Posted 7:56 AM by Steve
Okay, I've been reading it wrong, then. My bad, sorry. So the device makes the nanites, and has the potential to make any sort of nanites, although we haven't specified that plotwise yet, no? Seeing as I follow you, Matt, I guess it's okay to speak to you then.

As for all the other stuff, thanks, I was worried people might think I was being a little presumptious.

Posted 2:30 PM by Steve
And the Grauniad's

Posted 2:20 PM by Steve
The good old beeb's brief summary of ETA.

Posted 10:34 AM by Steve
Basque and Berlin.

Solidarios Protest Against Itoitz Dam in Berlin

Mila Parot Zubimendi. Navarre, January 25, 2000

Three Basque activists climbed the Fernsehturm (television tower) of Berlin, yesterday to protest construction of the Itoiz reservoir in the Irati valley in Spain's Basque province of Navarre.

Germany: Autonomist International Groups - Basque Solidarity Action In Berlin

During the night of December 12/13, 1997, the Autonomist Internationalist Groups placed an incendiary device under a new SEAT car at the SEAT Autocenter car dealership in Berlin. SEAT, a subsidiary of Volkswagen, is the largest automobile manufacturing company in Spain.

For more on above, see this call to arms...

Yeah, I've definitely got an idea of what the Basques might be up to.

Couple of questions. In part 2, Claire has the Interpreter, but it's charge has gone. In Part 3, Matt introduces another device that has been swapped for a gameboy. These are two different devices, yeah? And it hasn't been established, plotwise, what the second one is?

Also, is marijuana different to hash in the US?

Posted 5:56 AM by Steve
Yeah, I'm itching to see what Chris and Matt come up with so I see what I have to play with.

Hope no-one minds these huge brainstorming posts of mine?

Posted 5:53 AM by Steve
Jubal Harshaw? From the Heinlein ref I'm guessing Stranger? Blimey, that's ten years back for me. Other than that, yeah, I go along with what Matt has said. To me there's an emotional detachment to Jon, a sort of, um, I tried to get at it with my automation of autonomy line, he recognises people are autonomous in their actions, but as Matt said, those actions can be rationalised, and at some point reduced and understood to the point that they can be predicted. In many ways, I tried to set Boris up as a counter to that, in that Boris has the same beliefs, but Jon is all tech, whilst from Matt's brief, Boris is all physical, if you get me.

I think this ties back to the kind of cubist facet thing I was trying to feel my way too, in that, as Matt put it, everyone has an agenda, and they're all oblivious to other agendas and how their imposition of said agenda can impact on others. As the authors, we're sort of pulling each piece/character along the lines of their agenda/brief/character sketch, and showing all the agendas. Does that make sense? That's where I'm seeing it. Never saw the Invisibles comparison though, but good catch Matt. Now I have another reason why that arc failed so badly.

What's the form on, as writer in hot seat, asking for guidance on issues? Like, if I need clarification on something in another authors piece, do I email or ask here or is it bad form? Is that getting to collaborative? I mean, obviously, as writer in chair, I can do what I want (keeping to the rules), but is it okay to seek input on what's going on in certain pieces to see if I can pick up on stuff there?

Another thing I was musing on in the bath the other day. There's the potential for playing against the backdrop of History here? I mean, we have some pretty classic image laden locations on our hands, no, in terms of Europe, at least. Paris, Berlin, Prague. If Boris does get to be Russian, that's another one, there's Bilbao, I think I'll have to google the Basques to get a real sense, but anyway, Paris-Berlin-Russia has Napoleonic, WWI and WWII resonance. There's a, um, forget the name of it, but one of those triumphant arch viewpoint things, (a column, Victory Column, you get good views of West Germany from the top), in Berlin, in the Tiergarten, put up for german successes, which has one of those history of plaques inside, at some point in the history it mentions the French Flag as bringing "the plague, famine and death." I guess that's a ref to Napoleon. The whole of the Tiergarten, if I remember, is pretty much very wooded, akin perhaps to parts of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. During the war, all the trees were chopped for the war effort.

