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ITT: Original Story Ideas

Started by Cramulus, May 11, 2009, 09:40:54 PM

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Prelate Diogenes Shandor

Quote from: Roko's Modern Basilisk on November 30, 2014, 11:54:05 PM
Quote from: Bu☆ns on November 29, 2014, 04:21:28 AM
Quote from: Demolition Squid on November 26, 2014, 09:09:48 AM
Iain Banks had a character in one of his books pitch a movie idea - aliens as tourists (the 'elite', which brings to mind retired rockstars and dotcom billionaires), coming to see the eclipse (because - according to the character - our planet is one of the only ones with a perfect lunar eclipse).

I think that could be an interesting setup. The story of a shallow alien who comes for the thrills, and the slow, horrible realization that this kind of utterly mundane and familiar motivation is in fact all there is out there.

Kind of an anti-Lovecraft. We have seen the alien, and understood it completely.

This is even scarier than terrors unutterable and Actually Kind of Droll.  :mittens:
Isn't that sort of the premise of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, though? That the boring shithole existence on earth is representative of the whole universe?

Sort of, but I'm not sure I would classify HHGTTG as "opposite of Lovecraft", if anything it's a bit like Lovecraft's nihilism and cynicism taken further to the point where they are no longer recognizable. Even the profound is meaningless and mediocre, such deities as there are are inept, the universe is doomed (and you can go and gawk at said doom of you have the money), and mindshattering lovecraftian theophanies of cosmic horror can be induced at will using a piece of fairy cake and some fancy electronics. Human life does have a purpose, but it's a trite purpose derived from part of a cynical scheme to profitize philosophy and it effectively does nothing to prevent humanity from being destroyed.
The Total Perspective Vortex is particularly noteworthy because its essentially based on exactly the philosophical point that much of lovecraft's fiction was allegedly trying to make, that no matter who you are you're utterly insignificant and inconsequential compared to the vastness of the universe, and that only our inability to comprehend and mentally internalize this vastness allows us to have any sort of drive, self regard, or hope or satisfaction; that if we could truly comprehend our own insignificance - and the insignificance and impermanance of eberything that we value - we would be struck down simply by the sheer awfulness of the revelation
Praise NHGH! For the tribulation of all sentient beings.


a plague on both your houses -Mercutio


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrTGgpWmdZQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVWd7nPjJH8


It is an unfortunate fact that every man who seeks to disseminate knowledge must contend not only against ignorance itself, but against false instruction as well. No sooner do we deem ourselves free from a particularly gross superstition, than we are confronted by some enemy to learning who would plunge us back into the darkness -H.P.Lovecraft


He who fights with monsters must take care lest he thereby become a monster -Nietzsche


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHhrZgojY1Q


You are a fluke of the universe, and whether you can hear it of not the universe is laughing behind your back -Deteriorata


Don't use the email address in my profile, I lost the password years ago

minuspace

Quote from: Prelate Diogenes Shandor on December 04, 2014, 07:18:57 AM
Quote from: Roko's Modern Basilisk on November 30, 2014, 11:54:05 PM
Quote from: Bu☆ns on November 29, 2014, 04:21:28 AM
Quote from: Demolition Squid on November 26, 2014, 09:09:48 AM
Iain Banks had a character in one of his books pitch a movie idea - aliens as tourists (the 'elite', which brings to mind retired rockstars and dotcom billionaires), coming to see the eclipse (because - according to the character - our planet is one of the only ones with a perfect lunar eclipse).

I think that could be an interesting setup. The story of a shallow alien who comes for the thrills, and the slow, horrible realization that this kind of utterly mundane and familiar motivation is in fact all there is out there.

Kind of an anti-Lovecraft. We have seen the alien, and understood it completely.

This is even scarier than terrors unutterable and Actually Kind of Droll.  :mittens:
Isn't that sort of the premise of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, though? That the boring shithole existence on earth is representative of the whole universe?

