Friday 29 August 2003

Pic of the day: If an infinite number of naked apes were writing on an infinite number of typewriters, I guess you'd expect something like this. (Screenshot from The Sims.)

Asexual fantasy?

I guess I did over-use my hand after all. I was so greedy to learn my fantasy story ... And the only way the creative muses will continue it is if I write it down. Otherwise I soon lose details and end up with a vague plot and a poorly supported end scene.

Even now, I would gladly keep writing, but my arm hurts up to my neck. Speech recognition is not really an alternative for creative writing, not when I have to correct each sentence several times to even make sense. I read today that by 2020, computers will have the same processing power as a human brain; by now, they have the equivalent of a small monkey. Hmm, that sounds about right as far as speech recognition is concerned. (And it is not just concerned, it is scared witless.) Insert your own joke about monkeys and typewriters ... I personally think that a infinite number of monkeys with typewriters, given infinite time, would write infinite quantities of nonsense. And if any of them by chance managed to churn out a novel, no one would notice. So what else is new?

My digestion is upset too, but not enough to keep me away from the computer. Actually I'm writing on the Pocket PC at the moment anyway. That's because I need some variation, though, not because I need to write in the bathroom.

***

Probably it's from being sick, but I've given a little thought to morality, immorality, writing and sex. In fact, it kinda irritates me that sexual pleasure is so important in morality. It is, however, and this is by no means just American or "Judeo-Christian". (I wonder what our Jewish friends think about that label...) I have had a good look at world religions, and sexual purity is a big deal in all of them. Even if you consider Islam "Judeo-Christian" (which is likely to bring a suicide bomber down on you) you still have Hinduism and Buddhism left to explain. True, Hinduism allow for pretty graphic eroticism within certain confines, such as religious imagery; but it is every bit as hateful against actual adultery and fornication as the rest of them. (In fact, the Bible also has a little bit of erotic literature thrown in, but it is mostly too flowery and picturesque to shock anyone. And it's all in the Old Testament anyway.)

In part I believe it is a male thing. Look at colored weeklies for women and men. Women's magazines have pretty clothes and food; men's have pretty women without clothes, and food for thought. We men have two heads and think with them both, but we're not supposed to feel. On the other hand, women seem to be expected to feel without thinking too much, and then things will just happen. (Excluding work, and housework too, I'm sorry to say.) Of course in some parts of life the men will make the things happen, and this is romance. (Whether he slays the dragon or just asks her out for a movie depends on the genre, romance is fairly flexible that way. Somehow it does not extend to taking out the trash, though.) Men cannot have romance because if both wait for certain things to happen, they never will.

Anyway, I mention all this because I am still working on my magic fantasy fiction. Or would, if my hand allowed. My mind is still busily hovering around it anyway, like a bird with a nest full of hatchlings. And it seems to be a coming-of-age story (for rather moderate values of age, as the main character is not quite 16 at the beginning of the story). I simply cannot imagine a coming-of-age story without some erotic pulse. I most definitely won't allow a character of mine to do any actual humping at such an age, but there is no way they can't notice their own sexuality and probably some other people's sexuality too.

So can I write this in such a way that it does not inflame the lust of a possible 15 year old boy reading it? Doubtful. Just riding a bus will inflame the lust of a 15 year old, or a 18 year old for that matter. I am not going to write about a world of robots, because that is not the kind of story I would read. I am not going to write about a world where everybody is neutered – at least not now. So people will be seeing things and thinking things at the very least. People will do things that could be taken the wrong way. (Having cat-people around pretty much makes that sure, no matter what I might have planned.) But you won't see the words "throbbing" and "moist" used the way they are in trashy romance novels; I promise that much.