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The Night Watch
May. 31st, 2009 09:00 pmI was going to work on my "AI kicks humanity's ass" novel Those Who Hide, Survive but the amount of world-building required is causing my Too Hard Light to illuminate. That, and my recent Republic of Texas / Republica de Tejas post gave me a great idea for a cool walk-on character. So, my next project is a loose sequel to Space Rescue and The Mars Run, working title The Night Watch. Yes, night watches will be a recurring motif, both the actual watches at night and Rembrandt's painting.
More importantly, there are two ideas I'm going to try and explore in this book. They are:
Walling Off From Evil - I'm actually quite fond of M. Night Shyamalan's The Village. I get that the movie isn't supposed to have a surprise ending. But what it's supposed to be about is the impossiblity of walling yourself off from evil. Now, "walling off from evil" is a common idea - see the "gated subdivision" nearest you. There's some short-term results to gain from that idea, but as a long-term solution it doesn't work.
Guns Make People Evil - One of the things that gun control folks seem to think is that removing guns will reduce violence, as if the people who run around shooting other folks will suddenly start singing "Kumbaya" absent a gun. Nope, ain't going to happen. Also, even if one waves a magic wand and makes all existing guns go away, any reasonably-competent machinist could make their own.
These may be too big of ideas to jam in one book, but I'll give it a go.
More importantly, there are two ideas I'm going to try and explore in this book. They are:
Walling Off From Evil - I'm actually quite fond of M. Night Shyamalan's The Village. I get that the movie isn't supposed to have a surprise ending. But what it's supposed to be about is the impossiblity of walling yourself off from evil. Now, "walling off from evil" is a common idea - see the "gated subdivision" nearest you. There's some short-term results to gain from that idea, but as a long-term solution it doesn't work.
Guns Make People Evil - One of the things that gun control folks seem to think is that removing guns will reduce violence, as if the people who run around shooting other folks will suddenly start singing "Kumbaya" absent a gun. Nope, ain't going to happen. Also, even if one waves a magic wand and makes all existing guns go away, any reasonably-competent machinist could make their own.
These may be too big of ideas to jam in one book, but I'll give it a go.
