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Latest Update: August 5, 2001 by Ben Marcus

13:15 PT SUNDAY AUGUST 5, 2001 WATSON LAKE HOTEL, WATSON LAKE

Stupid cat. It's 13:16 in the PM and I'm still in Watson Lake. The cat is still missing and I am still stressing. Most likely he has gone feral for a little while and is letting his fine Norwegian Forest Cat genetics take him for a spin through the lake and swamp and forest that is a few feet from the library.

But he makes me worry, doggone it. Is this the time he won't come back? I'd hate to push on to Alaska without him, feeling as guilty as little Jess Arbogast's uncle, the guy who caught and landed the bull shark that took off his nephew's arm.

But we shall see. Had a chat with a guy who lives in an apartment overlooking the area where I last saw Ike. It's very possible that he walked into some weekend establishment that won't be open until Monday, and Ike will come flying out and we'll go flying up the Campbell Highway.

But it's cool. I have things that need to be read and things that need to be written. I cracked a copy of Wired that I'd bought a few days ago, and found a whole bunch of articles on Brain research that support one of my other hare-brained ideas: The opera called Deus ex Machina.

I want to whip together an intelligible outline for the idea and send it to the Paul Allen Music Fund, to see if anyone there gets it or likes it. Today I am doing an exercise: Describing the story in one sentence, then one paragraph and then one page.

If people make it through that, then I have about 20 patches of synopsis and quotes and ideas. It's a sophisticatd idea but a good idea, with its feet in the classics and its head in the future. It would be very fun to write.

DEUS EX MACHINA IN A SENTENCE:

Deus ex Machina is a space opera that is really an opera, a Greek drama played out in space, a struggle for understanding and control between the million-year-old immortal intellect of one of earthÍs greatest scientists, and his very mortal, flesh and blood son.

On board a lavish Interstellar Museum of Earth, a million years removed from home, a flesh and blood human being, Dion Waldstein, is mysteriously handed control of the ship and his own destiny, and is torn between loyalty to the million-year-old immortal intellect that controls the ship, and the confused, riotous needs and emotions of the other 149 humans onboard.

Those are my first two attempts: sentences the size of paragraphs. This is a big idea, and hard to sum up in 50,000 words or less, much less 50.

I'll keep working on it, and include more logline and the paragraph if I get them done today.

I'm in the Watson Lake Hotel in the restaurant, waiting to use the phone. A trucker or something is on the phone talking about a "4500 mile trip" from Edmonton. He must be talking to his wife or something, because he's going on and on.

Now he just called "Mr. Walker and he's double checking to make sure that he could go with him on the 13th to Oklahoma. It's been quite the adventure."

I just let the trucker guy check his e-mail. He's driving from Dallas to Fairbanks.

Oh well. Hopefully the dingaling will show up and we can get going.

Need to work on those loglines.

I'll tell you, the cat thing sure divides men and women.

Here's a back and forth with Joanne Joanne Ottone, cat lover. Female.

In a message dated 8/5/2001 11:20:50 AM Pacific Daylight Time, JOatSunriseHill writes:

Do what is right for once in your life,

I DO THINGS RIGHT ALL THE TIME.

and if Ike comes back, get him a permanent home.

EVENTUALLY. THIS IS A TRIP WE'RE TAKING. WE'RE LOOKING FOR A HOME.

You can't do that to a cat. Cats are not nomads.

THEY USED TO BE.

If they were meant to be, they wouldn't be domesticated animals.

MAN IS THAT LOGIC ALL SCREWED UP. CATS LOVE TO RUN WILD, AND I THINK IKE HAS THE SKILLS TO SURVIVE. WHAT I WORRY ABOUT, AND WHAT HAS PROBABLY HAPPENED, IF SOMEONE FALLING IN LOVE WITH HIM AND KEEPING HIM.

OH WELL. AT LEAST HE'LL HAVE A PERMANENT HOME.

Oh well. It's a rainy day in Watson Lake, my cat is missing, my Russia trip is in limbo, my creditors are looking for me and I'm trying to write a logline for a hare-brained science fiction idea.

