very quickly gets to the core of characterization. ÒThis is what I think we should doÓ might be similarly primal, in terms of defining conflict. The way that (very) basic texts have described conflict has always bothered me... ItÕs defined in terms of goal -- which makes me imagine stealing treasure, getting the girl... Things that all sound like attainment of property. But to have two characters with very different ideas about what should happen, different plans for how life and the world will unfold with time -- this is more interesting because the ÒgoalÓ is a particular unfolding of process. The goal is more like a verb than a noun. A character wants a pot of gold -- this bores me. You can complicate their path to achieving the goal, which will make the adventure more entertaining. But it doesnÕt fascinate me intellectually. To begin with a characterÕs ideas about how events should transpire -- this is more intriguing. ÒI wantÓ: the character wants to be rich. ÒHow should it happen?Ó: The character feels that they should simply be given the gold, or that they should steal it and not get caught... But character #2 -- the all-important character #2 -- has a different concept of the world. They want to be generous and give their gold away... But they donÕt get to do that if character #1 steals it! If character #2 wants to keep the gold, then why do they want to keep it? How does that fit into how they think the world will unfold? Is having this gold a way to keep the memory of the dead father they inherited it from alive? Is it savings for building a house, or a fancy graveyard? I know that a number of years ago I took a class on writing at NorWesCon where the teachers offered a list of questions that was guaranteed to help clarify your characters, and consequently your story. I may be reinventing the wheel here, but I feel like IÕm slowly starting to generate my own set of questions which quickly and effectively clarify whatÕs really going on in a story. [Another tip: Know who youÕre stealing from. It seems like whenever IÕm able to identify what movie or book IÕm stealing an idea from, it better allows me to either frieze an idea in place or figure out how I need to change it in order to seem more original. The more comfortable I get with making up story possibilities, the less it bothers me to think that all ideas have already been conceived, and IÕm simply recombining them into my own unique performance. After all, George Lucas was very clear about having stolen elements from Flash Gordon, KurosawaÕs ÒThe Hidden FortressÓ, World War II dogfight movies, Tarzan, Errol Flynn sword fights...] 7. Kill off the pioneer What if I got rid of this ÒworldÕs oldest elderÓ conceit? What if, instead, we followed a sort of family tree... Where the pioneer dies, and then we see how his disciple fares in the next generation, and then his disciple in the next. If this were a book, this would raise an interesting question of naming conventions. How do the elders name themselves? We know from ÒShadow Out of TimeÓ that the elders do use names. They donÕt have family units, having been born from spores... Do all members of a spore cloud take on a common last name? Are elders named after the masters whom they apprentice under? Are they named after their occupations? Are they named after the year in which they were born? In human society, last names are passed down from generation to generation. For the elders, every individual could have a perfectly unique name. Or, on the other hand, whole groups of elders could take on a single name, viewing themselves as interchangable. Elders who are committed to a common purpose might not need separate names... Particularly if they are telepathically bonded with one another. 8. The nature of telepathy I still havenÕt gone very far into my exploration of the eldersÕ telepathic abilities. Telepathy doesnÕt seem too far afield because we know that they use hypnosis to control the shoggoths. It canÕt be the same sort of swinging pocket-watch hypnosis that humans use... Furthermore, we know that the elders have access to senses that we are not aware of... Maybe brainwaves are one of those sensory ranges -- so weÕre not talking about something mystical here, simply a transmission that occurs in a spectrum that humans arenÕt aware of. I bring this up because I am wondering if full personalities couldnÕt be transferred from one being to another. If you have a cluster of 25 scientists working together, might they develop a telepathic field where they are sharing thoughts? Or, if a master is dying, might a willing acolyte offer themselves up to house the masterÕs mind -- sacrificing themselves in order to let the great being continue on? What is the range of the telepathy? Is it like infrared TV remotes, where you need a line of sight? Or like remote car keys, where thereÕs proximity, but the signal can pass through walls? Are we talking about 25 feet, 100 feet, a mile, across the globe? Surely there are variations among different elders -- with some masters being able to send signals across great distances... And similarly sense signals? What are the shoggothsÕ thoughts like to the elders? Are they inscrutable? Are their minds easy to read? 9. Creating life through blood sacrifice I had a thought yesterday that I forgot to capture. IÕve begun to imagine the origins of the shoggoths as an elder slicing their finger, a droplet of blood falls out, and that tiny drop becomes the first shoggoth... Which grows larger and more sophisticated in structure... And then from them, perhaps also come the whole evolutionary chain of animal life on Earth. But what if that initial donation of blood were more significant than a sliced finger tendril? What if creating life required a Òhuman sacrificeÓ -- or rather, in this case, an elder being sliced open, from head to toe. It conjures up Aztec human sacrifice rituals, performed on a stone altar. Also the Mayan creation myth, which I only just recently learned of via the film ÒThe Fountain.