LSGL BRAINSTORM
Th 03.06.08

Premise:  Act II...  Find an even more abstract way to tell the story.

1.  Genie out of the bottle / three wishes
After having spent 8 hours doing sketches of the Òthree wishesÓ telling of Act II, I now feel it wonÕt work out after all.  Two main reasons:  (1) ItÕs too fable-like, which goes against the rest of the filmÕs texture.  (2) ItÕs too long -- with an intro, 3 chapters, and an outro, the structure clearly reveals that itÕs a film in its own right...  Not a chapter within the structure that IÕve already established.

This leads to new criteria for defining act II.  (1) It must make sense / fit in with the rest of the film texturally.  (2) Act II cannot be a full-fledged story on itÕs own...  It must present enough images to help further the over-all story, but in an incredibly abridged way.

2.  Types of abstraction
So, there have to be different levels of abstraction.  What are they?

A fable takes the story and invests a cast of thousands of characters into just one or two or several.  ItÕs like the Wizard of Oz, where the tin man is a stand-in for industry.  (I donÕt recall the specifics of how the allegory was supposed to work.)  Actually, ÒallegoryÓ is a better word to describe this route...  Where there are characters with symbolically significant relationships, but the story still makes sense in its own right.  ItÕs essentially a dual-level story.

The extent to which the characters of the story are divorced from what they are meant to represent is another dimension on which allegories can be varied.  For instance, I could represent Christ with a Lion...  It seems like thereÕs a form of allegory which merely condenses a story down, and then thereÕs a form of allegory which tells a known story using stand-ins for characters.  Perhaps thatÕs ÒmetaphorÓ?

IÕm still fuzzy about how to describe a story which is terse.  But if we continue further out on the level of abstraction, then thereÕs perhaps the tableaux...  A stand-alone image which symbolically sums up a relationship.

Further out on the continuum of abstraction, thereÕs what we recognize as abstract art...  Where your characters are no longer represented by literal forms, but have been replaced by colors, forms, textures.  ItÕs hard to know how far one could go with this in a film thatÕs intended to make sense.  IÕm thinking about how the shoggoths are meant to be linked with wet, flowing forms -- and the elders are meant to be associated with geometrically precise, controlled forms...  which can allow me to show chaos growing and taking over.  (Note that ÒchaosÓ is how the elders would view the shoggoths -- itÕs an inherently ÒdehumanizingÓ depiction of the shoggoths, which IÕve spent some time investing intelligence and motivation in.)

So, hereÕs the sequence as I understand it so far:  (1) historical accuracy --> (2) allegory --> (3) tableaux --> (4) abstract art.

The continuum is one of *abstraction*...  The story manages to communicate to the audience to the extent to which recognizable symbols are established.  Abstraction is not inherently non-communicative.  But neither does abstraction inherently establish recognizable symbols.

3.  Elements of the Òvisual storyÓ analyzed
IÕve been reading ÒThe Visual Story:  Creating the Visual Structure of Film, TV and Digital MediaÓ by Bruce Block.  He identifies several components of on-screen imagery, which include:  space, line, shape, tone, color, movement, and rhythm.

Looking at this list, I see a number of various ways to distinguish the elders from the shoggoths, and ways in which the characters could conceivably be pushed to the point of abstract art.

LINE:  The elders are geometrically precise and controlled.  They are like vector-based art.  The shoggoths are like oil or water -- fluid, exhibiting chaotic fluid dynamics.  The shoggoths are not a force of chaos (as the elders might think) -- but they crave freedom, which breaks the lines of control which the elders would place upon them.

There probably ought to be a period of tension building, during which the eldersÕ attempts at control are successful, and the shoggoths suffer psychological repression.  At the point where the shoggoths finally break free, there might be an explosive breaking of lines.

How would one convey a flood on screen?  Perhaps show a dam holding water back?  ...This is an interesting thought which deserves further exploration:  Try exploring the story through metaphor.  Look for objects that are unrelated to the characters, but which poetically capture the central ideas.  For instance, as IÕm associating the shoggoths with blood/water/oil, the image of droplets of water falling into a tea cup come to mind.

