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Alphane life (detail) , dome in distance
Su Ying
Senhora Daguia
Marta
Jorja
Book Cover for 'The Leftover Girl'
Nurse G
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Planet Surface (Detail)
The Dome (detail)
Pseudo-shrubs (detail)
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Pseudo-crustacean
Book Cover for 'A Children's Crusade'

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Category: Myth and folklore

Blog entry eighteen: Sleeping Beauty

Blog entry eighteen: Sleeping Beauty

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Chapter eighteen continues the narrative form experimentation of the previous two chapters; but Sleeping Beauty ups the stakes by taking place entirely in the imagination of the protagonist (NB to access the chapter, hover over the drop down menu ‘Read the book’ and scroll down!).
We are not immediately aware of this however, as the chapter opens with best friends Marta and Priya apparently on yet another routine mission Out! The action shifts by degrees from realism, until it’s clear we’re not in the ‘actual world’ of Alpha 5; but we’re not made aware of the true state of affairs until right at the end of part one (although the title is a giveaway!). So essentially a narrative mislead…
William Blake makes another appearance in the text of part one, and (although I say so myself), I think that the passage that leads up to the Blakean reference is the best piece of writing I had managed up to that point. But it’s not just an exercise in poetics, or lyricism for its own sake; the appearance of the ‘serpent’ advances the story, but to misquote Bryan Ferry, ‘…what’s real and make believe?”
Sleeping Beauty is divided into three sections; each following the same pattern, apparently beginning in the real world, before we dive into the fantastic…
Somewhere I remember describing the series as ‘realistic SF with fantastic elements’, which describes this section of the novel as well as anything. I think the description was in the blurb accompanying one of my unsuccessful attempts to interest a literary agent in the series! I’m aware that trying to market SF in today’s literary scene is (to a large extent) swimming against the tide, and you could see the inclusion of fantastic elements as a nod to the zeitgeist, but bear in mind my literary influences!
In section two, Marta (or at least her unconscious self) begins to realise the truth, and again I’m very proud of of the end of this section, although I acknowledge Philip K. Dick as an influence…
In section three we’re moving into the territory of intertextuality… But how are we to regard the information that is imparted during the episode set in the estate? What is the status of the Marta of the estate, and who exactly is her host?
Again, I’m extremely proud of the end of the chapter where I believe I achieve the lyricism I strive for… The narrative in Sleeping Beauty is deliberately cyclical (obeying the logic of dreams), but there is also a crucial revelation right at the the end of the chapter…
Taken together, the three chapters Around my heart in eighty hours, Disobedient Child, and Sleeping Beauty represent a high point in the trilogy (not that you should stop reading!), where I start to achieve some of the literary goals I set for myself when I started the project…
I hope that you are enjoying reading it…

Blog entry seventeen: Disobedient child

Blog entry seventeen: Disobedient child

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After the introspection of the previous chapter, the action resumes in chapter 17. We’re also back with privileged third person narrative as Marta embarks on her long-threatened escape from the suffocating embrace of the Mission…
Disobedient child is self explanatory as a title; although sixteen, Marta still is a child, and even though she’s faced many dangers, she has, in a very real sense, been protected and cosseted by her minders! But rebellion is part of growing up, learning self-reliance and gaining independence; so we have to see her disobedience in this context…
Marta finally confronts one of the fearsome pseudo-crustaceans face to face in this chapter, and her ambivalence about doing so finds an echo in the different terms used to describe the Alphanian in the text. The extreme action she takes, in defying her protectors and risking her life in this way is indicative, not only of her alienation, but also of her wilful nature. Miss Fernandes knows she is right, and is prepared to risk her personal safety to progress her research and prove a point!
The chapter is deliberately episodic, and the sub-headings are designed to emphasize this (as well as being another nice narrative variation!); Disobedient child takes the form of a quest, and indeed Marta refers to her progress as an ‘odyssey’ just before she links to the pseudo-plant at the chapter’s close.
Her final comment before she loses consciousness is testament to both her self-absorption, and her nascent victim complex… She’s not called Marta for nothing!
I also wanted to describe Alpha 5 more fully, and convey a sense of how beautiful the world is, and how much Miss Fernandes loves the place of her birth… A5 is essentially Eden (you’ll not be too surprised to hear!), but it is an eden with both a past, and an uncertain future! The characterization of the planet in this way is essentially canonical, and a tribute to my influences…
There’s also a mythic, almost folkloric aspect to Marta’s quest, illustrated by the language used to describe her alien encounter. Obviously I’m aiming for lyricism in the prose; as well as psychological depth, and that old SF staple, ‘a sense of wonder’! As these qualities are by nature subjective, I’ll leave it to others to decide if I achieve this.
Marta engages in an exercise in Cartesian doubt when she questions her own conclusions regarding the vaIidity of the exchange between her and the pseudo-crustacean; but she decides that true communication (in the sense of a meeting of minds and an exchange of ideas) has taken place between a human being, and a member of another intelligent (and truly alien) species…
Incidentally the comment about true communication only being possible between equals was made by Friedrich Nietzsche!
Re-reading the chapter it’s clear that I owe a small debt to Quatermass and the Pit, and a slightly larger one to the short story The Sound by AE van Vogt.