Ó The tree of life bursts from the carcass of that death... Perhaps I could use a tree-form sprouting branches to symbolize the emerging taxonomy. The tree form seems a little predictable -- but it is a symbolic form of communication, rather than literal, which is valuable. Also, it seems like that first blood sacrifice puts the donor into the role of martyr. That single elder starts to look like the god that created all life, rather than the elders as a species. If I still keep the sacrificial lamb encircled by 20-40 other elders, the sense of a collective endeavor remains... But the elders are extremely protective of their own -- I donÕt know if that means a blood sacrifice goes against character, or if it suggests how much theyÕre investing in this project. 10. Loss of the home world Being pioneers going to another planet seems somewhat self-sacrificing... But what is the higher cause that makes this journey worthwhile? The glory of empire? The desire to explore all corners of the universe? It doesnÕt seem to make sense that you can do something for the glory of empire if you canÕt make contact with the home world to report back. Could there have been contact with the home world at one point -- but then there was a great cataclysm, and contact was cut off? Perhaps the spawn of Cthulhu defeated the homeworld? If so, knowing that the spawn destroyed a whole elder civilization would really up the ante when the spawn come to Earth... ThereÕd be a greater sense of desperation during the war -- which would give more motivation for desperate measures, such as contacting great unknown forces from beyond our universe, and in the process wiping out two-thirds of the elder population on earth. Whoah... Could it be the great gods from beyond that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs? I donÕt think that the extinction of dinosaurs has been addressed in the Lovecraftian universe. It would be really neat if the location that Lovecraft describes in ÒThe Call of CthulhuÓ matches up with the location where the giant meteor is supposed to have hit. The dates would also have to match up... So it might not work out ultimately -- but the possibility is exciting! 11. Splat effect I was saying yesterday that I could symbolize the shoggothsÕ hatred of the elders by having an elderÕs silhouette explode with a Òsplat.Ó ...But I couldnÕt think of how to create that effect digitally. What was I thinking? Of course thereÕs a way to do it -- but as a visual effect that gets composited. Just mix up a batch of my ÒshoggothÓ glop (tempera, corn syrup, flour) and drop it onto a white dry erase board from above. Splat! If the effect works out, I could potentially use it multiple times... To depict actual deaths of elders during the genocide. I could throw in some other effects, too, like throwing india ink across a piece of white paper, to create more symbolic blood splatter. ...Interesting how I seem to be developing an increasing array of liquid-based visual effects strategies. IÕm almost beginning to think that the shoggoths in act II will be accomplished primarily as practical effects, modified through compositing. If this is the case, it would be good to keep in mind, so I can approach act II from a hands-on mindset, rather than trying to do all my work Òin the boxÓ (the computer). 11. Who do the elders have relationships with? Again: What do the elders want? IÕve taken stabs at their psychology, but donÕt feel like I really understand it. It seems to me that Òno man is an islandÓ -- there is no psychology except relationships to other people/beings. So who do the elders relate to? They have a relationship with the shoggoths. They have a relationship with the spawn of Cthulhu. Most life on earth is beneath their consideration. ThereÕs a relationship with the primal gods that live at the mountains of madness proper. There are relationships within the species -- both on earth, and off-planet. 12. When do shoggoths gain intelligence? The shoggoths are slaves, work horses, tools. The relationship with the shoggoths transforms over time... Beginning with the shoggoths being programmable things... Then there being a crisis (almost like a potato famine) where the shoggoth population needs to mostly be ÒeuthanizedÓ... The shoggoths take on new significance during the war with the spawn, as biological tanks... In the wake of the great devastation following the war, the shoggoths are by necessity given greater responsibility... ItÕs unclear at which point specifically the shoggoths are given self-awareness and become things that are commanded and taught rather than programmed. It might be during the war... So that the shoggoths can keep on fighting even if separated from a commanding elder... Perhaps almost as a guerilla tactic, the shoggoths could be given cleverness so that they could undermine the spawnsÕ strongholds independently (if the spawn have strongholds -- I donÕt know how long the war is supposed to last). The shoggoths might be given intelligence prior to the spawn war -- in response to the war of resubjugation. Maybe the contagious mental illness is linked to conflicts between programming and the rudimentary self-will which has evolved... So itÕs decided to give self-will precedence over programming. ...It seems like the crisis has to lead to some sort of fundamental change in the eldersÕ relationship with the shoggoths -- it canÕt just happen and then be forgotten. The crisis sets up that there is going to be a population of runaways living under the ocean (where exactly?)