Sort of, but I'm not sure I would classify HHGTTG as "opposite of Lovecraft", if anything it's a bit like Lovecraft's nihilism and cynicism taken further to the point where they are no longer recognizable. Even the profound is meaningless and mediocre, such deities as there are are inept, the universe is doomed (and you can go and gawk at said doom of you have the money), and mindshattering lovecraftian theophanies of cosmic horror can be induced at will using a piece of fairy cake and some fancy electronics. Human life does have a purpose, but it's a trite purpose derived from part of a cynical scheme to profitize philosophy and it effectively does nothing to prevent humanity from being destroyed.
The Total Perspective Vortex is particularly noteworthy because its essentially based on exactly the philosophical point that much of lovecraft's fiction was allegedly trying to make, that no matter who you are you're utterly insignificant and inconsequential compared to the vastness of the universe, and that only our inability to comprehend and mentally internalize this vastness allows us to have any sort of drive, self regard, or hope or satisfaction; that if we could truly comprehend our own insignificance - and the insignificance and impermanance of eberything that we value - we would be struck down simply by the sheer awfulness of the revelation
The notion of of all significance being contained somehow entirely in the self-perception of one apparently separate  individual - now that is horrifying.  Whereas I think our relative in(significance/consequence) is quite comforting, comparitavly, benign, to rip-off the French.

Rococo Modem Basilisk

Quote from: LuciferX on December 04, 2014, 08:49:06 AM
Quote from: Prelate Diogenes Shandor on December 04, 2014, 07:18:57 AM
Quote from: Roko's Modern Basilisk on November 30, 2014, 11:54:05 PM
Quote from: Bu☆ns on November 29, 2014, 04:21:28 AM
Quote from: Demolition Squid on November 26, 2014, 09:09:48 AM
Iain Banks had a character in one of his books pitch a movie idea - aliens as tourists (the 'elite', which brings to mind retired rockstars and dotcom billionaires), coming to see the eclipse (because - according to the character - our planet is one of the only ones with a perfect lunar eclipse).

I think that could be an interesting setup. The story of a shallow alien who comes for the thrills, and the slow, horrible realization that this kind of utterly mundane and familiar motivation is in fact all there is out there.

Kind of an anti-Lovecraft. We have seen the alien, and understood it completely.

This is even scarier than terrors unutterable and Actually Kind of Droll.  :mittens:
Isn't that sort of the premise of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, though? That the boring shithole existence on earth is representative of the whole universe?

Sort of, but I'm not sure I would classify HHGTTG as "opposite of Lovecraft", if anything it's a bit like Lovecraft's nihilism and cynicism taken further to the point where they are no longer recognizable. Even the profound is meaningless and mediocre, such deities as there are are inept, the universe is doomed (and you can go and gawk at said doom of you have the money), and mindshattering lovecraftian theophanies of cosmic horror can be induced at will using a piece of fairy cake and some fancy electronics. Human life does have a purpose, but it's a trite purpose derived from part of a cynical scheme to profitize philosophy and it effectively does nothing to prevent humanity from being destroyed.
The Total Perspective Vortex is particularly noteworthy because its essentially based on exactly the philosophical point that much of lovecraft's fiction was allegedly trying to make, that no matter who you are you're utterly insignificant and inconsequential compared to the vastness of the universe, and that only our inability to comprehend and mentally internalize this vastness allows us to have any sort of drive, self regard, or hope or satisfaction; that if we could truly comprehend our own insignificance - and the insignificance and impermanance of eberything that we value - we would be struck down simply by the sheer awfulness of the revelation
The notion of of all significance being contained somehow entirely in the self-perception of one apparently separate  individual - now that is horrifying.  Whereas I think our relative in(significance/consequence) is quite comforting, comparitavly, benign, to rip-off the French.

Both Lovecraft and Adams had their own ideas about what constituted a horrifying form of normalcy to apply to alien creatures. Lovecraft's was mechanistic and neodarwinian -- ancient and immensely powerful alien races are just hungry unthinking predators; Adams's horror is not that aliens are wild animals, but that aliens are american.