COLOR:  IÕve established that the elders are associated with the color green, and shoggoths with blood red.  (Humans are associated with a flat, bright red.  The arctic and the cave are associated with the color blue.)

The images that we see via the beacon are intended to be in the mindÕs eye of the elders.  Consequently, I have clung to the idea that everything we see in Act II should be an ethereal green.  However, it is conceivable that I could treat Act II as a *dream sequence*, in which case I could have a palette that includes both red and green...  But probably not any other colors.

SHAPE:  Much of what I can communicate via shape IÕve already expressed in my discussion of line.  However, I could perhaps do some categorization.

The shoggoths might be held as a sphere/orb initially...  Perhaps a giant droplet of blood, which either ripples when disturbed, or which becomes ovoid (as a tiny droplet would).  When the shoggoths are individuals that are under control, they might be shaped like bars of soap or lozenges or paramecium.  The stereotypical image of the shoggoths, I suspect, pictures them as amoebas with pseudopods.  That is, ÒshapelessÓ blobs -- yet, nothing is truly without shape.  The shape of an amoeba is smooth-edged, with gentle undulations -- not shaggy.  When the elders rebel, then they are more like spills...  Either ink dropped on a wet surface, or ink blown across paper, or paint running down a wall.  If the shoggoths are reaching apocalyptic levels of intensity, then they might look like water thrown through the air.  When a shoggoth hits an elder, there might be a distinct Òsplat,Ó like a ball of mud falling on the floor.  ...A good and useful list; I think I should put it in list format now:
¥  sphere
¥  droplet, ovoid
¥  lozenge, paramecium, bar of soap
¥  amoeba - gently undulating blob
¥  lava lamp, Ô60s-style colored oil light show (Barbarella, Iron Butterfly)
¥  paint running down wall, ink blown across page
¥  ink dropped into a wet sink, shaggy edges
¥  water thrown through the air, waves crashing against rocks
¥  splat, ball of mud dropped on floor

The eldersÕ shape can also be reduced and simplified...  Although IÕm nervous to do so.  The core form of the elder is an urn.  If this is further reduced, it might be seen as an inverted tear-drop. 

Note, that while the elders have been associated with green, depicting them as green inverted tear drops probably wouldnÕt read.  TheyÕd need to be black, since in the cave thatÕs what we see of their skin.  They havenÕt opened their eyes yet -- green is first introduced when the beacon shoots off its lightning and the entire room changes color from blue to green.

SPACE:  Whereas Acts I and III occur in a claustrophobic cave, Act II occurs in a wide-open space...  Rather like the mental/theoretical space where one imagines geometry.

For a good long while I was imagining that the space of Act II would be extremely flat and two-dimensional:  Òwide and flat,Ó was how I was describing it.  However, IÕve backed off some from the idea of having elders that are essentially cut-outs or silhouettes moving across a plane.  Well, they may still be largely 2D -- but now IÕm aching to have at least some depth by having a few *picture planes*.  I could see having 3-5 levels to my images -- rather like panes of glass suspended over one another.

Another option that IÕve explored a little through sketches is to have a space that is infinitely deep.  Most imagery in filmic space is built of a foreground, midground, and background.  However, there is an assumption in this arrangement that the camera will be largely immobile; it may dolly forward -- but never to such an extent that the horizon will be significantly altered.  In my CG reality, itÕs possible to eliminate the horizon entirely, and instead have the camera falling ever downward into a bottomless pit.  It might pass things as it falls, which move from a sort distant midground to a true midground to a foreground -- but we achieve a relationship with the vanishing point that is impossible in real life.

Although, there might be a necessity of creating atmospheric distance cues, having objects resolve out of a black fog...  So perhaps IÕm overstating how radical this option actually is.  Fog is a known filmic space -- and in fact, one which is categorized as Òflat.Ó

These issues of space have to do with contrasting Act II from Acts I and III...  They donÕt actually help me generate story content.

TONE:  Tone has to do with brightness and darkness.  Given that the other acts occur in a dim cave, Act II might be somewhat brighter and have more contrast.  What is perhaps more important is that IÕm planning on essentially desaturating Act II and doing it in black and white -- albeit, using shades of gray which have been tinted green.

