Round 9.13 [The Atheist v. Atmosphere] posted by kza

a. How do you end it? You can’t kill the mitochondria, who—over billions of years—have formed a complex relationship with the human hosts. What’s the end game? Is it just acceptance of the situation? Is that a dramatic enough story arc? Do the humans escape the Earth? Can they live without the tiny species?

Well, to be fair, I didn’t get a chance to end it. To be more fair, I wasn’t even sure myself (although I have an inkling), but I thought I’d get through it one way or another in the second post.

b. How do you visually represent the relationship with the tiny consciousness? Some might argue that this is what the Blob was doing in metaphor (actually, I may be the first person to suggest that, but I kind of am suggesting that), but I am thinking that this would be a big hurdle in the making of this movie. There can be tricks or representing the microscopic beings as a human that nobody else can see, but this would be a hurdle towards making this a reality.

Again, much like the autism thing, I’d much rather commit and accept the storytelling challenge then try and think and come up with the answer in an abstract way before proceeding. But I can’t really blame you if you can’t commit.

I guess it’s a little ironic—we seem to have switched position on this particular story. You’re starting broad and getting more specific, but I want specifics first and then go broad.

Which is difficult, for me, for this story (and a few others), because what they spark in me isn’t specifics. Rachel was the same way — what sparked an interest in me wasn’t anything specific, but a mood, a feeling, a vague concept, and when I tried to get specific… well, you know what happened.

I want this story to be about how in a superstitious society, one person sees things differently and, using the powers of observation and reason, figures out that things aren’t as they seem despite the dogma. I want it as a metaphor for the early (early, as in, 2005) scientists working against the ignorance of the church.

I’m sympathetic to that concept. The only problem was that the specifics you suggested were, ultimately, too Twilight Zone for me. It was ultimately just a “gotcha” story. (Nothing wrong with Twilight Zone, really, but after all the “Scary Door” parodies on Futurama, it’s kinda been ruined for me.)

So, I’ll leave this next part up to you. Should I:

a) Write the proposed second part of my Atheist story sketch? (Could be hard, since it’s gone a bit cold for me. Also, I don’t expect it to change your mind any.)
b) Write a version of the Atheist that uses the alien planet? (I’m still pretty opposed to the alien planet, but maybe that severe conflict will push me to, uh, alien places.)
c) Start writing a post on tabling procedures?

And of course, there’s always the vote.

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