... When sentient shoggoths come in contact with the runaways later, how might their minds affect the ÒmadÓ shoggoths? Are the ÒmadÓ shoggoths still insane at this late point? Sentience so early on seems problematic -- my Che Guevara character would have to wait far too long to start his revolution. The shoggoths might be given intelligence after the war. With the elder populations decimated, theyÕre called upon to do more of the work of maintaining society. Whereas before they may have been confined to the mines, perhaps now theyÕre in the eldersÕ living quarters. Perhaps the shoggoths were first brought into the city itself during the war... Sort of like how women and blacks gained integration into society during World War II, when every available set of hands was needed. The elders got used to being shoulder-to-shoulder with the beasts that they were maybe disgusted by previously... And so the transition to using them in the home was made easier. Perhaps the shoggoths were only given intelligence in the very late stages of society... When the world started becoming colder, and the elders moved from the surface city down into the caves. The shoggoths, which they remembered using during the war, could be employed to go hunting. If this is the case, what does it mean about the society that has previously held hunting at the very core of its identity? Giving up hunting is like giving up the ghost for these beings... ItÕs almost like just at the moment that they decide to live in peace with the beings theyÕve created, theyÕre punished. Does that make the revolution a bit like a race riot being perpetrated by freed slaves? IÕm not sure I like that direction... 13. Why do the shoggoths hate the elders? It sort of brings me back to the question: Why do the shoggoths hate the elders? IÕve said that the shoggoths want freedom. OK, thatÕs reasonable -- but itÕs not the same thing as saying that the shoggoths hate the elders. Lazily, my assumption has been that the shoggoths hate the elders because the elders have used pain as punishment. But lashing out at oneÕs torturers doesnÕt seem like the sort of motivation that would last for thousands of years. No, in fact I really havenÕt shown the elders as torturers at all. They use pain for punishment in the way that some parents use spankings on children; few spanked children are going to take revenge by murdering their parents. However, even though the shoggoths have been given intelligence, theyÕre not really autonomous -- theyÕre still controlled using hypnosis. So, when my Che Guevara breaks out of his stupor and becomes really self-conscious, itÕs an effort of will -- and one which must be kept secret. The crime of the elders, from the shoggothsÕ point of view, has much more to do with suppressing their minds -- keeping them mentally asleep. There, thatÕs a second possible reason for hating the elders. IÕve also sort of thrown out that the shoggoths may ultimately decide that while the elders are gods, the gods no longer deserve their power. 14. What makes the elders ÒgodsÓ? The elders are gods on Earth. Why? Because they created life here. They are parent-gods (godparents... heh). They are life-giving gods... But they are also life-taking gods. They are both gods of life and of death. They create life merely so they have something to eat. Ooh! This is actually really interesting, because it touches on one of the great questions of human theology: Why did god create life on earth -- and then make us mortal? (The biblical answer, of course, is that death is our own damned fault... And that, paradoxically, we get immortal life back again if we just agree to be good little children.) IÕm generally averse to dealing with Christianity via fiction -- itÕs not my religion, so I donÕt care to bother with it. However, in this case the comparison is really delicious, because weÕre not talking about some sort of vaporous god -- these are exquisitely carnal gods. ItÕs as if God made Adam and Eve by standing in the garden masturbating... And then after Adam and Eve eat from the apple tree, God stabs them in the guts 20 times and eats their corpses for dinner. (ItÕs a bit vulgar, surely to be seen as offensive by the devout -- but thatÕs a reinterpretation of Genesis thatÕs just about worth writing... Just because it makes God out to be not some sort of distant, uninvolved personality, but a very here-now hands-on sort of guy. I like it. 15. Why my Che Guevara shoggoth chooses genocide So, IÕve suggested three reasons why the shoggoths hate the elders: A) The elders are torturers, using electro-shock punishments B) The shoggoths wake up and realize that the elders have been controlling