And they lived well, and we lived better
May. 14th, 2012 04:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cosmolinguistThere once was, as never before...
...someone who got it. She had heard all the stories and couldn't understand why it had taken so long for anyone to learn from this mistake. It was so obvious! How could it be so common?
Every time she heard a new story, she hoped it'd be different.
I remember something that our father told me and that is this:
It never was different. No one saw what she did when she heard these tales. The idea was fresh and waiting for her. Since no one else wanted it, she'd make it welcome.
This is an old story
They might as well all have taken classes on waiting for good lightning strokes, laughing maniacally, and employing assistants from walks of life that would ostracize them from most lines of work. They could have memorized from books those speeches about re-animating the very sinews of life, right down to the fact that they all share the subtext: "I was bullied as a child and there's no motivation like revenge."
I've told you what's coming
They always leave the brain until last! These mad scientists! They obsess lovingly over their stitch-work as they piece the bodies together. They wait for just the right dramatic moment to throw the lever (why is there always a big lever? she wonders), but they treat the brain just an afterthought! The seat of all intellect and reason, the thing that separates us from the animals...! "Oh well we'll just grab any old thing from out of a jar"? This made no sense!
There was, there was not
There wasn't going to be any of that nonsense from her!
Abby started with the brain. How hard could it be? When she considered how often she couldn't remember to return her library books on time, or how unbiddem memories would suddenly pop into her mind (waking up in her grandparents' bed to hear the murmur of adults talking and laughing over their grown-up card games in the next room, feeling all warm and cozy and well-looked-after...it made her sad now to remember it), the human brain wasn't itself very good.
The trick is, you need the glial cells. You can't just string together neurons out of bits of a broken Slinky (if nothing else, she knew that because she'd tried that when she was a kid: knowing she needed wires, and with nothing better to hold it together than glue, stickytape and used bubblegum; she'd lovingly rolled it in the dirt when it got too sticky and added fresh bubblegum when it got too dry). Typical science: we can see the neurons flashing on and off in our fancy MRI machines. They're all pretty, the rest of this might as well be grey goo, so fuck that.
Fuck them. Like magpies, you flash something glittery in front of them and that's all they pay attention to. Even if they don't know why they care about it.
She started with the brain, and the assembly language. She started with the raw ingredients: carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, all the greatest hits of the periodic table.
She thought of the Slinky and bubblegum, and crafted lovingly. The best brains are made with care and attention.
Her life had started with the joy and grunting of her parents. Few want to contemplate their elders having sex but it's how we all got here. Except for this. She had joy, but no grunting, and no fellow parent. This creature sprang fully-formed from her intellect.
They have reached their goal, let's settle
She hadn't bothered with all the wrinkly, fiddly bits but she knew she'd created a woman. She named her Norma.
...and three days they ate, drunk and had fun
She taught Norma to eat, and then how to cook. Norma liked to burn toast, and boil eggs (already putting her miles ahead of Abby's ex-husband on culinary usefulness).
And I was there, and drank mead and wine
Abby put away her scientific instruments; they'd served their purpose. The two went to museums and football games and concerts. She taught Norma to talk, and then to read. They shared a joy in words.
And they lived well, and we lived better
Their first kiss was over an Usborne Very First Reading book.
So blissful
...someone who got it. She had heard all the stories and couldn't understand why it had taken so long for anyone to learn from this mistake. It was so obvious! How could it be so common?
Every time she heard a new story, she hoped it'd be different.
I remember something that our father told me and that is this:
It never was different. No one saw what she did when she heard these tales. The idea was fresh and waiting for her. Since no one else wanted it, she'd make it welcome.
This is an old story
They might as well all have taken classes on waiting for good lightning strokes, laughing maniacally, and employing assistants from walks of life that would ostracize them from most lines of work. They could have memorized from books those speeches about re-animating the very sinews of life, right down to the fact that they all share the subtext: "I was bullied as a child and there's no motivation like revenge."
I've told you what's coming
They always leave the brain until last! These mad scientists! They obsess lovingly over their stitch-work as they piece the bodies together. They wait for just the right dramatic moment to throw the lever (why is there always a big lever? she wonders), but they treat the brain just an afterthought! The seat of all intellect and reason, the thing that separates us from the animals...! "Oh well we'll just grab any old thing from out of a jar"? This made no sense!
