A couple of days ago, I said I was getting a little tired of my current WIP, Mister Blue and might divert onto something y2k-related.

Eye Tookay was finished about twenty minutes ago. It's about 21,000 words and is the first piece I have ever completed that is even remotely close to science fiction (although there are no conventional sci-fi elements in it; the only way you could give it that classification is that it is set in the future and vaguely involves technology (that stopped working a long time ago).

The address is

http://members.tripod.com/leo1998/main.html.

or

http://members.tripod.com/leo1998/eye-tookay.html

--Leo

-- Leo (leo_champion@hotmail.com), December 04, 1998

Answers

Sorry, forgot to add this:

Notes-

1. Eye Tookay (ET)is set in Sydney because the location fits itself well to the plot. Also because there's no other important city I can decently describe.

2. I've taken some liberties with the landscape, as any resident would know upon reading it. I've completely ignored the existence of Central Station, for one (yes, it's referred to once or twice, but Phil never comes across it OR Redfern, both of which are partially underground, while in the tunnel). For that matter, he comes in on the Western Line and should thus logically never be in a tunnel until he passes Central. On the other hand, they're building some new stuff in the west now. Who knows?

3. All characters in this short story are completely fictitious and not based on any real people, living or dead. Read it and you'll see why I've put this one in. I mean it!

4. The ending is lousy, I know it. It's 5:15am. I've been at this keyboard for 12 hours. I wanted to finish the damn thing and go to bed :)

5. If it means anything to anyone, the Premier's land would probably encompass Taree in the north and the outskirts of Penrith in the south and most of the land in between. The Cardinal's land pretty much intersects with that, the coast, the northern outskirts of Sydney and Port Macquarie in the north. If that means anything to anyone -I wasn't exactly thinking about it while I was writing.

6. The Word file on the page seems to be defective. Ignore my advice and read the html version. Better to have bad formatting than *no* formatting.

And now it's 20 past 5, so I hope you enjoy it ;)

--Leo

-- Leo (leo_champion@hotmail.com), December 04, 1998.

The writing's not bad. I can't resist a religio-philosophical comment since the story carries a religio-philophical message. It's always interesting to me when atheists make religious figures out to be the big bad oppressors of all that is good and right. Just remember Leo, in the twentieth century, for the first time in human history, atheists managed to gain power in several major nations. They ended up burning more books and slaughtering more people than in all the previous centuries combined.

-- Justin Fringe (seetow@aol.com), December 04, 1998.

The only religious figure who truly believed anything, in ET, was the Cardinal. The others -the Premier and the judges- used the myth of Eye Tookay to scare the men into compliance. It was not an attack on religion itself, but an attack on people who USED religion for evil purposes.

Actually, it wasn't an attack on anything. It was a story with a plot and a message that I put in because I could, not because I had any strong feelings.

Still, I have to take you up on that: please explain how and why atheists cause the burning of books?

--Leo

-- Leo (leo_champion@hotmail.com), December 04, 1998.

I think Justin is refering to communists.

Justin, you forget that many religions to this day "burn" books in a way by forbiding them, as well as discouraging higher education, Muslem's for example, especially in regard to women. The catholic church until relatively recently did the same by strongly discouraging higher education except for priests, lawyers and doctors. Keeping the masses ignorant has always been used by religions and politics to control their flocks and maintain power. Don't kid yourself.

-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), December 05, 1998.

Hey Leo,

I haven't had a chance to read the entire story but you have to get yourself a video camera and a couple of friends and produce your stuff! You obviously have imagination and talent, don't let y2k steal you away from what you wanted for yourself in the future.

Hey, are you in Australia?

Mike ========

-- Michael Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), December 05, 1998.

Chris: doh, I should have thought of them being communists. Sorry, I've been having a bit of a slow day today ;)

Mike- yeah, I'm in Sydney. Glad you liked it.

I've considered making a film. Problem is that even the cheapest requires ten, twenty grand, which I don't have.

Second problem is that I'm 18, effectively a first-year college student. There are hundreds of third-rate films being shot by college students who all like to think they're James Cameron (except that many shun `commercialism' and love art for art's sake and at somebody else's expense). The chance of anything I made getting seen by more than immediate friends and family, is minimal. The other problem is that I'm competing with a lot of other people for `resources' with things like students who want to be extras. I write with the screen in mind, but I'm waiting until I get access to viable resources before going out on the limb of personally making something. Hopefully that won't be too long.

So Mike, are *you* in Australia?

--Leo

-- Leo (leo_champion@hotmail.com), December 05, 1998.