The Ozymandias Site

1. Weirdmonger left...

This is fully contextualised at link immediately above.

2. Weirdmonger left...

Regarding above, I have heard from the author of 'The Ozymandias Site' who has agreed I can quote this publicly:

"I love the idea that this story could form a central part of the overall theory, the theory that the CERN collider is sabotaging itself from the future. It appeals to the part of me that loves conspiracies, the unexplained, the mysterious and majestic, which is exactly what I was hoping for with the story. The story is actually quite a bit different from most of what I write and was a bit of a leap into the unknown. And the idea of the five parts (the zoo) of the self came from a dream, so perhaps the CERN collider was speaking to me while I was asleep. At first I was going to have a zoo on the moon, run by humans, but then I decided to write humans out of the picture completely. It came from a desire to write about something beyond humans without resorting to anthropomorphising. It was an exercise in defamiliarisation which ultimately led me back to writing perhaps my most 'humane' piece ever - our future suicide, just like the suicide of the creature, which destroys itself from within. I think the story stands up well to a revisionist reading and I too would love to hear other theories about what the story means!"

3. Weirdmonger left...

Received by me from a reader of 'The Ozymandias Site':

"... the whole Hadron business is now taking off big time. A self-fulfilling prophecy/THEORY, perchance? Great to hear from the Ozymandias genius her/himself. A zoo on the Moon? Outstanding. I agree with you: this story is significant. It's right up with David I. Masson's "Traveller's Rest" and Greg Bear's "Hardfought" (and provides an intriguing disharmony when read against Clarke's "The Sentinel") when speaking in terms of pure high octane envelope breaking, nay crushing. I suspect in Masson's case that he was unaware of any "rules" when it came to writing sf - and our Nemozymandian exhibits similar (longed for!) qualities."