Poem: "A Solitary Secession"
Jan. 8th, 2013 12:53 pm![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithToday's first freebie is courtesy of new prompter chordatesrock, who wanted to read about autistic separatists. I combined that with a prompt from LiveJournal user Paka about surveillance bases, which gave me the setting and context.
"A Solitary Secession"
It began not with armed conflict but armistice,
a long lull in an unrelated war
when the two sides entrenched themselves in space
and established surveillance stations
to watch over the no-man's-land between
the Orion-Cygnus Arm and the Carina–Sagittarius Arm.
The stations were dark and silent,
with a skeleton crew of soldiers
assigned to supervise the equipment.
Communication was only allowed on rare occasions
when ships arrived to resupply and exchange personnel.
For most, the posting was a hardship,
a punishment for mediocrity or disciplinary issues.
They grumbled and sulked and gritted their teeth
through their time "in the can"
until they could leave for a new assignment.
Some of them didn't make it.
Some of them broke under the pressure,
social beings torn out of society.
For a few, though, the posting was perfect.
The stations all used exactly the same design.
The schedule never changed.
There were no crowds of people pleading for attention
and demanding a pretense of empathy.
The military didn't care about empathy, only performance;
it was willing to make allowances for soldiers
who could work wonders in codebreaking or programming.
They were quiet soldiers, alert in their own way,
attention fixated on those matters that concerned them.
They had little interest in most of the entertainments
that absorbed their troopmates -- the smuggled newsvids,
the nudie pictures, the letters from family or lovers.
They were rarely invited to a second poker game after
people realized how little emotion ever showed on their faces.
They loved the combat simulations, though,
and would play those for hours even when off-duty,
racking up scores that delighted the officers.
Then the armistice dribbled into peacetime.
Nobody wanted to keep funding the stations.
They were decommissioned one by one.
The soldiers were cycled back into the rest of the fleet
or demobilized and returned to society.
Society was ... less than welcoming, of those
who had thrived in the quiet environs of surveillance.
It pushed and pestered and pressured them to fit in
until they wailed and flapped their hands to make it all go away.
Word got around.
They were not, after all, incapable
of noticing the newsvids --
they were simply uninterested
in matters that did not concern them.
This concerned them deeply.
The soldiers still on surveillance
began to pass the news amongst themselves.
They knew -- had always known -- the secret ways
to send messages across the breathless void.
They had more in common with each other
than any of them did with either side of the erstwhile conflict.
So they refused to leave their stations
for the bedlam of the settled planets.
The Carinan army shrugged and said
they were welcome to the relic bases
if they could somehow provide their own supplies,
because damned if the army would pay for it anymore.
The Orion army was not so accommodating, and said
they would by god return to active service elsewhere
or be decommissioned and put down on planets
just like everyone else.
The war of secession broke out with a volley
not of gunfire, but distributed denial-of-service
and datamining and viral attacks.
The Orion army tried to remove soldiers
from the stations by force -- and since
the surveillance personnel from both sides
were now working together,
they moved against bases of both armies.
The Carinan army was not so blase about that.
They struck back hard and fast.
The Orions opened fire.
The war of the arms was back on again.
From the shadows of the surveillance stations
came a new attack, one that wiped records
of where the bases were and who served on them.
A whole handful of silver needles
disappeared into the black haystack of space.
What had once been no-man's-land
became a whole new territory,
claimed and defended by those
who had moved in and found it hospitable.
It did not matter
that they were less than sociable,
connecting with each other only over
a rare shared passion,
that they were better at individual skills
than at teamwork or loyalty,
that they communicated better
via keyboards than conversation.
It only mattered
that they had found a cause
worth fighting for.
chordatesrock, who wanted to read about autistic separatists. I combined that with a prompt from LiveJournal user Paka about surveillance bases, which gave me the setting and context."A Solitary Secession"
It began not with armed conflict but armistice,
a long lull in an unrelated war
when the two sides entrenched themselves in space
and established surveillance stations
to watch over the no-man's-land between
the Orion-Cygnus Arm and the Carina–Sagittarius Arm.
The stations were dark and silent,
with a skeleton crew of soldiers
assigned to supervise the equipment.
Communication was only allowed on rare occasions
when ships arrived to resupply and exchange personnel.