In terms of tone, it is interesting to note, though, that IÕve been planning on having the elders essentially be white on a black background -- whereas in the cave theyÕre black on a light back ground.  IÕve essentially reversed their tonal value...  Like a photo negative, what is black is now white.

MOVEMENT & RHYTHM:  I donÕt really know what to say for these categories.  In Act I, we have stillness except for the explorers walking through the sleeping hive.  In Act III, we have the explorers come to a stand-still while all hell breaks loose and the elders stampede.  What is the visual bridge between these two segments, visually?

Rhythm...  I donÕt think I actually understand this term correctly yet.  The pacing of Act I and Act III contrast one another enormously...  But I donÕt think thatÕs what this component is about.

4.  Act 2 is a bridge between Acts 1 and 3.
This is a an idea that is worth pulling out and preserving as its own point.  The function of act II is to get us from I to III.  It is not supposed to be a thing unto itself.  It is a bridge.

If I stop thinking of it as a stand-alone short story, then what?  What has to happen to get us from I to III?

5.  The machine is NOT a beacon
One thing that occurred to me last night is that IÕve been misconceiving Act II for a while now...

Originally, the machine was supposed to be a ÒbeaconÓ -- a telephone of one sort or another, with a message that had been recorded thousands of years ago.  Maybe that message was like a (1) diary entry, recorded for its own sake.  Maybe it was a letter written and (2) left on a table, to be found by whomever finally wandered into this room.  Maybe it was a (3) message in a bottle being sent off into space without much real hope of anyone finding it.  Maybe it was a (4) phone call being made to a specific party, asking for help.

Maybe the message that was meant to be sent was accidentally delayed this whole time.  Maybe itÕs been transmitting without stop for the past 50,000 years.  Maybe the message was being transmitted on loop for a while -- but then was intentionally turned off.

NO.  All these ideas are obsolete.  I decided last week that the machine is an instance of Yith technology.  Its purpose is to amplify telepathy, so the elders are able to leave their bodies and escape to another planet which exists in another eon.  This changes the fundamental nature of what the explorers are going to see in their vision.

I must cast away my previous conceptions, and reimagine now what it is that the explorers are seeing.

Here is the mechanism of the...  What shall I call this machine now?  If not Òbeacon,Ó then perhaps Òtransmitter?Ó  Or Òamplifier?Ó  LetÕs go with ÒamplifierÓ for now.

6.  Where plans for building the amplifier came from
Here is the mechanism of the ÒamplifierÓ as I presently understand it:

Elders all have some telepathic ability.  When they use their telepathy in concert, they are able to accomplish feats that are not otherwise possible -- for instance, programming a shoggoth, or re-capturing a shoggoth whose programming has broken down.  A few elders are masters of the telepathic art, and are able to do something like Òastral projection,Ó mentally traveling in psychic realms beyond the reach of most beings.

At some point in the past, one of these telepathic masters (an astral traveler, if there are subvarieties) encountered a Yith while out-of-body...  Or perhaps the Yith followed him back via his Òvapor trailÓ?  ...Anyway, the Yith switched places with the elder in order to research the elderÕs time period.  The elder spent several years in the YithÕs time period being compelled to transcribe what it knew of history for the sake of the great library.

But the elder was clever in two ways.  First off, in the YithÕs time (which is when?), the elder was able to access the great library to find information about telepathic amplifiers.  Why?  Because the Yith have knowledge of the far future...  The elder, seeing that his species would lose dominance on the planet in some unknown cataclysm, decided to steal the Yithian trick of leaping to another planet in another time, as a means of saving his people from the unknown danger.  He was able to determine that the leap is not technically different from astral travel -- but it requires amplification in order to reach deeper psychic realms where time becomes more malleable.

