#like stop acting like the rapture is coming it has already come for billions of people

[creed-of-cats]

- Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment

Men standing with pile of buffalo skulls, Michigan Carbon Works, Rougeville 1892. (Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library) // A dust storm engulfs the residents of Tyrone, Oklahoma. Taken during the Dust Bowl crisis, April 14, 1935 // Firemen stand on a bridge over the Cuyahoga River to spray water on the tug Arizona, as a fire, started in an oil slick on the river, sweeps the docks at the Great Lakes Towing Company site in Cleveland Nov, 1st // America's Suburban Experiment

[theginger-patrick]

ART 311 - May 11, 2020 The Heroes’ Journey

The Heroes’ Journey is an extremely prolific narrative structure that we see everywhere around is entertainment media. In one of my previous posts, I listed some of my favourite authors and their works which are particularly important to me because of their effective world-building and foreshadowing. Many of these authors’ bodies of work feature stories which are solidly set within the Heroes’ Journey structure, but there’s one story not listed there that I would like to focus on specifically. That would be Contact by Carl Sagan, my single favourite stand-alone novel. As it was first published in 1985 and a movie adaptation starring Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey being released in 1997, I shouldn’t have to worry about spoilers, but here’s a spoiler warning: SPOILERS BELOW!

The premise of Contact is relatively simple. It’s a story about an astrophysicist performing SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) research at an radio-telescope array who receives what turns out to be a message from extraterrestrials, first contact, and the resultant reactions . As soon as most people hear that premise, they’ll assume that it’s either an apocalyptic armageddon style story, a science fiction horror story, or some sort of Star Trek First Contact style story where the aliens come to Earth and peacefully usher humanity into a new era. This story is none of the above. Instead, it’s a breathtakingly beautiful, moving, and awe-inspiring narrative supported by hard science fiction. Hard science fiction is science fiction which is soundly routed in factual science and mathematics. Anyone who comes to know me knows that I am hardly a religious or spiritual person, in fact I’m an outright atheist, however, this novel expresses in better form than I ever could in words the sense of the numinous which I feel when I see images like that of the Eagle Nebula’s Pillars of Creation (taken by the Hubble Telescope and released to the public in 2015), when I read papers on the research done at the LHC (CERN’s Large Hadron Collider in Europe), or when I read about advancements in technology and our understanding of the universe which can be used for the betterment of our species.

There are three acts to Contact much like any traditional Heroes’ Journey narrative: The Message, The Machine, and The Galaxy. 

The Message:

Our protagonist, Eleanor “Ellie” Arroway, spends her early childhood being raised by supportive and loving parents, though her father Theodore “Ted” is the most influential on her life. He is her first mentor on her Heroes’ Journey, and helps to promote and develop her love of learning. From a young age Ellie is intensely inquisitive and devours new knowledge with a voracious appetite; she becomes particularly infatuated with the constant of π , known as “Pi”. This is of particular importance, so take note, and I would argue that this is Ellie’s call to adventure and is never refused or ignored. Unfortunately, while in sixth grade, her mentor and father Ted passes away to be replaced with her step-father John Staughton who is decidedly not supportive of Ellie’s non-feminine interests. Their acrimonious relationship is an important part to her characters development, though it was difficult for me to see it when I first read this novel as a teen.  

The novel proceeds quickly through her middle and high school years, primarily using these years to highlight the sexism which was (and still is to a degree) wildly rampant in the STEM fields at the time. I viewed much of this to be further motivation for our hero to pursue her goals, though now with the added motivation of proving her step-father's opinion of her interests to be wrong. Her post-secondary education furthers her love and interest of science, gives her experiences in more social pursuits (*cough* sexual et cetera *cough*), and introduces her to ETI (just look at SETI and guess), and two mentors: two role models with one also being an antagonist of sorts. All of this concludes with her graduation and employment with SETI.