Obviously, Berlin is a city of dualities, East and West, Marxism and consumerism, it's worth bearing in mind that up until reunification West Germany was the economic powerhouse of Europe, and after reunification it is the sick man of Europe. Berlin, you also have, well, I think it was Woodrow Wilson who would not brook a settlement after WWI that included Germany keeping it's, ack, King, I forget the German word for it. (Not that I am accusing the US here, it seems the British monarchy did for the Russian Tsar's by refusing them refuge in the UK on the grounds it might inspire a workers revolt here. That decision pretty much did for the Tsar.) But Berlin, you also have the artistic flourishing between the wars that Jason Lutes is working on in his Berlin book, my Rough Guide travel book describes it as..."like no other city in the world. For over a century, its political climate has mirrored or determined what has happened in the rest of Europe." They're strong words aimed at a tourist market, but it's got some truth. They reckon the bombing razed 92% of the city. The split of Berlin by the allies and the Russians, the Russians got the Imperialistic part and the allies the bars, hotels and shops. The last part of the blurb..."Berlin is still a city of two seperate parts, with Eastern Berlin containing constant reminders of a discarded social experiment - one whose traces the new authorities are trying to erase from memory."

From my travels there, Berlin is very dualistic, you have all this triumphant stuff, like the Brandenburg Gate, hangovers from it’s Imperialistic Prussian days, I’d figure, and then you have the modern edge. But then Berlin is very modern. The train terminals have computer terminal type things that tell you every train in Europe, so you can plan your way around. Very practical, very slick, very urban and very German. It has the huge avenues, the large park, a zoo, and then next to the zoo, McDonalds.

Okay, that was back in '96, (so last century), but...that last part is just a little Orwellian, no, and all I know about Spain is the Spanish Civil War, Orwell, Homage to Catalonia. Like I say, I'm going to have to research the Basques. And pretty quick. Going back to that failed social experiment line, that has great resonance with the technological experiment we have playing out there in the plot.

Basque country. Again, from my Lonely Planet, oh, no, it's a Rough Guide, sorry folks, (Man in black with shades into jacket cuff, "it's a Rough Guide To Europe, repeat, a Rough Guide".) Okay, it ‘butts against France, Euskadi, the Basque country, heavy industrialisation but remarkably unspoiled, neat and quiet inland, rugged and enclosed along the coast, with easy efficient transport everywhere.’ San Sebastiàn is given as the best of the Basque resorts, and has a Basque Government tourist office.

Berlin is a helluva long way from Basque country. Also curious as to Claire’s route around Europe, as we have her in Prague afore Amsterdam. Maybe from Prague to Vienna to an Italian city up to Amsterdam, possibly Brussels, more likely Bern and Luxembourg before Amsterdam?

Spain appears, to my eyes, yet another of those sort of mix and match countries, with strong voices vying for seperation, like Former Yugoslavia, and even Italy. So yeah, there’s a kinship somewhere with the Croats and the Basques.

Prague. I know Prague got the stuffing knocked out of it during the war, the central historic square they rebuilt to look exactly the same. From my tour notes it seems like a lot of foreign money is notable, big Fiat and Esso plants. A lot of cigarette advertising. A nice Cathedral.

I’m not sure how Prague fits into European history that well, aside from the Velvet Revolution, was it? I remember an anecdote from a participant, a punk, I think, and he was in an uprising of punks who travelled somewhere to start a revolt and then realised they didn’t have any money to buy weapons with, so the revolt never happened.

Oh, going back to that history riff, you have an American trying to create something akin to glossolalia, and the US is a European melting pot in some form, being based on European ideals of the 17 and 18 hundreds, no?

Russia. Hmm.

Posted 2:30 AM by Steve
Matt, I know what you mean with Jon and I'm with you. I get the feeling he's a little darker too. Tyler, I thought the dialogue in your part was spot on, to be honest. Local colour...well, it's been about eight years since I've been to Berlin, so I'm a little lacking. Paris I'm a lot stronger on, I have an abiding Francophone streak. Spain I haven't been to as an adult. Prague I went to at the same time as Berlin, although it stayed with me a lot better. I'll try and dig my jounal of the trip out and see what I made of it. Berlin is very clean and tidy, off top of my head. They have an 'honour' system on the tubes, sorry, subway?, you have to punch stamp your ticket on the platform and it allows you to travel for so long. Inspectors will fine you if your ticket isn't stamped when they inspect it, although that's random. they will NOT let tourists off. There's a McDonalds up by the zoo, you have Checkpoint Charlie, which is now an interesting little museum, banks are less inclined to change currency, they prefer travellers cheques which any bank will cash, you need special banks for currency swaps.

