This could be a writing challange but a thought experiment is good enough.
We all create interesting characters to move through strange worlds. We pile onto them situations and events and expect them to not only to survive them, but to exceed in those situations.
If you look carefully at your characters or those created by other authors, even the most unexceptional character will end up doing extraordinary things.
If you look at the situations our most mundain character survives, you would see that we would not likely do well in those exact same situations.
so the question of this note is,
If you were placed into one of the worlds you created, would you survive? Keep in mind that you have to have your exact physical conditioning and your exact ailments. You have the real abilities and skills you possess, and your training and professional abilities remain. Would you even survive?
Please explain why, or why not and how.
I will give my answer a bit later.
Posted by RMatthewWare (Member # 4831) on :
I would survive. But I would survive by staying home.
Matt
Posted by dee_boncci (Member # 2733) on :
It depends on the nature of the struggle. I am probably more equipped to handle some situations that others. I'd fare worse probably in a situation full of combat with skilled foes, but who knows. One one side my ancestors survived over a millennia of brutal conquest and invasion from the likes of the vikings and the Brits, and on the other side succesions of empires that waxed and waned around the Mediterranean. Who knows what I might have turned out like if born into some sort of crucible.
Posted by wetwilly (Member # 1818) on :
Well, in my novel I'm currently working, I would most definitely NOT survive. Physically, I could handle it (not because I'm in particularly good shape--I sit in front of a computer screen literally all day long--but because the world of my novel is no more physically demanding than the real world). Psychologically, though, I would fold. I would not be able to handle all the horrible things my characters go through, no way, no how.
Posted by RMatthewWare (Member # 4831) on :
Wouldn't it be terrible if all the worlds we make up actually are created somewhere? Each time we put pen to paper, or hit the keys on our keyboard, a little alternate universe is created and we are the gods that maneuver their lives. We cause strife and sow destruction for our reading pleasure. We create in our characters miniature versions of ourselves, only we exaggerate them and their circumstances to give their lives terrible pain and misfortune. Parents die, loved ones are lost, unrequited love reigns supreme. And all because we want to make a little extra cash, or earn some recognition, or, as some say it, because we can't not write.
Matt
Posted by rstegman (Member # 3233) on :
I would not likely survive any world I created.
I cannot walk more than a couple miles. I cannot lift at all. I wear glasses. I invent much of the knowledge my characters are supposed to really know so I don't know any of it. I have no fighting ability and would miss the broadside of a barn with any firing weapon.
I know something about painting, carving, wood turning, but could not build my own tools, especially from scratch. I do know how to do technical drafting and can write, but then one must ask whether the language I know tranalates to the new worlds. In the primative worlds I write about, I am fat, so I might be looked on as wealthy. In the technical worlds I write about, I would be useless as none of my working knowledge is applicable for the advanced technology - consider an 18th century intellectual brought into a computer based office and told to get to work.
I am just not perfect enough to survive any world I created.
Posted by J (Member # 2197) on :
I'd definitely survive in any world I created--as one of the many background characters, living peaceful, normal lives engaged in common vocations.
Posted by SharonID (Member # 5059) on :
What an interesting question and great thread!
I've got three worlds to consider at present. My front-burner novel (still untitled, many possibilities) takes place about a thousand years in the future, a 'lost colony' situation... 100 years of human settlement, basically agrarian with an 'alternative' technology base (their covenent and charter specify no petroleum or atomic development), 30 years since contact was lost. Arcadia's weather is a little more extreme than earth, but nothing humans can't adapt to with a little plant breeding, building design, proper clothing, etc. I'm from pretty sturdy pioneer stock on my dad's side of the family, keep myself reasonably fit, and would prosper on Arcadia. My land-based skill level is very high, my people-organizational and group communication skills would be very valuable, and my openness to alternative forms of social and family structure would fit right in. I would likely hold a place of honor and responsibility on one of the well-established cofarms. In many ways, Arcadia is the planet and society I'd like to live on/in... it's kind of a 'trouble in paradise' story.
