Friday, May 31, 2019

We are all made of star dust...



In response to a twitter question, ''reincarnation, heaven or hell or decay' I responded :

"My atoms will eventually return to the stars from whence I came.
Later I'm going to be reformed as a character from one of my #SciFi books.
Not sure which one.
Depends on the Universe's sense of humor.... so I'm guessing the snarky Chameleon from my 'Arlo and Jake' series."

The first sentence I attribute with respect to Carl Sagan, who said something like 'We are all made of star stuff.' If I had time I'd search the Knowledge Web to see who said it before he did. There is always someone to said it before me...

My twitter comment is meant to be both a thought provoking answer to the question and a bit of humor to add a little spice to the question. I would make a great Arlo, btw, though I identify with Jake, his human partner. ;-) I snark constantly. Not that fond of Cajun gnats though.

One of the great things about being a 'full time' writer now is that I have time to explore even the silliest of ideas that pops up in my imagination.

So. What do you think? Is this a viable idea for a SciFi book? 

I think it would also have to explore whether or not consciousness lies in the atoms of your body or some other mechanism whereby you could realize that you're a snarky lizard now but used to be a Tibetan monk say. And that scenario assumes we are limited to reassembling on Earth... 

It's not much of story unless that consciousness is maintained, I think. If you don't know who you used to be, what conflicts or questions could be raised to explore?

What if I'm Arlo now but I was a Snarrk'ian warrior from Alpha Snarkazon a few bazillion years ago where my star dust traveled the expanse after a comet kicked my vaporize body into space.

Maybe a short story? Is it even interesting, or would the reader instantly say, "Say what? There are a hundred scientific reasons that could not happen." Not that that stops lots of stories. ;-)

Something to let my Muse chew on for a while.

Would love your comments, pro or con.