Comments: 62
SRSmith In reply to ??? [2015-04-17 04:11:18 +0000 UTC]
Thank you! I'm glad it got you so engaged! It's hard sometimes to know if the characters resonate with other people the way they do with me.
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CalleighBlack In reply to SRSmith [2015-04-17 13:13:31 +0000 UTC]
I think you are one of the truly rare writers who can say tons in a small space and really make our reader feel something.
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SRSmith In reply to CalleighBlack [2015-04-17 13:57:48 +0000 UTC]
Thank you very much! Writing flash for as long as I have, it's something that's really made me value the economy of words. I write what I like to read, which is deeply moving character based SciFi, so that's always my goal state. It's really nice to hear that it's working.
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CalleighBlack In reply to SRSmith [2015-04-17 14:22:29 +0000 UTC]
My best friend badgered me til I read it. And I'm glad 'cause I loved it. I hope you do too.
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SRSmith In reply to CalleighBlack [2015-04-17 15:01:32 +0000 UTC]
I'll track it down and let you know. Thanks for the recommendation!
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faeriecrone [2010-04-02 01:27:11 +0000 UTC]
You have a wild and fruity imagination.
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SRSmith In reply to faeriecrone [2010-04-02 01:48:31 +0000 UTC]
This was a hard piece to write. It came about with Bill's passing and my need to understand that event.
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faeriecrone In reply to SRSmith [2010-04-02 01:52:07 +0000 UTC]
O. I guess wild and fruity does not exactly do justice to such intense emotions. I did not intend to offend. There is something just past dreamlike about the way your imagination flows and I truly enjoy it. That is what I meant.
Bill is someone very close? I hope you shared much joy.
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SRSmith In reply to faeriecrone [2010-04-02 01:58:48 +0000 UTC]
Oh - no worries, I'm not offended at all. Bill is/was `GeneratingHype and a bit of a creative force here on dA. I only knew him through reading his work and exchanging comments on things, but I had a tremendous amount of respect for him. His was a real loss, not just to the community but to the world at large.
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faeriecrone In reply to SRSmith [2010-04-02 13:05:03 +0000 UTC]
O. Yes, that was very hard for many people. Generous spirits are rarely so bold with their gifts. He will be missed.
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SRSmith In reply to FirstSarge [2010-03-01 21:34:16 +0000 UTC]
I'm working on it. It's work more than anything else that's kicking my ass right now.
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SRSmith In reply to FirstSarge [2010-03-02 01:32:00 +0000 UTC]
Haha - yes, and you're busy relaxing right now? I love the idea of retiring, but I'd just want to keep on doing what I'm doing for the most part, just with less of the 'I need to get paid' stress.
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SRSmith In reply to FirstSarge [2010-03-02 03:12:47 +0000 UTC]
You'll have to let me know what you're up to, I'm curious as hell.
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LadyCrimson [2010-02-05 19:09:57 +0000 UTC]
Hmm, this is, in a way, the opposite of Asimov's Bicentennial Man. There, a robot became human; here, a human becomes a robot.
It's reassuring to think that, even in an artificial body, our souls are much more difficult to lose.
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SRSmith In reply to LadyCrimson [2010-02-07 03:15:10 +0000 UTC]
I tried to imagine myself outliving everyone I know, and everyone I would come to know. I tried also to imagine being given the decision as to living longer, or living better. Better seemed to be the more desirable option, and I could understand one choosing it completely.
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LadyCrimson In reply to SRSmith [2010-02-07 21:15:32 +0000 UTC]
Agreed, I couldn't bear outliving all the people I ever loved or will come to love. It would be too much heartbreak.
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SRSmith In reply to the-beastie [2010-01-23 23:50:45 +0000 UTC]
Thanks, it was very cathartic writing it.
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DannyBlue [2010-01-20 08:27:37 +0000 UTC]
There is something lovely about this one. I feel like you have efectively conveyed acceptance of death, and done so in a futuristic context. Quite cool man!
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SRSmith In reply to DannyBlue [2010-01-20 14:02:15 +0000 UTC]
Thanks very much.
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msklystron [2010-01-17 03:52:28 +0000 UTC]
And what a nicely written contradiction this is.
'They' say that this generation will live much much longer than the last. Scientists are very close to being able to prolong life. It might be something as simple as tinkering with telomeres or a combination of approaches, including cybernetics, but apparently it's bound to happen (probably for the elite and wealthy, of course).
