A Parallel Universe?

A Parallel Universe?




Try to imagine the life of bacteria and how it might compare to your own. Better yet, try to imagine yourself as a bacteria living on your own planet...let's say an apple.

Okay, you are now a bacteria living on an apple in the tree. Ready? Here we go.

With the proper telescopic equipment you can see other apples/planets a long distance away but it is impossible for you to travel that far. Nevertheless, you look at these other worlds and wonder if life could exist on these far away places. You have been taught that there is a higher power...a controller...a super being that makes, or allows, things to happen to you. (Good or bad) You wonder what your life is for and ask the same question that was asked by previous generations; do you have a purpose, and if so, what is it?

You go to work each day leaving your loved ones at home hoping they will survive the uncertainties of that day. Your job is in the mining industry, and deep within you realize that you are helping to destroy your world. Unfortunately, you have been given no choice and must do what you are told because of the loved ones you have at home. You realize that your own life expectancy is short by comparison to other things in your world so you try to forget about the damage you are doing to your environment. You hope that maybe the next generation can fix things and do better than you did.

Of course you can�t forget about the threat of war. That is something you live with daily and have come to accept as normal. As a bacterium, you have many concerns, and many enemies, but none as dreaded as the Bacteriophages. These warlike beings can attack at any moment leaving destruction and death in their wake. On a personal level, you have nothing against these beings, but you have been taught to hate and fear them by the higher-ups that are supposed to know more than you. If these highly educated bacteria were truly smarter, why is there still a threat of war?

As a modern bacterium, you will be expected to live out your life doing what you�re told and not ask too many questions or say anything bad about the leaders. Higher learning has been an issue for many generations, but it matters very little if you even have a brain. You have no voice in what is being planned for the future of yourself or your offspring. That has been left up to the smart ones, and your ideas don�t count. Of course you could join the ranks of the smart ones, but only if you have the resources. So you look again toward the heavens and wonder why you are there. What purpose do you serve?
        

As a human, the life of the one-celled bacteria may sound familiar. If so, we are in real trouble!

Author's Note

Be honest

Reviews

[Moonlit-Blues]

Love the extended metaphors in this, thought it worked very efficiently!
The wording of this is conscise, it doesn't waffle. It mirrors the scientific jargon, by taking the reader through a simple vision of an apple, some might interpretate it as the apple of life, depending on which approach and views one is coming from. This is beautifully written and caught my intrigue as the story unfurled. Love your analogy and like Laurie's mentioned previously - the clarity of language and the introspective which in turn parodies post modern soicety. Beautifully done! Thanks, for the awesome read!

[Laurie Morrison]

I've read a similar analogy with cattle; as they are walking up the chute to the slaugherhouse, one asks the other, "Do you think we serve some Higher Purpose? Is there really any meaning to our lives?" *rimshot* Your story/blog is very existential and darkly ironic--almost as twisted as mine! And if the apple falls from the tree, will the unworthy bacteria be 'left behind'? Or is it the other way around? I enjoyed your story. Here is a like to a bit of slam poetry it reminds me of:
http://www.slick.com/dmd/dancemonkeysdance.htm

Overall, I like your use of language and analogy to parody our post-modern society. Keep up the good work!

[NineSpeed]

Hey, Someone Who actually gets it, Suprise, suprise, suprise, excellent read, I was beginning to think I was in a very small group of people that actually says what needs to be said. great job. Keep it up

[Drea]

I like how it starts with the bacteria looking out to other apples and wondering if life could exist on other planets:apples.
We know full well it does; thought the small bacteria have no way of knowing this with the tools they currently have. No way of seeing their place in the larger scheme of the universe.

It sort of has that Horton hears a Who flavour at the intro but in a much more adult manner.

I thought you were going to go more Carl Sagan Cosmos with it or Terrance McKenna Existential with it; based on the opening. Instead you chose to bring us back down the length of the telescope to the planet proper and issues on that apple. An interesting choice.

I see where you are going with this; though I think it would be interesting if you took the Cosmos tack a bit further to begin with and then bring it round to how the bacteria's behaviour affects the web of the universe. Perhaps eating away at the apple; bruising it; and causing it to fall from the tree.

[Done]

I think we are in trouble, because this sounds like life; as a human. It's a fairly good analogy and it brings up some seriously important things that we, as humans, need to really think about. Responsibility is one virtue humans have still failed to master.

A good read, I enjoyed it. Thanks!