The first sign of extraterrestrial life is shown in the form Ellie discovering a repeating message of sequential prime numbers directed at Earth; this is not something that could randomly occur in nature. This is where the meat of the story begins; the crossing of the threshold. At first there’s skepticism among the scientific community, as there should be, but the message is received by unassociated and independent facilities. As the scientific community works through political channels to ensure redundant monitoring (this is set during the Cold War era) humanity is temporarily united in this realization that we’re not alone in the universe and a desire for further knowledge. This all culminates in the discovery of humanity’s first ever high-powered radio broadcast embedded in the message being returned to us, and industrial innovations and schematics needed to create a machine of unknown purpose embedded even deeper. Thus ends Act 1.

The Machine:

Tests, allies, and enemies are abundant in this part of the novel. Honestly, this is one of the most exciting parts of the entire story for me with all of the political machinations, discussions of about the new technology imparted to humanity by the extraterrestrials (nearly all of which are theoretically possible and grounded in real science), and discussions surrounding the philosophical implications and dilemmas of this new reality. I will glaze over most of it because otherwise this post would truly become a short novel in its own right.

The most important bits to take from this act (in my opinion) are the tests and enemies and approaching the inmost cave. The tests of Ellie’s dedication to following through with her life’s work in finding new funding and conquering adversity in the form of unnecessarily contrarian colleagues and critics, personal relationship, and physical and psychological recovery after a traumatic event. The enemies of this act are primarily the extremist religious and political groups which oppose the construction of The Machine and/or want to bring on the rapture, and . They ultimately destroy The Machine which is being built and funded by the government of the United States in a terrorist attack, and this appears to be the nail in the coffin of the project. The only way in which this is salvaged is through the efforts of an ally Ellie, who has a back-up machine in the works that was being used for “testing” components. The ordeal of this movie is undoubtedly the moment of activation of the machine, when the passengers and the world are witnessing the processes taking place from the opposing perspectives of the interior and exterior.  The five passengers within the machine were confronting their fear of the absolute unknown considering this is a machine of foreign origin and technology never before used. Here ends Act 2.

(I am aware that this is Interstellar, not Contact. I just couldn’t find a GIF from Contact)

The Galaxy:

Approaching the inmost cave is what the story transitions into after The Machine activates as the passengers pass into the wormhole network which transports them to The Station. This would also likely cover the Reward (Seizing the Sword) phase. Throughout this sequence in the novel Ellie and the rest of the passengers are getting their first real reward to years of work and dedication with The Message and The Machine, but it’s obvious to the characters and audience that they’re currently in transit somewhere which has further implications on the story/mission. The trip to the station is an endless montage of breathtaking and mind-blowing scenes showing the depth and breadth of the capabilities of the extraterrestrials. Upon arrival, the passengers experience isolation and we later learn that the extraterrestrials were inspecting their memories. They used this data to put each passenger through a highly emotional and cathartic experience which was used to teach each passenger something about themselves of value. It is also when the most beautiful and numinous piece of information is given to Ellie when she asks the alien, who has appeared before her as her dead father Ted, how they experience when they create the numinous (she learned from the alien that the aliens are currently building a freaking galaxy, Cygnus A, using Sagittarius A which is the supermassive black hole in the center of our Galaxy, and is a massively powerful source of radio signals. Already a freaking numinous feat). It answers with Pi. Imagine how this would impact Ellie. Her "discovery” of Pi was one of the most formative experiences of Ellie’s early life. Specifically, the alien states that buried in Pi’s decimals is an encoded message. Imagine. Pi is a universal constant. It is something determined by physical and mathematical relations that just exist; you can’t “build” or “encode” Pi. The alien goes on to describe how they found this message in vague detail and directs Ellie on where to look.This entire combination of phases only concludes once the passengers have returned to Earth. 