Feldrea the Bounty Hunter's world (hopefully a series of stand-alone short stories—a snippet of her first story will go up on short story F&F soon) would be more of a challenge. It's a much more wild and wooly culture, on a rugged frontier planet colonized by a number of alien races. Humans (oomans? uumans?) are relative newcomers to this planet. I'd probably manage to carve out a niche for myself though. My food growing and cooking skills would be my ace in that world. Even aliens have to eat! I'd probably end up as something equivalent to a ranch cook or running or working in a small-town cafe, but yes, I'd survive. There's more individual crime on this planet than Arcadia... rape, robbery, etc... but while I've developed skills and strategies for staying out of that kind of trouble, I can also fight if needed. I'd definitely have to brush up on my shooting skills to live there and learn to carry arms, especially if I wanted to travel, but I have some experience to lean on, just no need to spend too much time keeping those skills up right now. (Heh heh... at present, I could probably hit any attacker who was kind enough to not be too far away but who would be considerate enough to give me time to get prone to shoot. <grin> ) I have fought when I've had to though (ask the last guy who tried to rape me way back when... he probably still carries a scar from my teeth where I tried to bite his thumb off, and no he was not successful). I'd survive on Feldrea's world or go down fighting, but likely I'd stay in a kitchen and garden, keep out of trouble, and survive.
The third 'world' would be the toughest. My back-burner novel, Nobody's Victim, is contemporary, set in an American west coast city that currently doesn't have a name but combines qualities of San Francisco and Seattle. The challenge is that my 18 year old protagonist is homeless for the first couple months of the story. With my high-level sensitivity to urban pollution (I'm the opposite of those city people who have trouble in the country due to hay fever... I like visiting cities but am usually starting to be pretty sick by the third day... much sooner if it's Chicago), I'm not sure how long I'd make it in a city even with a home! Leaving that consideration aside however, I'm still not sure how long I could survive inner-city homelessness these days. I did it when I was nineteen and went through a period of homelessness, but it was pretty rough even then (Lacey is very different from me, as is her situation... it is not one of those auto-biographical novels even if it does draw on my real-life experience at times). At my age, I'm not sure I could face it. I'm a strong survivor in general, when it comes to capabilities, but I could imagine losing the will to go on in some circumstances.
Thanks for starting such an interesting discussion.
Regards,
SharonID
Edited for a P.S. that might be a turn-off to serious vegetarians.... I forgot one of my strong skills that would be useful on Arcadia and of potentially extremely valuable on Feldrea's planet. Give me a skinned carcass of something edible/wholesome/ethical-to-me and a sharp little boning knife and I'll take it apart and turn it into food. Give me a reasonably equipped kitchen (even by 'old fashioned' standards) and a bone saw and I'll do an even better job—I'm not the fastest but I turn out a wonderful product and wring every bit of nutrition I can out in the process, right down to making the stock in a way that maximizes cooking calcium out of the bones and important nutriments out of the connective tissue in the final boil-down. I'm really good at turning game (or domesticated, for that matter) animals into very nutritious and attractive food. I even would know how to do it without electricity if I had to, though fire would be nice. I never had to do the skinning and gutting part, but I've watched master hands and could muddle my way through it if I had to. I am psychologically capable of doing the killing part (and I have done chicken and fish) but probably not quite in shape to hunt in my current condition, but I could certainly make myself very useful to someone who was.
[This message has been edited by SharonID (edited March 02, 2007).]
Posted by Rommel Fenrir Wolf II (Member # 4199) on :
If I was stuck in a world I created for a story of mine. One of two things might happen. ONE: I would go psychopathic and start killing anything that got in my way no matter who or what it was. Or TWO: I would lose my mind and end up in a unmarked grave some where never to be heard from again. Why because I would not like the idea of ending up somewhere that dose not exist outside of imagination. I would cease to be who I am and become who I created. That is not what I want. Rommel Fenrir Wolf II
Posted by Tara (Member # 4638) on :
What a very intelligent thread idea.
In I were my main character, I would hope that I would respond exactly as she does to what happens, because the very purpose of my story is to explain in a detailed way how humans react in that situation. I can't pretend that I have it exactly right, but I'm constantly trying to make it as realistic as possible, and that makes all the difference.
