� e Monthly Aspectarian

Science Fiction
& The Art of Storytelling
What Is Life? Part 5: Let’s Dance!
Dragon’s Ring by Dave Freer. (Baen
Paperback, January, 2011.)
The Legend of Jig Dragonslayer. (Daw,
July, 2012.)
Dream Called Time by S. L. Viehl.
(RoC Paperback, 2010.)
Life Guards In The Hamptons by Celia
Jerome. (Daw, May, 2012.)
Firebird by Jack McDevitt. (Ace
Hardcover, November, 2011.)
Burn Notice (USA Network, June,
2012.)
“Let’s dance!” is a very famous movie
line, but I can’t recall the name of the
fi lm that fi rst used it. The cliché scene
is two martial arts experts contending
an issue. Eye to eye, in a showdown,
one says to the other, “Let’s dance,”
meaning, “Let’s fi ght.” Movie fi ght
scenes are choreographed like dance for
an esoteric reason.
Dance, combat, warfare, chess,
football, and all the board gaming
and videogaming, even online games
like Second Life and Farmville, all of
these are metaphors for life that have
“fi gures” like dance and rhythm like
music.
I explained how that works in this
column in 2007 and 2008, in the series
titled “The Soul-Time Hypothesis and
Formulating Decisions” (www.simegen.
com/reviews/rereadablebooks/2007/
index.html, and
www.simegen.com/reviews/
rereadablebooks/2008/index.html).
The reason fi ction “works” for
consumers of stories has to do with
the way a story replicates our reality.
The similarities that are hidden the
most deeply are the ones that affect
us the most powerfully. Blake Snyder
fi ngered that perfectly in his series on
screenwriting: Save The Cat!
The magical principle is “As Above:
So Below”—an artistic piece that
reveals the Above’s pattern is exciting,
riveting, because it ignites the hope
of understanding the Below where we
struggle. Artists reveal the hidden forces
driving the events in our world.
Games are an artform, as is warfare.
“Let’s dance!” is the invitation to throw
down, to determine the philosophical
truth of a matter that’s unfolding above
by determining who the prevailing
contestant is below. Does might make
right? Or does right make might? Do
the good guys always win? Or are the
winners always transformed into good
guys in spite of themselves? Or, as
detailed in the February, 2012, column
“Justice Part 2,” is that question a false
Hobson’s Choice? There is such a thing
as a Pyrrhic victory, isn’t there?
Combat is a dance, the dance of
life, as well choreographed as corporate
negotiating or political maneuvering.
It’s all about patterns, dance step
patterns, the moves, the rhythm, the
grace and coordination with a partner’s
moves.
I suspect this is why every time I
analyze the natal charts of candidates
for public offi ce, I see that they hit the
campaign trail when solar arc transits
to their natal mid-points are indicating
by Jaqueline Lichtenberg
peaks in artistic performance, not
peaks in judgment. They’re inviting
the audience to watch them dance, like
two martial artists in a showdown at a
tournament. The one who gets the most
applause, or points for form, prevails.
Watching carefully, the audience
may glimpse that which is above by
analyzing the choreographed moves
below. This is exactly what the best
novelists do. Some of the best are using
the tropes polished in videogames to
create novels with very broad appeal.
Here’s a novel that Sarah A. Hoyt,
whose work I’ve reviewed here,
recommended to me. Dragon’s Ring
by Dave Freer gives us a world with
a Tolkienesque variety of intelligent
creatures. Filmed, it would be as
colorful and breathtaking as the movie
Avatar.
In Dragon’s Ring as well as in
Avatar, destruction of the most precious
and beautiful is the primary image. The
motivations, as with the two squared
off martial artists, show us that life
“Below” is about power and dominance.
This leaves us to infer what is “Above.”
Dragon’s Ring shows us how those
without power in their world can
nevertheless achieve miracles worthy of
a hero.
Two equally matched martial artists
are fun to watch, but even more fun
is David vs. Goliath! Jim C. Hines
has invented a David who is a tiny
runted goblin named Jig in a world of
huge dragons and immensely complex
(realistic) supernatural politics. The
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