Golems, Constructs, and Earth Elementals… Oh my!

The main protagonist of the story I am working on is a master-less golem.  I have done some research on this character-type and thought it might be interesting to share it here.   There are many examples of this character archetype and its offshoots including The Thing from the Fantastic Four (although he isn’t a construct), Frankenstien’s monster, Schnitzle from the cartoon Chowder (radda radda?), and nearly every robot story.  This creature is often a lumbering innocent that struggles with its lack of humanity and eventually has to be destroyed after it loses control.

The myth of Pygmalion comes to mind.   In this Greek myth, Pygmalion is a talented sculptor.  He falls in love with one of his masterpeices, a beautiful ivory of a woman.  He dresses the statue and gives it gifts.  Eventually Venus brings the statue to life.  Pygmalion and the statue fall in love, have children, and live happily ever after.  Ok, so there is no lumbering giant in this example, but it is one of the earliest stories of a construct coming to life.

The most famous golem is the Golem of Prague.  A rabbi created this clay creature to protect the city’s Jews from anti-semetic violence.  Here we find the stomping, clobbering, and smashing golem.  In some versions of the legend, it had to be stopped by the Rabbi because it began destroying the city.

I have always been attracted to the construct.  I find them fascinating sad alienated creatures.     The golem is a liminal creature, neither alive nor dead.  Because they were created to be mindless slaves, often without any moral forethought from their creators, I cannot help but be sympathetic to their plight.  In the dehumanizing modern world, I often feel we are becoming more and more like the golem.   As more of us lose moments of human interaction and become more compartmentalized in our skill sets, we start feeling like disconnected automatons.   Is part of what makes golems so monstrous our own fear of losing control in the end?  There is much with which to explore in this character-type.  I hope I can present some new perspectives on the golem and its existential problems.

Rift

I stumbled upon this short film that I thought was pretty neat.  It fits in with all my babble about space-time and other things I barely understand. 

http://www.lstudio.com/rift/rift.html

Grant’s Wish

Please join us at GRANT’S WISH FUNDRAISER March 20, 2010 in Wilmington, IL.   It is a 5K run, Kid Fun Run and a Dinner/Dance/Silent Auction to benefit research and education about Galactosemia.  Donations can be made at the Parents of Galactosemic Children- Midwest website.  Thank you.

Time Travel in Fact and Fiction

I found a concise primer for time travel on the PBS website.  It is from a Nova show on time travel.  I will have to track it down and watch it.  As I have stated before, I often feel unsatisfied with how time travel is depicted in fiction, television, and film.   It just seems so ridiculously implausible.

My eyes start rolling back when I inevitably hear someone in the know state something like: “The universe will do what it takes to correct any changes to the flow of time.”  Situations then magically unfold so that the future can not change.  The protagonist will find her arch enemy years before he had killed her family.  With a trembling hand, she pulls the trigger.  The gun jams.  The universe has stopped the future from changing.   Why didn’t “the universe” just stop the time-traveler from going into the past to start?  I know, it wouldn’t make a good story.  I get that.

Wouldn’t just the presence of someone from the future change the time-space continuum?  Matter that was not present a moment before is suddenly there.  What would that mean on the atomic level?  There is an infinite number of minute changes one could make that could have immense consequences years down the line.  The only answer that makes any sense to me is when a person travels in time, the present is always then what the time-traveler experiences.  When the time-traveler dematerializes into the past, the present she came from effectively ceases to exist (or exists in an alternate dimension).

In this scenario, the time-traveler could shoot her past self and not suddenly cease to exist and therefore disappear a la  Back to the Future (another time travel trope that bothers me).   She would then travel to the future and find a different world in which she never existed.   I would purpose that any time travel into the past would alter the present/future.   There would be no way around it.

Although this has less tantalizing possibilities for fiction writers, it may be that time travel into the past is impossible.  Once I finish my theoretical physics thesis, I’ll let you know.  Oh wait, I never made it past basic high school Algebra.  Crap.

Full Circle/Ramblings

As I pondered the idea of free-will and my unskillful attempt at straddling the Eastern/Western philosophical divide, a sudden reminder of my constant state of foolishness jolted me back to some semblance of rationality.  As usual, the ego is blame.  The persistent illusion of self continues to force my thoughts into a never-ending circular current.  It seems like I am going somewhere but I am just rehashing the same things over and over.   It always ends in the same place.  It ends with an examination of the self.

Can there be free-will if there really is no true self?  If there is free-will, who’s will is it?   Is it God’s will as some would claim? Is it will without a being exerting it? Am I completely ill equipped to even answer such a question, even if just for myself?  Who am I to try to tackle this?  Do I ultimately abandon the question because it starts to seem unanswerable?   Am I just creating more suffering for myself?  Probably.

I start feeling foolish and embarrassed for producing such weak-minded drivel.  Then I remember, who the hell am I anyway?  I am a process, not a thing.  There is no one thing that I can point at as me.   Mind, body, biochemical interactions, electrical currents, sensations, thoughts, and memories are just some of the pieces that constitute “me”.  As the silt filters down, it all starts to fade away into the emptiness.

Clinton Bush Haiti Fund

The level of suffering the Haitian people are undergoing right now is difficult to comprehend.  I can’t even find the words.  Former presidents Clinton and Bush have created a fund for donations.  I hope the generosity of the American people may be able to offer some much needed help.

“Blessing in Disguise”?

I had mentioned in my previous post, the danger inherent in believing that karma is the only force acting in the universe.  It creates a situation in which people truly believe that people always deserve their lot in life, no matter the circumstances.   When taken to an extreme, children born with disabilities, for example, deserve their suffering due to some actions in a past life.  The untouchables in Hindu society are another example.