Secondly, the elder was able to protect himself from the wall of amnesia that the Yith typically install to erase memory of their presence.  This was largely an accident.  Yith have brains with 2 or 3 or 4 lobes.  The eldersÕ five-lobed brains work in categories that are not fully comprehensible to the Yith.  That is, a portion of the elderÕs mind was left behind in the body, where it watched, secretively what the Yith did in its own time.  The Yithian amnesia wall does sometimes break down (as in ÒShadow Out of TimeÓ) -- but when it does, the result is typically psychosis.  The part of the eldersÕ brain which was left behind was able to maintain a grip on reality, which made it possible for the elder to re-integrate itÕs conscious mind much more easily...  And perhaps it was even able to gather information on the Yith which they did not suspect was being stolen.

So a single elder found himself in the end times with the knowledge of how to create a psychic NoahÕs Ark for his people.

As the classic cartoon goes:  Òand this is where a miracle happens.Ó  IÕm not at all sure how the elder went about getting the machine constructed, why it was assembled in this particular cave, or how travelers were selected/recruited/trained/raised.  ThatÕs an aspect of the story that requires work.  What is important for the moment, however, is that the amplifier was built and that a crew (?) was assembled to operate it.

7.  How the amplifier works
The amplifier collects the telepathic transmissions of the elders in the hive.  It adds pulses to the eldersÕ psychic wavelengths, thus putting them at a higher frequency.  It can add rhythms to transform the musicality of the transmissionsÕ natural beat.  [Perhaps this suggests that Act II should make use of drums and rhythms for its soundtrack?]

Do the elders remove themselves from their bodies, making the leap into astral space under their own power?  --Or does the machine rip them from their bodies and catapult them toward the future?

Do the elders each leave their bodies as individuals -- or do they first create a collective mental field?  It seems to me that elders need to go into a sort of collective trance, all contributing mental energy to the project.  The ÒamplifierÓ transforms energy -- but there needs to be a critical mass of energy for the elders to accomplish that which they are attempting.  Perhaps the mental reality of the collective trance is one in which there is both a communality of thought *and* individual minds...  Sort of like all linking hands to create a circle...  Or binding logs to make a raft.  Each elder feels the energy cycling through him/herself...  Like a pulse that is moving from one to another in a circle...  Sort of like a particle accelerator -- where the energy finally shoots out of the top of the amplifier in a bolt of lightning that can be seen in the visible spectrum.

Perhaps there is a limit to how much mental energy the amplifier can manage -- which would limit the number of travelers that could Òboard the ark.Ó  IÕve been imagining a number of scenarios were the lead elder goes through some interesting political maneuvering, selecting whoÕs going to be saved.

Good question:  Who gets to be saved?

Perhaps there is also a minimum number of minds required to accomplish the Ògreat leap forward.Ó  I could see there being a period during which experimentation is required...  Perhaps minds are lost during the attempt.  I can see the leader being obsessed...  Constantly trying to throw his mind farther and farther forward into the future.

8.  The leaderÕs relationship to Òend dayÓ
This leads to further questions, though...  Is it possible for one elder to displace anotherÕs mind?  What sort of trouble would one cause if one were to take over the mind of oneÕs own species?  This could be used for all sorts of political intrigue -- temporarily taking over the presidentÕs mind, for instance -- but this is useless to my story.

Unless.  There might be a way to feel the minds around oneself from astral space, without entering them.  By traveling into the future, an elder might be able to discover the final day -- that moment at which oneÕs species seems to wink out of existence.

The story (the book version) could be further complicated by having a betrayal or a death late in the game.  Perhaps the leader lives and dies in the past -- but manages to contact another elder who lives close to the end day...  So the machine is simply waiting in the cave, prepared, merely needing a group to run it.  OR, maybe the leader has been trusting an acolyte all along -- but then in the last moments before end day, the acolyte kills the master in order to take his place on the ark.  OR, perhaps the leader lives in the end days, and travels back into the past to construct the ark/amplifier, so it will be waiting in the cave when the all-important moment arrives.

OK, so IÕm seeing at least three distinct chapters in the history of the amplifier:  (1) stealing the Yithian technology, (2) assembling Òthe arkÓ, (3) making Òthe great leap forwardÓ on Òend day.Ó

If the leader knows the actual date of the apocalypse, but doesnÕt know where itÕs going to come from, what must it be like, waiting for the axe to fall?  It seems like youÕd be incredibly anxious...  It might be something geological in nature -- a comet crashing into the Earth...  The primal gods being unleashed again...  One might spend years staring at the stars looking for some unknown meteor that might smash into the world...  Or keeping tabs on Cthulhu and the other known players...  YouÕd want to stay until the last moment -- unable to avert the oncoming catastrophe -- but desperately needing to know what it was that kills off your entire species...