Like the idea of the box as a source of nanites. Super soldiers ala X-Files are a possible military application? Ashamed I forgot the word nanites.

With Boris, that's my bad, sorry. I didn't get Basque from him, really. I kind of like the idea of him as a wild card, though. What nationality is Kirsten? Have we set that yet? Matt, I take it you have spanish ideas, given your piece takes place partly in Spain, if I recall correctly?

Can't wait to see what Matt has up his sleeve. I'm all pegged out at the moment...must rise to the challenge.

Got this from BBC email today, has possible but very tangential relation to the story...

* Evidence of earliest human burial *
Researchers claim to have found the earliest deliberate human burial - and therefore the first evidence of symbolic thought - at a 350,000-year-old site in northern Spain.
Full story:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/1/hi/sci/tech/2885663.stm

Posted 12:02 PM by Steve
Yeah, the gameboy was my bad. I got it into my head that a gameboy was a playstation, and by the time I realised, I'd fallen in love with my little reference to take it out again, but yeah, that bit can definitely be pulled if a gameboy isn't big enough, which I don't think it is. Maybe amend the note to put the meeting place on that.

Only other thing is, Claire still has a box she assumes is a translator that isn't charging up, yeah? Or have I got that wrong?

That list of Basque names is a beaut. Yeah, insertion of detail re locations and so on sounds good. Have we got enough material here to flesh out way beyond just a short piece? I mean, if we want to go beyond 2 story rounds, could we knock this into a collective novella?

Like the idea re the basque and the bomb. Maybe that could have happened in Spain, and they've tailed her since? Yeah, that'd work with Boris being tied into the basque somehow, he gets on her trail in Prague after being hired by the basque?

Throwing it out there, but is it possible to double motivate Boris?

Posted 2:30 AM by Steve
Amy, see, I always seem to have a problem writing as detatched author, if you get my drift. I just can't seem to find the voice for it, I always have to internalise. I don't know where the narrator is supposed to sit when describing things if not in the middle. I think I'll have to work on it for my next piece, and see how it comes off. I should surely be using these story rounds as an opportunity to expand my range, as it were.

The retrofitting, yeah, I kind of like it, I mean, if we're editing to streamline continuity anyway, then I don't see why we don't have one of those moots and fill in where we figure it needs filling in.

Okay, I know it's not my turn, but are we all going with the

Tyler, re Boris...I'm not sure at all who he works for, but had considered him seperate to the basques, to be honest. But it's entirely possible. He does seem pretty open ended.

Posted 11:22 PM by Chris Eckert
Hey... sorry that I punked out and have been incommunicado for the past couple weeks. I wish I could say I had exciting reasons, but I definitely don't, just a series of relatively uninteresting things combined with a sick fascination for watching Fox News, all of which results in little e-mail checking / computer time in the recent past. It looks like we're already around to me again. I promise not to vanish this time.

Posted 4:01 AM by Steve
I like the idea of inserting stuff in when we edit for...continuity. Is it worth taking the produce from the story rounds as a skeleton and then fleshing back out to incorporate all the back story?

Ack, and I just reread my comment below about the handwave of getting Tom out. Sorry Amy, that's really bad phrasing on my part. I meant the way you just turned it on it's head, like. I guess, yeah, it's just seeing another hand writing something and I wouldn't have seen it, you know. I didn't mean you didn't describe it well, or that it wasn't descriptive, I just meant I get too bogged down in the here and now, I don't seem to see the way through to doing a recap type, I'm struggling for the words here, but sorry, I didn't mean to come across as being insulting, which is what I feel I did. I actually felt your bit was amazing.

Posted 2:23 AM by Steve
Okay, how would a jammed story seperate endings work? We'd get together and jam a story, so we're all clear on details, and then write an ending that included said details from different perspectives?

As to current story, I like the way Tom got out, I'll have to remember that, I get too bogged down in trying to describe everything, and forget you can just handwave in fiction. For me, I'm personally happy on this story to get as much sense of where people are going with their bits, and incorporate that into what I see going on.

Here's a link that might fit into the story somewhere, UK researchers are looking at making computers sensitive to a users mood.

Oh, I tidied up all the mess I made with multiple posts. Sorry about that.