Science fiction has a celebrated role in inspiring real scientific advancements. But, the relationship also works in the opposite direction, with science inspiring stories to go to new places. Here, author Laline Paull explains just how scientific facts sent her novel The Bees into an unexpected direction.
Paull joined us today to answer questions about her new novel, including a particularly interesting exchange where she traced for us just how a piece of entomological research made her dramatically shift the perspective of her book:
In August, the io9 book club read Laline Paull's The Bees. Today, from noon - 1:00 p.m.... Read moreRead on
I realised I had to write The Bees because when I started to read about the actual creature, there were so many extraordinary entomological facts - like the annual massacre of the males, and the fact the drones DO NO WORK their whole lives, that my imagination was fired. I suddenly saw this celebrity sexual minority, whose entire raison d'être is to mate, and so long as they go for that goal with gusto, the rest of the time they can do as they please. Drones can't even feed themselves, and even defecate in the hive. So first of all I was going to write it from the POV of a drone who somehow manages to miss the massacre - because if a drone actually does this, when it's all over his sisters will let him live. Then, I found out about the 1 in 10,000 rarity of the sterile female worker, who will spontaneously begin forming eggs in her body, to the consternation of certain of her sisters, who even biologists refer to as 'the fertility police'. These real squads of bees will search for the laying worker, hunt her down and kill her, and eat her eggs. This is real biology, and really scary to imagine. And then there's the brutal phenomenon of how the princesses will seek each other out and fight to the death until only one is left alive to rule and be queen. Life behind those beehive walls is really stranger than anything I could imagine - so I just rushed to write the story.
. . .
It happened while writing The Bees that many times there was a fork in the road, in narrative terms, when I could have gone off in any number of directions. Having written a novel before The Bees, which is still (I'm glad to say) in my bottom drawer, I learned that being wild in your narrative means your story flounders. So I made the decision to stick to the truth of the organism, wherever I could. And that led me to the best story I could write, because it was steeled with fact
What do you think? Does having some real science integrated into the plot enhance a story for you? Tell us why or why not, and what stories found just the right blend of science and story, in the comments now.
Image: Andrena nida bee / Sam Droege, USGS Bee Lab Inventory and Monitoring Entities 0 Name: Laline Paull Count: 2 1 Name: US GS Bee Lab Inventory Count: 1 2 Name: Monitorin Count: 1 3 Name: Sam Droege Count: 1 4 Name: Andrena Count: 1 5 Name: Paull Count: 1 Related Keywords 0 Name: bee Score: 47 1 Name: paull Score: 30 2 Name: drone Score: 23 3 Name: story Score: 20 4 Name: laline Score: 20 5 Name: write Score: 18 6 Name: novel Score: 16 7 Name: entomological Score: 16 8 Name: science Score: 15 9 Name: imagine Score: 13 authors 0 Name: Ria Misra Url: http://ift.tt/1cUHYDE Media Images 0
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