Mars Ho!

[greygirlbeast]

I think I may have had an epiphany or sorts. I've referred to myself as a transhumanist since sometime in 1997. It's even on the dust jacket copy of To Charles Fort, With Love. But now I'm beginning to see that when I say "transhumanist" I mean something quite different from what most people mean when they they "transhumanist." By transhumanism I

Comments

[cucumberseed]

I didn't like Nightwatch at first, but, after a few hours, it sunk in, and now I hope the other two (apparently it's a trilogy) come to the states soon. I loved the subtitles.

[greygirlbeast]

(apparently it's a trilogy)

It is, indeed. The second film is Daywatch and the third, Duskwatch, is now in production, I think.

[sovay]

Disturbingly buff or not, that's a great photograph.

and suddenly this is putting me in mind of Yeats.

That can't be a bad thing.

But now I'm beginning to see that when I say "transhumanist" I mean something quite different from what most people mean when they they "transhumanist" . . . It was never about becoming more machine and less human (or if it was, it isn't anymore), or even about becoming a better human. Rather, it was about becoming less human and more something else biological.

If it helps, I think your fiction was my first encounter with the term "transhumanism," and that's always what I've taken it to mean. So, who knows? You might not have to come up with a new term after all. You might simply redefine it for the rest of the planet.

[greygirlbeast]

That can't be a bad thing.

It's definitely a good thing. I was editing the image, making it small enough for the LJ, and "The Two Trees" occurred to me. It's one of my favourite poems (and has shown up in my work a couple of times), and I was mostly surprised it hadn't occurred to me earlier.

If it helps, I think your fiction was my first encounter with the term "transhumanism," and that's always what I've taken it to mean. So, who knows? You might not have to come up with a new term after all. You might simply redefine it for the rest of the planet.

I think "parahumanist" really might be a better term.

[stsisyphus]

I think "parahumanist" really might be a better term.

Shouldn't the term remove "human" from the equation entirely? Perhaps "Trans-speciesism"? Maybe not, what an ugly looking word. Or should we back farther up the tree to genus, etc.? A Transcendent Tangential Evolutionary Drive?

Ugh. I'm not up to this today. I'm going to eat some ice-cream and mull.

[sovay]

It's one of my favourite poems (and has shown up in my work a couple of times), and I was mostly surprised it hadn't occurred to me earlier.

Are you familiar with Loreena McKennitt's arrangement of the poem? It can be found on her 1994 album The Mask and Mirror, and at least I'm fond of it.

I think "parahumanist" really might be a better term.

Implying existence alongside and apart from humanity, rather than some evolution through?

[andrian6]

then caught a 4:30 matinee of Timur Bekmambetov's Nightwatch (Nochnoi Dozor) over at Tara. I've been waiting ages, it seems, to see this film, and I wasn't disappointed. This is the movie that the two Underworld films would have liked to have been. Beautiful, haunting, epic, with an unexpected sense of humour.

Nochnoi Dozor is a wonderful film because it doesn't focus on the pretty & tormented members of the world after dark, but the grubby and rarely pretty Muscovites on whom the world's fate truly hinges. It was a film about the prolitariat in these dark fantasy worlds and it far surpased anything made about the 'beautiful tormented.'

And I adore the way they handled the subtitles. Most companies just spatter subtitles on the screen. This is the first film I've actually seen where the subtitles are as much a part of the experience as the film itself. They're vital, living things. I wish more films would put that much care into their subtitles.

[greygirlbeast]

Nochnoi Dozor is a wonderful film because it doesn't focus on the pretty & tormented members of the world after dark, but the grubby and rarely pretty Muscovites on whom the world's fate truly hinges. It was a film about the prolitariat in these dark fantasy worlds and it far surpased anything made about the 'beautiful tormented.'

I agree wholeheartedly!

And I adore the way they handled the subtitles. Most companies just spatter subtitles on the screen. This is the first film I've actually seen where the subtitles are as much a part of the experience as the film itself. They're vital, living things. I wish more films would put that much care into their subtitles.

Yes, the dynamic use of subtites was superb. I'm often annoyed by subtitles, but Nochnoi Dozor makes them an integrated part of the film, not merely words put up on the screen, floating "above" the images.

[stsisyphus]

Mars Ho!

Who's a Ho?

Loch Ness is a truly marvelous place, but Nessie belongs to the realm of Faerie, not science.

I still say she has a place on my fantasy basketball team.

Transhumanism seems somehow very patrifocal, almost Apollonian to me, this attempt to escape the nasty, squishy flesh and replace it with nice clean mechanical bits.

Well, I wouldn't mind so much getting rid of all of the realities of gross (by which I mean inexact, not squishy) digestion and trade up to some other means of providing fuel for the rest of my squishy bits.

I look disturbingly buff.

Well, not so much "buff". More like: "You got a problem with that? Damn right you don't."

[greygirlbeast]

Who's a Ho?

One of life's great mysteries.

Well, I wouldn't mind so much getting rid of all of the realities of gross (by which I mean inexact, not squishy) digestion and trade up to some other means of providing fuel for the rest of my squishy bits.

I long to be photosynthetic.

Well, not so much "buff". More like: "You got a problem with that? Damn right you don't."

Okay, now I'm think of Hagrid in the train station in the first HP film" "What you lookin' at?"

[bosstweed]

I'd never heard of transhumanism until I saw it in your LJ interests, but I was struck by it again in the bio for To Charles Fort. What you express about becoming "something else" seems to fit much more closely with the themes that recur in your fiction. It seems like your people are always becoming something, or observing something that shows them how alien their world actually is.

Started reading your short fiction a few weeks ago, beginning with Candles for Elizabeth, and I think your stories are models of clarity, in terms of their intense focus on one thing (character, mood, whatever) and everything else contributing. I'm currently reading To Charles Fort before I go to bed at night, one story every few days, and am enjoying it immensely. I'm prone to read through collections quickly, but I don't want this one to end

[greygirlbeast]

I'd never heard of transhumanism until I saw it in your LJ interests, but I was struck by it again in the bio for To Charles Fort. What you express about becoming "something else" seems to fit much more closely with the themes that recur in your fiction. It seems like your people are always becoming something, or observing something that shows them how alien their world actually is.

I agree that it's a dominant theme in my work, though often I didn't set out to write about transformation. It just...comes. Indeed, I think a psychiatrist would likely label me "paraphilic." Certainly the Frog Toes and Tentacles/Sirenia Digest stuff.

Started reading your short fiction a few weeks ago, beginning with Candles for Elizabeth, and I think your stories are models of clarity, in terms of their intense focus on one thing (character, mood, whatever) and everything else contributing. I'm currently reading To Charles Fort before I go to bed at night, one story every few days, and am enjoying it immensely. I'm prone to read through collections

[stsisyphus]

Indeed, I think a psychiatrist would likely label me "paraphilic."

Hah. I'd like to write RXs for the psychiatrist who attempted to definitively label you.

Most readers have been taught to read in a rather rigid fashion....when their expectations are thwarted, they are mystified and conclude that the writer is somehow mistaken or in error.

And I don't always get it to start off with, but I eventually enjoy being thwarted. It makes me glad I spent the time reading the story and even the aggravation is made satisfying. ...Does that make me a masochistic reader?

[greygirlbeast]

I'd like to write RXs for the psychiatrist who attempted to definitively label you.

Oh, believe me, they've tried.

Does that make me a masochistic reader?

I think it just makes you a thoughtful, open-minded reader.

Okay, now I'm conjuring images of masochistic reading, books with barbed pages, book covers studded with razors...