copied nov 09 from misc file 09
Dec 08
Prologue chapter outline:
I am working on writing a prologue chapter, which will include the following
---Dr. Jason Scott-Harris as an anthrorpology Proffesor giving a lecture to a class about Retrotechnology which is his field of study. He will explain that Retrotechnology is a field of study based on the belief that “to go forward we must go back” to improve, a culture often must return to older technologies which have been abandoned, and that when we advance twords more technological ways of life we often lose things from our lives which are of greater value that the things we gain from technology. higher technology does not make a society better.
---in this lecture he will intorduce D’zeron, a village in the middle of a forrest on a distant planet called Terran 8 which allows no advanced technology, allowing only that which can be created within the same generation from materials available on the continent of Kaar-taal, which happens to not include any metal. But they have skills few on earth have, for example, they can climb trees and rocks. he demonstrates this climbing skill by climbing the walls of the classroom, hanging from the ceiling beams, etc.
--in contrast to D’zeron, he will speak of Pargagangia, the People who have the best space travel technology and the best medical technology, the most advanced communication technology in the universe, but no written language, and no animal or plant life in their empire. and abt 100 years ago, their home planet imploded, colapsing under the weight of all that technology, leaving them a shattered, devided community of various disconected factions until they were reunited 25 years ago, with a spacestation called HomeStation built to replace their Home planet.
--many people on earth use paragangian communication and memory storage devices. but what if that technology suddenly became unavailable to us? with a damatic flourish he pulls put a small device and turns it on. there is a buzz of confussion and discontent arround the room as the skin-contact memory devices which had been playing music in their minds, keeping track of their schedules, allowing them to silently and secretly talk to others, fell silent.
“sometime” says proffesor Scott-Harris grinning, “we must also go forward to go back. this device is more advanced than your skin-contact communicators, which are a simpler version of what links all Paragangians to the information storage and exchange systems of their communities. By being more advanced, this can turn them all off and take us back to a simpler level of technology. Travel back in time with me, lets see what we can gain from having less”
after class his teaching assistant Mathias tells him to return a message from Alexandrial Tepin, a Paragangian government official whom Jason met when he did his first Anthroloplgical field study on EarthStation Mexico. Alexandrial Invites him to travel to D’zeron as a Negotiator for Paragangia, as his stepfather and mentor Derrick Landon had done 40 yrs earlier.
then I’d skip to 3 months later Jason arriving at the Paragangian HomeStation to begain his journey to D’zeron via EarthStation Mexico, greeting several people in ESM who will be important in later books, and meeting Harris Jenzar for the first time (thus allowing for a more objective physical description of Harris)
(If I don’t use this as a prologue I might use it elsewhere as a flashback)