21:13 PT SUNDAY AUGUST 5, 2001 PHONE AT WATSON LAKE LODGE

ODOMETER
TRIP METER
MONEY

Chili-cheese fries for lunch: $10.00

Well for lack of anything better to do in Watson Lake on a slow Sunday, I just took a long nap in the van. I woke up with daylight still blazing and tried to guess what time it was. It was 21:00. The guy who lives near where I am parked gave me a jump start, and I'm back at the data phone. I've received abotu a half-dozen "Did You Find Ike?" e-mails and I've told them all the same thing: I think Ike is locked into a Social Services building near where I am parked. He is probably in a closer somewhere, not feeling too good, but he'll be out by tomorrow, I hope.

That's one possibility. There are other possibilities, but I don't want to think about them.

After my last post I had a horrendous plate of chili-cheese fries for lunch, and listened to two RCMP talk turkey. Then I drove back to the library, ran down the battery working on Deus ex Machina, and then took a nap.

So now it's 21:15. I'm going to find a lounge with a TV and watch the news. I tried to eat breakfast in a lounge this morning, but they kicked me out, saying it was closed. Stupid. Frontier boredom, I guess.

Oh well. If and when Ike shows up tomorrow, we'll be up the road to Carmacks and then Dawson City. Just want the cat back is all.

I made some headway on the Deus ex Machina page.,

Does this make any sense at all?

DEUS EX MACHINA IN A SENTENCE.

Deus ex Machina is a Greek drama played out in space, aboard an Interstellar Museum of Earth Culture, a million-years removed from earth, and only six earth days from the first contact between homo sapiens and another intelligent culture. In space, no one can hear the riotous outbreak of emotion that has erupted in the art and artifact-filled rooms and galleries of the Cogito. There is a life and death struggle taking place between the mortal, 21-year-old ñCitizensî of the Cogito, and the immortal, million-year-old computerized consciousness who have just lost control of the ship, and their own fate. The 150 ñCitizensî who inhabit the Cogito care nothing imminent contact with the extra-terrestrial civilization they are approaching. All the ñCitizensî want is to turn Cogito around and return to earth. The Cogito is their home, where they were ñhatchedî by artificial means, and educated as well as possible about the universe, and the place they came from: earth. But now that the universe has given control of the Cogito over to The Citizens, what was their home now feels like their prison. Earth is their home, and earth is where they want to go. ñEarth First!î is the rallying cry of the Citizens. And that is usually seconded with ñTurn off the Talking Heads!î

The Talking Heads are the 150 computerized intellects which control all the functions of the Cogito, the preserved mortal consciousness of Dr. Arnold Waldstein and 149 of his friends, colleagues and fellow geniuses. A million years in the past, Dr. Waldstein became one of earthÍs greatest men-a combination of Einstein, Darwin and Gates-when he focused centuries of computer science and brain research into Cogito, the computer that seamlessly melded together organic mortal human intellect into the immortal, nano-supercharged soul of a super-computer. A million years in the past, Dr. Waldstein fled from earth with 149 of his friends, colleagues and earthÍs most adventurous minds, flesh and blood human beings who signed on to leave earth on a voyage with no end, an eternal investigation into the origins and ends of the universe, and everything in between.

When the Talking Heads boarded Cogito they were flesh and blood, but now they are there in mind and spirit only, their earthly intellects and curiosities and personalities preserved forever in computer form, and close to busting with a million years of knowledge from combing the cosmos at as nailÍs pace. Earth is a fond memory to The Talking Heads, one they can call up and return to, in their minds, whenever they want. Sometimes their minds return to the chaotic ñgutterî of earth, but mostly they are looking at the stars, sailing through the universe for countless millennia, slowly and patiently probing the mysteries of the Universe, and hoping, ever patiently, to find someone interesting out there to talk to. After million of years of being in control of Cogito, and 21years of overseeing the ñhatchingî and education of their flesh and blood offspring, the Talking Heads are only six days away from the ultimate prize of all their wandering: contact with an intelligent civilization. But six days away from that ultimate goal, the Talking Heads are rendered helpless by a bolt of mysterious universal energy that no even they can explain. The Talking Head shave lost control, and can only watch helplessly as The Citizens struggle to come to a decision on what to do with their new fate: Return to Earth, continue the mission, or destroy the ship.

Caught in the middle of all this computerized emotion and flesh and blood earth sickness, Dion Waldstein finds himself with the universe all of a sudden heaped on his shoulders. Dion is like all the Citizens,21-years-old, full of piss and vinegar, and the usual doubt and reservations about life, but multiplied to infinity by the circumstances of his birth and enclosed existence. ñThe Eggî as The Citizens call the spaceship Cogito, is all he has ever known. He was ñhatchedî and raised within the egg, with space rolling by outside the giant picture windows.