And then the news comes in telepathically:  ItÕs the shoggoths.  The foundation of the society, the slave class...  Something you never expected -- not an overwhelming opponent striking from above, but rather the disgusting inferiors that have never been worthy of notice.  And so you leave this time period with a sense of disgust...  Less for the creatures that are uprising, than for oneÕs own species and how weak itÕs become.  If it could be overthrown by slaves, then it deserves to perish.  ThereÕs a sense of self-righteous vindication, a sense that yes, ÒI truly am the messiah.Ó  And so the leader abandons his species, except for the loyal disciples heÕs selected to help him begin society anew. 

Does the cave entrance get sealed?  During the great ice age itÕs covered by ice...  When the ark leaves Earth, is the entry way still open?  Is it perhaps covered by stone -- which then falls away during an avalanche?  How do the elders intend to conceal their bodiesÕ presence for eternity?

9.  The disciples were plucked out of time?
Hm.  An assumption IÕve had is that Noah selects his ÒcrewÓ over the course of 10 or 50 or 200 contiguous years.  But hereÕs an elder that is able to travel in time!  Perhaps he travels through time, discovering the most powerful astral travelers of his species not in real space -- but in the astral plane.  Perhaps he sends them off to that cave heÕs prepared, one at a time.  Maybe this is even something that is known of during the history of the elders -- that occasionally the greatest minds seem to go insane, and simply wander off into the wilderness, never to be seen again.  ...How fun if this were built into the entire story!  If occasionally characters simply disappear -- all in preparation for the big ending, when we discover that theyÕve been hiding in the ark, waiting for Òthe great leap forwardÓ all this time...

And then, tragicomically, in the epilogue they get yanked back from their future utopia -- to face judgment at the hands of their slaves, the plan being fowled up by the monkey clowns that they laughed at eons ago.  Brought down by the Shakespearian fool.  [Oh -- so thatÕs a fourth historical period for the machine...  (4) The denouement?]

It would be interesting to watch Noah traveling back in time -- but remaining in the astral realm -- and recruiting the Òbest and brightestÓ to his cause.  Perhaps he can mentally hold their hand and help them travel further into the future, so they can see the vast expanse of time where the species appears to be dead.  Being the Virgil for that journey would be intriguing...  The disciples would return to real space very shaken up, having seen the demise of their own species.  TheyÕd collect various mechanical parts needed for constructing the devise, then make their trek off into the wilderness.

Even better, story-wise, the characters that go mad and then disappear are very likely to be people that the PAST Noah knows and cares about.  He would be protective of them, and asking them questions about what they saw, and warning them not to go too far into astral space...  And meanwhile, the disciples would have this disorienting experience of having met NoahÕs FUTURE self, who directs them very specifically to tell his past self nothing.  What does Noah suspect?  Perhaps that the disciples have been ensnared by the primal gods living in the Mountains of Madness?  Perhaps very occasionally he catches some sort of astral glimpse of his future selfÕs shadow as it passes by him?  Perhaps heÕs very curious about what this shadowy figure might be -- increasingly warning his students to beware of it...  Which puts them in a great dilemma when they discover that itÕs the teacher himself -- yet a more powerful incarnation of him.  Which one do they believe?  Over the course of the story, perhaps Noah takes increasingly severe steps to keep his students from losing their minds -- past self fighting future self.

What would happen if the future self came back and switched places with the past self?  Is there some point at which the future self has to give the secret away to the past self?  Does the past self figure out whatÕs going on following the Yithian switch, and thereafter take steps to become the future self that heÕs deduced must exist?  (Which would develop into quite a sense of destiny -- knowing that what you are doing *must* culminate as you intend.)  Perhaps thereÕs a revelation in the last fourth of the book, after the Yithian switch, where the past and future selves meet face to face...  The shadow in astral space is revealed in a Òlooking into the mirrorÓ moment.  Yes, a mirror moment has great literary potential.

