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Formulating Decisions:
The Power of Information Flesh and Spirit by Carol Berg. (RoC, Trade Paperback, May, 2007.) We’ve discussed the ethics, morals, and magickal consequences of power abuse previously. It’s a major theme in SF/F. Therefore SF is a prime study for those on the Path. In oldest times, it was easy to control information. No TV, satellite, iphones, videorecorder, or Google. A person could move to a town a hundred miles away and start a new life with a new name and have no chance of being caught. Vampires had it easy. That’s why we have an embedded fear of strangers. We have to know who a person is in order to judge whether they’re telling the truth as they see it, and if they are, whether they are likely to be mistaken. A King could tell the people anything and they’d believe it, rally round and go to war. Today it’s oh-so-different. Right? Identity theft; TV shows revising myth, legend, and history, too; “news” shows and internet news articles that leave out anything that contradicts their position; e-newsletters yellower than the yellowist journalism; urban legends in spam; and solemn, ax-grinding blogs. The information explosion caused by computers and the internet frightened people in the 1980s, people raised to feel they had to know everything that came past them. Today, people who’ve grown up within the never-ending avalanche of information just ignore it all. And so they’re as ignorant of the world outside their own sphere as the unlettered village peasant. How would they do their homework without Google? (OK, some prefer Yahoo and get good grades, too.) Is such a person, no matter how honorable or good hearted, fit to wield the power accessible on the Path? What do you really need to have to formulate a decision with any chance of surviving the results? Mystically, a “decision” is an action and is represented in Tarot by the Suit of Swords (or whichever suit you use for the element Air.) The work of formulating anything belongs to the Eights of the Tarot Suits—and decisions, by and large, belong to the Eight of Swords. The image on the Rider-Waite deck is of a figure bound, blindfolded and gagged, amidst mud puddles, surrounded by eight Swords—sharp ones. (See my blog series on the Suit of Swords, August to October, 2007, www.aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com.) The Eight of Swords depicts how, when you venture to formulate a decision, you realize how ignorant you are, and that what you don’t know can kill you. I call Eight of Swords “Yes, Buts,” because for every reason to do something, there’s a reason not to. It’s scared stiff. So what do you need to formulate a wise decision? What is a decision? The word means to cut in half, or cut through. What weapon cuts like that? It isn’t knowledge, as we discussed last month. It isn’t just information. The weapon necessary to cut through fears, yes-buts, disinformation, and misdirection is the synthesis of knowledge and information. When properly combined, knowledge and information produce understanding, and that is the magician’s weapon. Think of knowledge as the mathematical formula, or the physical principle for how the world works. Information is the value you plug into the variables in the equation. If you think that doesn’t apply to Art, take a look at Blake Snyder’s book reviewed here in January. You can extract the abstract pattern from a large number of examples, then apply it to a new example to see if it is the same. Once you have enough formulae, enough knowledge, you can analyze any new situation by plugging in the new information and seeing how the formula behaves. You can predict what will happen “if.” You can understand. Knowledge can be learned in school (today in fewer and fewer schools; so haunt Google and amazon). Information is much harder to come by because it arrives embedded in disinformation, and vital pieces are left out. For example, if you want to know why China is in such a fury of dirty industrialization—did you know that the deserts in China are enlarging, eating arable land? Synthesize that with their one child per couple policy, and re-analyze the Chinese economy and personal motivations. Review what your mind did with that bit of information about the deserts. Now you know the difference between knowledge and information. To create understanding from information, plug it into the huge equation in your mind in which all related bits of information reside. That equation is your knowledge. If it’s wrong; you’re wrong. If the data’s wrong you’re wrong. If you couldn’t do it, read the following books. They aren’t about China. They are all about how crucial correct data is when formulating decisions. They measure that importance by what lengths a hero will go to for solid data. A new series by Carol Berg, Flesh and Spirit, and the sequel Breath and Bone, are about a person whose heritage has been kept from him on purpose—because he has the power to change the world. Meanwhile, someone else (who has kept her heritage secret) is busy destroying the world. The world Berg builds is one of these intricate, multi-dimensional fantasy worlds you can’t describe in one sentence. Just read the books. Please?
Lady Magdalene’s the new feature film starring Nichelle Nichols as a Las Vegas brothel owner. It’s about who people are, or are not. Nobody is who they appear to be. It’s mental gymnastics for decision making, but it’s also jolly good fun! Google it.
How To Lose An Extraterrestrial In Ten Days by Susan Grant is ostensibly “just” a romance, but actually it reminds me of the TV series Scarecrow and Mrs. King (which was also “just” a romance, right?) It’s a “meanwhile” book to Grant’s My Favorite Earthling which I reviewed here November, 2007. In this new volume, the cyborg assassin survives field surgery to remove his central computer and falls in love with one of the other Jasper women—the housewife with kids. Lack of information can lead you to mis-assess a person. Reading SF or Paranormal romance is good exercise for learning to judge character—and learning to trust. Just don’t mistake fiction for reality. Linnea Sinclair has a smashing success in The Down Home Zombie Blues—a romp set on Earth where a task force led by a tough broad from a higher tech planet is chasing a miscreant. She accidentally involves a local Florida cop—who falls in love with her. Security rules are a problem. Love doesn’t blossom amidst lies and evasions. This is one of the best reads I’ve had in years! Good SF, good romance, and great characters in really challenging relationships.
Solar Heat by Susan Kearney is the middle book of a trilogy, and I haven’t read the first book yet. I’ve read an uncorrected proof copy, so I can’t comment on errors. However, I can say this is one swift, smooth, easy read with a good payoff, even though it’s a lead-in to a third book. In Solar Heat, slaves have escaped to another planet (nearer to Earth than their native planet) and are in touch with Earth. The former owners rig an asteroid to destroy the refugee planet. The field operative of the owners falls in love with a leader of the escapees and changes sides when information changes her understanding of the situation. Meanwhile, the asteroid-weapon turns out to be the nursery of an alien species—more missing information that alters decisions! Read the above books carefully, see if you can find similar holes in your real-world information feed, and imagine how your understanding would change if you had that information. Go find that information. Also pay attention to the new Bionic Woman TV series on NBC. Silly little action show with hints of hot spice—but here’s a bit of dialogue that may cause you to change your understanding of “what” a TV show is. “Why tell them? They’d just panic. Look at you. You just found out and already you wish you hadn’t.” This is said by a seasoned operative to the newly bionic Jamie Somers. I think it’s the theme of the series. They redesigned Jamie’s life but picked up on the essence of what made her an interesting character (except no Air Force Major involved). She is raising her teenage sister, working in a bar, and pregnant when a car accident smashes her up. They replace the same parts of the original bionic woman with 2007+ tech, and the challenges she faces are more the sort you’d expect from today’s world news.
Send books for review in this column to: Jacqueline Lichtenberg, email jl@simegen.com for instructions. |
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