'Tis nobler in the mind

Something about slings and arrows...

Past and to come, seems best; things present, worse.

This has easily been the most frustrating and draining month of my life. Without even dealing with the absolute shitnado that is American politics…

Wait. Record scratch. Speaking of politics, I want to be perfectly clear about who I am:

I consider myself an ally. Since I was little, I found myself weirded out and confused by the hatred around me. A lot of what I experience was aimed at me; I’m autistic and have long been “othered” by my peers. I didn’t understand it. I didn’t understand why I was apparently a “terrible person” for not having religion.

None of it made sense. And frankly I spent decades trying to figure that out. But I have always had the deep, unshakeable belief that all people are people. We should treat each other the same, or honestly better, than ourselves.

I have never understood the hypocrisy of most people, that claim beliefs that say everyone is equal or granting grace while never. actually. doing it. I’ve been upset and angry about that for a long time. So here are my ironclad unshakeable truths:

I believe women. Men are terrible. (There are terrible women too, of course, but historically? Men are terrible.)

I believe trans people are people. There are many genders, and no one but the individual in question has any authority on who they are.

I believe that we have a right to love and be loved by anyone, regardless of race, creed, gender, sex, and more. Gay, straight, aro, ace, bi, poly, all are beautiful.

I believe we can love and be loved by more than one person at a time. It’s incredibly sad to think that one’s love is limited and bound to one other.

I believe we need to visit, share, and learn about as many cultures as possible in our lifetimes. The only way to defeat bias and racism is to learn.

I believe pineapple belongs on pizza. (Not all pizza, but absolutely some pizza)

I believe that anyone who is anti-science or anti-vaccine is maliciously ignorant. We have all the information of the world at our beck and call. Not learning how to find sources and adjudicate the honesty of them is well past being a necessary tool. It’s a requirement.

I believe that one of the hardest things for people to do is admit when they are wrong. Mistakes are the best way we can learn and grow.

I believe I am not perfect.

I believe in the principle of trust, but verify. Give people the grace of believing them, but don’t ignore the facts.

I believe when people tell you who they are, you need to believe them. If a person uses a racial slur instantly when feeling threatened, for example, that is a window to their unchecked beliefs.

I believe unchecked and unregulated capitalism is a cancer on our society. The pursuit of profit over all else can only end in sorrow and death.

I believe in Universal Basic Income, Single Payer Healthcare, and a LOT of social programs. We need to help and uplift everyone around us. Having people be trillionaires while children eat dirt for dinner is a scathing indictment of our lack of morals.

I could keep going, but I think you get the gist. I could write about how terrible my month has been, but that feels like beating a dead horse right now.

With regards to writing, that’s taken a backseat to work right now. In the past three weeks, I have spent 32 hours at home. I’ve been on site in Nebraska working 9-10 hour days. And this will go through most of February too. Honestly I’m barely holding on. I’m drained.

So without further ado, Science Fiction Thoughts!

A Blaster by Any Other Name…

To be honest, I don't care what you call them. Are they an archetype? Trope? Cliche? At some point in sci-fi, some author, director, or even actor coined a neologism that became a standard for the genre.

I am of course talking about words like blaster, hyperdrive, android, cyborg, wrist comp, and other words that people like William Gibson, Neil Stephenson, George Lucas, Becky Chambers, and so many others have created. When these words were first created, they had to be defined. Granted, that's how all words work.

But the curious thing about these kind of words is that they defined a technology that didn't exist. Or in some cases didn't exist yet. Some of these words are so powerful that inventors and scientists plain fucking invented the technology described. We even take them for granted, like automatic doors. Those did not exist before Star Trek the TV series. On the show they literally had stagehands behind the walls pulling the doors open.

The human mind and imagination is a very powerful thing. But once an idea has been adopted into the zeitgeist that is our culture, it oftentimes is impossible to shake loose. I think blaster is one of the easiest ones to examine. There have been other forms of blaster, like laser gun, lazgun, and ray gun.

All these words describe the same general technological idea. A futuristic gun that uses light or plasma as a projectile. I would wager there is a smug Star Wars fan reading this somewhere who's thinking, "Ah yes, I remember this. I remember when it was first used." The truth is you don't. The word blaster has been used for a century.

Yes, a century at least. In April 1925 Nictzin Dyalhis used "Blastor" in a story called "When the Green Star Waned" in the magazine "Weird Tales". There could be earlier examples, but that's the one I know about. The point is, that word has been rattling around the minds of science fiction, readers and writers forever, almost.

In that time, it has absolutely become the go-to shorthand for such a weapon. The genesis of this post is a growing number of people who vociferously say that you should never use words like blaster. The argument there is that you're just copying the works of the Masters, essentially. Which is a broken argument that has been used about sculpture, painting, drawing, and probably cave paintings too.

The take-away from this post should be: You do not need to reinvent the wheel. At all. These kind of shorthand words that already exist in our knowledge and culture, are infinitely useful when it comes to describing something. You do not need to make a new word for every single item and technological wonder in your sci-fi novels.

Throwing out dozens of new words will just confuse the reader. And at the end of the day, if your heroine wields a weapon called a jattaa, and you spend a couple of paragraphs breaking down how it sends a bolt of coherent light towards the enemy and zaps them to death, I guarantee in the reader's mind after reading that description they will think, "oh, like a blaster."

Now there are absolutely places where it makes sense not to use the word blaster. A great example would be in Stargate, the stun guns wielded by the Jaffa. In that universe, the real name of the gun is the Zat'nik'atel, and almost instantly the Americans shorten it to the zatgun.

It's a great bit of world building, that introduces a complicated cultural name for the technology, and then reduces it to a form that is easy to digest. You'll notice zatgun is very similar to lazgun. In this case they're not reinventing the wheel, they just put snow chains on.

At the end of the day, these words serve us as writers, and they serve us as readers. They allow complicated technological concepts to be conveyed in an efficient and easy to understand way. I can absolutely understand writers who want to use a weird word and make their mark. And there's so much room in the genre for that as well, it's just important to weigh the uniqueness of the word with the clarity of conveyance.

There is nothing wrong with either approach, to be clear. It all comes down to what the writer wants to get across. Sometimes, you don't want to bog the reader down in paragraph after paragraph of descriptions of an already covered technology, like a hovercraft. It's about finding a balance between the two approaches.

Because using these words is not stealing from the Masters. It's paying homage to those who came before. It's keeping the memory of the words they created alive.

Goals Update:

I think this is the sweet sixteenth newsletter! I’m officially at the point where the numbers start to blur together. Please, share this with your friends, family, strangers on the street, and more!

Thank you so much for following and reading! Don’t forget to subscribe, like and comment. Let me know what you want to see more of from this newsletter! Engagement is crucial. I look forward to posting throughout the rest of 2025!

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