This thread brings up the idea of what turned me off of most fantasy books, as well as most action movies. So many of these things present characters in extremely hard situations, and then miraculously the characters are able to draw on some great reserve of super human strength and save the day. It just never seemed real to me. Granted, in life and death situations, humans ARE capable of doing amazing things they'd never be able to do in a normal situation, but if that's happening in your action movie, then show me it happening! Show me exactly where inside that person the strength came from! Cause that's what makes the people real.
Posted by Grandma_Jan (Member # 4788) on :
I loaned a friend S.M. Stirling's "Dies the Fire", and heard a similar complaint. She asked how it is that all these characters manage to be the survivors, how all these fairly ordinary people do such things. My answer was simply this - If they couldn't do what's needed, they wouldn't survive. And if they didn't survive, who would be writing a book about them????
I'd hope that I could survive in the worlds I create. I'd guess that most of us give birth to main characters who embody the traits we most respect, and that these are also precisely the traits we like to believe we have. For our characters to do well, we must create worlds that showcase their strengths.
I often toss in a character with none of the good traits, too, one who'd do alright in the "real" world, but who has none of the strengths that are required in a world without the technologies and social structures that shield the incompetent from consequences. Those characters make for a nice contrast. Sometimes they look a lot like the nasty, oh-so-cool kids from high school, too. (I'm sure that's purely accidental! )
Posted by InarticulateBabbler (Member # 4849) on :
I assume that you meant to ask was: "Would you survive if you were your protagonist," given the set guidelines?
The answer is an emphatic no.
Maybe that's part of the reason why I write. In my mind, I can do anything I want to.
Posted by rstegman (Member # 3233) on :
quote:InarticulateBabbler Member posted March 03, 2007 01:24 PM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I assume that you meant to ask was: "Would you survive if you were your protagonist," given the set guidelines? The answer is an emphatic no.
Maybe that's part of the reason why I write. In my mind, I can do anything I want to.
Actually, I am just talking about your just being in the world. You find yourself, as you are right now, standing at the side of a road/hallway/path and have to find a way to survive. Do you have marketable skills to make a living in that world? Do you know how to find food? can you use any of the technologies they have if you are in an advanced world? how much are you really using wishful thinking?
I can work wood, I know design. There is so much I don't know about running a woodworking shop professionally, there is so much I have never done, or cannot do, that I could never be a master woodworker. I doubt I could even be really useful.
I know theory. For a primative or contemporary story, I can tell you in fairly good detail about how to do things, at least as needed for a story. There is no way I actually do any of it. In theory, I know how to start a fire with what is found in the wild. I have never done it. My luck at starting a fire with all the modern convieniences in a wood stove was never good. Temperature control on a fire is beyond me. I use an electric stove and microwave for all my cooking. I have not been on a horse since I was a child, and that was about all I was, on a horse. To actually ride, if I got the chance since only the wealthier people owned them early on, would be all new to me. My physical condition prevents me walking long distances, the other mode of transportation, or working hard for more than a few minutes. Break or lose my glasses and I am close to being blind. In essance, if you have not done the things necessary for survival in that period, there is a good chance you will have problems for survival.
When it comes to future story, I am winging it almost as bad, possiblly worse. Again, I have few marketable skills. my profession is a draftsman on a computer. I could learn their programs of course, but likely they would have computers doing that for them. Basically, I would have to go to vocational school to learn a trade. I would likely need remedial training to use their basic home appliances, let alone anything used in business. Unless you have a skill that will be useful no matter what technologies come along, you might have some difficulty surviving in your advanced world.
Look back at your response and think carefully about how much wishful thinking there is in your note.
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
I once tried something like that in my Internet Fan Fiction period (I only got as far as a single scene)---though, in any case, the world is essentially our mundane one and surviving it would not warrant any special effort beyond what I do now.
I doubt I would survive if I were placed in some of my created universes. My characters seem to have just a little more than I have going---besides fighting skills, they often seem to get along better with others than I do. And that's an A-One Survival Skill in itself.
Posted by discipuli (Member # 3395) on :
Yes , i think , but not unscathed... I'v hiked 10 miles through mountain and bush already but my feet were mutilated after... So i'd imagine your stock adventure with swords or lasers , and some luck , i could make it through , especially if motivated by an attractive heroine or treasure.... But i'd never overdo the trauma my characters have to go through anyway, i find unrealistic characters disgusting .