If it were future Noah gathering up disciples, then he would choose a location for the amplifier that would keep his past self psychologically at bay.  Say, for instance, far inland, just beneath the mountains of madness themselves...  Which, I might add, Lovecraft himself associates with temporal distortions in the final pages of ATMOM!!

IÕm not 100% sure that Noah is the same character as Òthe worldÕs oldest elder / the navigatorÓ whom IÕve previously posited...  But if he is, then this is the character who helped call the primal gods forth to defeat Cthulhu.  The location where the ritual was held might be a place of shame and horror for him, where he intends to never return...  Which then adds a layer of meaning -- because returning to that place creates the sense of repeating a mistake, perhaps even using the amplifier to (oh yeah) amplify the mistake.

So future Noah sends his disciples to the site from which he first called forth the primal gods.  ItÕs a place that Noah himself is intent on avoiding.  It was the site of a terrible trauma -- the first cataclysm.  And if any signs are left behind that his students are traveling toward that point, heÕs going to believe that it is the primal gods who are taking them from him...  Which may add another layer to his sense of self-blame -- for he assumes that itÕs because of his own actions so long ago, that his disciples are now ensnared.

How Noah finally discovers the cave is a cinematic moment waiting to be written.  Perhaps he goes after one of his students at long last out of a sense of crazed self-destruction, half-hoping that he will be taken by the primal gods too.  Or perhaps after encountering his mirror self, he is in a dream state of horrible disbelief...  And wanders off into the hills, drawn on by that which must-not-be-true, yet is the only possible explanation for what heÕs seen.

[Perhaps thereÕs also a psychic capsule further hiding the cave from detection.]

Perhaps an important part of the Òdisciples are plucked out of timeÓ scenario is that they are able to hibernate for long periods.  This has been demonstrated as a capability when the navigator was bringing his people to Earth from the galaxy core a billion years ago...  But itÕs not generally something thatÕs done (or even can be done?) while in the atmosphere on Earth.  Perhaps itÕs just that thereÕs no apparent point to hibernating usually.  Perhaps certain drugs are usually required -- but the trance can be induced psychically if you are adequately advanced.

Perhaps the disciples are not simply asleep -- but instead actively engaged in the search for a new future world to colonize.  Noah would be able to go farther in the future and farther out into space than anyone else -- but thereÕd still be a lot of territory to cover, looking for a suitable species to claim.  The hive would appear dead -- but on the astral plane, it would be very busy, with disciples coming and going, heading out on expeditions and returning with reports.

The final leap forward would be delayed as long as possible in order to help the elders launch as far forward as possible.  TheyÕre probably going to have some special needs...  Maybe looking for creatures with four- or five-lobed brains...  Ones that have a brain structure that is suitable to further psychic existence...

10.  Being yanked back to Earth
All of this story development is quite interesting for the sake of the book...  But what I need to understand for the film is how the elders get yanked back to Earth, and what the experience looks like on the astral plane.

I have an image of the elders falling through space...  Like someone has thrown handfuls of squid directly at the camera.

From what little I know of Òastral projection,Ó part of the mythology involves there being a Òsilver cordÓ which tethers you back to your body.  Perhaps when we see lightning shooting out the top of the amplifier, it is a visible manifestation of the eldersÕ silver cords?  ...As if the hiveÕs silver cords had been woven into a single, mighty rope...  Which allowed them to descend into the inky reaches of the future as if they were spelunkers descending into a pit of unknown depth, suspended by life-preserving ropes.

Does the future have gravity?  As you go out farther, is there acceleration, pulling you toward the end of time?  ...And if you travel backwards, is the same true for the beginning of time?  Or do you have to really push to go those last few inches in astral space?  What happens if your silver cord snaps?  Is the cord a little elastic, allowing you to stretch...?

Maybe the collective silver rope of the hive elders is like a tube...  Which would allow me to use the image of traveling through a ring tunnel, which IÕve wanted...  The rings are flying at the camera -- and then we see elder things (or just their twitching silhouettes?) being thrown back through time toward us?