Their return could likely be classified as combination of the Roadblock phase. Upon their return to Earth, rather than Ellie and the other passengers having a triumphant and joyous return no time appears to have passed on Earth, despite them having spent hours if not days on The Station. They are questioned. There are Inquiries. Politicians and the public are furious that billions of dollars were “wasted” on something that apparently just spun up to a specific speed in place, then stopped. None of the instruments of human origin attached to The Machine recorded anything; there was no sense of movement, no great amount of time had passed just mere moments, no radiation, nothing. Eventually, all of the inquiries “determine” that it was all a big hoax perpetrated by some evil capitalist (the ally that Ellie secured funding and the backup machine from) in order to amass wealth and develop a monopoly on many of the associated technologies and emerging industries. The detection of The Message was all done via the coordination of desperate SETI scientists with this man and his satellites up in space to defraud the world. Fortunately none of the passengers are punished in any way, despite many of them having been scientists deeply involved with the discovery, decoding, and understand of The Message and the construction of The Machine.

The Return of the Elixir phase in this novel is both a phase to be celebrated and mourned. Ellie discovers that her father Ted wasn’t her biological father and that instead the man she thought was her step-father was her biological father. This is a loss of identity that she mourns deeply, but with the experience, perspective, and humility she has gained through this whole journey she is able to forgive her mother’s infidelity and come to terms with this bit of knowledge. She is also able to conduct research regarding Pi to help confirm her story regarding their journey in The Machine and discovers the message hidden in Pi’s decimals. A perfect circle. Ironic as hell and yet an absolutely beautiful impossibility thrown in by Carl Sagan that elicits a sense of the numinous in anyone I know who has read the novel. In closing, not only has Ellie’s Heroes’ Journey given her more wisdom and grace as a human, but also a powerful piece of knowledge that validates her entire experience and does the very thing scientists hunger for the most: she expanded humanity’s understand of the universe and of how much there is more to discover.

I know that that was one hell of a lot of word vomit on the blog, so if you read it all the way then thank you.

[definegodliness]

The becoming of Hotdogian

Tagged by @purplemonkeysexgod69 for the ten question thingy, I found myself taken on a journey to within the deepest depths of my soul. Discovering parts within the self that have, even to me, been unknown up until now. A tag game where all my principles and values were put to the test in an epic adventure of introspection, rivaling the greatest Shakespearean drama. 

You’ve decided to become a serial killer. In what manner do you kill your first victim? Ah, the winter of 2010. Memories. I was twenty-three and this sense of purposelessness had gradually more fiercely been eating away at me. A quarter-life crisis, I called it . A problem, I figure, which is faced by many modern-aged products in their early twenties. In bygone days you'd be halfway life already; a father perhaps, or sent to the killing fields. There was purpose at least. A purpose I had been severely lacking. And there was this ‘something’ eating away at me, ever since I was sixteen. Something that raised the hairs on my back; that caused many nights of restless sleep. So there, at twenty-three, after six years of fighting it (seven, nearly). I finally gave in and let it devour me. I embraced it. It's kind of an inside joke I share with me (you know how I tend to talk to myself -- who said that?); in many ways I was my own first victim. I cannot disclose any further information. I'm sure you understand :)

You’ve decided to become a pornstar. What is your stage name? Dick de Cock, which is a perfectly normal Dutch name. Cock's also a Dutch first name, and Diks is a last name. So I could go with Cock Diks too. And though Fokker is a common Dutch last name as well (you know, from the Airplane), using that last name in combination with the aforementioned first names would be confusing to the audience trying to get a specific genre to suit their needs. So I’ll go with Dick de Cock. Or Lickity Slit, that one sounds fun too. 

You just won half a billion dollars in the lottery. Who is the first person you cut out of your life? There's no one left to cut.

A man in black hands you a brown briefcase. In this briefcase is a red button. The man in black disappears in a puff of pink smoke that smells like lavander and orange blossoms. You hear maniacal laughter in the distance. Do you press the red button? You had me at red button. Of course I'll push it! I hope it's shiny. Besides, what's the worst that could happen?

