Inside Out Worlds: Visions of Strange by Sophie Jubillart Posey; Science Fiction and Fantasy Worlds and Concepts Captured in Novella Form
Spoilers: If anyone can capture a complete fantastic world with important themes found in Science Fiction and Fantasy in less than a novel length, it's Sophie Jubillart Posey. Her anthology, Inside Out Worlds: Visions of Strange covers ten novelettes and novellas that do just that. They build descriptive worlds, create important concepts, and explore themes of loneliness, romance, conformity, rebellion, empathy, trauma, communication, AI, dehumanization, transformation, and ecology.
The best selections are:
This story explores the concept of love between immortals and Alternate Universes.
Adiphael, an angel, has fallen in love with the Sphinx. Oh not the one protecting pyramids in Egypt. The one from Greek Mythology who posed a riddle to Oedipus before he killed his father, married his mother, became king, and blinded himself.
Adiphael can't stand to watch his beloved leap to her death when the riddle is answered so he reverses time to convince The Sphinx to give Oedipus a different one that he can't solve. Unfortunately, this decision creates more problems for the pair and the entire world.
Adiphael and The Sphinx make a peculiar but compelling couple. Since Adiphael is an angel, he is practically made of love and empathy. He is a highly emotional creature who feels things strongly when he helps others. He is ruled by his heart.
The Sphinx is made of thought and cunning. She is a highly intelligent creature who thinks deeply as she challenges others with her words. She is ruled by her brain. It is an attraction of opposites but that doesn't always translate to a happy or healthy union.
A theme in this story is of unending obsessions and appetites. Adiphael is obsessed with the idea of helping others but can't always understand that helping sometimes causes more problems. His actions are born out of love but sometimes don't carry enough foresight to see the results.
The Sphinx is obsessed with using her gift of riddles to outsmart and defeat others but doesn't know what to do with herself when she is defeated. If she wins, she is left with an appetite for human flesh which can never be filled or appeased.
The two characters are completely consumed by their obsessions becoming a toxic couple. The obsessions become addictions and a love affair between two different immortal creatures becomes destructive to everyone including themselves.
"Prophecies of the Great Mother"
A story that frightened me the first time that I read it was “By The Waters of Babylon” by Stephen Vincent Benet. In it, a boy from an agrarian society travels to a forbidden place for a rite of passage. Upon arrival, he learns that the forbidden place is the remains of New York City and he lives in a Post-Apocalyptic society.
I hadn't read that many Science Fiction works at the time so I wasn't as familiar with this twist so it disturbed me enough to give me nightmares. I have since read many Post-Apocalyptic Dystopian Science Fiction works, many for this blog in fact. But I never forgot my experience with Benet’s short story.
Posey’s “Prophecies of the Great Mother” could be seen as a continuation of Benet’s work with a huge difference. Benet’s story was published in 1937 and while commenting on war and industrialization, a future like that could only be imagined.
“Prophecies of the Great Mother” reminds us that this future is not far away. It's right here and that makes this story more haunting and disturbing. This story demonstrates exactly what happens when society collapses and communication, interdependency, and learning are sacrificed.
In “Prophecies,” we know that this is a Post-Apocalyptic society from the beginning. The Narrator is part of such an agrarian tribe. The society in which he lives is caught between vilifying and learning about the past.
They are many generations removed from the Old World but many of the younger people are sheltered from learning about it. They can't leave the confined villages and all they know comes from the elder’s words, the words that they learned from their predecessors and so on.
This society knows of the past but without literacy or technology, it's told through oral storytelling and playacting. Their history speaks of the modern world destroyed by prejudice, war, and climate change but this only consists of pockets, mere drops of information and is interpreted by the one telling the story.
The tribe members are forbidden from learning anything deeper or exploring for themselves. Many such as The Narrator's friend Ikewa burn with curiosity because so much is forbidden. She sneaks out of the village to understand why people are disappearing.
Despite the Elder's good intentions to not let history repeat itself, their refusal to let the young ones learn for themselves makes them unprepared and ignorant when they are faced with these problems.
Instead of gaining agency and fighting against other societies, they are passively destroyed by a more technologically advanced society. The Narrator is captured, graphically tortured, and dehumanized by a scientist.
The technological society is cruel and inhuman and the agrarian society is wilfully ignorant and passive. They can't work together, understand, or function so they destroy each other and themselves.