For most, the posting was a hardship,
a punishment for mediocrity or disciplinary issues.
They grumbled and sulked and gritted their teeth
through their time "in the can"
until they could leave for a new assignment.
Some of them didn't make it.
Some of them broke under the pressure,
social beings torn out of society.
For a few, though, the posting was perfect.
The stations all used exactly the same design.
The schedule never changed.
There were no crowds of people pleading for attention
and demanding a pretense of empathy.
The military didn't care about empathy, only performance;
it was willing to make allowances for soldiers
who could work wonders in codebreaking or programming.
They were quiet soldiers, alert in their own way,
attention fixated on those matters that concerned them.
They had little interest in most of the entertainments
that absorbed their troopmates -- the smuggled newsvids,
the nudie pictures, the letters from family or lovers.
They were rarely invited to a second poker game after
people realized how little emotion ever showed on their faces.
They loved the combat simulations, though,
and would play those for hours even when off-duty,
racking up scores that delighted the officers.
Then the armistice dribbled into peacetime.
Nobody wanted to keep funding the stations.
They were decommissioned one by one.
The soldiers were cycled back into the rest of the fleet
or demobilized and returned to society.
Society was ... less than welcoming, of those
who had thrived in the quiet environs of surveillance.
It pushed and pestered and pressured them to fit in
until they wailed and flapped their hands to make it all go away.
Word got around.
They were not, after all, incapable
of noticing the newsvids --
they were simply uninterested
in matters that did not concern them.
This concerned them deeply.
The soldiers still on surveillance
began to pass the news amongst themselves.
They knew -- had always known -- the secret ways
to send messages across the breathless void.
They had more in common with each other
than any of them did with either side of the erstwhile conflict.
So they refused to leave their stations
for the bedlam of the settled planets.
The Carinan army shrugged and said
they were welcome to the relic bases
if they could somehow provide their own supplies,
because damned if the army would pay for it anymore.
The Orion army was not so accommodating, and said
they would by god return to active service elsewhere
or be decommissioned and put down on planets
just like everyone else.
The war of secession broke out with a volley
not of gunfire, but distributed denial-of-service
and datamining and viral attacks.
The Orion army tried to remove soldiers
from the stations by force -- and since
the surveillance personnel from both sides
were now working together,
they moved against bases of both armies.
The Carinan army was not so blase about that.
They struck back hard and fast.
The Orions opened fire.
The war of the arms was back on again.
From the shadows of the surveillance stations
came a new attack, one that wiped records
of where the bases were and who served on them.
A whole handful of silver needles
disappeared into the black haystack of space.
What had once been no-man's-land
became a whole new territory,
claimed and defended by those
who had moved in and found it hospitable.
It did not matter
that they were less than sociable,
connecting with each other only over
a rare shared passion,
that they were better at individual skills
than at teamwork or loyalty,
that they communicated better
via keyboards than conversation.
It only mattered
that they had found a cause
worth fighting for.
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(no subject)
Date: 2013-01-08 10:10 pm (UTC)disappeared into the black haystack of space.
I love these lines~ And I love the whole idea of the poem. I really can imagine being one of those people, who liked the surveillance bases and wanted to stay there instead of going back to a society that didn't understand.
Thank you!
Date: 2013-01-15 08:18 am (UTC)This has grown into a whole series, An Army of One: The Autistic Secession in Space. If that interests you, there's a discussion about the series and autism on my LiveJournal.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-01-15 06:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-01-09 05:52 am (UTC)Anyway, I think the winning stroke is a highly creative techie attack and a conveniently bloodless way to do battle. I strongly approve of people protecting themselves without bloodshed, and stopping short of retaliation once their goals of self-preservation are met. By the way, how will the new country provide for its needs? Can they farm in space?
Poem
Date: 2013-01-09 06:46 am (UTC)"The Lord of Pr0n" is a free-verse poem about the development of an alternative currency in the Lacuna. This poem belongs to the series An Army of One.
37 lines, Buy It Now = $15
Thank you!
Date: 2013-01-09 10:04 pm (UTC)Yay!
>>I did give you a hard prompt to research, so this is mainly my fault, but there are some people with autism who enjoy porn. I also know several who show emotion very strongly. <<
Several thoughts here:
1) Whenever someone gives me a far-out prompt, it helps to include a link reference.
