Let’s Invent a People
Do you enjoy writing science-fiction or fantasy? Here’s an idea from author N.K. Jemisin.
Hand holding a fox skull. Photo: Tanya Clarke 2016
Origin of a Species
"Remember, Tanya, you have just had an organ removed."
A couple of weeks ago I had laparoscopic surgery to remove my gallbladder where a large two-centimetre-wide gallstone had slowly been building, making my gallbladder its home. The stone was causing me pain, sometimes a sharp searing pain underneath my ribs which caused me to double over, wincing, squeezing my eyes shut until it eased.
The time had come to have the whole thing removed.
It happened quicker than I anticipated. I thought I'd be able to take my sweet time getting used to the idea of surgery while my name slowly moved up the waiting list. Until a call three weeks ago from the surgeon's office. There'd been a cancellation.
The following week, the surgeon pulled my gallbladder out of an incision a few inches below my sternum after my abdomen had been inflated with carbon dioxide until I looked ‘ten months pregnant' a cheerful nurse told me as I came round from the anaesthetic.
So now I'm less my gallbladder as are millions of other people around the world. My brother-in-law told me how his aunt kept her gallstones in a purse. Polished and shiny she’d get them out occasionally to show everyone. I didn't get to keep mine.
How to Invent a People
For this week, in keeping with thoughts on human biology, let's try to invent a race of people that have evolved in a particular way due to the environment they live in.
Let's take a look at The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin. The first book in the Broken Earth trilogy is set on a continent called the Stillness, a large landmass with constant tectonic activity resulting in earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis. The orogenes are people that have the ability to control tectonic plates and manipulate the kinetic energy around them. They have a highly developed organ called the sessapinae situated at the brain stem which allows them to detect seismic events.
I've been watching N.K. Jemisin's new Masterclass on writing science fiction & fantasy. She describes how she developed the idea of the orogenes.
“All the people in The Broken Earth trilogy have an organ in their brains that we don’t in our world...they have an organ in their brain that is reacting to or is able to kind of give a little bit of advance warning about seismic activity that’s about to happen. And in creating that particular variation on the human species, I literally looked at other species on our planet which do react early when they perceive an earthquake or something coming...when you look at birds or other animals that react to those seismic vibrations, they do have a little organ in their brain...that warns them in advance... So I just transferred that into people.”
N.K. Jemisin Teaches Fantasy & Science Fiction Writing - Masterclass
What a wonderful idea. You only need to change one thing about a human, one thing that makes sense as an adaptation within the environment you've created. Perhaps your world was flooded thousands of years ago and your people have adapted to live in this watery environment. What would be that adaptation? Or maybe your world is a dry, dusty desert where the sun burns down at a constant 60C. Or maybe the moon has moved slightly out of earth’s orbit and gravity has changed on our planet. Small changes have massive consequences. I hope you get the idea.
Until next time.