their minds C) The shoggoths decide that their parent-gods are no longer worthy. Having the shoggoths decide that they want to control their own minds feels like the best, most concrete motivation. However, the option to simply run away is available. This would be an option that keeps the shoggoths, in essence, morally clean. However, my Che Guevara, now having gained sentience, would be intelligent enough that he could make sense of the bas reliefs around him... He would see the history of the war of resubjugation and be able to make sense of it. HeÕd know that if the elders discover an outbreak of Òmental illness,Ó theyÕll have no qualms about wiping out their inferiors. There might be moral indecision about this... You could risk escape, hoping to avoid detection, and thereby stave off the necessity of killing your captors. Maybe I could Òturn the screwsÓ and have the elders realize that the shoggoths are beginning to organize -- thus starting a count-down to racial cleansing. Or, perhaps thereÕs not an imminent threat to the entire species, but rather a psychological tipping point, where Che sees one of his kind murdered... Or some excess of the elders... And his mind is made up. 16. The Òfinal solutionÓ - the morality of turning the tables? What Che plans is essentially a Òfinal solutionÓ -- but this time coming from the oppressed class, rather than the oppressor class. ItÕs a neat sort of reversal/alternate history: What if the Nazis got to the point of having ghettos and prison camps, perhaps even a few death camps... But never committed to full-on genocide -- simply kept oppression set at that plateau. And then, what if the Jews some how found a fatal weakness, which would allow them to carry out the Òfinal solutionÓ first? Yes, they are oppressed horribly -- but a merciless pre-emptive strike that wipes out everyone? That throws a heap of moral doubt onto the oppressed. What does it mean? What message am I trying to tell the audience? I guess in terms of the Nazis (gulp) thereÕs a tendency among my contemporaries to demonize them and portray everyone in the regime as Òevil.Ó When pushed, people may agree that many German bigots would have been ÒharmlessÓ had the war not given them permission to push things farther; and perhaps some will say that there were middle-management types in the administration who were pushed along by the tide of events; ultimately the buck stops with Hitler himself... I donÕt want to forgive anyone. But I do want to untangle the knot and see it clearly, rather than saying the Nazis were inhuman. The Nazis were absolutely HUMAN. So, where I want to push people a little, is by posing this one question... Giving them the magic wand... If you were set down in the middle of World War II, and could with the nod of your head make every single German instantaneously drop down dead -- would you do so? If you really had to throw out all shades of gray and treat every single non-Jew, non-queer, non-polish person in Germany at that moment as 100% Òblack,Ó would you do so? When IÕm personally confronted with this question, I think my own answer is Òno.Ó And thatÕs a little difficult in some ways... Because it means that a lot of Jews (and queers, mentally ill, gypsies, polish, etc.) would essentially be dying in order to save the lives of morally besmirched Germans. Ultimately, my thinking I guess is that war is a conflict -- not a matter of damnation and salvation. I would like for everyone to get out alive and for the conflict to be resolved peacefully. Not everyone IS going to get out alive, though... In the process of untangling the two parties, there are going to be more deaths... And yet, both parties -- at least as collectives -- continue to exist... Maimed, but alive. To simply decide that one will die -- no, I wonÕt do that. Even having a war continue on for years is a way to keep people alive longer... Who should get the death sentences for their crimes? This is another question -- not the one that IÕm asking. My question forces you to take the Nazi janitors along with the generals and punish both equally. Another aspect of my question is that IÕm not allowing any calculation of numbers. You donÕt get to know that by killing 100, you save 1000... Or that by killing 1000 you save 100. The way that IÕve set this up is at the level of genocide, where different ÒpeoplesÓ are essentially like different species... Blue whales or Indian elephants -- one gets to live. Choose. ...Except, no, itÕs not like that, because IÕm asking Òdo you want to make the choice -- or to avoid making that choice.Ó Maybe itÕs more like looking at Bengal tigers and gazelles. If you had a magic wand, you could make Bengal tigers cease to exist, and gazelles would be safe forever... With the added twist, that the Bengal tigers are fully conscious of their actions, and even though they could eat other animals -- or even grass -- have chosen to pick on the gazelles. It makes the tigers damnable... But still, would you wish their very species out of existence? Anyway... Some sort of explicit hashing out of these ethical dilemmas would be fun to put into the book... Perhaps between my Che and a lesser shoggoth, who still thinks of the elders as the Òblood giversÓ -- parents to all life on Earth. By a similar token, to those people who might say Òyes,Ó it would have been appropriate to wipe out every German, it would be interesting to