One of the main sticking points in writing ‘Panoptica’ is trying to think like a drone who is content in his utterly oppressed world. I don’t mean he tolerates it, he actually sees it as the ideal way to live. Under total control.
I had also envisaged it as genderless (there are mechanics involved that have not come true yet although there are signs it is on the way) but there are no males or females. I have it set up like ant or bee society: the ones at the top do all the breeding (again, there are mechanics to this that would be spoilers) but the general plebs are neutered drones. Why keep them alive at all? Oh the answer to that is very nasty indeed. As you would expect 😉
The thing about fiction is it has to make sense. Real life doesn’t have to and rarely does, but fiction has to make sense. I had to find a way to arrive at all the restrictions on life I had placed on ‘Panoptica’ – and how do you get to the point where people accept being neutered drones? The history of this future horror had to be logical.
While writing this I have set out a few ‘on the way’ scenarios, here and here. The former story is now in ‘The Good, the Bad and Santa‘, the fourth Underdog Anthology. The latter is just a draft on the blog so far.
Panoptica’s main character is called 10538 because the idea was first inspired by the Electric Light Orchestra’s ‘10538 Overture‘. A long, long time ago. I had listened to that song for years and always thought ‘This is the overture. Where’s the rest of it?’ Eventually I decided to write the rest of it myself.
The genderless society idea now has a history. Thanks to the Militant Transency, or what an online acquaintance likes to call the Rainbow Reich, there are now more ‘genders’ than anyone can remember. You can also define yourself ‘otherkin’ and be a blue pansexual platypus if you like.There are even white people who identify as black now. You are white. Clean the damn mirror once in a while.
It’s insane and it’s perfect for the progression of history in this fictional story that’s rapidly coming true.
I had expected the first signs in California or maybe Scotland where the idiots in charge fall for any old crap and make it law. I missed something. A place where they delight in controlling and tormenting their population with idiotic legislation.
Australia. We used to send our convicts and loonies there so it’s probably historically our fault but even so…
Queensland, Australia, has decided that driver ID (the driving licence in the UK) will no longer carry discriminatory descriptions such as gender, height, hair and eye colour. The link is to a Quora answer which includes a screenshot of the report but not a direct link.
Well it’ll be cheaper to make the IDs because everyone will have the same card. Nobody will have a gender though. If you never learn to drive, no bother, borrow your wife’s licence. You might be 6 feet tall, your wife 5 feet, you might be ginger while she is blonde, doesn’t matter. The ID card fits you as well as it does her.
The important part is the loss of gender. As 81-Mohammed explains in the second story I linked to, people will delight in the removal of the 57 varieties of gender that blight reality now. They will welcome the genderless society.
Will they neuter their children? Oh please. They are lining up to have them transgendered already, even kids that have just learned to speak. It’s the ‘in thing’ now. Neutered until they are old enough to choose a gender? They will beat down the hospital doors to be the first. And those who aren’t keen to comply will be shamed with the new ‘transphobia’ nonsense.
Of course, once neutered they will never be able to reproduce, no matter what later surgery they have. They won’t have the parts any more. In one generation you have eradicated the family unit. Marx would be so proud.
Where it goes from there, well, I have it sketched out and planned it.
Just need to write it down. Preferably before it happens.
Will anyone have the balls to rebel against such a despicable regime? Oh, sorry, they won’t have any….
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I know, I know. It was such an easy target.
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Thought I’d give you an opportunity to glimpse into the logic and terms used by one of the intersexed community.
http://trans-bodies.tumblr.com/post/166811969638/questingqueer-not-medically-transitioning
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Oh, God! There is no hope and it looks like the term valid is really invalid. That’s word abuse!
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Why all the bullet points? Wouldn’t it have been simpler to say “anyone who wants is ‘valid’? Because he/she/it seems to have covered just about every possibility.
Ye Gods, what a lot of baloney…
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And some of the rules they’ve come up with.
http://trans-bodies.tumblr.com/post/166905843335/dont-be-an-asshole-on-halloween
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They forgot:
Do not dress like a heterosexual, middle-aged white male
It is racist, sexist, transist, Islamophobic, homophobic, sexually-predatory, misogynistic and toxic. To mention just a few.
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Your html doesn’t appear to be working, LI. I bracketed some of the above comment in ‘bold’ tags.
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I see it in bold. Maybe it doesn’t work in every browser.
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That’s odd. I still don’t see it in bold. Yet other WordPress sites work fine when I use html brackets. I’m using the Waterfox browser.
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As the old saw goes “be careful what you wish for as you just might get it”. So it’s all your fault, LI, this transgender/no gender madness sweeping the Western world? Tsk, tsk. As for gender fluid, well that’s pretty disgusting.
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Is that like brake fluid? That’s pretty disgusting when it gets on the car paintwork.
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I have wondered if I should change the ending. It’s heading for an ending that I really don’t want to come true!
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I’m off to take my Soma and lie down in a darkened room
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When will it all end? God help us. Meanwhile, where’s the gin…
:o)
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“… like a drone who is content in his utterly oppressed world.”
My experience suggests that such people will be rare. Instead there’ll be a divide between the ‘superior leaders’ and the ‘inferior oppressed’.
The ‘leaders’ will those who are stupid enough to believe themselves superior and part of the ruling elite. Considering themselves to be role models for the great unwashed they won’t just comply with the dictats, they’ll go way beyond them.
If told to: Cut down your meat consumption – they go full vegan; take more exercise – they take up marathon running; submit to the government – they publicly prostate themselves; don’t complain – they take a lifetime vow of silence.
All of which proves their superiority and ingratiates them (they believe) with the rulers. The further removed they are from the elite, the stupider they’d have to be.
The ‘oppressed’ would object to their oppression. Nobody would be content to merely comply.
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Only if they know they are oppressed. I won’t give a spoiler as to how I did it, but the plebs at the bottom think their roles are important even though they have makework jobs that just don’t matter a damn.
Yeah, I have ranks (as outlined in 23-David and 81-Mohammed) but they have progressed from that point. And yes, the official ones in the mid ranks are petty and authoritarian and filled with self-importance. Those are easy to write because we already have plenty of those.
And I have malcontents, of course. It wouldn’t be a story if everyone just diddled their way through meaningless lives in a dull, grey socialist utopia. The main character is not a malcontent but circumstances will put him among them 😉
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