Dion is the flesh and blood son of Dr. Waldstein and because of his birth, and because he has been blessed with the most valued of talents among The Citizens, the other 149 21-year-olds look to Dion for leadership and guidance. The Citizens have had Earth culture crammed down into their heads for most of their 21 years: history, books, movies, science. But most importantly, music. Within the isolation and solitude of the egg, The Citizens speak a slang that draws from all of earthÍs languages, similar to the Russian-inspired slang of Alex and the Droogs in A Clockwork Orange. The Citizens of The Eggare fascinated by earth. They know earth history and culture better than most21-year-olds on earth ever did. They know every good movie, and every good line from every movie. They cheer when Dave dismantles the HAL 9000 computer in2001: A Space Odyssey, the most popular movie on board The Egg.

In Lawrence of Arabia, King Faisal explains to Mr. Bentley that ñin my country, the man who brings victory in battle is valued above all other men.î Aboard The Egg, the man or woman who is blessed with musical talent is prized above all other men or women. Music is the language and currency of The Egg, and it is how The Citizens express themselves at their most sincere, happy or depressed. On board The Eggg, Dion Waldstein is the man who is most blessed with musical talent, and so he is looked to for guidance by the other Citizens.

And so the conflict between the Talking Heads and The Citizens falls on DionÍs shoulders. He is 21-years-old, intelligent and wise, but he finds himself tested to his limit to decide what he and his Citizens should do with their mysteriously won freedom. The Egg and the Talking Heads and Life is under their control. What should they do with itî Return to Earth. Continue the Mission. Or, as some of the darker elements of The Citiznery suggest, destroy The Egg before humanity can do to the universe what it did to Earth.

 



TRAVELS WITH IKE
August 5, 2001
August 4, 2001
August 2, 2001
August 1a, 2001
August 1, 2001
July 31, 2001
July 30, 2001
July 29, 2001
July 28, 2001
July 27, 2001
July 24-27, 2001
July 22, 2001
July 18-20, 2001
July 18, 2001
July 17, 2001
July 16, 2001
July 15, 2001
July 13, 2001
July 12, 2001
July 10, 2001
July 9, 2001
July 8, 2001
July 5, 2001
July 4, 2001
July 3, 2001
July 2, 2001
July 1 a, 2001
July 1, 2001
June 30, 2001

June 28, 2001
June 25-26, 2001
June 24, 2001
June 23, 2001
June 22, 2001
June 21, 2001
June 20, 2001
June 19, 2001
June 18, 2001
June 17-18, 2001
June 16, 2001
June 15, 2001
June 14 , 2001

NORTH COAST
March 14, 2001
March 11, 2001

March 8, 2001
March 4, 2001
March 3, 2001
March 1, 2001
February 20, 2001
February 19, 2001
February 18, 2001
February 17, 2001
February 16, 2001


ALASKA 2000
November 19, 2000
November 18, 2000

November 15, 2000
November 14, 2000
November 14, 2000
November 12-13, 2000
November 11, 2000
November 9, 2000
November 8, 2000
November 4-6, 2000
November 3, 2000
November 1, 2000
October 31, 2000
October 29, 2000
October 27, 2000
October 26, 2000
October 25, 2000
October 22, 2000
October 22, 2000
October 21, 2000
October 19, 2000
October 17, 2000
October 16, 2000
October 16, 2000
October 14, 2000
October 12, 2000
October 11, 2000
October 10, 2000
October 10, 2000
October 9, 2000
October 8, 2000
October 7, 2000
October 6, 2000
October 6, 2000
October 5, 2000
October 4, 2000
October 3, 2000
October 2, 2000
October 1, 2000
September 30, 2000
September 29, 2000
September 28, 2000
September 27, 2000
September 25, 2000
September 24, 2000
September 23, 2000
September 22, 2000
September 21, 2000
September 21, 2000
September 20, 2000
September 19, 2000
September 19, 2000
September 18, 2000
September 17, 2000
September 16, 2000
September 15, 2000
September 15, 2000
September 14, 2000
September 13, 2000
September 12, 2000
September 10, 2000
September 10, 2000
September 8, 2000

September 8, 2000

PHOTOS
October 1, 2000
October 1, 2000
September 27, 2000

 

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