Another desparate organism, lost in the biomass.

biomass /ˈbaɪəʊmæs/ DJ /ˈbaɪoʊ-/ DJ US /'baɪoˈmæs/ KK US
the total quantity or weight of plants and animals in a particular area or volume noun uncountable singular technical

What is science but a collection of facts, an understanding of how part or whole of our Universe works? Science, like mathematics, like God, is self-apparent (they're all probably the same thing anyway). It was never created, save by the Universe itself, with the Universe itself.

Opinions and comparisons are purely a human thing. Science does not understand grand from inferior, long from short, beautiful from ugly, old from young. Expect no sympathy, love or hatred from it. Because it is not human, it has no capacity for such things.

The Scarlet Letter.

A

It's a time-tested American classic. It has graced the most prized of shelves time and time again. It was even the first novel that made American literature (in the eyes of the Europeans) worth reading. Most people in the recent age who have gone to high school in America have read it (or bullshitted it on Sparknotes and called it "reading"), and many hate it with a fiery passion. And no wonder, having first been published in 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne's dense, ornate style of narration has long gone out of fashion, and the miserable work is unfortunately accompanied by multiple essays in high school settings.

I am liable to be shot by high school students (and my friends) for admitting this, but I actually kind of like the book. I was capable of appreciating it the first time I read it, but this time around, after having learned how to work in the literary craft with ideas beyond the characters and the plot, Hawthorne's prose seems much easier, and I can appreciate the work all the more.

The Scarlet Letter is a story about sin, guilt, passion, and suffering. It's a story literally about the scarlet letter "A", the emblem of shame that our protagonist, Hester Prynne, is doomed to wear for the rest of her life by the Puritan society in which she lives. In the book alone, Hester is painted as the sole sufferer of the letter, but in history there have been other letter-bearers, as it was a common punishment employed by the Puritans.

In the case of Hester, the letter "A" stands for "Adulterer", for Adulterer is what she is. As if banging one innocent young blonde minister after two years of not hearing from her missing husband was really such a harmful thing, but to the pious Puritans, it was a horrible sin indeed.

The real sin committed in this work is not that of Hester and her ministerly mister, but of Roger Chillingworth, the creepy physician who used to be her husband. Chillingworth may be considered an early form of the "mad scientist", for he has an unhealthy fascination with the workings of the human mind. The victim of his studies is none other than poor Arthur Dimmesdale, who resides within the very same house as his patient.

Arthur Dimmesdale has turned to fasting and self-torture to deal with his inward suffering. He envies Hester because she can wear her shame for the whole world to see, for being a minister (and kind of a pussy) he cannot. The suffering of his soul manifests itself in the form of a chronic illness (of course, because an illness is hardly just an illness in fiction), giving Chillingworth, being the no doubt best physician in the town, an opening to perform his studies.

It is unclear exactly what Chillingworth does to Dimmesdale, aside from concocting medicines to treat his illness, but appears to be sort of molesting and violating his soul. Whatever it is he's doing, he's obviously aware that Dimmesdale's Hester's alleged mister, and it's not good for Dimmesdale's emotional health.

I can't help but notice a certain similarity between Chillingworth and Pearl, Hester and Arthur's illegitimate child. Pearl is repeatedly described as elfish, a precociously intelligent girl, and ever since her infancy she's had a fascination with the scarlet letter. It's not Hester's voice or face that identifies her as her mother, but the letter. This is clearly evident when Hester at last helps Arthur grow a pair and takes off the scarlet letter, and Pearl gets really upset and refuses to recognise Hester as her mother until she puts it back on. Anyways, the apparent similarity between her and Chillingworth, in her constant investigations of the scarlet letter. Pearl doesn't know what it means because Hester refuses to tell her, but she's quick to notice a relation between Arthur's habit of touching his heart and the scarlet letter. She will not let the matter rest which hurts him (and Hester) emotionally.

It is also interesting to note the change in the public understanding of Hester. Formerly, the letter stood for Adulter. Now, it stands for Able. Hester has put forth a lot of selflessness in clothing and feeding the poor, working for nothing but food to feed herself and Pearl. People regard her no longer as a walking sin, but as their pride and joy. This is only evidence that eternal punishment is unnatural, and human beings are made to love, not hate.

~*~

So, the Scarlet Letter. Great book. I recommend it.

Project One Fifty-Four

(Ah, fuck it, I'll never be able to format this banner in such a way it will fit into this column. Just click the blasted thing, because he has a cool earring and shit.)

---

I guess I should begin by introducing something I will probably talk about a lot lately for the next few months until it is finished. It is a novel in progress called Project One Fifty-Four, which will finish anywhere between 30k and 50k words in length. Imagine something the size of Nineteen Eighty-Four, perfect size for a good novel in my view.