review what the German people has contributed to the world during their long history... And what theyÕve contributed since World War II... For the sake of upping the moral ambiguity, I might do well to find some more positive things that the elders are continuing to contribute to life on earth... Even if itÕs just something like a vibrant pursuit of the arts and sciences... Although, perhaps more powerfully I could point to the eldersÕ successfully defending the earth from Cthulhu back during the spawn war... The ways in which they themselves are a refugee people, who lost their home world to the spawn... The ways in which of all beings in the universe, they perhaps have the best shot at saving the cosmos from the SpawnÕs desire to collapse all back into a black hole singularity... So, supposing you could kill off the elders now and know that your species will always be safe from that immediate threat -- but in the long run, the universe may (or may not!) be saved depending on the outcome of their research -- what do you do? Do you sacrifice yourself in order to save a flawed savior? Do you wipe them out for a temporary but certain safety? 17. The ecology of my universe I inherently donÕt like plots that are about damnation, salvation, and redemption. ThatÕs not a moral universe that resonates for me. And yet, itÕs a language that is prevalent in story analysis, and which I am not learned enough yet to avoid. It seems like IÕm setting up a moral spectrum where the elders are bad -- but CthulhuÕs spawn is worse. And yet, in a fairly Lovecraftian style, I am not making even Cthulhu ÒevilÓ -- he simply pursues goals that are contrary to those of humanity, and nearly incomprehensible to us. Cthulhu is not a death-worshipper or sadist... He simply wants to bring the universe into itÕs ultimate order. He may be gelatinous and dripping with slime -- but he is even more committed to obeying the perfect mathematical geometries of space-time. Like the Chinese say, demons always go in straight lines. (Conversely, beauty and life are found in the details and digressions -- in the corners of the zigs and zags.) It seems like IÕm establishing an ecology to my universe... It reminds me of the ecology of Fraggle Rock, where you have the doozers, the fraggles, and the gorgs... All unwittingly connected by their dependence on radishes. In my universe, the pecking order is something like this: humans, shoggoths, elder things, spawn of cthulhu, primal/outsider gods. Humans evolved from shoggoth protoplasm. Shoggoths were born from elder thing blood. Elder things feed on the animal life they created -- but also protect it from the spawn of cthulhu. Cthulhu is disinterested in life, except where it stands in the way of moving the stars into alignment to collapse the universe. The primal gods can be summoned by the elder things, and have some antipathy towards the spawn... They wipe both out of their way, but are then essentially disinterested. I havenÕt explored the primal godsÕ goals, but I think they have something to do with connecting another universe to our own. All other creatures are firmly of this universe... So in some odd way, the spawnÕs goals of collapsing our universe have a sort of loyalty to this place, which is lacking in the primal gods. Looking at this array of five player-species, the elders stand at the center... Between the infinitesimal humans and the infinite primal gods. Hm... The primal gods might actually be pseudopods of a sentient universe intruding into our own. Our universe is godless -- and itÕs a good thing! Fear the sentient universe creeping in through the rifts in space-time. [The Yith are an incidental character... Not part of my ecology, rather just playing a bit part in the story... Wanderers leaping from sphere to sphere, vowing allegiance to no place and no bodies.] The morality of an ecology is that of interdependence and interrelationship -- not one of salvation, damnation, and redemption. 18. Elder things - the defenders of Earth? In the pecking order of player species IÕve described, there are no allies -- only Òthe enemy of my enemy is my friendÓ relationships. To this extent, the elders seem to be on the side of Earthlings. They eat us -- but also protect us from more apocalyptic invaders. IÕm uncomfortable with this depiction. It feels like it embellishes upon the mythos significantly. It makes me want to go back to ATMOM (once again) and review LovecraftÕs description of the relationship between the elders and the spawn... And also with the migo. My memory of the relevant passages is that these otherworldly species were able to co-exist with the elders on earth without there having to be all-out war. One species would live in certain parts of the world, while the elders would move to another. IÕm also uncomfortable, because when I think of the way that the elder in Shadow Out of Time is given voice, it strikes me as being a scientist and a carnivore... But not necessarily a crusader or missionary. The way that IÕve described the pioneer elders who first arrived on Earth, they left the galactic core with a strong sense of purpose... A noble mission to both explore the universe, and to help protect it from the spawn. This seems awful altruistic. 