Here I will try to flesh out the Shock by looking at the possible interpretations I brainstormed for it earlier. I will also try to pay attention to the interpretations pertaining to the issues, and setting Minutiae. The idea is to pay attention to how they interplay or clash with each other, and the shock.
I also decided it was appropriate to use Fate Chart questions to tease out details, such as:
- Q: Does being 'God For A Day' involve some sort of supernatural power in this world? Odds: 50/50
- A: No.
So, from this answer, it seems that the only logical way in which this sort of law would make sense is if:
- The population voluntarily or involuntarily submits to such institution.
- None of the people being 'God' on a particular day overthrow the institution itself.
There could be no such institution otherwise, as the society would certainly succumb to chaos. So, from this train of thought, I continued to put questions to the Fate Chart as ideas came up. These were the Shock Minutiae born out of them, along with the original Mythic "suggestions" from earlier:
- Most of the population submits voluntarily, as a result of their indoctrination.
- Godhood itself is attained by the chosen person via a secret technology which stills the mind, and transforms thought.
- Society at large trusts whatever comes out of this state of mind as good.
- Once the chosen person's time is up, they are released, but are never the same. They have a self-compulsion to become ascetics, preachers, and evn prophets on their own.
- You are only eligible when you reach 50 years of age, and only up to 70 years of age. If you are chosen, you have to serve.
- A sort of Inquisition enforces all of this.
- (Refuse)(Opulence): This philosophy embraces self-denial. Whomever is chosen forfeits his existing wealth.
- (Recruit)(The Mundane): Those who are eligible are voted for by ordinary people. They can only serve once in their lives.
- (Extravagance)(Expectations): While basking in their Godhood, they find bliss beyond any expectations.
A number of the minutiae strongly suggest that there is a priestly/clerical caste which rules, even though all law comes from the God. I can picture a Theocratic society based on this Shock. Whether it's more "malevolent" or more "benevolent", remains to be seen, and perhaps will only come up in play.
However, it seems pretty clear that most people are true believers.
On my next post, I hope to begin fleshing out the Issues, based on what I've established so far.
Interestingly, this article describes something similar to what I was thinking about the technology in our shock:
ReplyDelete"Since at least the 1980s, scientists have theorized that NDEs occur as a kind of physiological self-defense mechanism. In order to guard against damage during trauma, the brain releases protective chemicals that also happen to trigger intense hallucinations. This theory gained traction after scientists realized that virtually all the features of an NDE—a sense of moving through a tunnel, and "out of body" feeling, spiritual awe, visual hallucinations, and intense memories—can be reproduced with a stiff dose of ketamine, a horse tranquilizer frequently used as a party drug. In 2000, a psychiatrist named Karl Jansen wrote a book, Ketamine: Dreams and Realities, in which he interviewed a number of recreational users. One of them, who called himself K.U., describes one of his drug trips this way: "I came out into a golden Light. I rose into the Light and found myself having an unspoken interchange with the Light, which I believed to be God." Dante said it better, but the vision is astonishingly the same."
The only difference is that I somehow was thinking that the tech in our shock could be something more profound.
Still, it could be more of a shock if society had built a religion around some mundane drug used for animals. It would be interesting to explore why people subjected to it remain holy men later.
I forgot to include a link to the article:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.newsweek.com/id/235462