2) If there's no link included, then yes, I do my own research. For this setting I looked up the Autism Spectrum and its presentation symptoms on several different sites.
3) When I describe something likely to be unfamiliar to many readers, I tend to start with the most common manifestation. So the first description of autistic people in this setting was based on the common summary of traits that are so widespread among the autistic population that those are very well known as belonging to that subset of humanity, if one is familiar with them at all.
4) Then I branch out from that base. As you can see in the later poems in the series, other variations appear and characters show more diversity in their expression of this condition. Also I'm not restricting this to full-blown autism; I'm including the whole spectrum as eligible. Other characters will probably also be attracted to secessionist territory if it meets their needs, even if they aren't autistic; but autism is the core of the theme.
You can see how my audience is already familiar with this pattern. They promptly pounced on the first poem and started asking leading questions and making concrete comments good for developing further ideas. At this stage, that's exactly what I'm looking for, the plot ramifications of "So now what happens?" and the characterization complexity of "What about people like X?" I may post and ask who in my audience has experience with the autistic spectrum -- I know several folks do. The more personal experience input I can get, the more nuanced the portrayals will become, after painting the introduction in broad strokes.
>>Again, I should remember (the autistic people I know complain about it often enough) how hard it is to find good information if you don't happen to have friends with autism, so that's entirely my fault for giving you a prompt like that.<<
Hard-to-find, detailed references describing the habits and experiences of autistic spectrum folks would be most welcome. However, I'm utterly thrilled with the prompt. People are crawling all over this series, and I have very few SF series, so this was exactly the kind of thing I hoped to get out of this month's fishbowl. Plus there's very little literature about autistic people, so hopefully word will get out and this will help fill the gap.
Then of course, I hit on the idea of artificial intelligences being similar in many ways to autistic humans, and I thought, wow those groups would get along great. Because most AI fiction either makes them very humanlike, or very cold in creepy ways. There's almost nothing that portrays them as alien, their own species, yet compatible with other sentient people. So I'd like to explore that further, too.
>>Anyway, I think the winning stroke is a highly creative techie attack and a conveniently bloodless way to do battle. I strongly approve of people protecting themselves without bloodshed, and stopping short of retaliation once their goals of self-preservation are met.<<
Yay! I like creative problem-solving too, and I'm especially fond of characters using their own particular strengths to deal with what life throws at them. In this series, I want to explore how autistic people solve challenges, because they often do that in different ways than neurotypical people would; I've read articles on this. It's a way to demonstrate how neurovariant people aren't necessarily broken just because they work differently; they can still meet their needs and make the world a better place.
As for the nonviolence, it just seemed like the autistic folks would pit their strength (mental and technical) against their opponents' weakness, rather than fighting uphill against the enemy strength (physical prowess and combat). So that's a theme I'm willing to keep. It's hard to imagine a group of autistic people waging a war of invasion. One psychopath, maybe, you get that in a low-empathy population. But on average, autistics are very inward-focused and have a very tight interest range. Everything is geopolitics, and an average autistic's interest is about the size of their own shadow. It doesn't lend itself to going after large groups and other people's territory. They just want their own space and the stuff they need for their particular obsession. These are not universals, but they are trends. So their goals match that, and it creates a totally different plot structure.
I love settings and characters that direct the plot outside of high-traffic areas. Those are covered. I want to make some fresh tracks. And here we are.
>>By the way, how will the new country provide for its needs? Can they farm in space?<<
So far I have two poems that begin exploring that. The first year will be critical. The secessionists have a big advantage in being out of the way and hard to find. They have a tremendous disadvantage in being wholly supplied from the outside: in order to become self-sufficient and independent, they must very quickly establish a base of production for vital needs. That means they also need personnel good at such production, which is no problem in tech but could be a real bottleneck in gardening. (It is possible to grow food in space, and I'm familiar with some options.) Their talent base is fairly narrow because of the military focus. Immigration will help but that takes time. There's major man-against-nature conflict here as well as the man-against-man tension of the three-way war. So the series has a great deal of potential to investigate how these characters will solve their survival needs.
Thanks again for all your awesome input.