I am not "full of hate" as if I were some passive container. I am a generator of hate, and my rage is a renewable resource, like sunshine.

Mesozoic Mister Nigel

Quote from: Roko's Modern Basilisk on December 04, 2014, 09:37:15 PM
Quote from: LuciferX on December 04, 2014, 08:49:06 AM
Quote from: Prelate Diogenes Shandor on December 04, 2014, 07:18:57 AM
Quote from: Roko's Modern Basilisk on November 30, 2014, 11:54:05 PM
Quote from: Bu☆ns on November 29, 2014, 04:21:28 AM
Quote from: Demolition Squid on November 26, 2014, 09:09:48 AM
Iain Banks had a character in one of his books pitch a movie idea - aliens as tourists (the 'elite', which brings to mind retired rockstars and dotcom billionaires), coming to see the eclipse (because - according to the character - our planet is one of the only ones with a perfect lunar eclipse).

I think that could be an interesting setup. The story of a shallow alien who comes for the thrills, and the slow, horrible realization that this kind of utterly mundane and familiar motivation is in fact all there is out there.

Kind of an anti-Lovecraft. We have seen the alien, and understood it completely.

This is even scarier than terrors unutterable and Actually Kind of Droll.  :mittens:
Isn't that sort of the premise of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, though? That the boring shithole existence on earth is representative of the whole universe?

Sort of, but I'm not sure I would classify HHGTTG as "opposite of Lovecraft", if anything it's a bit like Lovecraft's nihilism and cynicism taken further to the point where they are no longer recognizable. Even the profound is meaningless and mediocre, such deities as there are are inept, the universe is doomed (and you can go and gawk at said doom of you have the money), and mindshattering lovecraftian theophanies of cosmic horror can be induced at will using a piece of fairy cake and some fancy electronics. Human life does have a purpose, but it's a trite purpose derived from part of a cynical scheme to profitize philosophy and it effectively does nothing to prevent humanity from being destroyed.
The Total Perspective Vortex is particularly noteworthy because its essentially based on exactly the philosophical point that much of lovecraft's fiction was allegedly trying to make, that no matter who you are you're utterly insignificant and inconsequential compared to the vastness of the universe, and that only our inability to comprehend and mentally internalize this vastness allows us to have any sort of drive, self regard, or hope or satisfaction; that if we could truly comprehend our own insignificance - and the insignificance and impermanance of eberything that we value - we would be struck down simply by the sheer awfulness of the revelation
The notion of of all significance being contained somehow entirely in the self-perception of one apparently separate  individual - now that is horrifying.  Whereas I think our relative in(significance/consequence) is quite comforting, comparitavly, benign, to rip-off the French.

Both Lovecraft and Adams had their own ideas about what constituted a horrifying form of normalcy to apply to alien creatures. Lovecraft's was mechanistic and neodarwinian -- ancient and immensely powerful alien races are just hungry unthinking predators; Adams's horror is not that aliens are wild animals, but that aliens are american.

Which is a horror that I find disturbingly realistic.
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."


Mesozoic Mister Nigel

Except that I think they were more mostly British.
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."


Demolition Squid

Not sure that this is the thread to get into it, but... Lovecraft's aliens were not just unthinking predators. Some were, but most were just advanced species, some of whom are even peaceful! Even the godlike entities aren't all mindless; some are actively malevolent, some are helpful, and some are thoughtless.

And no, I wasn't thinking Hitchhiker's Guide. I was thinking more 'Twilight with Tentacles'
Vast and Roaring Nipplebeast from the Dawn of Soho

Cain

Isn't that just the Japanese translation of 50 Shades of Grey.

