And how a lot of moving parts so I didn't try to tell you about it
But it's in this future kind of dystopian anthropocene world
And the more I got to thinking about it the more I decided that it was maybe different than any of the future dystopian anthropocene worlds I'd read so far and perhaps interesting
And so then I was trying to decide did I want to try to write this and maybe I do
But that one thing got me remembering the whole how much do you have to tell readers
That that writing class of long ago
Said you have to tell them enough that they know what's going on and I don't believe that that's true
I believe they need to be able to have an entry point but they don't have to know everything that's going on when you start I mean that's crazy if you think about all of the great science fiction dystopian future stories none of them explain everything for you all of them only just give you enough information and you kind of have to piece it all together on your own because if they gave you all the information they'd be describing the whole world before any of the story started
And I don't know whether remembering that was somehow a trigger to the dream or not probably not
That's what I've been thinking about for the last couple of days
This kind of framework and which direction I want to build it
I still would kind of like there to be a mystery but then there are several different ways to go with that
And I have several different ideas
I don't know if they're all mutually compatible so I've been trying to kind of run scenarios in my head and I'm not convinced yet that they are all compatible but I'm not sure that they all have to be one story either
And I'm not sure how much of the story I want to tell you cuz I'm not really sure what direction it's going yet so maybe I'll just catch out the ideas I have so far
So it's the future I'm not sure exactly what you're in the future it is but a while the sea level has risen so a lot of the south is underwater and this is set in south or I guess more accurately the Gulf Coast
So there are a lot of people who have been displaced because the land that used to live on is gone and so people have people who have money have bought up these boats that are you know boats that people lived on working boats like you know this is like East Texas Louisiana area where there were all those boats that would go out and work on offshore oil rigs and stuff I don't know exactly how big those boats are this boat I have in mind for the story maybe smaller than those boats but regardless people who have money have bought up these boats and they have retrofitted them with the things that the government has said they have to have in order to be authorized living places for people and then you know if you go to one of these boats you basically sign over your UBI for in exchange for living on the boat so that's your housing and they have to have you know at least some marginal form of entertainment and they have to have a there's like a health check booth type thing that you go into and it can check your mostly genetics so it looks for viruses it looks for diseases that require attention blah blah blah you know and then it also has is equipped with a 3D printer that prints food and clothes and stuff like that so you have your basic needs met and the boat has to provide that to you but you know there aren't any jobs so you're pretty much just sitting around all day doing whatever you're doing
And there's television
I mean it's not television it's like you know streaming whatever of quote reality shows end quote but they're not even I mean there aren't now really reality shows they're scripted but these are even more scripted because they are an environments that don't actually largely exist anymore they're largely like either complete fantasy or nostalgia kind of things
And the environment is so inhospitable with the level of toxins and unusable land or underwater land whatever that people have largely lost their fertility and there are some places where people can work you know where there's you know whatever it's not all like these boats right but but there's a lot of people who can't they can't work they can't do anything they're just like living out their lives in these shelter type places and so
But then also there's a lot more mutation disease and stuff like that because of higher radiation levels and whatever so rich people they want stem cell therapy so fetuses are in really high demand so what people spend their time doing largely is f****** pretty much constantly because if they can get pregnant then they can go get an abortion and get paid a lot of money for their fetus
So the main character
I don't know what her name is yet and I'm not sure it's a her she might be an NBie
I'm really leaning towards making her ACE
So that puts her at a immediate odds with the whole society basically because they're all just f****** all the time and she's a sexual
And it's in the future so it's not like that's not an accepted thing to be it's just that it's not the norm and it's not the best way to make friends
Because the cultural expectation when she goes on to this boat is that that's just what everybody spends their time doing all the time is f****** and it's not tied in with relationships or you know emotions or anything it's just like you know playing video games or any other like random pastime you know if they're like some number of people on this boat well they're all going to be sleeping with each other and they don't care it's not got anything to do with a love relationship it's just a thing they do right
So she's not interested in that and that's fine nobody's holding that against her but you know it just kind of puts her outside of the main group just because she's not participating in a lot of the activities
But then I thinking was maybe there's this one girl who she's not put off at all by her being ACE
But she wants to know if she's ARO
Because this girl was kind of attracted to her
And what she wants is to have a romantic relationship with somebody but she doesn't really want to have a romantic relationship with all these people that she's f****** because that's just complicated and it causes troubles
And she's kind of lonely and thinky and the end of the world is kind of getting her down
And she sees this new person and she has this hope that she could maybe be lifted out of this depressing meaningless abyss
And ARO NBie
They're not too sure
never having been in a romantic relationship doesn't really understand why that would be a desirable thing
Theyr relationship with the world is such that to tie yourself to another person in any way seems like a limit on freedom a danger of burden a much more complicated mathematical equation at every juncture
But the end of the world is getting them down too so it's worth thinking about
I never having had a desire for romance before pretty quickly comes to the conclusion that if in fact they're any kind of romantic at all they must be Demi romantic
So then the question becomes are they Demi romantic with this person do they want in fact to do that is the fact that this person is interested in doing that with them enough of a reason to explore that or do they need to decide on their own whether they're interested in doing that so there's kind of a tension there
And then I have this other idea and it's perhaps a little bit less original and it's a little more problematical so I'm tempted to admit that but then I don't have a mystery maybe
And that is that at the point when they decide maybe they do want to have a relationship with this person of course she gets pregnant
And then does that change anything is the goal then supposed to be that they raise the child together or does the girl go off and have her abortion and get all her money and then what is done with the money just a girl go off someplace else does she go with her does she at least go with her to have her abortion so that she's not traveling across the dangerous wilderness by herself or do you have to travel across the dangerous wilderness by yourself does some rich person come along and pick you up in a helicopter to take you off how does that all work I don't know
And then of course here's the part where the mystery would come in or a part where the mystery could come in I suppose it could be other mysteries as well but the more obvious mystery is of course is that really what happens when you go to the place where you're supposed to get your big abortion and your big money pay off for delivering the fetus is that really what happens or do they then you know lock you up in their lab and study you to see why you were able to get pregnant when all these other people aren't
That just seems like a lot of action and a lot more like a movie but the first part just seems so like nothing is happening
Although I mean you know it's a lot more like the nakano thrift store and it's quiet kind of human almost non-interaction but I just don't think that by itself is enough to carry the story and I mean of course you got the end of the world but that's not much happening so
There's a way in which I'm wanting it to be kind of like the nakano thrift store meets blade runner
Although I mean damn when I put it like that it sounds kind of some shallow Hollywood pitch
And that's exactly not what I'm wanting it to be
But one thing that isn't is a story about me and that's cool
Or I mean in a way it is about me but it's not about me you know I mean it's like getting to explore a lot of different feelings and thoughts around different parts of me kind of stripped out and I think that's kind of how it's supposed to be where I mean like there's a way in which you're everybody but nobody is you
So I don't know
I'm leaning towards not doing the big thing where they travel across country to get to the abortion payoff
And I think that probably the abortion payoff probably isn't money
Because money is largely useless in this world so I think rather than being money it's being one of these streaming stars because since everybody spends all their time you know watching the streaming or playing video games or whatever to have some kind of position in that world I mean you can see now how it's becoming more and more about that anyway so in the future when there's nothing to do except wait for the end of the world surely that would be even more heightened so you get your abortion and then as payment you get to be one of these reality TV star kind of people
And that actually could fit in just fine with your being studied because they could do that you know while they're having you be on the show because you're in an artificial environment anyway so yeah I think that works
But I still have things I've got to work out but anyway that's what I've been thinking about for the last couple of days kind of working my thoughts out around that