Unlike many of the other stories in this anthology, this one’s central conflict is not societal. Instead, it's more personal. This story is part Psychological Thriller and part Dark Fantasy/Horror. It's a Gothic Literature novelette by way of a Grimm Fairy Tale. Oneira is a naive innocent held captive by an evil guardian, her mother.
Oneira’s mother physically and mentally abuses her. She frequently tells her that she is Oneira's mirror. She repeats Oneira's negative traits but increases the attacks. Oneira gets mad and responds with a sharp retort and Mother becomes furious and answers with a cutting insult.
Oneira uses her hands to defend herself and Mother punches her Oneira makes an innocent cooking mistake and Mother destroys dinner. It's a childish and immature mind game but it keeps Oneira captive and from retaliating or defending herself.
Mother is a true example of a Narcissistic parent. She sees Oneira as merely an extension of herself. She believes that her daughter's only purpose is to serve and take care of her without any agency for herself.
Oneira can never leave the house, make friends, or do many of the things that most kids should do. Oneira's mother might have given birth to her but holds no maternal love for the girl, just ownership.
Like many fairy tales, Oneira's escape comes in the form of magic. She finds a bottle that when opened, smoke spills out and grants her every wish but only temporarily. She takes full advantage of the situation to reunite with friends, travel to different places, and change into different forms.
Unfortunately, she always has to return to where she was before. It's an escapist fantasy which clears her mind but offers no real solutions.
Like many protagonists in such works, Oneira's freedom is not a result of outside forces like magic. It comes from her finding her own self-respect and courage to stand up to her mother. Only when she changes herself inward is she able to change her life outward.
"ReGroup"
This story would fit right in with Black Mirror (which I started watching this year and loved. It's one of my favorite new series to me).
Like the Netflix series, this novelette shows the addictive hold that technology can have on people and how many will exploit others for money, hits, or entertainment.
There's a new social media app called ReGroup. Among its members are Dhriti, a Yoga instructor, Gilbert, a chef, Abigail, a hunter, and Akio, a historian. This story reveals the positive and negative attributes of social media.
The characters are able to share their interests and expertise with like minded individuals. They can earn a living doing and talking about what they love.
They can openly express themselves and explore their creativity to its fullest. Communities and relationships are formed. There are definite benefits to this app.
Unfortunately, with positives comes negatives and in ReGroup’s case the latter outweighs the former. Users are rated by hits and receive cash prizes with the more hits, posts, comments that they make. Motivated by financial greed and instant fame, comments become inflammatory, hateful vulgar posts and videos are created, and hate speech and death threats become frequent. It's a mess.
The logical thing that most would do is reduce their time on ReGroup, only use the app for their specific interest, change their settings to private, close their accounts, or leave the app entirely. But the characters can't or won't.
They are consumed by notoriety, avarice, and anger. Some flame others and others just passively accept it but don't do anything to stop it. They are watching a train wreck and can't look away.
The characters are a figurative part of the machine of hatred that the app exploits. It changes them until they become a literal part of it. They gave their humanity away and now they are nothing more than endless streams of data, words, and numbers that no longer have any purpose or meaning.
"The Sea"
This novella combines many of the frequent tropes that are found throughout the anthology like it is Posey's final word on the book as a whole. It is an allegory about the union between humanity and nature.
Amos is drawn towards and frightened of water. It provides him some comfort but he also has nightmares of drowning. He imagines conversations with it like it's a living being. It provides a connection that he can't always find with people.
When Amos is alone, The Sea speaks to him. It warns him that he, like the rest of humanity, has squandered the gift of nature and they will die. Amos begs for another chance that they can turn things around and he will lead them.
The relationship between Amos and The Sea is complex. It serves as a mentor that inspires him to study marine biology and oceanography. He becomes an expert in water conservation and addresses governments about climate change. He can feel the Water’s pain and suffering as it is polluted and altered by corporate greed and willing denial. He has found a purpose in life and is determined to give his all.
There is also a personal component between Amos and The Sea. They share a connection that is borderline sensual. The descriptions of Amos swimming and The Sea surrounding is reminiscent of making love. The Sea takes a human form and Amos has visions of himself in mercreature form so they can explore one another's bodies.
For someone who can't communicate with many humans, Amos shares desires, longing, secrets, and deepest thoughts and feelings with The Sea. He finds a worthy partner, so he becomes more determined to save it. Amos defends it the way a devoted spouse would to find a cure for their dying partner.
The novella has a theme of transformation. Humanity has transformed the seas to become unlivable and separated themselves from nature. Both The Sea and Amos take other forms to balance humanity and nature. Soon all of Earth, the land and the people will have no choice but to transform.