Demolition Squid

:spittake:

Some of my friends speak Japanese. I think you just hit on the way to make our fortune!
Vast and Roaring Nipplebeast from the Dawn of Soho

Prelate Diogenes Shandor

#263
How about an account of the Nativity of Jesus of Nazareth based on the idea that the Virgin Mary was the subject of an alien-human hybridization experiment. I've encountered this idea before, but never as the main focus of a novel, only as a side detail in a novel or as something mentioned in a "documentary" on the Tinfoil Hat Channel, or a highly questionable interpretation of Blue Oyster Cult lyrics. I'd like to see a full length story based on the idea.
Praise NHGH! For the tribulation of all sentient beings.


a plague on both your houses -Mercutio


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrTGgpWmdZQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVWd7nPjJH8


It is an unfortunate fact that every man who seeks to disseminate knowledge must contend not only against ignorance itself, but against false instruction as well. No sooner do we deem ourselves free from a particularly gross superstition, than we are confronted by some enemy to learning who would plunge us back into the darkness -H.P.Lovecraft


He who fights with monsters must take care lest he thereby become a monster -Nietzsche


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHhrZgojY1Q


You are a fluke of the universe, and whether you can hear it of not the universe is laughing behind your back -Deteriorata


Don't use the email address in my profile, I lost the password years ago

Prelate Diogenes Shandor

A zombie apocalypse, except instead of turning people into zombies the virus turns everyone into the protagonist's ex-girlfriend (who's some sort of microbiology researcher...there was a lab accident...etc. etc. etc.). This idea came to me in a dream (in which it was the plot of a Jim Carey movie that I was watching)
Praise NHGH! For the tribulation of all sentient beings.


a plague on both your houses -Mercutio


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrTGgpWmdZQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVWd7nPjJH8


It is an unfortunate fact that every man who seeks to disseminate knowledge must contend not only against ignorance itself, but against false instruction as well. No sooner do we deem ourselves free from a particularly gross superstition, than we are confronted by some enemy to learning who would plunge us back into the darkness -H.P.Lovecraft


He who fights with monsters must take care lest he thereby become a monster -Nietzsche


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHhrZgojY1Q


You are a fluke of the universe, and whether you can hear it of not the universe is laughing behind your back -Deteriorata


Don't use the email address in my profile, I lost the password years ago

Rococo Modem Basilisk

Quote from: Prelate Diogenes Shandor on December 15, 2014, 04:31:24 AM
A zombie apocalypse, except instead of turning people into zombies the virus turns everyone into the protagonist's ex-girlfriend (who's some sort of microbiology researcher...there was a lab accident...etc. etc. etc.). This idea came to me in a dream (in which it was the plot of a Jim Carey movie that I was watching)
I like that it's a Jim Carey movie. It's like an inverted Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.


I am not "full of hate" as if I were some passive container. I am a generator of hate, and my rage is a renewable resource, like sunshine.

minuspace

Quote from: Roko's Modern Basilisk on December 04, 2014, 09:37:15 PM
Quote from: LuciferX on December 04, 2014, 08:49:06 AM
Quote from: Prelate Diogenes Shandor on December 04, 2014, 07:18:57 AM
Quote from: Roko's Modern Basilisk on November 30, 2014, 11:54:05 PM
Quote from: Bu☆ns on November 29, 2014, 04:21:28 AM
Quote from: Demolition Squid on November 26, 2014, 09:09:48 AM
Iain Banks had a character in one of his books pitch a movie idea - aliens as tourists (the 'elite', which brings to mind retired rockstars and dotcom billionaires), coming to see the eclipse (because - according to the character - our planet is one of the only ones with a perfect lunar eclipse).

I think that could be an interesting setup. The story of a shallow alien who comes for the thrills, and the slow, horrible realization that this kind of utterly mundane and familiar motivation is in fact all there is out there.

Kind of an anti-Lovecraft. We have seen the alien, and understood it completely.

This is even scarier than terrors unutterable and Actually Kind of Droll.  :mittens:
Isn't that sort of the premise of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, though? That the boring shithole existence on earth is representative of the whole universe?

