Nil Desperandum

I look at the professional writers I long to be like and despair.

And yet . . .

I look at the professional writers I long to be like and see they struggled too.

Take Rincewind the Wizzard, the character created by Terry Pratchett.

In the first Rincewind book – Pratchett’s first – we see a lot more of the classic fantasy novel environment (exotic settings, exciting, scantily-clad women, fantastic creatures, etc.) than we see in Pratchett’s later novels. As a reader, it’s clear that The Colour of Magic is a lot closer to Edgar Rice Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars than, say, Thud!

What I’m getting at is best summed up by what Stanford University educator David Labaree says in his article “Writing Essays by Formula Teaches Students how to not Think,” published at aeon.co.

The point is that learning to write is extraordinarily difficult, and teaching people how to write is just as hard. Writers need to figure out what they want to say, put it into a series of sentences whose syntax conveys this meaning, arrange those sentences into paragraphs whose syntax carries the idea forward, and organise paragraphs into a structure that captures the argument as a whole. That’s not easy. It’s also not elementary. [Author Stanley] Fish distils the message into a single paradoxical commandment for writers: ‘You shall tie yourself to forms and the forms shall set you free.’ The five-paragraph essay format is an effort to provide a framework for accomplishing all this.

I’m going to argue that the best authors do exactly what Fish admonishes: They learn the form, and then set themselves free from it.

Pratchett’s later novels are filled with the satire and humor we expect from him. They’re present embryonically in The Colour of Magic, but don’t come out fully because Pratchett was still learning the form.

The discouraging thing here – for novelists and for teachers of writing – is that to set writers free from the form is something that cannot be taught. It has to be learned through long practice in writing to the form, experimenting with the form, and then finding ways to use the form to one’s advantage (I don’t believe anyone actually strays completely form “the form” – whatever form it takes in the genre they’re writing. It can also be said that in Pratchett’s last novels he’d again become slave to the form of his own making, as he battled with The Embuggerance as well.) But they do become the better writers they want to be. Over time and with lots and lots of practice.

What does this all mean for me as a writer?

It gives me hope.

Maybe I’ll get better. I’ll certainly get better the more I write. I can see that in Doleful Creatures. It’s a long shot from where it was as a finished NaNoWriMo novel in 2005. And I can see the potential in other projects I’ve done. I just need to write more. Practice more.

What does this mean for me as a teacher of writing?

Maybe somewhere in the swamp of students I have had over the years, there are a few I’ve helped start on that long writing journey. Maybe.

Liquid Water? On Mars? Yeah, NASA, Figured as Much

I’m sorry I’ve got to say this, but NASA’s announcement Monday that they’ve confirmed evidence of water running on the surface of Mars was  . . . underwhelming.

Yes, I get that this is confirming water is actually occasionally running on the surface of a planet in our solar system other than Earth – but was any of this unexpected or surprising or as “mysterious” as NASA’s pre-press conference buildup warranted?

Nope.

We’ve seen the evidence for more than 50 years, through channels carved in Mars’ surface first recognized in the 1960s to the ice uncovered by rockets from the most current Mars rovers: Ice abounds on the Red Planet, which is not surprising considering how wet our solar system is. Water vapor, it's everywhere, man. Times past, there was water flowing on its surface, flowing from highlands likely into a global ocean. Given the absolute dampness of Earth, it’s hard to believe that its nearer neighbors would be devoid of any watery features (Venus is baking its water, while Mars is freezing its).

I’m glad NASA’s confirmed running water on the planet. I don't mean to belittle the discovery. But I am in no way surprised.

Happy Birthday, Curiosity

You know, I’d still work for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. If I had the brains. And the ambition. And the desire to live in California, where the cost of living is so high. Just to be involved in something like this.

But it’s not about me. It’s about Curiosity – and the fact that this SUV-sized rover has been on the surface of Mars for a year now. Sending back pictures that look remarkably like Idaho.

It’also about the kooks. Who tend to have British accents for some reason.

And yes, it HAS to be EITHER a dinosaur or a large AMPHIBIAN with its head down. It could not be a rock. Because of pixels. Those nasty pixels will get you every time.

