This episode was really intense and deep. I got completely drawn in!
When she got caught inside the city I had that feeling of the kind of opposite version of the classic dystopian SF, where people are trying to get out but can't.
And I do love the idea of the outsider coming in and having a profound effect. And lovely that she sort of realises she is not the only 'abnormal' one. And I'm very glad she kept some crystals back for Ira.
There's something quite profound in what Ira said about Xenia's village being the descendants of those who managed to escape, and now they know it's not just a myth. These are wonderful ideas.
I received this comment as I was toiling away at a draft, questioning anything I’ve ever written. Thank you for this encouragement as it helps me to go on to live and write another day lol. My mind is in such a different place now that I’m working on a different lifetime far from this one, but I recall the intrigue on my part here was imagining what it would be like to be apart of a species that had individuals be so drastically specialized that to embrace molds was the primary way of being… until it wasn’t. Change is the only constant, and assuming evolution is the common thread in the cosmos, mutations will ensure that it doesn’t remain that way. I figured they’d probably develop civilizations that operated in such an interwoven manner that they would be sealed off from one another, living in their separated bubbles singing their own little tune. And of course, the disease of the ego and all its manifestations.
It’s unfortunate that I kind of have to rush through these lifetimes, or to just focus on what matters since the perspective is so far away in context with the whole story.
I understand what you mean about change and evolutionary mutations, leading to variety. I think even Darwin himself said that 'Evolution is a bush, not a tree' - meaning, I guess, that it spreads outward towards variety, not upward towards some kind of mythical perfection (or 'master race' as it were). Ironically I read something earlier this morning by a biologist who was saying the variety, within for example a single species, makes 'reproducibility' of experiments unworkable sometimes, thus falsifying the results. I think he used a Greek-derived word for it, 'Poikilosis' I think it was.
Unfortunately in this world, as in the one you describe in this chapter/lifetime, the powers that (shouldn't!) be seem to have made it one of their missions to put people in boxes, and anyone who is different is somewhat persecuted (or 'othered'). In the same way the 'education' system puts round people in square holes. And so anyone who has an instinctive feeling of being different is bound to get upset. And of course in evolution and civilisation it has always been the different which have driven things forward. 'Survival of the misfits' rather than 'survival of the fittest' - the 'fittest' are already adapted to the way things are, and are thus ill-suited and maladapted to change...
This is an incredible perspective of this part of the story, thank you so much for taking the time to explain it Geoffrey. It is indeed very much like the reversed horror of when colonizers discovered how other civilizations lived. I've gone ahead and added The Bad Batch to my watch list. My story illustrates the deep connection in all things so I dont think what you said was unrelated at all. I will have to reflect on what you said as there is a lot to unpack from that. It is indeed scary to uncover the horrid underpinnings of a world. It's a chapter in everyone's journey, I feel.
This episode was really intense and deep. I got completely drawn in!
When she got caught inside the city I had that feeling of the kind of opposite version of the classic dystopian SF, where people are trying to get out but can't.
And I do love the idea of the outsider coming in and having a profound effect. And lovely that she sort of realises she is not the only 'abnormal' one. And I'm very glad she kept some crystals back for Ira.
There's something quite profound in what Ira said about Xenia's village being the descendants of those who managed to escape, and now they know it's not just a myth. These are wonderful ideas.
I received this comment as I was toiling away at a draft, questioning anything I’ve ever written. Thank you for this encouragement as it helps me to go on to live and write another day lol. My mind is in such a different place now that I’m working on a different lifetime far from this one, but I recall the intrigue on my part here was imagining what it would be like to be apart of a species that had individuals be so drastically specialized that to embrace molds was the primary way of being… until it wasn’t. Change is the only constant, and assuming evolution is the common thread in the cosmos, mutations will ensure that it doesn’t remain that way. I figured they’d probably develop civilizations that operated in such an interwoven manner that they would be sealed off from one another, living in their separated bubbles singing their own little tune. And of course, the disease of the ego and all its manifestations.
It’s unfortunate that I kind of have to rush through these lifetimes, or to just focus on what matters since the perspective is so far away in context with the whole story.
I'm glad I could encourage you!
I understand what you mean about change and evolutionary mutations, leading to variety. I think even Darwin himself said that 'Evolution is a bush, not a tree' - meaning, I guess, that it spreads outward towards variety, not upward towards some kind of mythical perfection (or 'master race' as it were). Ironically I read something earlier this morning by a biologist who was saying the variety, within for example a single species, makes 'reproducibility' of experiments unworkable sometimes, thus falsifying the results. I think he used a Greek-derived word for it, 'Poikilosis' I think it was.
Unfortunately in this world, as in the one you describe in this chapter/lifetime, the powers that (shouldn't!) be seem to have made it one of their missions to put people in boxes, and anyone who is different is somewhat persecuted (or 'othered'). In the same way the 'education' system puts round people in square holes. And so anyone who has an instinctive feeling of being different is bound to get upset. And of course in evolution and civilisation it has always been the different which have driven things forward. 'Survival of the misfits' rather than 'survival of the fittest' - the 'fittest' are already adapted to the way things are, and are thus ill-suited and maladapted to change...
This is an incredible perspective of this part of the story, thank you so much for taking the time to explain it Geoffrey. It is indeed very much like the reversed horror of when colonizers discovered how other civilizations lived. I've gone ahead and added The Bad Batch to my watch list. My story illustrates the deep connection in all things so I dont think what you said was unrelated at all. I will have to reflect on what you said as there is a lot to unpack from that. It is indeed scary to uncover the horrid underpinnings of a world. It's a chapter in everyone's journey, I feel.