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" Reality Machine "
Dressler, Orion
Thompson, K. T.
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Latin Dissertation
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| Language of Document
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English
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| Record Number
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1053656
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| Doc. No
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TL52773
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| Main Entry
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Dressler, Orion
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| Title & Author
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Reality Machine\ Dressler, OrionThompson, K. T.
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| College
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Northern Arizona University
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| Date
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2020
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| Degree
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M.F.A.
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| student score
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2020
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| Note
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157 p.
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| Abstract
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My hybrid poetry and fiction novella, Reality Machine, centers on main character Gimel as he travels through the multiverse trying to regain his memory and help find a world-renowned poet and other-dimensional version of himself, Ibrahim Gimel. This piece was crafted, on a literal scale, out of a desire to place both Gimel and another important character, Seti, in the same universe; they were both characters I was dying to use in a project. I considered what it would take to get those characters in the same world, and the idea for a multiverse was born. On a more idea-level scale, and to speak to my writing philosophy as well, I have a growing need to understand what’s happening in the world through my work. I am attempting to create timely, thought-provoking work that allows me to voice my view of government, climate change, queerness, mental illness, and the way each of those topics inform one another, and display how each facet of myself is intrinsic to the way the world affects me, and the way I process these events. On a deeper level, this story deals with topics like identity, capitalism, the victims of it, and the commodification of art. All of the characters are queer in some way, with the sole exception of Dr. Alvers, the doctor who originally helps the patient. The prince, a version of Gimel from another universe, is also from a people who have just formed a new kingdom based on the idea of preserving memory and documenting new knowledge; their pursuit of documentation is based on their history practically being wiped out by people who are essentially colonizers, or at the very least tyrants. The relationship of the kingdom and their former occupants is similar to that of the Hebrew people and Egypt. This also relates back to the idea of capitalism; multiverse-traveling android Seti explains that her creator Gim—a third version of Gimel—suffered conditions at work which were practically that of slave labor. This is the situation that the prince actually comes from; though he has risen to the rank of royalty, he does not allow himself to forget the subjugation of his people, and does his best to uplift them. Additionally, Sam originally believes Gimel to be a victim of poor working conditions. The harm of such a system is clear as it prioritizes profit and the wellbeing of the ruling class over lower classes, and this is what my story is critiquing. Ibrahim Gimel is a capitalist in this way, being a member of the ruling class and destroying the lives of people so that he can continue to spread his art; he is improving his own image at the cost of the lives around him. In this way, he is using his art as a commodity, and Gimel eventually realizes this is harmful and tries to use his art as a healing thing. He resets the universe for these people; however, he never removes the system that is the root of the issue, which displays the distance of thought between Gim, who actively works to improve conditions for workers, and Gimel, who maintains the status quo. The “punishment” Gimel goes through at the end is only a start to the dismantling of the inherently harmful system that allows the upper class to take advantage of the lower class, but Gim makes it clear that Gimel has more work to do to make things right. My time in NAU’s MFA program was mostly spent in poetry workshops, which gave me the confidence in my final semester to take a fiction workshop and strike out on my own in writing poetry for Reality Machine. I also found a group of fellow writers in this program who I believe understand the goals and deeper abouts of my work on a level that not all of my peers did; these relationships ensured me that, even without a poetry workshop, I would still have the support and feedback I needed when I needed it. The readings in creative writing course with Dr. KT Thompson helped me form more concrete critiques of capitalism and find the words to voice those critiques in this piece. This critique is at the heart of the novella; suffice to say this project would not exist if I had not been given the opportunity to study with Dr. Thompson. My interest in writing science fiction is something that only developed recently; after reading such novels as Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer and The Power by Naomi Alderman. Both deal with structures of government—those of the upper class—and the way the government attempts to maintain their power, including through lying or waging war, in the face of different sorts of change. While this doesn’t take place on a large scale in my novel, Ibrahim Gimel represents these upper-class interests, and he never takes action to undermine his own power over lower-class individuals. The idea for a multiverse-spanning piece came not only from necessity, but also from K Chess’ novel Famous Men Who Never Lived, which has characters from different timelines. In addition to these fiction influences, TC Tolbert’s poetry, which largely deals with topics of identity, has also been an influence on the way my work also deals with identity. “Prophecy,” the most successful poem in the novella—in my opinion—is a cross between these influences, where disaster meets status quo meets identity. The goal for this novella is to send it out, to put it plainly. I have already sent out the poem “Prophecy,” but the rest of the novella is just as crucial because of its timeliness, but also its timelessness. The deeper abouts are things that matter now, and have historically mattered. Capitalism is harmful now, and has been harmful; art has been commodified when it should be about creation and sharing, not about profit. The story in Reality Machine is important for me to share, and I want to seize the opportunity to do so.
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| Descriptor
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Creative writing
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| Added Entry
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Thompson, K. T.
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Northern Arizona University
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