You’ve decided to press the button triggering The Rapture. You are not floating into heaven and the Armageddon asteroid is fast approaching. You can only fit one other person in the alien spacecraft you purloined. The spacecraft is programmed to travel to a habitable unknown planet with unknown inhabitants. Do you hop into the spacecraft to avoid certain death and an eternity in hell? Tough choice. On the one hand there's the fire, the death, the eternal torture, but of course I'd also get the chance to meet a wide variety of interesting people. Freddy Mercury will be there; Johnny Cash, David Bowie, Nietzsche, Mozart, George Carlin, Gene Wilder, Bruce Lee... well I'm just going to stop right here, because who'd get to heaven anyway. Honestly. Allen Rickman maybe, that guy was a saint... well, depending on whose rapture it is, else it's straight off to hell with him as well. Anyway, on the other hand I've always wanted to have a go at space travel. Should be fun. I'll meet with you guys later, okay?

Who would you take with you if you chose to get into the spacecraft? No one really. I mean, Ren and Stimpy taught me about Space Madness and I really don't want to confront anyone with seeing me eating a bar of soap butt naked, gently floating through the no gravity room; talking to the soap as if it was my long lost lover. Oh! That’s it. I'll let the romantic in me speak: I'll bring my long lost lover. If she wants to come, I don’t know how confident she is in reaching heaven nowadays. Again, whose rapture is it anyway?

You’ve decided to board the spacecraft and you are with the person you chose to accompany you. You have lifted off and are escaping the earth’s gravitational field. You discover a button on the spacecraft that would crash it into the asteroid, obliterate it, and save the earth and all its inhabitants. You have thirty seconds to make the decision. Do you press the button? Well I would have if I didn't had to bring anyone! After looking up all those atheists, homosexuals, adulterers, blasphemers, fornicators, etc. I was starting to look forward to hell. But gosh darn now I really can't. Besides, this button isn't nearly as shiny as the one in the brown suitcase was.

You’ve decided to selfishly save yourself and your passenger and travel to the unknown planet. Upon arriving, you discover that it is full of highly intelligent and peaceful vegetarian arachnids and the only edible food source is tofu. They’ve decided to treat you and worship you like gods. Do you stay or hop back into the spacecraft and take your chances trying to find another habitable planet? One look at those eight-legged critters would be enough to hit the ignition button. I wouldn't even have time to figure out the tofu limitation is another reason to leave. Being treated like a god doesn't really resonate with me either. I figure it's like a perpetual state of how you feel when people sing 'Happy Birthday' to you on your birthday.

You’ve decided to search for another planet and fortunately find one three planets away in the same binary solar system. You have not eaten in three days since waking up from an induced hibernation when you traveled to the last planet and the tofu supplies in the spacecraft have been depleted. This new planet is full of highly intelligent, peaceful, and edible vegetarians that look like hot dogs in buns. Only these inhabitants are fit for human consumption; everything else on the planet is poisonous. You will not survive another day. How many Hotdogians do you murder in one sitting to satisfy your hunger? I'd be pretty hungry, so the first two would go pretty fast. The third as a normal meal. And the fourth a little slower. Halfway the fifth my stomach will probably say it's full, but I'll eat it anyway. The funny thing about Hotdogians is that they give off a squeaky toy’s ‘peep’ when you bite in them, which is highly entertaining. Almost as entertaining as pressing a shiny button. So the rest of the time I'd act like a fox in a henhouse.

After murdering their husbands, wives, sons, and daughters. The Hotdogians declare all out war and attempt to stab you with their tiny toothpicks. You feel guilty but your instinct for survival is stronger and you and your passenger end up wiping out their entire civilization in less than 6 months. The spacecraft has no more fuel and you are stranded. The side effect of eating all those Hotdogians is that it turned both you and your passenger into Hotdogians. You are both hungry and are each the last edible and tasty morsel on the planet. You end up in an epic toothpick battle with your passenger. You come out victorious, tears in your eyes, blood on your hands. Having shrunk in size, you notice something near the spacecraft. A ketchup packet! Do you use it to devour your last meal? I would nobly perform harakiri by toothpick. Which is going to suck because toothpicks don’t have that sharp blade’s edge.