Similarly, you have the unfortunate comments by Pat Robertson regarding the devastation in Haiti after this earthquake.  He sees what has happened as a punishment for the Haitian people “making a pact with the devil”; a truly frightening thing for someone in a such a powerful position to say.   Instead of having compassion for the suffering of these people, he condemns the victims as somehow deserving the horrible things that occurred.  I doubt the mother who lost her child or the person who lost a limb in this disaster is seeing this as a “blessing in disguise”.

How anyone can see something so horrific as an opportunity to disparage victims for their belief system is outside my understanding.  The idea that “I have all the advantages because I am blessed or must deserve it” and “anyone less fortunate must have done something to deserve it” is extremely disturbing.  One must wonder what the excuse would be should some unfortunate calamity destroy what  those that are “blessed” have?  I would never wish it upon anyone, no matter how different their thoughts and beliefs were than mine.

Donate to the Red Cross

Karma

Today I had a wonderful discussion with Bhante Sanyatha from Blue Lotus Buddhist Temple regarding karma (Pali: kamma).  To my understanding, karma functions in the same manner as the laws of physics.  As gravity has no will or consciousness, nor does karma.   Very simply, our actions result in consequences.   The Law of Karma does not reward or punish.  Within our very actions are the results (both good and bad).

Lets take the example of theft.  Someone who choses to steal money from work, even if not caught, has no choice but to reap the consequences of this action (karma).  Initial results might include things like paranoia, guilt, and high stress levels.  If one does not take measures to rectify the wrong, the initial results may lead to further problems due to the stress.  Weight gain and all its related complications, illness due to a compromised immune system, drug abuse, and migraine headaches are some examples.

On the other hand, if we make a choice that is moral and compassionate, we can expect consequences as well.  Our karma results in feelings of well-being, returned kindness of others, and other positive real-life benefits. There is no escape from the results of our actions, no matter how hard we try.  As a matter of fact, the more we fight it, the worse it becomes.   We can lessen the blow by learning to calm ourselves in stressful situations so that we can make better choices in the future.  Mindfulness appears to be the key.

Keep in mind that karma is not the only force creating consequences in the world.  The laws of nature  can act independently of karma.   Natural disasters, freak accidents, and unlucky incidents can occur without any connection to our karma.   Bad things don’t just happen to bad people.   Bad things can happen that are not the unfortunate victim’s fault.   I see a real danger in assuming that one’s lot in life is solely due to a result of that person’s karma.  Karma is not the only force in the universe.

Now, how is karma related to free will?  Volitive actions keep the whole wheel of action-consequence spinning.  My thought is that without free willful action, there is no karma.  Was the Buddha an example of someone with a perfected ability to utilize his free will?

Articles on Free Will and Determinism

I found this great article on my current subject of interest:  Free Will Vs. Determinism by Jan Haugland.  I tend to agree with Haugland’s position.

A sample:

It is a subtle misunderstanding to say that the laws of nature really constrains your choices. On the contrary, they simply describe what happens, and that includes every action you make. Every time you make a choice and act on it, you create another tiny subset of a universal “law of nature”. To even talk about “breaking” the laws of nature is absurd; these laws describe everything that takes place in the universe, including what you do.

It is interesting that quantum mechanics has had such an influence on modern philosophy.  But from my place of limited understanding, it should follow that the fact that the movement of subatomic particles are often unpredictable by nature should have some profound consequences on philosophical discussion.   I wish I would have paid more attention in my philosophy classes in college.

Here is another interesting article:  Determinism, Free Will, Freedom from another perspective.

Addendum:

* Please do not take this post as an opportunity to proselytize to me about your faith.   I have no interest in conversion.   Do not post a comment if that is your intent.  You will just be wasting both your and my time.  Do post a comment if you have an interest in real discussion.  Thank you. *

The Fates

Older than the gods themselves, the Fates held the strings to all phenomenon.  Bribery, emotional pleading, nor intellectualizing could persuade them.  Even Zeus was powerless against the Fates.  What they set into motion was unalterable.

“They were three, Clotho, the Spinner, who spun the thread of life; Lachesism the Disposer of Lots, who assigned each man his destiny; Atropos, she who could not be turned, who carried ‘the abhorred shears’ and cut the thread of death” (Hamilton, 1942).

At birth, everyone was assigned his or her destiny.  It was considered extremely foolish to try to fight it.  Many Greek myths were primarily a warning against tempting the Fates.   The idea persists today in many narratives.   The television show Lost, for example, includes an ongoing conflict over this subject between two major characters, Locke and Jack.

It is an interesting, even if ubiquitous, question on the human condition: Is our path predestined or do we make our own path in life?  I am not sure if the question is answerable, or whether it would be a good thing to know the answer.  It is my belief that the future is not already written.  The future is really just an idea.   By definition, it doesn’t exist yet.

I want to look at this concept in more depth as it seems very common in fiction.  When writers craft a story, they are akin to the Fates; they set a path for their characters with a feel of inevitability.  The writer can infuse a much more obvious sense of justice and balance into their story than the real world often can.  Frequently, a writer’s goal is to make the story satisfying in this way.   The literary device, foreshadowing, demonstrates this.

So, fictional characters have a destiny of sorts by design.  Do we as real living human beings?  Religious concepts will undoubtedly play a role in answering that question.

As I tease out what direction this line of thought might take me, I see many tendrils I could follow.   Some possibilities:

• Greek tragedies
• How the concept in treated in the Lost series
• “God’s Plan”
• Taking another look at Slaughter House Five by Vonnegut
• Karma
• How destiny is treated in stories about time travel (a concept that I find ill-handled in the majority of fiction)
• Where is free will in all this?

If I throw enough out there, something will stick.   I feel a structure starting to emerge out of the vaporous chaos that is my thought process.