Comments on "Joe"

[Sovereign]

True that.... But, there should be an Epilogue or something that lets us know a bit extra, you know? IIRC, Alinestra was gonna write an Epilogue or something.

[Kassiopeia]

Yes, hmmm, it does end here, but I'm waiting for a "The End" or something like that.

[Alinestra Covelia]

No, it wasn't the End! Now, at long last, we see the End of the fan fiction Joe.

Two more *final* episodes up.

Sorry about the slight cliffhanger there, but I was rudely pulled away from the computer and sent to Missouri. Call it a bout of realism diarrhoea, or literary coitus interruptus, what you will. There was a plane flight involved, so that's my excuse and I'm sticking with it.

So now here I am at Missouri. In three days flat I have located a nice apartment, bought a bed, spent over a grand of money that I'm going to have to repay someday, and finished my first piece of novella-length fiction Joe.

Joe is around 157000 words long. Printed out, I make it to be 295 pages in length (this meaning sides, not printed pages - divide by two for printed pages). On my laptop it takes up 959Kb in rich text format. The story was begun 19th July 2000 (during the Olympic games) and it was finished on 30th July 2002 (during Alinestra Covelia's period of calm before her graduate studies began).

Thank you all for reading the story, and I hope that you'll spread the word to fellow SMAC fans who have equally large amounts of time on their hands.

I would like to thank the wonderful phenomenon of jet lag for its help in writing this story. Without those many hours of predawn boredom somewhere in upstate New Jersey, Joe would still be languishing in the middle chapters even now.

If there are any themes that people would like to discuss about this story, then please feel free to ask away here. The story was written episodically, but I have tried to maintain cohesion and continuity. Several fictitious diplomatic and military incidents during this story are drawn from real life.

There will be an emailed picture of myself eating a bamboo tree in situ for the first people to correctly identify what they are!

Otherwise, I shall have to leave you people with the teaser that Joe may or may not have a little brother sequel someday in the future. If writing were an act of love, I'd be an exotic dancer.

Finally, the feeling I have upon finishing Joe is that of extreme relief. Those literary purgatives finally worked.

[Main_Brain]

Well let me First congratulate AC on finishing this indeed superb Story. I only started reading it last month but then checked daily to see if there was smth. new up :=)
Luckily me I didnt fid that Story 1 year ago
All hail AC!

Originally posted by Alinestra Covelia Several fictitious diplomatic and military incidents during this story are drawn from real life.

You too got your Mind inserted into an Mighty Supercomputer? I thought I was alone


And .. okay i completly forgot about Agent Hu

P.S.: I half expected the Provost-Chairman game (BTW GREAT Idea!) to be a Draw :=)
Overall I'd say
Will wait for a SPoiloff but take ur Time :=)
I suspect .. when u buy a Table and a Chair to accomply your Bed ;=)

[Sovereign]

So it ends!

Whew... Congrats Alinestra!



I think I can spot a couple of real life events in Joe. The first one would be the 2 blow-ups of Sentry 8. It reminded me of the nuking of Hiroshima and Nagaski. Caused widespread damage to the city, but didn't vaporize, completely level, or annilihate it. Its range was limited due to it being the first war-time atomic bombs compared to today's nukes. Today's nukes can go for like 20 or 30 kilometer blast radius.

The second real life event I can think of is that Hive fighter that was never recovered. IIRC, the stealth jet shot down over Bosnia a few years ago during the Serb war and ethnic cleansing, with Slobadan Miloveich in power. It was never recovered by the USA but the USA knew it *was* shot down. They downplayed it, trying to make ppl think it was just a F-16 or something, not a stealth plane or spy, or whatever it actually was.


How did I do on these analogies? Cold? Warm? or On Target? Hehe...

[GeneralTacticus]

Another potential analogy... all the abstentions in Lal's election, and the stuff about 'Nothing beats Lal for prez, 3 - 1'.

[Alinestra Covelia]

Sovereign is entirely correct about the two Sentry-8 attacks being one of the events with real life symbolism, and also that the downed Hiverian fighter near SouthSea Isle was another, but his suggested symbolism was not the real-life analogy which prompted me to write about it. But if there's one thing I learned in my English Literature course, there's no such thing as an "unfeasible" analogy, so thanks to Sovereign for suggesting it.

Hiroshima/Nagasaki never crossed my mind but they are quite obvious comparisons. I feel kinda silly at not having thought of it myself As for the US fighter downed in Bosnia, I am ashamed to say that I never heard of that particular mystery before today.