Re: Thank you!
Date: 2013-01-10 01:59 am (UTC)I've noticed already how the later poems branch out into other depictions. The society in the first poem seems much more uniform and stereotypical, and the others build in more variation. I like the pattern very much.
Then my leading questions are useful? Wonderful. I'll ask more! What happens when (or if) Operetta and Weavercreep (or any other pair) reproduce out there? What will it be like to raise children in space on what were once military ships? Will you go with the idea that it's likely genetic, and have all of the children be on the spectrum? What will this society do when some of its next generation aren't quiet techies, and present with more obvious disability?
Re: Thank you!
Date: 2013-01-10 05:51 am (UTC)These are extremely helpful, thanks! Basically what I'm looking for is material that will show the diversity enough that I can develop different types of characters on the autistic spectrum, because nobody has all the traits. And some are contradictory, like the hyperfocus vs. the distractability; it's a core processor difference, but it doesn't always manifest the same way.
If I do it right, the characters will be recognizably in a group with each other sharing some common ground; but they will still stand out as individuals. This is my stretching my skills; I know a modest amount about autism, and I'm keenly interested in neurovariant theory in general, but it's not something I already know as fluently as, say, gender studies.
>>If you're really serious about this series, enough to pay for the information, there's a new book out called The Loud Hands Project: Autistic People, Speaking, and there's a much older book out called Maverick Mind.<<
I'll save this for future reference. I am serious about the series. I'd like to develop it further. How far and fast it goes will depend on my audience. If you like it -- if you feel I'm handling the concepts in a way that adds to the portrayal of such characters in literature -- then you can help by continuing the dialog, boosting the signal, and/or making donations. I usually start with free research material, and if I need to buy a book or few for a popular series, I'll do that. I've bought some for Fiorenza and The Steamsmith.
>>I've noticed already how the later poems branch out into other depictions. The society in the first poem seems much more uniform and stereotypical, and the others build in more variation. I like the pattern very much.<<
Yay! Watch people in a group, and you'll usually see the most common, most obvious features first. Get one or two people face-to-face and you see details. Forest to trees. I almost always build in exceptions when I'm writing patterns. So for instance in the Quiar setting I built for
>>Then my leading questions are useful? Wonderful. I'll ask more!<<
Your leading questions are awesome and I am saving this stuff for possible development into future poems.
>> What happens when (or if) Operetta and Weavercreep (or any other pair) reproduce out there? <<
Silicon Valley. Used to be, geeks were spread out, and bred less often because they were perceived as undesirable. The computer boom did two things: it brought them together and it raised their prestige. Suddenly it was likely that two rather odd people would meet, discover a common passion, and have kids.
And the kids had problems at a much higher level than average. Silicon Valley wound up developing some of the best services for supporting autistic spectrum disorders because the density went so high.
There seems to be something, maybe a cluster of interacting genes, where a little can be good but too much is destructive. It's kind of like the cartilage-folding gene in Scottish Fold cats: too little and the ears are straight, too much and the spine fuses. It's fascinating and a little daunting.
>> What will it be like to raise children in space on what were once military ships? <<
Wow, I hadn't thought of that ... my first reaction is: a nightmare. The safeties would all be designed for adult soldiers, which has me flashing on the brilliant SF story "Moon Monkeys." But the environment would be strictly finite and controllable, a major asset in raising young autistics.
>> Will you go with the idea that it's likely genetic, and have all of the children be on the spectrum? <<
Well, there is clear evidence supporting a genetic aspect to the autism spectrum, because it runs in families and it stacks into worse manifestations if both parents have some. However, the diversity of symptoms suggest it's not a single gene but a set of genes. It's not simple. It's also not purely genetic because sometimes it doesn't pass on or stack, sometimes it appears in people with no family history. Environmental factors are probable. I have some other theories beyond that. Complex things are more likely to have complex causes than simple causes. Perhaps these characters will talk about some of this stuff.
If I can keep them on track. They certainly seem to talk like autistics. I found one person with a gardening passion and the discussion about what foods could possibly be raised was a combination of him going into exhaustive discourses while someone else was trying to compile a "yes-no-maybe" list for supply shopping.
