FYS: Where the Hell is Springfield? and other issues

[jeriendhal]

Trying to put together the next FYS anthology, which is supposed to be set exclusively during the Ring era. Unfortunately, just gathering together previously written material, and leaving out Canon uncertain tales like Break Off and The Visitors, the current word count is less than 12k, and half of that is one shot drabbles. I still have to write a proper "Person wakes up on the Ring for the first time" story to establish the setting properly, but that will still leave the thing awfully threadbare, unless I either write a few more stories for it, or give in and polish up The Visitors to make it Canon. Or do the nuclear option and fold all of the Ring Era tales into the first anthology and beg everyone to update their file. (ugh)

Meanwhile, reading through The Fall of Man reveals an unanticipated timezone problem: You Never Forget Your First establishes that the Groupmind revolution began in Stockholm, Sweden at about 10pm Central European Time. Meanwhile Mimsey's Tale shows that it begins in Mimsey's unspecified town at Noon, a ten hour difference. This only works if Mimsey's Tale occurs in Alaska.[1] This is supported by Caroline attending Martin Luther King Elementary School, named after an American political figure, but on the other hand when Mimsey has to make an emergency phone call, she dials 999, which is used primarily in Great Britain.

[1] Which make the stated temperatures and air quality warnings Mimsey records even more terrifying.

Comments

[seawasp]

The Visitors is the alien one, yes? That would seem to be a strong contender, as it presents a powerful challenge for the Groupmind to deal with that forces confrontation of several of its limitations.

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Right on all counts. I'll get to work putting it together.

[seawasp]

I would also strongly consider expanding stories and connecting them more, somewhat as I did when I changed Digital Knight to Paradigms Lost. The really IMPORTANT parts of the FYS universe -- the ones that make it stand out -- are the aspects in which it's clear that the Groupmind *really does* have emotions, as do its morph emissaries, *really does* care about humanity and want to help, and does at least have *some* self-awareness that "taking care of humanity" is something it was never really fully prepared to do, and is undoubtedly screwing up on some level.

(Some explicit acknowledgement of the prior work in this area would probably be good -- e.g., Terminator, Colossus, The Humanoids, etc. -- to provide an ability to compare and contrast both within the story and outside of it)