This is a very touching piece. Someday there may be a Jacob. You did a great job of conveying his emotional exhaustion and his inability to continue to pretend that mere existence is living. Sam hasn't reached this point yet, which is why he doesn't want to let go, but it is likely he will end up like Jacob in future, and that's sad.
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msklystron In reply to SRSmith [2010-01-20 04:25:08 +0000 UTC]
You're welcome!
That is very logical. With many situations, without having a similar experience, it's hard to know.
But I do remember how sad and depressed my grandfather became in the last decade of his life when his friends and peers grew old and passed away. A few years after my grandfather died, my grandmother developed a small, treatable cancer. I was close to my grandmother... I was named after her. She told me that she was going to refuse treatment and stop eating. When I asked her why, she said she didn't want to live with pain any longer and that she wanted to be with my grandfather in heaven. I begged her to take the treatment and to eat and to carry on. She refused and asked me to tell the family what she planned to do so that she could see everyone before she died. So I followed her instructions hoping that my father or one of my uncles or aunts would talk my grandmother out of giving up. No one could change her mind.
So, in my opinion, long-lived (or immortal) people in future might not suffer from physical pain as the elderly do now, but the emotional pain of loss would still take its toll, as you describe in your story.
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SRSmith In reply to msklystron [2010-01-20 14:08:20 +0000 UTC]
Thanks for sharing that, and that's pretty much the feeling I had. At some point you have to stop fighting to stay alive and enjoy the living until you expire. I expect for the person making the decision, when they're ready, the decision isn't a hard one to make and once made I'm sure it's not a hard one to stand by. I can understand that the decisions hardest impact would be on those around the decided individual.
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msklystron In reply to SRSmith [2010-01-21 04:20:08 +0000 UTC]
I think that while writers draw mostly from their own experiences, there are times when they get in character as they write and imagine or guess what the character would think, feel and do within the context of the story. You accomplished this very well.
Yes, it was very hard on the family. And, yes, once she'd decided, she wasn't going to back out. My grandmother whispered to my sister, "I didn't know it would take so long." Starving oneself to death is slow and painful. That is determination.
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SRSmith In reply to msklystron [2010-01-21 04:25:06 +0000 UTC]
Starving yourself would be slow and painful, but it's likely the only thing she had control over. Determined to be sure. Thanks for your thoughts on this, they're very much appreciated.
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FirstSarge [2010-01-15 18:26:24 +0000 UTC]
We live long in my family, and I have a lot left to do with my life, but I can relate to this.
Immortality, at least in this form scares the hell out of me.
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SRSmith In reply to FirstSarge [2010-01-15 21:39:06 +0000 UTC]
Agreed. You'd have to have a support system of people you could stand to live forever with that could understand exactly what it was like, otherwise having a constant cycle of people come into your life and then die away would take an unbearable toll in time.
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FirstSarge In reply to SRSmith [2010-01-16 17:06:38 +0000 UTC]
Yes, and if you did live that long, eventually you'd wind up in the same room with the "Oprah", Roszilla, and Barbara Walters. Hell would be preferable.
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SRSmith In reply to FirstSarge [2010-01-16 17:10:15 +0000 UTC]
That's where some kind of complex self-destruct mechanism would be critical. Nothing you could do spur of the moment, but some graceful way to exit when it's time. Of course, if you were actually caught in a room with the cast of 'The View', perhaps a small thermo-nuclear device would be appropriate.
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FirstSarge In reply to SRSmith [2010-01-16 17:20:45 +0000 UTC]
If Starr Jones were still a member, the combined mass would form a singularity. A nuclear devise would be redundant.
And people are afraid of the LHC.
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SRSmith In reply to FirstSarge [2010-01-16 17:33:33 +0000 UTC]
Can we magnetically shield the TV set? Then we could launch the entire thing at the enemy, kind of a singularity grenade to end all things. We should keep that on tap in case we ever have to obliterate a giant asteroid on route to crush the planet.
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FirstSarge In reply to SRSmith [2010-01-16 21:52:56 +0000 UTC]
Beautiful, and how poetically fitting.
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SRSmith In reply to FirstSarge [2010-01-16 23:18:00 +0000 UTC]
Why thank-you!
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FirstSarge In reply to SRSmith [2010-01-17 22:12:38 +0000 UTC]
You are welcome.
I had a sudden flash of physics.
I'm not sure, but I think a singularity grenade would actually be an x-ray bomb. Now I have to work the details out.
Damn Patricia's hard science influence.
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SRSmith In reply to FirstSarge [2010-01-18 00:31:40 +0000 UTC]
She certainly does up the ante when it comes to passing off pseudo science.
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