You're on the right lines, though. Keep guessing. The real life equivalent of the Sentry-8 attacks was equally as infamous as the nuclear attacks, and the real life equivalent of the SouthSea Isle lost Hiverian jet was very controversial in its day. Guess what they are!

A few notes, now that I have some time on my hands:

1. I had originally wished to explain Joe and Dritnam's cluttered net language. Those of you who have spent time in chatrooms might have come across messages where numbers and alphabets are mixed for stylistic effect. Sometimes, the letters themselves are made up of symbols to further add to the effect. I don't know what the official name for this type of net slang is, but Joe and Dritnam use a version of it.

Originally, my intention had been for their script to be explained by reference to Chinese characters. When a person types in Chinese using a western keyboard, the characters are usually expressed as a series of ALT + num pad keystrokes (regardless of whether or not the typist had to press ALT + num pad to input them - many other forms have easier ways of input than this). Joe and Dritnam were originally to have been sending messages where the words of the message were unimportant - what was important was the numbers contained in them, which would relate to an ALT + num pad keystroke, and therefore to a Chinese character. This would naturally be difficult for the DataTech to unscramble since English is the lingua franca of the entire globe, excluding the Hive.

Part of the theme would be to further emphasize the marginalization of the Hive's culture on Planet (and by implication, many non-European based cultures on Earth). In the end, I left this out for a few reasons - A) I couldn't really claim any technical knowledge of how the Chinese characters are expressed, and I didn't want to look stupid (er) under expert scrutiny. B) I didn't want to labor the point too much of Hiverian marginalization, especially since the Chairman himself later comes to mention this. C) I didn't want to make it seem that the Hive was being marginalized to the exclusion of all other factions - I wanted to show that all factions lost something too.

2. I had originally intended for the two Hiverian jets to have been captured intact. I'll keep the reason for this secret until more guesses have been submitted about the political/diplomatic analogies but that alone should be a major clue as to what inspired it.

3. I was unhappy about Hommel's fate, but I couldn't think of a more feasible one for him. I'll admit now that the entire nitrogen atmosphere thing gave me a big headache from start to finish. eg "Does the DataTech city really NEED fire escapes in a nitrogen atmosphere?" to "how could Hommel survive without a facemask in the atmosphere without dying of nitrogen narcosis?"

Even the DataTech attack on Agent Hu in the magtrain had a few problems and required a few rewrites before I got the masks/breathers/commlinks thing sorted out. Initial versions had them screaming at each other in the naked air - not caring that they'd suffocate long before they got to Agent Hu.

4. Agent Hu is loosely based on my ex-housemate. Many analogies exist - he practises martial arts, has a shotgun fixation, and enjoys putting good looking females through painful physical experiences including but not limited to Chinese burns. He doesn't smoke in real life, though.

That's all I can think of right now. When I reread the story I'll jot down what inspired me to put something in.

[Main_Brain]

1) Its called l33t speak I think :=)


mhh Two Mighty Planes destroy a Building.. WTC? would have to check when it was posted for which im too lazy :P
Mhh would fit also with 2) as I see..
3) Well i thought he would develop into a madman Cannibal on Island, but its 'prolly better he didnt :=)
4) is simply terrifing.. but I guess the Decaption would also be an Analogie an Analyst would be interested to hear ;=)

I Dont fully get the Thing with Hu though, he is only Frozen so that he cant build up psychical defense?
this whole Head in Jaw Thing reminds me of smth. I cant remember...

[Alinestra Covelia]

Yes, well done. The two fusion engined planes were originally going to be flown into key structures in an echo of 9/11. However, this particular little plot element was later impossible to employ, as I had long since decided to put Operation PowerClip underground, safe from all but the most extreme actions a probe team could take.

If PowerClip were overground buildings, then attacks carried out through methods similar to Lydia's at the start would still be able to succeed.

Mad_Brain gets a picture of me eating bamboo. If he send me his email address.


As for Agent Hu's decapitation, the idea was that they needed his brain to search for information. And in order to preserve the brain from decay, of course they needed to freeze it. Agent Li Min's little head-bag is a combination freezer and garrotte, so he can decapitate an enemy and freeze the head immediately and preserve it.

[Sovereign]

Bah!

That doesn't seem or look like 9/11 in any way. I mean, to use similiar scenarios, you'd have to destroy a center of commerce by using minimal "explosives" rather than fusion bombs used aganist a miniature subterrean city. PowerClip would be more like a nexus of secrecy, like Area 51 or Roswell, than a center of industry or commerce.

