Friday, August 14, 2009

Science Fiction


Perhaps we could fly
If evolution would design the intelligent wings
Perhaps we would spend more time
Thinking about what to believe
If we weren’t so easily distracted
By death’s flickering fire shadows
Cast on these plastic cave walls
Perhaps our cynical circuits will short out on the horizon
When lightning takes the path of least resistance
Perhaps we don’t seek to live
In a landscape void of windmills
Or any other such folly
Should the iron in our blood
Be arranged by magnetic fields
To face in one chosen direction?
This democracy is a barren land
Where all is known and risk-free
Encased, cocooned in a tyranny of safety?
You can keep your talk of arrows
Time or cupid sent -
I don’t care about the numbers
I don’t want to hear another corporate apology
I don’t speak your language
I don’t want to wear those logos
I refuse to live in fear
I won’t buy your software upgrade
I don’t want to feel the numbness

15 comments:

Harlequin said...

Pisces-- this is a marvelous critique... and I am disposed to second WM's hear hear. I do think,though, that my own excursions into Science Fiction have been to a fault other than risk free and safe... as a literature and genre, it has been a lifeline for me, that pulls me out of the cocoons that threaten to persuade me that muffled reality is the same as powerful silence. Still, the seductions you describe are frightening indeed... I feel called to vigilance!
thanks for this

CherryPie said...

Very good :-)

Chandira said...

Gosh, why don't I visit you more often? You always know what to say...

Thank you.

I refuse to live in fear too.

Anonymous said...

Death is over-rated. As for fear, I've learned to deal with what-ever comes along. I'm not fearless by any means...no-one is, really. I'm I find I can adapt better to a situation by not thinking about it. Kinda like John in Dali's Egg...

And you just had to post a pic of Jenny Agutter, didn't you? Point noticed and taken...

Garth said...

Walking Man: Here Here :)

Harlequin: I have had a lifelong relationship with science fiction and for a time in the 90's read nothing but, feeling it to be the only relevant literature.

CherryPie: Thanks!

Chandira! It's been a while! Always great to read your comments - Your last one (slap in the face) takes a proud position on The Far Queue Trophy Shelf (see sidebar below right)

Subby: Glad you enjoyed the pic :D
The original title of this piece was "Logan's Run 2009" but I felt that to be too blunt an instrument with which to hit you guys over the head, so I went looking for stills from the film - e viola!

Tom said...

Awesome verse...living in fear sucks...living in fear of life after death is becoming monotonous.
I thought that looked like Jenny A! What movie is that from? oh... never mind.
oh no: word verification is 'insfire' ...i'll take that as a bad omen.

jadedj said...

I love this.

Fear is not in my equation. Finding the answer to the unknown is. I want to know the answer. I embrace it, and know that I will move on.

Yodood said...

Pi, I backed away from all but the best wordsmiths in Sifi because none of them could imagine a future without meat fists trumping better reason, awesome technology or no.

Garth said...

Tom: living in religious fear is a waste of life. The pic is from Logan's Run.

jadedj: good luck with finding those answers :)

Yodood: I agree but there is still lots if interesting stuff out there - I am reading Neal Stephenson's 'Baroque Cycle' at the moment - not scifi but he retains the ability to amaze that I loved about his scifi work.

James Higham said...

In a landscape void of windmills

... I do not wish to live.

jams o donnell said...

Excellent.... and Jenny Agutter a la Logan's Run too. Does it get better??

Garth said...

James: No windmills = no Don Quixotes

Jams: We aim to please ;]

Yodood said...

PI, Diamond Age is the last I read of the gĂ©nre — he is a true master wordsmith and world builder.

Garth said...

Yodood: That was his last SciFi novel - check out Cryptonomicon and the trilogy mentioned above (Set in the enlightenment)

Laura Tattoo said...

sad and powerful; perhaps perhaps perhaps, it's all so exhausting isn't it? xoxoooxoxoxoxox

ps. finally remembered to add your blog to my links section; sorry it took me so long, dear friend. xoxoxoox

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