Here’s a year, in glorious black and white:

Habitable Space on Mars? Oh Really?

NASA announced exciting news today: Its Curiosity rover, in testing Martian clay for chemical composition, determined that Mars was once home to conditions that could have supported life. 

Per CNN: 

We have found a habitable environment that is so benign, and supportive of live, that probably if this water was around and you had been on the planet, you would have been able to drink it. (Bonus: Photo 11 shows part of a feature scientists are calling the Snake River. Awesome.) 

Curiosity is drilling in a place on Mars called Yellowknife Bay, inside enormous Gale Crater, that could have been a lake when liquid water was present on the planet’s surface. The clay, Curiosity discovered, was formed in water with a fairly neutral pH, meaning it could have been hospitable to life similar to that found on Earth.

So pardon me if I say this: 

Duh. 

I’m not surprised at all at this discovery. In fact, I was expecting it. Given the advancing number and complexity of probes and rovers on Mars, frankly a discovery like this was only a matter of time. There’s plenty of geological evidence that some kind of liquid once flowed on Mars’ surface, so to discover it was potable water, at least in one spot, is not a surprise at all. 

Don’t get me wrong: That this has been verified is exciting news. Unexpected? Absolutely not.

Bugs in the Arithmetic

So, did the Viking landers really find life on Mars, way back in 1976? Headline writers and breathless bloggers across the Internet sure think so.

What did they really find?

Gullibility. Or at least evidence that an as-yet unverified mathematical process that could detect signs of life in data from the Mars Viking landers might possibly have found proof of life in that data.

But there’s a problem with their method: It’s unverified. Writes Discovery.com:

Critics counter that the method has not yet been proven effective for differentiating between biological and non-biological processes on Earth so it's premature to draw any conclusions.

"Ideally to use a technique on data from Mars one would want to show that the technique has been well calibrated and well established on Earth. The need to do so is clear; on Mars we have no way to test the method, while on Earth we can," planetary scientist and astrobiologist Christopher McKay, with NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., told Discovery News.

Sounds like the researchers used a complexity analysis to see if Viking’s readings showed biological chemical reactions in tested soil, rather than geological reactions, as the scientific consensus lies. I don’t pretend to understand the math, but apparently there is some caution urged when using such analyses, as data showing, for example, poor results as compared to another analysis could, in the longer run, actually show better results over time.

I don’t doubt there is life on other planets; to disbelieve such is ludicrous. Finding life, however, is going to take more than mathematical analysis. It’s going to take money, and the political will to send more accurate probes to places such as Mars to discover that life. It’s romantic to think that you’re going to find proof in data that’s been lying around since he 1970s, but if that proof relies on unverified methods, it’s not really proof at all.

Nice Photos there, Opportunity

Dammit, I want to go to Mars NOW! Come on, where's all the space cars and flying saucers and junk that were supposed to get us there? I fully expected to travel to Mars within my lifetime when I was a kid. I am disappoint.

But not by this video, which is a montage of 309 horizon images the Opportunity rover took while on its three-year, thirteen-mile voyage across the Martian surface. More details about the voyage are here.

This is the kind of thing that drew the Hermit of Iapetus off of God's green earth to wander the cosmos. Or at least the immediate confines of the solar system. That haunting staticky noise keeps him awake at night, wondering what he might himself hear if he had ears to listen to the universe. He longs to leave tracks like this little rover, to be slowly blown over by alien winds pushing alien soil.

A Delta on Mars

The funny thing is not that scientists keep finding water landforms on Mars, but that we keep acting surprised that they do.

Here, in the center of this picture from the European Space Agency's Mars Express, shows a typical water delta -- a spot where water suddenly reaches a relatively flat plain and simply disperses, rather than forming a single channel -- exiting a crater. There's more information on the find here.