I still think the best scenario would be the Japan bombings, since it didn't completely destroy or ruin the cities, while the fusion bombs didn't annilihate everything in PowerClip. There was still considerable infrastructure left standing, but the electronics were fried, like in the nuking of Japan.

The WTC towers were completely destroyed (Nothing left standing, except metal sheets).


Then again, its just my personal opinion.



As for the jets, I can think of another scenario. The spy plane incident with China, last year with the crew being "held" in China after accidentally hitting a Chinese MiG jet. The spy plane was unsalvagable, unable to fly back to the USA so it was abandoned in China or its sea, IIRC.


I'm just debating ideas, not trying to insult people or make people upset.

[Sovereign]

I almost forgot to ask.


Whatever happened to Li Min? I remember him sneaking aboard Reinheart and Murath's chopper back to Hiveria. But whatever happened to Li Min in Hiveria? Maybe that would be a good Joe sequel, eh?

[Alinestra Covelia]

Well done, Sovereign! You're right on the money about where the SouthSea Isle jet downing came from. After 9/11, nobody seems to remember the previous furore over the May 1st downing of a Chinese fighter jet and an American spyplane near Hai Nan Isle.

Hai Nan in Chinese means "South Sea". Much of the language included in the story coincides with what both governments were saying in the international muckflinging after the incident, eg the Hiverian claim that the cockpits are "sovereign Hive territory" (the same claim was made by the US government immediately after the spy plane landed to prevent the Chinese from boarding).

Yes, in the final form, the two nuclear explosions don't resemble 9/11 very much, but nonetheless 9/11 was the original inspiration for it, even if it didn't get used much. I think putting in a terrorist attack that was too similar to 9/11 would probably offend some readers.

You show admirable conciseness in summing up Li Min's end condition. There appears to be only one small sentence that you missed in the conclusion, concerning small wreckage.

I tried to write the story's ending so that it has many echoes of its beginning. Joe and Dritnam die in situations very similar to Lydia. The story starts off with Joe watching the sunset in the east, and it ends with Joe soaring towards the sunrise in the west.

There are a few loose ends, too, and Li Min is one of them. Note also that he is the only DataTech probe member to survive that we know of.

[Sovereign]

Heh...

Where's my copy of your Bamboo?


Maybe you could consider a Joe sequel about 2 characters. Li Min and a little more "depth" with Yang being a Planetary Governor.

Does that sound like good ideas for a sequel, people?

[Main_Brain]

Mad_Brain?
PM sent.

Yeah I felt the 'Yang Factor' in this Story :=)
Coldheartly yet great Personality. Pulling the calmly Strings behind the Scenes And Yang has Time...

Do I only get Half now that Soveraign :P has posted the Second one?

Yang! Yang! All the Way! Noone heares about his Not-soEvil Twinbrother Ying though.


I remember that incident. The States were trying to regain it as fast as possible while the PPC delayed and researched the Plane. Thats only i can remember.. did tehy give it back? I remember the Crew was released..

[Alinestra Covelia]

Nobody was quite sure who was at fault, just that the Chinese fighter jet was destroyed and the pilot never recovered, and the US spy plane was held at Hainan air base under heavy guard.

This was particularly sensitive because the spy plane contained US intelligence files that, if cracked by the Berzhinev Hiverian Intelligence Bureau (or whatever the Chinese equivalent is) would allow the Chinese to suddenly gain 40 years' worth of parity in a very short time. Allegedly.

Fortunately (or not depending on your viewpoint) the American crew successfully destroyed the intelligence files contained onboard the plane. They were detained for nine days (I think) and then released. The US government sought permission to repair the plane and fly it out of Hainan, which the Chinese government refused.

The plane was eventually disassembled, placed onboard a Russian cargo plane, and flown back to America. The Chinese government demanded that the US government pay a $1,000,000 housing bill for the plane, which the Senate loudly rejected. Instead, they paid $46,000.

At the time I was in Britain and I remember all of my housemates (all British save Hu Man Bing) sided with the Chinese, surprisingly enough. One even went so far as to say that America deserved a bloody nose for its actions. I remember going online at one point and seeing plenty of anti-Chinese sentiment, ranging from "Chinese fighter jets are kites covered in tinfoil" to "China outnumbers America 5 to 1 and those are not good odds; let's nuke 'em now while we still have the time".

A crazy world we live in.

Much of Chairman Sheng's thoughts concerning media manipulation are my own - now moreso than ever, given my journalism course. It is surprisingly easy to give a very strong skew whilst maintaining at least the appearance of objectivity and impartiality.

And Sovereign and Main_Brain only get half the photo each, because of the way the two questions were answered.