1. I was talking with a friend about the novel yesterday, over dinner. I explained some of the theme sort of like this.
A lot of the inspiration for the world model, and for Nick himself (i.e., the Devil) came from such works as
Daimonic Reality and
American Gods, as well as religious myths from all over the world. I was noticing a trend -- which was applied magnificently in
American Gods -- that implied that gods are not all wise, all knowing, or omnipotent. Gods can be killed, they can be tricked, they can be manipulated, and they don't necessarily know everything. Mythology has them going on quests to
attain knowledge and omnipotence. When they do become omnipotent in the stories, it's often flawed -- humans can sometimes trick the gods into revealing things that they know. Now, you could argue that with true omnipotence, the gods would know that the humans were going to do such a thing, but that just makes us question whether the gods are in control of their own destinies.
The premise I've created for
Whispers In The Dark is that even the gods don't know everything about the world. They each have a flawed, egocentric view of it, warped by their personal mythologies and the things they created. Nick isn't necessarily a god, but he's close. He tells Gunnar what he knows about the way the world works, and it's left up to the reader to ascertain whether the Devil is lying. The friend I was speaking to is very pro-tradition, at least as far as mythology goes, so he was a little iffy about the concept of a Devil that had no Hell to rule over, at least in the most literal sense. It's implied that Nick is able to rule over mortal lives with some level of jurisdiction, making their lives awful or wonderful by a wave of his hand, and equally implied that earthly existence
is a Hell of sorts, just without the endless fires. I'm not sure how readers will react to this concept.
It's a literary concept I've enjoyed, even before
American Gods was published: that the existence of gods is possible as long as people continue to worship them. In the
Whispers universe, Nick will never cease to exist, because people will always allot more concern than not to matters of the flesh -- sexuality and crime, for instance. Nick loses a little power every time someone outright denies him, but it's never enough to affect his existence; conversely, he gains power whenever someone pledges their soul to him. The concept here is that no human can withstand living for hundreds of years, especially hundreds of years with Nick, and that after a while, they take a final way out of the deal. Where their souls go after that, no one knows -- the gods all have different answers. It's almost pseudo-humorously bleak.
I suppose we'll see what happens in the editing phase.
2. I keep (predictably) breaking my promise to not think about the Brickyard story. My primary thoughts sort of follow as such:
- Would the story function better in the Bizarro/New Weird genre, or should it slot itself not-so-neatly into classic Science Fiction? Some elements of it are very trad-sci-fi, including and beyond faster than light travel, a snarky but lovable protagonist, an AI who expresses disturbingly human quirks, and a quest in space. However, as far as I know, the ship is built from the reinforced carcass of an intergalactic whale, the quest's premise is based on penetrating the Lovecraftian killing-ground dimension of space known as the Brickyard, said snarky star pilot is into guys, and there is no romantic element. The soundtrack is more Michael Jackson than Klaus Badelt. Hence, the impasse.
- Aside from the whale-things, are there aliens? Specifically, intelligent aliens? The answer is mostly yes, since this is a Lovecraftian sort of thing -- the dimensions beyond safe-space are full of strange gods and star spawn -- but they're not really life-as-we-know it, so the question is a little moot. There won't be any aliens the way I usually write aliens. No tyl, no Philosophers, no tahar, no k'sanii, no oolundon, no rekkiks. And that's firm.
- Novella or novel? I guess that one will be answered when I actually get started, but I'm thinking novella. The current novel is just such a big freaking thing that I don't think I can handle another full length work so soon.
- Calder's speech. In my head, he sounds like a cross between a docker, a pirate, and a cowboy. Transposing that is more difficult than it sounds, especially since using dialect in modern fiction is generally frowned on. I wouldn't have so much of a problem with it if his story wasn't first person, but there's no way I can change that and keep the right tone. I'm not going the overt route with something like "Ah ain't gonna do it, Mistuh Taylor." At the same time, I don't want him to end up sounding just like Monette's Mildmay the Fox, despite the fact that Mildmay was a major inspiration for Calder's speech. Yet another impasse. (This one will be more easily solved. Characters tend to start talking and just give me their speech patterns on a gilded platter.)
3. Like I wrote elsewhere, I am sick again. It must be November! Oh well, this gives me an excuse to stay inside for a few days, catch up on homework, and write like a madman. Even if it does mean I'll likely miss the Thank God It's Over NaNoWriMo Party -- but I'm not terribly upset about that. Crowds and me have been very iffy lately.
I get phases in my capability to handle social situations and various forms of stress. Some of you may recall a previous instance in which I had something like an antisocial panic attack every time I was in a group of four or more people. It's a form of claustrophobia, really, and paranoia combined with a sort of mutated fear-hatred for humans whose intentions I'm not entirely sure of. When an attack comes on, I become very distanced, very quiet, very tense. There's a lack of ability to deal with the situation in a form conductive to proper social behavior, so escape to be on my own or with a single person who doesn't trigger that paranoia is usually the first option. The longer I stay in the situation, the more I'm tempted to lash out, get angry, to tell people to just
seriously fuck off or I'll break your fucking arm; which, obviously, isn't particularly endearing. The problem is that I don't necessarily feel like being endearing during an attack, so unless I want to say something I may or may not regret later, I have to leave. (Often, however, the things I end up saying are things that I don't regret, since they're the sort of things I would say honestly if I was a less reserved person. Which is equally unpleasant.)
Long story short, my brain and its assorted issues are being a little testy lately, so I'm quite happy to keep my distance while that gets sorted out. It will, because it always does -- it's just going to take a little time.
4. 72,000 words. Technically speaking, it should be at about 82,000 before I move into this part, but I made the decision to go back and add material rather than slog through it when I'm really not ready for it. What I am ready for is the last stages of driving Gunnar mad, and segueing into the climax. I hate what I have to do to the characters, but it's necessary. I'll be starting the first stages of that today. I'm starting to rethink the genre of this damn thing, because I doubt there's going to be a sex scene for the next 8000 words or so. There will be one more, of sorts -- the book basically ends on one -- but the climax is something else entirely. After I "finish" the book, I'll probably be going back to add a bit of exposition to the first page, and definitely getting that critical tension build-up between the 70K and 80K markers (as they stand at the moment). I may leave the beginning until after my first-readers get their hands on it, to see if they like how it starts, or if they feel the action is a little sudden.
I think that's all I've got at the moment. Further updates pending in a few thousand words -- although it's possible there won't be another update until I'm onto the going-back-to-add-tension-after-finishing part. This is going to take up most of my brain space for the next week, I can tell.
