*hug*

I relate...I won't bother offering advice because there isn't any to give. You've done the thinking yourself, and really have thought about some wise stuff and points.

I never really had the ego issue, but then again I know there has been so many times in it where I have placed it in front of something and it just all crumbled around me because of me thinking I wasn't wrong or I was too good with this or that...it's never really cool.

A good entry VF, but try not to let the pessimism (ack, hypocrite I am!) take too much control of you. There's always forgiveness and second chances. If we didn't go through some hard spots in life, we would never learn how to improve or be stronger. Do we get our ego just zapped away magically, or do we get the chance to recognize it and zap it ourselves?

Wow. Spoken from the heart, my friend. I just wrote a test excerpt for one of my own upcoming novels (upcoming in a few years) to see whether the characters could work out the way I think. I just finished it and then I read yours. Mind if I post mine... (some points may sound familiar to you, VF, for we discussed that stuff some days ago).

The scene is a conversation that takes place between a space-pilot Lee Keeler, who has been captured by strange but yet familiar species led by a being that named himself Talion. Oh, and out of fun, I wrote it in English, just to keep in practice.

"Grains of sand, Lee, grains of sand", Talion mused, fishing some of the substance he talked about out of the little bowl and let it run through his pale hands with the blueish glowing veins, each one pulsing with energized liquid.

When the being gave no further explanation, Lee asked: "Excuse me?"

"The beliefs of people. The truth behind everything. Grains of sand", Talion responded as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. When he saw that the man in front of him still didn't get it, he condescended himself and explained. "How many humans live on your two worlds? Used to live on Earth all those years ago? From what I remember, it were about 7 Billion once, bevore the War for Water. 7 Billion different personalities, different beliefs. Not only different, no, but also contradicting. 7 Billion grains of sand." Talion exhaled, and inhaled. "Now, if I were to superheat these grains, they'd fuse together, forming one slab of fragile crystal. This crystal is the truth. This fusing is how we could find out the truth."

Talion paused again. "It is like a mathematical equation. While fusing all those different viewpoints, beliefs, religions, grains of sand, some things, some lies, will eliminate themselves from the equation, until at the end, there's only one thing left: the ultimate truth, the reason for and behind our existence."

Lee didn't respond. This man, this being, was just too strange. But then again, Lee could feel the truth in his words.

"And now, son, you know why your species, MY former species, is condemned to an eternity of longing for a truth they'll never get their hands on. You see, Lee, all human civilization is bound to end in war. Merging them, fusing them like grains of sand, is impossible, for there is too much hate, too much resent, too much humanity inside of their hearts, their minds, their spirits to ever accomplish that."

That...that's deep, very deep stuff right there my friend

And true.

I am just a little scared that we might end up in a utopian society like the ones we talk about in english major classes here...

I love deep stuff paired with action - better than only deep stuff or only dull action.

Brave New World dooms... buy some soma. More of a dystopia than a utopia, though.

Definately dystopian. And I wouldn't want soma in any future scenario.

Questions:

1) Did it ever occur to you that there are more dystopian than utopian books and why?

2)And do you wonder why most of the modern ones are considered "Schundliteratur"?

Answers:

1) Some people become aware of some basic facts about human nature, for example that we won't be able to improve.

2) The others don't realize it or don't want to realize it.

Questions:

1) Did it ever occur to you that there are more dystopian than utopian books and why?

2)And do you wonder why most of the modern ones are considered "Schundliteratur"?

 

Answers:

1) Some people become aware of some basic facts about human nature, for example that we won't be able to improve.

2) The others don't realize it or don't want to realize it.

Isn't that what Agent Smith explained in the Matrix? That the first one was a perfect happy place, but that the people wouldn't buy it?

Yeah, I remember that too now you say it. And he was right, wasn't he?

After...thousands of years bashing each others heads in, I am sure people wouldn't buy a suddenly perfect world.

No, certainly not. World was never at peace and won't know it till the last human died.

No, certainly not. World was never at peace and won't know it till the last human died.

Actually quite the paradoxon if you think about it...if we're all dead, how will we know?

That's the point. We won't, but what's left of life on Earth will know.

That's the point. We won't, but what's left of life on Earth will know.

True. But how did we end up talking about dystopian societies when my entry was more about dealing with current real life ?^^

Good question.

Maybe because real life is about to become a dystopia, if it hasn't already.