How is it that the elders get yanked back?  If they come back, then that means that theyÕve been tethered to Earth for at least 50,000 years...  They didnÕt fully switch places with the species whose bodies theyÕve stolen.  Why?

11.  Switching places with the future victims.
The Yith seem to switch places with their victims entirely.  With the elders, switching doesnÕt seem to be so complete...  The switching seems to operate on somewhat different principles.  The Yith, it seems, divorced themselves from their bodies long ago.  At this point in their history (that is, as we see them in ÒShadow Out of TimeÓ) they are essentially just minds traveling through the universe, temporarily housing themselves in bodies that they claim for their own use.  We think of the Yith as conical beings with a few tube-like appendages -- but these are really stolen bodies.  What happened to the original inhabitants of these bodies?  Did they get displaced to whatever bodies the Yith previously inhabited?  Were the conical beings non-sentient when their bodies were claimed?  Do the Yith make a point of not permanently claiming species which had minds of their own?  If an organism is non-sentient when it is claimed, is there essentially no mind to displace -- so the relationship is essentially symbiotic?  A mind filling a container which was essentially empty previously?

If I double-check the text of Shadow Out of Time, I might discover that the Yith method of transfer always requires swapping places with an intelligent being.  For the time being, however, IÕm going to presume that the Yith have an ethical system whereby they only permanently claim bodies that are non-sentient -- in all other cases, they merely ÒborrowÓ a life.  This provides good contrast with the elders, whom I think would have no qualms about invading a fully-evolved species.

The Yith have established cities and a great library -- did they build all this architecture themselves, or was it constructed previously by the species they have come to inhabit?  The library, it seems to me, must be their own invention, not previously existent.  That leads me to suspect that the entire physical architecture of society was probably built by the Yith.

The elders, only have 125 ÒcrewÓ in the hive, I believe.  Hm...  ThatÕs 5 x 5 x 5 -- or five cubed.  Imagine a cube of elders, five per side, arranged in rows which fill the center...  ItÕs an interesting configuration to imagine, in terms of traveling as astral spirits.  A cube instead of a circle, a ring of elders holding hands...  IÕm tempted to think that there needs to be more -- 5 x 5 x 5 x 5 = 625...  ThatÕs five to the fourth power, or (if I may) five Òhypercubed.Ó

How would 125 elders -- not that many, really -- go about conquering a pre-existent society?  Would it be a political strategy, taking over key figures in the government?  Would they select a species that had a very limited population?  Which were perhaps in transit on a spaceship, or represented another speciesÕ efforts at colonizing another world?  Could the elder thingsÕ group mind collectively do more damage than 125 individuals...  Mentally controlling many beings at once?  Perhaps the species that they take over is itself a group mind?

I have this notion that most of the disciples have to keep their earthly bodies -- but that Noah may allow his body here to die in the transit.  Sort of like how a bridge was built over Niagra Falls...  A string was attached to a kite, which flew over the river -- that string was attached to a thicker rope, which was attached to a thicker rope...  Noah allows himself to be the pioneer who sacrifices his body so that he can sail the farthest into the future and establish an end point for the others to follow him to.  Story-wise, this may not be ideal -- as it means Noah couldnÕt see the human clowns spelling doom for all plans -- but it might open up an alternate ending for him, where he is stranded alone on a planet in the future, and a newly freed slave species tears him limb from limb.

12.  Captive minds from the future
Supposing that the 125 elders in the hive are not entirely switching places with the subjugated species in the future.  Instead, 4/5 of their lobed minds fly forward and grab the bodies -- and 1/5 each mind is left behind as a jailor for the displaced beings.  This would require the beings from the future to be fairly weak-willed, I suppose.  I like the idea of being imprisoned not just in your own body, paralyzed -- but in someone elseÕs body.  ItÕs a truly alienating cell for the prisoner.

How does it work being a jailor?  The disciples have practice hibernating; this might be enough -- simply to turn their bodies to ÒoffÓ mode.  Being a jailor might also be a more active occupation, where you develop a relation with the creature youÕve trapped inside yourself.  Maybe the souls trapped inside the eldersÕ bodies go mad and essentially wither into nothingness after a period of entrapment...  A slow and terrible mental death.  Maybe the insane and screaming minds are still there in the bodies, prepared to break loose at the first opportunity.

