Adam.
The one I found easiest to write, since he is male, adult and a teacher of English in Japan. As this is in the future and I'm a follower of Yogi Berra on predictions, Japan isn't much described in the book. The future generally isn't, though hints are dropped all over the place as to things that have happened there.
Anyway, Adam. The aim for this part was simply to bring him in and make it clear that he is suddenly snapped into a situation which he wasn't prepared for and didn't arrive at by any normal means. There is meant to be a lot of sensory iimpression. He simply records everything that he sees, hears and smells. With luck, the reader gets the idea that he is aware of all of this at exactly the same moment that the reader is, so the transition that the reader just went through to get here - turning the page- is pretty much the same sort of feeling that Adam has.
Since he can't be McLeod's daughter, I love to believe that everyone clued in immediately to the fact that he is the other figure jacked in to the computer. To do that, they'd need to also get the idea that he is now in a simulation like the Matrix, a computer-generated world that doesn't need to follow the rules of our world.
There are a number of (really bad) jokes buried in the story and Adam's entrance to the simulation contains probably the worst of them. Worst in terms of it being a dreadful play on bad opening lines and in that no one has ever spotted it. If you think about what he says, Adam is telling you that it was a dark, but not a stormy night. For those who don't know this one:
I hope that I don't have too much purple prose and that I also give the signal that games will be played with expectations here. Things aren't what they seem (I think I've said that several times before already).
I actually got rejected by one agent (who was at least nice enough to send me something that was personal and not pre-printed) for this.
The objection was that the story ignored the fact that the reader had expectations and that meant it wasn't working for that agent. My feelings were that I was making use of the fact that the reader had expectations so as to confound them (a bit) and bring a feeling of dissonance in. Can't please all of the people, can you?
The one I found easiest to write, since he is male, adult and a teacher of English in Japan. As this is in the future and I'm a follower of Yogi Berra on predictions, Japan isn't much described in the book. The future generally isn't, though hints are dropped all over the place as to things that have happened there.
Anyway, Adam. The aim for this part was simply to bring him in and make it clear that he is suddenly snapped into a situation which he wasn't prepared for and didn't arrive at by any normal means. There is meant to be a lot of sensory iimpression. He simply records everything that he sees, hears and smells. With luck, the reader gets the idea that he is aware of all of this at exactly the same moment that the reader is, so the transition that the reader just went through to get here - turning the page- is pretty much the same sort of feeling that Adam has.
Since he can't be McLeod's daughter, I love to believe that everyone clued in immediately to the fact that he is the other figure jacked in to the computer. To do that, they'd need to also get the idea that he is now in a simulation like the Matrix, a computer-generated world that doesn't need to follow the rules of our world.
There are a number of (really bad) jokes buried in the story and Adam's entrance to the simulation contains probably the worst of them. Worst in terms of it being a dreadful play on bad opening lines and in that no one has ever spotted it. If you think about what he says, Adam is telling you that it was a dark, but not a stormy night. For those who don't know this one:
It was a dark and stormy night
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Dark and stormy night" redirects here. For the film, see Dark and Stormy Night (film).
"It was a dark and stormy night" is an infamous phrase written by Victorian novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton at the beginning of his 1830 novel Paul Clifford.[1] The annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest uses the phrase as a signifier of purple prose. The original opening sentence of Paul Clifford is an example:The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest was formed to "celebrate" the worst extremes in this style. The contest, sponsored by the English Department of San Jose State University, recognizes the worst examples of "dark and stormy night" writing.It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents — except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.
I hope that I don't have too much purple prose and that I also give the signal that games will be played with expectations here. Things aren't what they seem (I think I've said that several times before already).
I actually got rejected by one agent (who was at least nice enough to send me something that was personal and not pre-printed) for this.
The objection was that the story ignored the fact that the reader had expectations and that meant it wasn't working for that agent. My feelings were that I was making use of the fact that the reader had expectations so as to confound them (a bit) and bring a feeling of dissonance in. Can't please all of the people, can you?
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