There was, there was not
There wasn't going to be any of that nonsense from her!
Abby started with the brain. How hard could it be? When she considered how often she couldn't remember to return her library books on time, or how unbiddem memories would suddenly pop into her mind (waking up in her grandparents' bed to hear the murmur of adults talking and laughing over their grown-up card games in the next room, feeling all warm and cozy and well-looked-after...it made her sad now to remember it), the human brain wasn't itself very good.
The trick is, you need the glial cells. You can't just string together neurons out of bits of a broken Slinky (if nothing else, she knew that because she'd tried that when she was a kid: knowing she needed wires, and with nothing better to hold it together than glue, stickytape and used bubblegum; she'd lovingly rolled it in the dirt when it got too sticky and added fresh bubblegum when it got too dry). Typical science: we can see the neurons flashing on and off in our fancy MRI machines. They're all pretty, the rest of this might as well be grey goo, so fuck that.
Fuck them. Like magpies, you flash something glittery in front of them and that's all they pay attention to. Even if they don't know why they care about it.
She started with the brain, and the assembly language. She started with the raw ingredients: carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, all the greatest hits of the periodic table.
She thought of the Slinky and bubblegum, and crafted lovingly. The best brains are made with care and attention.
Her life had started with the joy and grunting of her parents. Few want to contemplate their elders having sex but it's how we all got here. Except for this. She had joy, but no grunting, and no fellow parent. This creature sprang fully-formed from her intellect.
They have reached their goal, let's settle
She hadn't bothered with all the wrinkly, fiddly bits but she knew she'd created a woman. She named her Norma.
...and three days they ate, drunk and had fun
She taught Norma to eat, and then how to cook. Norma liked to burn toast, and boil eggs (already putting her miles ahead of Abby's ex-husband on culinary usefulness).
And I was there, and drank mead and wine
Abby put away her scientific instruments; they'd served their purpose. The two went to museums and football games and concerts. She taught Norma to talk, and then to read. They shared a joy in words.
And they lived well, and we lived better
Their first kiss was over an Usborne Very First Reading book.
So blissful
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-14 04:37 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-15 06:10 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-15 07:18 am (UTC)Although I am a little concerned that she appears to be dating her "child"?
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Date: 2012-05-16 01:28 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2012-05-16 06:20 am (UTC)Like Jem, it does seem as if she might be dating her child, which is a bit awkward. I think it's the teaching to eat and to read, rather than, say, teaching "the great novels" (something that sounds more intellectual and less basic), so that it's clear the scientist is molding an adult and not a child.
The entire paragraph about mad scientists and brains? I would marry that paragraph. It is pure and solid awesomeness. :D
(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-16 01:35 pm (UTC)Me too. They're all shamelessly ripped off from Wikipedia, the English translations of other languages' versions of "once upon a time" and/or "happily ever after." It's interesting how similar they are in a lot of cases. I think "So blissful" (apparently from the Japanese, "Medetashi medetashi (めでたしめでたし)") is my favorite (though I'm sure a lot is lost in the translation; I like the way the Japanese starting and ending phrases seem to consist of repetitions of the same word (the starting one given by Wikipedia is "Mukashi mukashi (昔昔, 昔々, むかしむかし)").
I think it's the teaching to eat and to read, rather than, say, teaching "the great novels" (something that sounds more intellectual and less basic), so that it's clear the scientist is molding an adult and not a child.
I think you make a very good point. But I always found it more difficult to suspend disbelief for Frankenstein's creature learning to read from Milton and I-don't-remember-what-else (Shakespeare? the Bible? something like that), even after I'd managed to swallow the concept of creating life this way, and I really wanted there to be a story where the creature starts with Dick-and-Jane type books.
The entire paragraph about mad scientists and brains? I would marry that paragraph. It is pure and solid awesomeness.
Thank you! I have wanted to use that in a story for a long time. It's bugged me too, so that part of the story was easy to write :)
(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-16 01:19 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-16 01:37 pm (UTC)I didn't even consider when I was writing this that the creature would be perceived as a "child" but as I told Jem, I'm clearly the minority there! I'm glad it can work despite that. (I just liked the juxtaposition of Abelard-and-Heloise-esque sexytimes over books, and it being a beginners book rather than some lofty tome.)
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