The Young Person's Guide to the Organism

Author’s Note ^{(from Gravity Wells short story collection)}

“The Young Person’s Guide to the Organism”: The title comes from Benjamin Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra or Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Purcell. This is a musical work written in 1945, designed to introduce children to the various instruments in a symphony orchestra.

Structurally, the piece starts with the entire orchestra playing a simple tune composed by Henry Purcell in the 1600s. Then each different instrument plays a variation on the tune, demonstrating the sound of the instrument, the range, something about playing technique, and so on. When Britten has finished taking apart the entire orchestra, he puts it back together again in a fugue that has all the instruments taking the melody line in the order they were first presented. Finally, while the fugue continues in the background, the brass section soars in with the original Purcell tune playing over top of the rest of the orchestra (which is still belting out the fugue).

If that sounds complicated when described in words, it’s quite straightforward when you hear the music. You can probably find a recording of the piece at your local library—check it out and listen for yourself. Most recordings have narrators who explain what’s going on throughout the music, so you won’t have any trouble following the structure.

I followed the same structure in writing “The Young Person’s Guide to the Organism.” In my case, the initial “theme” was one of science fiction’s classics: First Contact. The story consists of a number of individual “voices” describing their moment of contact with an enigmatic alien organism that drifts slowly through the solar system. Each of these individuals imposes his or her own interpretation on what the organism is—the organism serves as a blank slate on which personal concerns are projected. At the end of the story, in the fugue section, the individuals are brought together again for a climax, and then the original theme of First Contact comes back for the grand finale.

It’s worth noting that “Organism” tells the story of First Contact between humans and the League of Peoples. That makes it the foundation for all of the novels I’ve published so far.