I chose this photo because it amuses me to think a photo of a light bulb lying on a desk with writing supplies would ever be the right photo. The mind boggles.
I'd like to start getting in the habit of writing something daily about writing and life and, you know, the world. Although I would call it "this weird and crumbling dimension." How do we get out of here alive? And not just alive, but whole and happy and well and together? Because getting out alone or with a few friends would be a pretty crappy solution.
This seems like sci fi. As someone who writes sci fi told me a decade ago, it's really hard to write sci fi now because hey, look out your window. In the past, when I imagined I could write sci fi, I had a house with no windows for security and privacy reasons. In the place of windows there were computerized and coordinated faux windows around the house. They played different versions of the same reality. There was no actual window, just a wall-mounted flat screen set into the wall with all the trappings of a window, like curtains and perhaps some automated lights that came on when "the sun" was bright and a small fan that made the curtains move when "the wind" blew. I recall that the bedroom window looked out on a grassy field with a black and white milk cow grazing in it. Mountains in the background.
They came in sets, these faux windows. A program you could buy that would put you anywhere you wanted to be. You gave it the place, time and number of windows plus their orientation. Downtown London, for example. Even downtown London in the past. You could "time travel" and place travel. I suppose you could have had a set that would put you on Mars or inside a fantasy world from a novel.
As cool as I still think this would be, in a way I already have one of these. And so do you. It's called imagination and I believe it's the only way we're getting out of here. I don't mean we just have to pretend we're somewhere else. I mean, we have to imagine what the possibilities are then act on them. This is where genre writers have an advantage over a lot of scientists and politicians and those who are part of, well, normality. As Albert Einstein said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge."
They say, "That's not possible," and we say?
I'd like to start getting in the habit of writing something daily about writing and life and, you know, the world. Although I would call it "this weird and crumbling dimension." How do we get out of here alive? And not just alive, but whole and happy and well and together? Because getting out alone or with a few friends would be a pretty crappy solution.
This seems like sci fi. As someone who writes sci fi told me a decade ago, it's really hard to write sci fi now because hey, look out your window. In the past, when I imagined I could write sci fi, I had a house with no windows for security and privacy reasons. In the place of windows there were computerized and coordinated faux windows around the house. They played different versions of the same reality. There was no actual window, just a wall-mounted flat screen set into the wall with all the trappings of a window, like curtains and perhaps some automated lights that came on when "the sun" was bright and a small fan that made the curtains move when "the wind" blew. I recall that the bedroom window looked out on a grassy field with a black and white milk cow grazing in it. Mountains in the background.
They came in sets, these faux windows. A program you could buy that would put you anywhere you wanted to be. You gave it the place, time and number of windows plus their orientation. Downtown London, for example. Even downtown London in the past. You could "time travel" and place travel. I suppose you could have had a set that would put you on Mars or inside a fantasy world from a novel.
As cool as I still think this would be, in a way I already have one of these. And so do you. It's called imagination and I believe it's the only way we're getting out of here. I don't mean we just have to pretend we're somewhere else. I mean, we have to imagine what the possibilities are then act on them. This is where genre writers have an advantage over a lot of scientists and politicians and those who are part of, well, normality. As Albert Einstein said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge."
They say, "That's not possible," and we say?
"Here. Hold this."
So get busy, y'all.
So get busy, y'all.
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