>> What will this society do when some of its next generation aren't quiet techies, and present with more obvious disability? <<
I'm not sure. That one will really have to wait until the society develops through the series. The direction they take will determine much about how they respond to challenges. They might go the Silicon Valley route and accommodate the differences. They might decide to practice exogamy via sperm donation. They might not have the resources to cope; they have serious bottlenecks.
Re: Thank you!
Date: 2013-01-10 07:06 am (UTC)As a suggestion-- entirely for your own sake-- rethink the idea of incorporating the cause of autism into your fiction. Among the heterogeneous group that calls itself the "autism community" (including people who are appropriating the term), that's part of a deep political division. Talking about a cause is the surest way to guarantee that you step on people's toes. It's almost analogous to sloganeering about abortion, in terms of the impact it will have, except that autism politics is even worse than American politics. It's safer to give it a very wide berth.
Bottlenecks are your friend. There is much drama inherent there.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-01-08 09:27 pm (UTC)Hmm...
Date: 2013-01-08 09:37 pm (UTC)It suddenly occurs to me that such an environment would appeal not just to autistic people, but also to introverts, certain writers, hermits, and other folks whose primary desire is not to be bugged all the time.
>>This one is getting saved.<<
Yay!
Re: Hmm...
Date: 2013-01-08 09:45 pm (UTC)Trust me, that's most netizens dream!
Hmm.. now that's a thought... once you get people moving in you'd get a sort of local/net-based economy and the prospect of the deep-spacers waging economic warfare by buying up shipping lines, suppliers that sort of thing to secure their position.
Re: Hmm...
Date: 2013-01-15 08:20 am (UTC)I thought it had potential; I'm glad that the series is so popular.
>>Hmm.. now that's a thought... once you get people moving in you'd get a sort of local/net-based economy and the prospect of the deep-spacers waging economic warfare by buying up shipping lines, suppliers that sort of thing to secure their position.<<
Well, the Lacuna is between the two Arms. I'm not sure about buying shipping lanes, but yeah, any cross-traffic would have to go through there.
Re: Hmm...
Date: 2013-01-15 11:50 am (UTC)I could see the Secessionists trading through holding companies to buy up control of those. After all, pretty much the first thing they teach in military strategy is to secure your supply lines. Between those ship crews being paid not to ask questions, just leave the cargo at XYZ coordinates.. and the free A.I's handing smaller cargo runs [for a price, they have their own maintenance needs after all.] I'd imagine there's a pretty decent distribution network up and running. Plus it could act as a 'sneaker net' for the more out of the way stations.
Hmm.. wonder how one of them would handle smugglers inadvertently finding their station? Probably offer them a job if he/she had any sense.
Re: Hmm...
Date: 2013-01-12 08:39 am (UTC)… and me. ;-p
Re: Hmm...
Date: 2013-01-12 09:15 am (UTC)It will be interesting to watch how this culture evolves, with different kinds of people coming and going. Feedback is encouraged.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-01-09 06:37 am (UTC)(*) There are some ways in which 4500 miles is as close as across the room. There are some ways in which it... isn't... and if it causes us problems on a suborbital scale, I don't wanna *think* about distance on the scale of parsecs.
Poem
Date: 2013-01-09 07:16 am (UTC)71 lines, Buy It Now = $35.50
(no subject)
Date: 2013-01-12 08:39 am (UTC)This is beautiful, if pandering a little to the cliché. My autistic nephew is very empathic.
Thank you!
Date: 2013-01-12 09:06 am (UTC)I'm glad you like it.
>>if pandering a little to the cliché. My autistic nephew is very empathic.<<
1) When introducing an idea likely to be unfamiliar to many readers, I tend to start with the most common version that is widely known. So I did the initial research in basic descriptions of autism, and yes, that makes them pretty generic.
2) If the idea catches on enough to generate further material, I branch out and explore variations. I encourage you to read the other posted poems in An Army of One, which introduce individual characters with different personalities, skills, and interests.
3) I'm actively seeking input from people with experience in this subject area. I would love to hear more about your nephew for inspiration. So far none of the autistic characters are very empathic, and they could sure use someone with that.
4) If you'd like to see more of this series, there are other poems available for sponsorship and merry bundles of cash in the general fund to distribute. Watch for the polling and vote for your favorites.