Sort of, but I'm not sure I would classify HHGTTG as "opposite of Lovecraft", if anything it's a bit like Lovecraft's nihilism and cynicism taken further to the point where they are no longer recognizable. Even the profound is meaningless and mediocre, such deities as there are are inept, the universe is doomed (and you can go and gawk at said doom of you have the money), and mindshattering lovecraftian theophanies of cosmic horror can be induced at will using a piece of fairy cake and some fancy electronics. Human life does have a purpose, but it's a trite purpose derived from part of a cynical scheme to profitize philosophy and it effectively does nothing to prevent humanity from being destroyed.
The Total Perspective Vortex is particularly noteworthy because its essentially based on exactly the philosophical point that much of lovecraft's fiction was allegedly trying to make, that no matter who you are you're utterly insignificant and inconsequential compared to the vastness of the universe, and that only our inability to comprehend and mentally internalize this vastness allows us to have any sort of drive, self regard, or hope or satisfaction; that if we could truly comprehend our own insignificance - and the insignificance and impermanance of eberything that we value - we would be struck down simply by the sheer awfulness of the revelation
The notion of of all significance being contained somehow entirely in the self-perception of one apparently separate  individual - now that is horrifying.  Whereas I think our relative in(significance/consequence) is quite comforting, comparitavly, benign, to rip-off the French.

Both Lovecraft and Adams had their own ideas about what constituted a horrifying form of normalcy to apply to alien creatures. Lovecraft's was mechanistic and neodarwinian -- ancient and immensely powerful alien races are just hungry unthinking predators; Adams's horror is not that aliens are wild animals, but that aliens are american.

I think I would enjoy them both.  The latter I am not so familiar with although I think I kind of understand, like Meursault standing before the yawning abyss of an itinerant American on permanent vacation. Which still is not that bad, inherently at least.  Great comparison nonetheless.

Prelate Diogenes Shandor

#267
Idea for holiday special:

Charles Taze Russel (founder of the Jehovah's Witnesses), William Bradford (leader of the mayflower pilgrims), and Oliver Cromwell team up and hatch a sinister plan to steal Christmas. The only ones who can stop them are a team of "second-string holiday characters" consisting of Krampus, the Nutcracker, Good King Wenceslas, and Jesus Christ

(Possibly has a twist ending in which the protagonists are betrayed by Jesus, who's been a double agent the whole time - but they emerge victorious anyway)
Praise NHGH! For the tribulation of all sentient beings.


a plague on both your houses -Mercutio


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrTGgpWmdZQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVWd7nPjJH8


It is an unfortunate fact that every man who seeks to disseminate knowledge must contend not only against ignorance itself, but against false instruction as well. No sooner do we deem ourselves free from a particularly gross superstition, than we are confronted by some enemy to learning who would plunge us back into the darkness -H.P.Lovecraft


He who fights with monsters must take care lest he thereby become a monster -Nietzsche


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHhrZgojY1Q


You are a fluke of the universe, and whether you can hear it of not the universe is laughing behind your back -Deteriorata


Don't use the email address in my profile, I lost the password years ago

QueenThera

It's a thousand years from now in the future "literally" predicted by the Book of Revelations. The shapeshifting Antichrist had his one-world government, currency, and religion already, and Jesus thoroughly kicked his ass.

Now, we're in the millenium of peace before the final triumph over evil with the Lake of Fire, and it's more cold war paranoia than utopia. Jesus is practically incapable of making the trains run on time, instead relying on stopgap measure miracles to sate the masses. God has not been seen for hundreds of years.

Jesus spends each night talking to the Antichrist in hell via instant messenger, and the story concerns their budding romance.
Often incoherent. Tends to ramble on about various topics.
Hopes to get beyond that.

Formerly BrotherPrickle

Q. G. Pennyworth

Weapons manufacturer and all around cartoonishly evil Haliburton-esque corporation is developing strong AI despite warnings from respected members of the scientific community that it will lead to humanity's enslavement and/or destruction. Naturally, they are hoping this will happen because warfare got a whole lot less popular after cheap fusion came on the scene. The catch is that they have been completely successful in creating strong AI, but it just won't turn evil on them. Hijinks ensue as they resort to more and more obvious manipulations to attempt to turn their creating into the kind of world-threatening intelligence that would justify another world war.