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While You Are Over There
"While You Are Over There" is found-footage science fiction. Widescreen in scope and intimate in execution, it's the story of two scientists -- imagine Reed Richards and Sue Storm, on the brink of a public divorce -- riding the wave of journalism and popular sentiment to the top of the ratings charts... And contemplating an abrupt drop into the abyss.
Kirby Brendan and Jonah Hope, a futurist and an engineer, have spent the last fifteen years spinning a few defense contracts and media contacts into a whirlwind media flurry: Scientists of a new age, the spacefaring dreams of an entire globe hanging on their every adventure and discovery. Their snappy combination of Bravo-style reality TV and the scientific excitement of Neil Tyson or Bill Nye has brought a small Nat Geo channel down from the nosebleeds to become a water-cooler classic for families and intellectuals alike.
But years into their partnership, the cold has set in. An artificial intelligence, known to billions of viewers as their digital daughter, summons them to the orbital station they've paid for with fast talk, arms trading and photo opportunities. As the world looks on, Kirby and Jonah -- the faces of a new scientific optimism, the embodiment of a dream fulfilled -- are forced to reevaluate not only their personal values, but the reality of their marriage as a polemical act.
Through on-site media appearances and satellite-relayed reports, re-aired interviews and scenes never dreamt fit for public consumption, we track Kirby and Jonah's last journey into space, to a reconciliation that could spell the end of the world, as family myths and history -- and computational analysis -- recombine into a desperate gambit for survival... Not only for one married couple and their half-human, invented child, but possibly the Earth's fate itself.
Kirby Brendan and Jonah Hope, a futurist and an engineer, have spent the last fifteen years spinning a few defense contracts and media contacts into a whirlwind media flurry: Scientists of a new age, the spacefaring dreams of an entire globe hanging on their every adventure and discovery. Their snappy combination of Bravo-style reality TV and the scientific excitement of Neil Tyson or Bill Nye has brought a small Nat Geo channel down from the nosebleeds to become a water-cooler classic for families and intellectuals alike.
But years into their partnership, the cold has set in. An artificial intelligence, known to billions of viewers as their digital daughter, summons them to the orbital station they've paid for with fast talk, arms trading and photo opportunities. As the world looks on, Kirby and Jonah -- the faces of a new scientific optimism, the embodiment of a dream fulfilled -- are forced to reevaluate not only their personal values, but the reality of their marriage as a polemical act.
Through on-site media appearances and satellite-relayed reports, re-aired interviews and scenes never dreamt fit for public consumption, we track Kirby and Jonah's last journey into space, to a reconciliation that could spell the end of the world, as family myths and history -- and computational analysis -- recombine into a desperate gambit for survival... Not only for one married couple and their half-human, invented child, but possibly the Earth's fate itself.
ebook
First published March 1, 2014
23 people want to read
About the author
Jacob Clifton
74 books36 followersJacob Clifton lives in Austin, Texas. Previously: Austin Chronicle, Tribune Media, Television Without Pity, Tor.com and Gawker.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 23, 2015
A smart story of science heroes at the far end of love. The bricolage, cross-cut approach to point-of-view took me out of the story a few times, unsure whose perspective was at play, and that created some distance from the characters for me. But this approach made sense as an authorial choice for a story where bits of language are reused, replayed, recontextualized. I love Clifton's prose style and his ability to create a deliberately fragmentary story that nevertheless pulls the reader along a track of rising action.
August 31, 2016
Jacob Clifton's writing always manages to break me open, and this was no exception. I became emotionally invested in Kirby and Jonah immediately and that kept me hanging on every word, even when I didn't understand what was happening (which was frequently - this is the sort of story that requires repeated readings). It's a lovely, beautifully written story and I adored every moment of it.
August 14, 2014
Clifton has done a very cool thing here: made me devoutly wish the two main characters of this story (and their reality show) were real. Diverting and heart-tugging at the same time.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews