All of JonStall's Comments + Replies

Pfft, you're just not thinking laterally. How would they communicate? By touch, of course - think signing on someone's arm or their hand (an example: in anime characters will occasionally hold up their hand and sketch out a symbol when the spoken form is unclear). Now that communication is solved, you can proceed to write an interesting story about the complexities of a society of blind-deaf-mutes (probably set underground, since if you don't perceive light, why not?)...

Let's step back. This thread of the conversation is rooted in this claim: "Let's be honest: all fiction is a form of escapism.". Are we snared in the Disputing Definitions trap? To quote from that LW article: I propose that we recognize several lower-level testable claims, framed as questions. How many people read fiction to ... 1. entertain? 2. distract from an unpleasant reality? 3. understand the human condition (including society)? 4. think through alternative scenarios? Now I will connect the conversation to these four points: * Luke_A_Somers wrote "Why would I ever want to escape from my wonderful life to go THERE?" which relates to #2. * thomblake mentions the The Philosophy of Horror. Consider this quote from the publisher's summary: "... horror not only arouses the senses but also raises profound questions about fear, safety, justice, and suffering. ... horror's ability to thrill has made it an integral part of modern entertainment." which suggests #1 and #3. * JonInstall pulls out the dictionary in the hopes of "settling" the debate. He's talking about #1. * Speaking for myself, when reading e.g. the embedded story The Tale of the Omegas in Life 3.0, my biggest takeaway was #4. Does this sound about right?

I don't quite see the relevance of this to what I said.

I can certainly see "The Eye" turning into a good short story. Not sure how you could write a novel featuring all these ideas.

Well, if you're able to write 1 coherent sentence in a row about the topic and then another coherent sentence, then by induction I think you should be able to write a novel involving it.