Perhaps most of the elders were able to transfer their brains fully into the future -- only a handful have had to stay behind as prison guards.  Maybe the elders in the future travel from mind to mind in the host species, sending them backward through time to the prison in the cave...  Thus slowly taking over a numerically overwhelming population.  Perhaps that makes their own bodies (back in the cave) rather like a death camp.  Having a psychic death camp within oneÕs own body is a pretty nifty concept.

And yet, I sort of think that the eldersÕ minds on earth -- whatever proportion of their minds are still on earth -- are fairly inactive.  It seems to me that there are perhaps two separate mental states that the audience will get to witness:  (1) a dream state where the elders are thinking about the cataclysm with the shoggoths, (2) an astral state which represents the elders traveling back to their original bodies.

13.  Why do the elders come back to earth?
Perhaps the elders are yanked back to earth against their will...  ThereÕs a disruption in the functioning of the amplifier, and their silver cords snap tight -- yanking them out of the minds of the bodies theyÕre in...  Then when they return, they might crush and destroy the minds imprisoned in their bodies -- and the bodies they were inhabiting on the future planet perhaps fall dead unexpectedly.

Perhaps the elders feel a disruption back in the cave, and return of their own free will.  Perhaps the elders are keeping their bodies alive as a sort of Òplan B,Ó just in case they discover that they need to leave their future bodies in a hurry.  ItÕs as if their original bodies are back-ups, like when one saves a duplicate of a computer file.  ItÕs as if they elders are hedging their bets, keeping control of two bodies.  So if they sensed a disruption in the mental field surrounding the beacon, they would hurry back from the future in order to defend their secret place...  Which, understandably, they would have a nostalgic attachment to.

Perhaps the elders are unable to fully take over the bodies in the future, inhabiting them as if they are their own -- perhaps they are merely able to fit their minds into these forms like a hand that reaches into a glove.  IÕm thinking of how time travel worked in the movie ÒSomewhere in Time,Ó and thinking that it might work something like this.  In this case, interfering with the beacon might break the necessary concentration for staying lodged in those bodies in the future.

If the elders reach into these bodies in the future, then itÕs not a ÒswitchingÓ process at all.  Maybe they nudge and push and weasel their way into the minds of the future species, and then they manage to squeeze the original persona into non-existence...  All while their physical bodies persist in the past.  This might not seem like a permanent solution for the preservation of their species, though.

Interesting:  If one is traveling into the other animalsÕ bodies, what maintains oneÕs identity as a species?

14.  Dreaming on Earth
So, suppose we get a glimpse of 2 mental states through the amplifier:  the astral plane and the dreaming.  In the astral plane, we see the elders in transit, hurtling back to Earth.  In the dreaming, we get to see them collectively thinking about the uprising of the shoggoths.

IÕve decided pretty definitely that I donÕt want to involve anything about imprisoned alien souls in the elder thing bodies in LSGL.  IÕve been juggling too many characters as-is.

What is the nature of the dream sequence?  I sort of imagine a few tableaux.  Maybe pulling out my favorite images from all of the various story-boarding that IÕve done, keeping things disjointed as in a dream.  Is this the hallmark of a dream, that the images donÕt connect rationally to one another?  Perhaps thereÕs a stereotypical cinematic dream sequence, where things happen randomly and without logical sense...  Then there was that wonderful episode in ÒBuffy the Vampire SlayerÓ which all takes place inside of a dream, and everything happens according to dream logic.  ThatÕs more of what IÕm interested in -- dreams that condense ideas and events into poetry.  ThereÕ a logic, just not a rational one, if thatÕs possible.

In terms of pacing, I feel like I probably only get five tableaux / shots before the elders need to be hurtling back from outer space / outer time.  [ÒOuter timeÓ is a good phrase.]

This is a decent structure to pick up with again tomorrow:  DREAMS.

What do the elders dream about...  In their hive mind...  Before being yanked back to Earth through the astral plane?