BTW, I had a dream that I think would make a good story - but not a short post. I've noticed that my longer dream narratives don't usually get much response, so should I assume it won't be of any value, or should I post it just in case?

The short version: a couple who made a great sacrifice that did not produce the results everyone hoped for - so now they have to deal with disappointment and hostility from a public that expected them to be saviors and now has face saving themselves the hard way. They also have to adjust psychologically to having given up a great deal with out great results. It also is in the context of some very bleak and often funny world building. I will post the details if anyone is interested.

Not really...I've heard it. Most recently about "The Help.My mother told me that book was rejected sixty times."That doesn't mean I might not be doing something really wrong and not knowing it.(And the whole "Confederacy of Dunces" thing keeps every creative-writing student going, but surely there can't be that many unrecognized geniuses.) I'd feel better if I had something else. I don't, and this is still a bad time to get a real estate license. ETA: If I ever send anything out again, it won't be this one...that was like the third and fourth time...this one doesn't work.(I mean, I could pretend that it was just too profound to be appreciated by lower humans, but it could just be a turd it took me a month to grunt out.)

Of course, some helpful poster at Daily Kos pointed out that our region's water is about to give out any second now, so maybe all my life angst is beside the point anyway. Fingers crossed.

I always find your dream narratives interesting, Typo. I even wrote a quote from one in my "Quotes I like" section of my notebook: "The dead aren't necessarily malicious, but they are always selfish." I was really interested in reading a story in that world.

Or maybe I'm just fascinated because I NEVER remember my dreams, so the fact that you bring so much info back is really interesting. Anyway, my $.02.

ETA: And isn't it interesting that interesting is apparently the only interesting adjective I know? (In my defense, my phone rang in the middle of my last paragraph, so I didn't proofread the way I normally would, but jeez).

I read them all the time.(Of course, I've been debating hanging up my guns all week, so I haven't used it.) I don't know that my dreams would make sense to anyone who isn't me.

That's very interesting, Epic.

And I adore that quote of Typos as well.

I saw what you did there, Connie. (Although it actually took me a sec. "What interesting thing did I...? Oh. Duh. Heh." I'm a little sleep deprived, kinda slow on the uptake. Must increase caffeine intake.)

Huh, now I think about it, Typo's quote would fit in with some of Knut's Gooseberry Bluff characters/situations. Interesting Thought-provoking.

OK - this is definitely long - not any good quotes more plot world building and potential for a great character study

================= The dream was fundamentally a characters study of a couple who was sent on a mission that they made a great sacrifice for to help save the world, but it turned out that the short cut sought was not available. So now they have live with being public figures who did nothing wrong but are not the great public heroes they expected to be and are not the great public heroes everyone expected them to be. So they have to come to terms with being widely hated for something that is not their fault, and the world has to come to terms with the fact that if humanity is to be saved it will have to save itself the hard way, no shorcuts.

However the world building was interesting too.

The world is a dystopian, semi-post apocalyptic one. The world did not stop polluting in time and global warming got out of control. almost none of the earth's surface is suitable for agriculture, about 30% of land and sea can't grow anything. let along food crops. The only reason humanity survived was the development through genetic engineering of supergrass and superseaweed which both keeps global warming at bay enough so that people can survive, and provides food,fuel and fiber.

Technical details in note, though I don't know if you would include them* But that means that humanity is dependent on an ecosystem containing only two plant species, which might be wiped out by pests or disease at any moment. Also a much uglier world, with only one plant species on land, another on the sea, and the only animal life a few animal and insect species and fish which survive as pests living on the superplants. Plus a breed of hamster sized dogs which the rich keep as pets.

There is an interstellar civilization out there - a great slow one limited by light speed with much much more advanced technology than we have. If we could learn their energy secrets, we could spend huge amount of energy to remove the excess carbon from the atmosphere, Kill off the supergrass and superseaweed in large areas, and restore - well not the original ecosystem, but a more diverse one from the the gene banks. So a married couple are sent out in a ship at near light speeds to reach the nearest outpost and ask for help. A 20 year round trip journey their time, thanks to relativistic effects though they return 70 years after they left. Unfortunately, because information is the only cargo it makes sense to ship between solar systems, it turns out that technology is not given away for free. There was some sense that we should offer something in return when asking for this technology, so pretty much all of humankinds cultural heritage is digitized on onboard the ship. Unfortunately, it turns out the earth was scouted in the past, and most of humankinds cultural hertigage has been copyrighted by another civilization. Some recently rediscovered classic movies were missed by the scouts, as was the invention of the paper clip. So the couple is able to bring back improved storage technology, but nothing else.

So the couple returns in the year 2200, with improved storage technology but nothing that lets earth get off its dependence on superplants. There is some hope. Many scientists now believe in the year 2200 that commercial fusion is only 50 years away. But the mission did not bring what was hoped for. There is widespread public hostility for the couple, and also widespread pity. Of course the mission was not a failure. The couple made contact with another civilization, and in terms of economics, the storage tech they brought back more than paid back mission cost. But they have to deal with the attitudes they face, and with their own feeling of failure. Economically they just scrape by. They hoped to return rich from compound interest, but period bank failures took care of that. There is now a regular cycle of bank failure and bailout. Some people suggest it would less expensive just to publicly own the banks but that is dismissed (continued...)

( continues...) as crazy talk. Fortunately they are owed 70 years of back pay, plus at a legal age of 105 they are among the few people on earth to qualify for full payments under reformed social security. That money. plus jobs as servers in a luxury restaurant that features human staff instead of automation to attract wealthy customers lets them scrape by.

Anyway, you can see that there is a lot of satire, a lot of world building, and I think room for some character studies of the couple dealing with their "failure" and with world's reaction to it.

• Superplants can perform photsynthesis with about 20% efficiency as opposed to the 1% or less of most natural plantss. These contain all the protein, carbs and fats and most of the micronutrients as well humans need, and also provide sugars suitable to make alcohol fuel from. A very bad point is that these grow so much well that they have displaced all other plant life on land and sea. Humans continue to grow a few fruits and vegtables in air conditioned greenhouses as luxury foods.Less than a few hundred species of insects and animals who can live on this grass survive on land, and less than a dozen specieis of fish survive in the sea. Also, only the more efficient photosynthesis of these super crops which remove far more carbon from the air than plants could allows humanity to survive. Otherwise all of earth would be unlivable instead of only 30%

Wow! That's...a lot! Totally fascinating notions, though.

...most of humankinds cultural hertigage has been copyrighted by another civilization...

LOVE this.

Economically they just scrape by. They hoped to return rich from compound interest, but period bank failures took care of that. There is now a regular cycle of bank failure and bailout...plus at a legal age of 105 they are among the few people on earth to qualify for full payments under reformed social security. That money. plus jobs as servers in a luxury restaurant that features human staff instead of automation to attract wealthy customers lets them scrape by.

Your subconscious is even more cynical than me!

And seriously, this level of detail makes my, "then I was going to go on stage, but I didn't know the words to the song" (which I had before Williow!) seem a little inadequate. What's the secret to such lucid dreaming?