skygiants | (no subject)

Another day, another December meme post:

metaphortunate asked me to talk about one thing in my life that I would most like to do that I think is impossible.

...OK the embarrassing thing about this answer is that I'm pretty sure it's Anne McCaffrey's fault, and specifically it's the fault of Dragonsdawn, which is ... not a good book, it's VERY MUCH not a good book, in fact it's in many ways a TRAUMATIZING book (NO SALLAH NO HE'S IN LOVE WITH ROCKS), but ever since I read it at the age of like ten I have really wanted to move to another planet. It would be so cool! It would be SO COOL. Like, the idea of the sense of wonder you'd get from that is overwhelming. This isn't about space, I don't actually care (I know, blasphemy, I'm sorry!) all that much about space, I've never dreamed about being in a spaceship really, in fact the idea kind of freaks me out. But being on a different planet, something totally outside of the entire range of experience on Earth, and trying to build something there -- there's something about that idea that activates my sense of wonder to the max.

And the thing is it is, like, maybe actually possible that within my lifetime, moving to another planet will be hypothetically possible. Like, what do I know? In fifty years maybe generation shipping it out will be a thoroughly feasible option. (Maybe it'll even look like the best option, or in fact the only option, but, uh, that's a depressing road to go down so let's veer away from that.) And when I was younger I would always sigh and be like, "but I have no useful skills that would make me a candidate anyway!" but ... I kind of have a semi-useful skill now, actually? EARTH-TWO WILL NEED ARCHIVISTS.

But as an adult, even if it was offered to me as an option right now, if it was possible in all external senses today, I know I couldn't go; it's not the externals that make it impossible, it's the internals. Because the thing is, I have family and friends and a network of people I value a lot, and I know that when it comes down to it, I am completely not the kind of person who's willing to give that emotional network up for the idea of adventure and a sense of wonder. There are times when I wish I was that kind of person because then I would probably have a more adventurous life! But most of the time I'm pretty OK with it.

Man, it's personal confession o'clock I guess, if anyone else wants to talk about impossible things you would like to do then please come make me feel less embarrassed!

Crossposts: http://bookelfe.livejournal.com/398222.html

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

shati

I was going to make fun of you, but then I realized I feel similarly about other planets vs. space and maybe it is because of Dragonsdawn.

From:

skygiants

I think you will just have to come to terms with the fact that there is no way to accurately judge the impact of the crater that Anne McCaffrey has left upon your psyche. Its true depths are impossible to plumb.

From:

shati

Did you have to make it basically caves.

From:

skygiants

Well I didn't but apparently the bits of Anne McCaffrey left in MY psyche DID.

From:

thistleingrey

The weyrs totally are. Dragonsdawn kind of slid off me (I was too old?), but I met Dragonquest first at the library and wanted to go and hide out in a weyr. An unused one. No trouble to anyone. Just to see.

From:

rachelmanija

I too have absolutely longed to visit another planet. I long to go to impossible places in general, and to do impossible things. I sometimes dream of flying or of being telekinetic, so vividly that I can't believe for some time after waking that there wasn't a time when I could fly or move objects with my mind, only I forgot how.

From:

skygiants

I've never dreamed of flying (I think I've always just assumed that I would not be any more graceful in the air than I am on land, and therefore it would probably end in tragedy for all concerned), but being telekinetic or able to teleport, FOR SURE -- there are some days I close my eyes and wish to be half a block down the street from where I am, and then I open them again and am really disappointed not to be there, because I am still half-convinced that someday it'll work.

From:

zulu

Ooh, yes, flying. That's on my list of impossible things, too. I'd also love to climb mountains, but I'm afraid of heights. (That one is probably something I could actually work on, but I think I'll just stick with hiking and scrambling for now.)

From:

skygiants

I would love to climb mountains, and I actually love heights, but I have no strength or stamina! So really what I would love to do is stand on top of a mountain feeling satisfied with myself.

From:

sapote

I actually realized recently that I am 100% disinterested in another planet. A relative has been reading John Lawson for a project, and I love his narratives of wandering around annoying the existing relatives of North Carolina by asking them to list tree species for him, but I also have realized while reading over that really delightful tree list that I am not an explorer at all, even a little. I'm actually mostly sad that I won't get to live on a generation ship. That sounds like the life for me, lots of little bunks and algae farming and, I am guessing, ship listserv drama.

From:

skygiants

I sympathize with this point of view, but the little bunks rule generation ship out as an option for me. I recently upgraded to a queen-sized bed and I'm NEVER GOING BACK.

From:

nextian

Oh man, yes! A lot. Actually, my impossible dream was for a long time to be a scientist working to make human habitation of other planets feasible before the clock runs down, so at least your dream is, you know, fun sounding. But this was pretty much the reason Interstellar was still worth the price of entry for me. New worlds, new homes.

Nowadays my sense-of-wonder fantasy is to be able to visit dead cities, though. I don't know if I've ever wanted to do anything more than to emigrate to Hangzhou under the Khanate. The very real, full-body delight that came over me when we found all that new Sappho a couple of years back was the child of this.

From:

skygiants

And I skipped out on Interstellar because I heard that it was mostly a movie about space, and I was like 'eh, I don't care about space, I want planets! PLANETS OR BUST.'

Oh man, though, dead cities, yes. And imaginary cities also, and invisible cities.

(Ironically, San Francisco actually feels a little like an alien city to me. It's the fact that everything's literally set on an angle, which my brain insists on interpreting as a metaphor.)

From:

lnhammer

I confess, Dragonsdawn was the last Pern book I made it through. I cannot mock you for imprinting on these, as I did on the original two trilogies, especially The White Dragon and the Harperhall books. The peak of my voracious teenage reading, when I was no longer reading just one but two books a day, was blasting through Dragonsong plus Dragonsinger three times over. So, er. Yeah. Easy travel to other planets, yeah?

For a while, in my thirties, one of my mantras about the future (once I had given up on the left turns at suspicious lampposts of my twenties) was "MARS NEEDS TYPESETTERS." Because once the colony gets going, they will need graphic and layout designers. Eventually.

---L.

From:

skygiants

I read SO MANY Pern books. So. Tragically. Many. I think maybe the last one I made it through was the one where dolphins save the day? I don't actually mock this premise, like, why not, sure, dolphins should save the day, but it did come sort of out of ... left field ....

They absolutely will! It might be a tough pitch to make for Round One but Round Two will DEFINITELY find itself in need. (And Narnia of course is in huge need of anyone with solid data management skills.)

From:

obopolsk

I think my desire to travel back in time comes from a similar place. I don't particularly care about the mechanics of time travel, and I don't want to stay in another era, necessarily (I'd miss my family and friends, too). But I just want to SEE IT because it would be AWESOME.

From:

skygiants

Yeah, me too! I DEFINITELY don't want to migrate to any other eras; I am all in favor of plumbing and supermarkets and the existence of ibuprofen. But the exploration would be amazing.