I recently read the story Chisel and Chime by Alex Irvine, a short story in the January/February edition of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and two facets of the world stood out to me. First, every person was born with a magical spark that could be spent in a myriad of ways but also couldn’t be regained. Second, the spirits of the dead undeniably exist. I don’t mean this to devolve into an argument on the existence of spirits, but rather to ask what the world would be like if there was undeniable evidence of spirits influencing the world in such a way that dealing with their interventions became an integral part of society and culture. What would it be like if the voices of dead loved ones could interject their thoughts into our own, or even move the limbs of another? If dead spirits could be captured, if only for a time? Most would try to hold on to those who passed. Of course they would, it would be illogical not to try and reach for what will be missed. But what kind of repercussions would stem from that choice?
Often in stories the dead have been changed by their passing, bent if not twisted. Often they want to return to life at the cost of the living. No matter the case, their stay is usually temporary, the spirits eventually fading into the unknown. All stories have a barrier at some point beyond which is mystery. Permanence, if not grotesque, is usually shown as unnatural, driven by an unaccomplished goal, or unfinished business as is commonly associated with ghosts. I suppose if this wasn’t the case, the dead would crowd out the living. In Chisel and Chime, the spirit of a man who acted as a father to one of the main characters stays in a chime worn around the character’s neck. He guides the character through the wilds and teaches him to hunt and live until the spirit fades and moves on. I found that to be a beautiful sentiment, if bittersweet, where one dead too soon can stay for a time and leave in relative peace.
This also ties in to the show Upload, which recently aired on Amazon. I haven’t finished it yet, but it’s set in a future world where consciousness can be uploaded into a corporately owned digital afterlife, at least for those who can afford the nickel and dime shtick the corporations throw at them (or their families). These people who have died and been uploaded aren’t spirits in the fantasy sense, but they are consciousnesses that no longer have a physical body yet can think and interact with those still alive. The moral dilemmas here come quick and fast, not least among them the financial strain put on the living since laws state the dead can’t work (back to the fear of the dead crowding out the living), yet how can the living say no? They could save money by only spinning up ancestors for big occasions, leaving them in stasis for the rest of the time (guess I veered into Altered Carbon there with the term “spinning”). If adequate technology and resources such that simulations for all who died could be created and maintained for the foreseeable future, that would be one thing. But outside of that scenario a digital afterlife would be rationed, with Upload looking at the capitalist method and the resulting moral grey.
I haven’t really touched on the first point I mentioned about Chisel and Chime, that of everyone having a magical spark that could be spent. I will say, my first thought was that it would be an equalizer, letting everyone at birth obtain a magical spark enabling them to do incredible things. In some sense that’s true. But it’s also true that those born without much would often sell their spark for a paltry sum.
I think I’ve rambled on long enough. For any who made it this far, thanks for reading.
M. Weald
M. Weald 