Project One Fifty-Four is a dark, depeche mode-driven science-fiction taking place in San Francisco Bay in the 2030's-40's, about a man named One Fifty-Four who learns about what it means to be free.

To have an understanding of what One Fifty-Four is, understand that he was not born within a uterus. In 2017, a sperm and an ovum were collected from anonymous American donors who have never heard of each other. (They're not the 'mommy' and 'daddy' and had no idea what they were donating to.) The genetic information of each gamete¹ was extracted and replaced with one half of Project 154's genome (after being carefully proofread by a team of geneticists), and the modified gametes were allowed to conceive, and the resulting zygote was multiplied through various techniques to the point where there were hundreds of them. Each individual zygote was placed in its own little 65cm endometrium-lined² cell, and nine months later in 2018, Project One Fifty-Four was born.

A complicated process, isn't it? It had to be, if they wanted hundreds of copies of the same hominid³ with all the genetic traits they spliced in or created. With a process like that, they could make whatever the hell they want as long as it's a complete lifeform, kinda like computer programming. They could give 154 blonde hair or ginger hair or even the ruby red hair they spliced in from a cardinal to readily demonstrate their abilities. (Yes, the bird.) They gave One Fifty-Four an animal's tapetum lucidum⁴ so that he could see in the dark. They gave him agile, nimble fingers so that he could handle firearms with ease. They gave him the quick thinking and resourcefulness necessary to gain the upper hand in any situation, in any environment. They even gave him indigestible muscle mass so that he would starve and die rapidly if he ran away from his handlers.

Now, who would do such a thing? The age's medical and computer technology multi trillion-dollar American-based global monopolist, Systems Corporation. A board of big, fat, selfish rich people full of money, and full of ideas, with the US government all penned up right where they need them, and a whole seething mass of innocent, blissful civilians ready to fork out their money for new hip shit and work dead-end jobs for them; that's who.

'Course, One Fifty-Four himself is blissfully unaware of his purpose, or that the place he lives in is really an obscure underground UV-lighted facility⁵ and that there's more to the world than that, thanks to all the drugs they put him on for the past twenty-something years. But some way, some how, sometime in 2039 when he's an adult, he manages to break through this barrier, improvise an escape, and see the sun and trees and sea water and all that is good in this world for the first time in his life.

This story is about how One Fifty-Four builds his life after that day, the day of his true birth. It is about how he transforms from a project numbered One Fifty-Four into a man named Jack, how he discovers the concepts of family, friends, love, sexuality, responsibility and everything that makes a human human.

---

For those of you who have played Weasel's flash game Thing-Thing 4, yes, it is indeed where I got the inspiration for this story. It's very different from the original plot, I'm afraid, but I won't be parting with the original name any time soon after having worked with it so long. (not to mention it happens to be Fahrenheit 451 backwards.) You won't find any OMFG SUPER KEWL GREEK GOD MECHAS here. Just a load of sap and philosophy and biology and shit that cannot be appreciated by pasty-faced 14-year-old gamerfags.

Also, it is always pronounced One Fifty-Four. Never One Hundred Fifty-Four or, god forbid, One Five Four.

~*~

¹ 'Gamete' or 'germ cell' is the name for a sperm or an ovum (egg). Its function is to carry on the process of sexual reproduction.

² 'Endrometrium' is the anatomical term for uterine lining. An embryo must implant in the endometrium (or a similar rich tissue) in order to grow. This endometrium was harvested from the uterus of a sow.

³ 'Hominid' is the taxonomic term for any of the bipedal primates, including not only Homo sapiens, but also Homo neanderthalis, Homo erectus, and others. Hominid is used here because Project One Fifty-Four isn't quite our species, his genome is that different.

⁴ The tapetum lucidum is the membrane in the back of an animal's eye that reflects light and allows it to see better in the dark. But in total darkness, it can't see at all because there is no light to reflect. For some reason humans don't have them.

⁵ Fluorescent lights shine using UV radiation from mercury vapor. Usually mercury vapor, but other gases are used as well.

חַנָּה (on the title)

The title "favored by god" means two things:
- I have a large ego.
- I am fascinated by etymological meanings.

"Favored by God" is what you get if you take my name Anne, track it down to its origins, (Channah, חַנָּה) and translate that into English. Yes, even common names have a meaning. Some are a little obscure and hard to find, like "Iran" or "London", but they are there, somewhere.

The goal of an etymologist is to wipe away the dust of time and search for the etymon, the ετυμον, the true thing, the core of the word. It is there, somewhere, hidden under all the transformations and connotations and all sorts of decay, waiting to be found, like the formation of the universe or the origins of civilization.

I guess that's also my philosophy in life.