Posted by AstroStewart (Member # 2597) on :
The way I automatically interpret the question stacks the odds pretty far against us all. If I were transported, alone, without any of my "equivalent wealth" into my fantasy world, I don't know if I would survive.
But then again, if I were transported with only the clothes on my back, no family/friends/associates/profession into THIS world, I might not survive either. I've lived a middle-class existence, mostly in the world of academia, and know little of how to survive on the streets with nothing, whether in this reality, or a fantasy world.
If I were transported into a roughly "equivalent" position in my fantasy world, would I survive? Well now, that's a different question entirely.
Posted by Amciel (Member # 5142) on :
On my own and in the middle of the action? I'd be toast. If certain other characters helped, I'd be fine, as long as they didn't know who I was. Several in particular would more than likely kill me on sight, promised happy ending or not. -McL
Posted by OMAGAOFTHEALPHA (Member # 5163) on :
I would end my life. unless i knew it was a bad ACID trip or somthing simmiler
Posted by Antinomy (Member # 5136) on :
A civil war battle I wrote comes to mind. In it, the meek used their heads and survived while the boastful crumbled in fear. Thrown into the same scenario, I believe I could survive by following the lead set by my characters.
Posted by InarticulateBabbler (Member # 4849) on :
quote: Actually, I am just talking about your just being in the world. You find yourself, as you are right now, standing at the side of a road/hallway/path and have to find a way to survive. Do you have marketable skills to make a living in that world? Do you know how to find food? can you use any of the technologies they have if you are in an advanced world? how much are you really using wishful thinking?
In a world of my creation? Yes. All the worlds I have created are:
Inhabitable.
Have a plethora of animals, vegetation, and markets. And I know a bit about hunting, skinning, cutting, and cooking animals--my father-in-law is a butcher--and which plants look edible. I don't know every plant, but I would know many safe ones. I know a few ways to start a fire, make a shelter, and find water.
Employ artists. (If they employ)
Though some of my worlds don't have roads, yet, I would recognize the terrain and know in which direction to travel, or be able to call on public transportation. I wouldn't necessarily be able to run most of the way (though I could run down the block).
[This message has been edited by InarticulateBabbler (edited March 10, 2007).]
Posted by arriki (Member # 3079) on :
A lot of my writing is in an alien milieu and, as a human, I would probably survive but I would NOT be happy.
What I wonder about is not whether I'd survive, but would the characters I've created have anything to do with me? I'm afraid the answer is, no. I doubt any of them would give me the time of day if I asked. I guess I write fantasy that way. About people I'd like to be.
[This message has been edited by arriki (edited March 10, 2007).]
[This message has been edited by arriki (edited March 10, 2007).]
Posted by Pyre Dynasty (Member # 1947) on :
Yes, becuase I always add for myself some cuishy protected place where I can escape the danger.
Posted by I am destiny on :
I have severe asthma and wouldnt survive the rigors my MC encounters. (Probably why he is written the way he is.) If you gave me his sweet weapons; His Ruger Mark III bull barrel .22, or my own .357, and lined up the bad guys...Yeah I'd survive.
I have shot targets out from under my DH and he is a sharp shooter USMC. ooh rah!
Destiny who needs to go target shooting....
[This message has been edited by I am destiny (edited March 12, 2007).]
I'd probably end up as something equivalent to a ranch cook or running or working in a small-town cafe, but yes, I'd survive. There's more individual crime on this planet than Arcadia... rape, robbery, etc... but while I've developed skills and strategies for staying out of that kind of trouble, I can also fight if needed. I'd definitely have to brush up on my shooting skills to live there and learn to carry arms, especially if I wanted to travel, but I have some experience to lean on, just no need to spend too much time keeping those skills up right now. (Heh heh... at present, I could probably hit any attacker who was kind enough to not be too far away but who would be considerate enough to give me time to get prone to shoot. <grin> ) I have fought when I've had to though (ask the last guy who tried to rape me way back when... he probably still carries a scar from my teeth where I tried to bite his thumb off, and no he was not successful). I'd survive on Feldrea's world or go down fighting, but likely I'd stay in a kitchen and garden, keep out of trouble, and survive.
)