Is it crazy of me to still want to go to Mars? Really. I'd love to go there, wander around a bit. I think that's part of the reason I've written "The Hermit of Iapetus," and want to work it from a longish short story into a novel. I know I will not set foot on Mars in my lifetime. It ain't in the technology nor the budget. I may only get to see it the way Ray Bradbury got to see it: By writing about it. And to do that, first I have to finish writing a story based on one of Saturn's moons. But that's okay. At least I'm out in space somewhere.

Into the Briny Blue -- On Mars

There may not be canals on Mars, but it appears there is free-flowing salty water on the planet’s surface after all. Or just underneath the surface. Or not.

It’s kinda hard to tell, because in typical NASA-ese, the announcement hedges every bet:

The images show flows lengthen and darken on rocky equator-facing slopes from late spring to early fall. The seasonality, latitude distribution and brightness changes suggest a volatile material is involved, but there is no direct detection of one. The settings are too warm for carbon-dioxide frost and, at some sites, too cold for pure water. This suggests the action of brines, which have lower freezing points. Salt deposits over much of Mars indicate brines were abundant in Mars' past. These recent observations suggest brines still may form near the surface today in limited times and places.

When researchers checked flow-marked slopes with the orbiter's Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM), no sign of water appeared. The features may quickly dry on the surface or could be shallow subsurface flows.

"The flows are not dark because of being wet," McEwen said. "They are dark for some other reason."

A flow initiated by briny water could rearrange grains or change surface roughness in a way that darkens the appearance. How the features brighten again when temperatures drop is harder to explain.

Water in the form of ice is known to exist on Mars already (as well as on the Moon), but to see free-flowing water, briny or not, on the surface or just below it, is pretty exciting stuff. There may indeed be physical forces other than wind shifting the surface of the planet and offering yet another spot where future expeditions could search for microbial life forms.

No word if NASA has named the newly-discovered features. Too bad. Giovanni Schiaprelli, the Italian astronomer noted for naming the features he could identify on the Martian surface as “canali” would have loved to help. He named dozens of canals on Mars.

And maybe one of these two guys would want to help as well.

All that matters is you see your world and I see mine. Is that not enough no matter what we each believe?

What I Wouldn't Give . . .

For some reason, I've been thinking a lot about Mars today, and how much fun I'd be having right now if I were there, tromping around, kicking rocks, looking for abandoned or broken-down space probes and otherwise having a great time wandering around hoping not to soil myself in a spacesuit. It's thinking like this that got me started on "The Hermit of Iapetus," which led into "Oont," which has led to the wonderful case of writers blockage I have at the moment. But at least I'm writing. It may not be good, it may not be publishable yet, but I am writing. That helps.

Spirit's Work Ethic

Oh, Spirit. You've gone where I'd like to go. Although I've got to confess it looks lonely there.

So, what do you do all day, now that you're stuck in that sand? Do you analyze the rocks and such near you? Stare up at the sky and track dim Phobos and Demois? Or try to pick out that blue speck that is your home planet?

Maybe you're lucky you're on Mars. I'm sure you'll be eroded over time, but in that dry, oxygen-poor atmosphere, you won't corrode as quickly as you would on Earth.

So what would a probe meant to explore Earth have to look like? Much more rugged wheels or spidery legs, especially if you were in the forest or jungle. Not near as compact. Not near as able tor esist the elements or even falling over. You're perfect for your environment, Spirit.

Maybe someday, my grandsons or his grandsons will come to Mars and pay you a visit. I'll insist in my will that they take a picture of me with them, so I can say I, in a way, went along.

And to have your work ethic. Always doing that work, ever-faithful, not complaining that you missed your weekend, even when you realize that weekend is never, ever coming.

You did a good job, Spirit. From a schlub in Idaho who watched your career with great interest: Thanks a lot. I wish I could come bring you home.

Thanks, XKCD.

Mars Beckons

Whenever I see something like this, I can hear Ray Bradbury shouting for joy. The sight of those dust devils swirling around on the surface of Mars? Gave me chills. Of COURSE I say, Mars is a changing, dynamic planet. It has an atmosphere. It has geology. It has gravity. With those three, but not those three alone, there is dynamism.

I want to go to Mars before I die. Is that too much to ask of our space program? Alas, back to the forecastle of the Pequod.