19. How are the elders selfish? One route to establishing what the elders want might be to look at the ways in which they are weak and selfish. At present, it seems like the eldersÕ main weakness is that they underestimate the worth of the life that theyÕve created on Earth. Despite the shoggoths having gained sentience, the elders view them as mere tools... At best, servants that should be blindly obedient, grateful to exist -- if even that much emotion can be projected into the servants (since it seems like the beginnings of empathy). What a character loves is also a location of weakness. The elders love to eat meat. TheyÕre carnivores and scientists -- vivisection epitomizes their relationship with living things. IÕm going to be in trouble when I try to portray the elders eating anything... Since in the character design phase of this project, I decided I had to eliminate the dangling mouth tubes that Lovecraft describes in ATMOM. My thought at the time was that the eldersÕ mouths could be at the top of their bodies, between their eyes. This is a noticeable detail, but one thatÕs not really significant -- so if thereÕs a discrepancy with how I write ÒThe Last Days of Leng,Ó it doesnÕt really matter. The elders love science. Perhaps this relates to their quest to hold the spawn at bay? Why do the elders love meat? Are they sensualists? Most of what IÕve seen of them suggests that they are ascetics... No, thatÕs not quite right. What IÕve been getting is that the elders are *both* extremely intelligent and extremely savage. ItÕs like theyÕve got a Descartian mind/body dichotomy going on -- but amped up on steroids. This conclusion was one of the most important discoveries I made yesterday -- and yet, I havenÕt seemed to be able to do more with it today. IÕve gone on all sorts of interesting tangents -- but not dealt with that core matter. What is it that elders love about science/the mind? What is it that they love about hunting/the body? It strikes me that the intersection of corpus (Latin: ÒbodyÓ) and encephalon (Greek: Òwhat is inside the headÓ) is anatomy. Perhaps the elders are very anatomical thinkers? They imagine the world around them in terms of arteries, flesh, blood, cancers... They might imagine themselves as all being tendrils of one body, one species... Their metaphors might be alien to us -- referring to tentacles rather than hands and fingers... They might use genderless pronouns... Although, both of these things seem painfully artificial to me. When dealing with space aliens, putting alien-sounding metaphors in their mouths is simply a failure of the author to adequately translate their language into English. Selfishness is a weakness... As is laziness, being quick to anger, arrogance, lack of empathy... But all these things are halves of positive/negative quality pairs... I could sprinkle in such spices to help characterize the elders -- but it doesnÕt feel like the way to isolate motivation. If you reduce a character to ÒlazyÓ or Òpompous,Ó youÕve created a clown. [Although, I have respect for what some people do with clowning -- so IÕm reticent to use that word here.] 20. Passiveness, plans for the future, hope IÕm flailing about, looking for how to understand the elders... Because right now they seem so passive and without motivation. How passive? Well, after they arrive on Earth and create a civilization, what then? (A) They react to a crisis, wiping out mental contagion during the war of resubjugation. (B) They react to the spawn attacking Earth, and fight back -- even taking the bold step of calling on the primal gods. (C) They react to the oncoming ice age by going underground... But a series of reactions to external stimuli is still tedious -- even if the story is laden with lots of special effects and spectacle. ItÕs as if the elders lost the will to live when they discovered that their home world at the galactic core was destroyed. Oh, they go through the motions of maintaining the civilization that theyÕve established... But theyÕre not going anywhere. What was the plan when they left the home world? To expand the empire, which was somehow going to help defend the universe against the spawnÕs plans. What does that make this colony... A military outpost? A place where you have to hold the fort? A place where you have to set up some sort of device that will counter the efforts of the spawn? WhatÕs the plan? How does the plan change after the home world falls? Does that mean that all is lost? Is there hope of defeating the spawn still? Are there ambitions of re-starting the civilization here on Earth? Is there awareness of other planets in the galaxy having fallen? Is hope lost? Is life on Earth simply about waiting out the inevitable? HOPE is a useful concept. 21. Notes for tomorrow If the elders were characters in a theatrical tragedy, who would they be? Think of Shakespearian tragedies like King Lear and Titus Andronicus and how they function... Or Greek tragedies, like Oedipus Rex. (Seems like thereÕs a passionate king -- but his passion propels him in the wrong direction, cutting off his friends, welcoming in his enemies... In the end, everyone dies.) Remember the mind/body, civilization/savagery, scientist/hunter dichotomy and try to pursue it farther. The shoggoths are poetically identified with blood -- contrast that, if possible. Chip away more at trying to figure out the eldersÕ hopes and fears, their plans -- and possibly how they respond to the defeat of their plans. Look at whether or not Cthulhu has to appear in act II, or if thereÕs a way of extracting his presence.