Just read Chapter 2. Meant to get to it much sooner, but I've been busy.
You're using Ayn Rand's concept of "Galt's Gulch"--though the idea certainly didn't originate with her.
If you read Edgar Rice Burroughs--Who I heartily recommend to anyone--fully three fourths of his "Tarzan" Stories involve Tarzan stumbling into some "Gulch". The "Gulches" for the most part, were established long ago, and have existed Unchanged, and Completely Unknown to the World ever since.
There was one started by Middle Age Crusaders, who had managed somehow to get thoroughly lost--somehow ending up in Tropical Africa. Half of them wanted to continue on---the other half wanted to turn around and head home--so the gross result was that they stayed, built castles, had jousting tournaments, and taught all the surrounding Tribes to wear chain mail, and speak King James English.
Another Gulch contained a Miniature Roman Civilization complete with their own Coliseum.....
A left-over colony from Atlantis.....
Why digress so much?
Because I'm trying to make my comments interesting to read--in and of themselves.....
And contribute to the interesting word count on this Forum.
My favorite Burroughsian Gulch--though not if I have to live there--or even visit.....
Was a Hidden Valley filled with people who kept lions as pets, had bred a sentient breed of both Parrots and Monkeys to be their stool pigeons.....
And the were all stark-raving mad. The stranded Heroine has a conversation with a 114 year old daughter of a Missionary, who's spent most of her long life there; and although she says it very discretely--she believes that the practice of having Sex with the Lions is what drove the whole race crazy.....
Dudes, I got news for you! By the time they started looking at Giant Kitty-Kitty-Kitties with Lust of Forethought, the
Butter had already
long since
Slid Off Their Waffles!Back to Galt's Gulch. They had a super high-tech cloaking device that made them invisible, and all but unfindable.
HMMMmmnn...Tarzan stumbles into a Gulch filled with Hardcore Randists/Objectivists--who've been living there with '30s "
Amazing Science Fiction" style
Super-Technology, in total isolation from the Outside World, Since the late 40s....
Might try to write that myself someday.
But without such a super cloaking device. its rather hard to see why a Government ruthlessly suppressing an Insurrection, wouldn't Carpet Bomb an obvious center of resistance like "
Eli and Me's Gulch".....
Though having your own Air Force is a big step in that direction. Still, if the Gubbies targeted the Gulch with 150 of whatever the US Equivalent to the SCUD Missile was...
Its really fun to play with Large-Scale MAGs (Mutual Assistance Groups). The more funding that is required, and the more personnel, the inherently more improbable the story...
The reader is willing to Really
bend and stretch his idea of Credibility a great deal, in order to suspend disbelief--because he
wants to be entertained.....
But the farther you ask him to Stretch his Credibility, the more careful you have to be not to break it completely beyond repair.
Shorty--You are doing a good job of keeping your tale "Real"--despite some "Out There" stuff.The "
Seven Dwarf Survivalists and their secret Silver and Sapphire Mine" is handled well--however improbable it may be in the "
Real World"--For those of us who believe that there is a
Real World.
{Which should forestall all the Angry Responses such a statement can easily bring, from folks at War with the Idea that there is a "Real World".} But when you start presenting your Conspiracy Theories though, I started groaning a bit.
Rothschilds and Banker Gnomes and the Illuminati--O my!!!?Still, the story is still fun.
And addressing all would-be Conspiracy Theory novel writers.....
Bring in the Jesuits, The Illuminati, The Wobblies, The Commies, The Elders of Zion, Dykes on Bikes and the Scientologists if you must.....
And if you can annoy the Musselmen and poke fun at Mohammed--Protein for you.....
But Please lay off the Masons. They are good guys.
MY father was a 32nd Degree Mason, Member of the Blue Lodge, Scottish Right and was a Shriner.
I never chose to go that path--nor am I what they really look for in a Member--being Stubborn, Abrasive, Irresponsible and more than a bit Lazy--but for whatever reasons--I forbore.
Sometimes I mildly regret not following in my Father's Footsteps. It would have made him proud. God knows that I did few enough things to make him proud in his lifetime.
But if the Masons
were running the World behind everyone's back--surely my Father would have had enough clout to save my job with the Railroad.....or secured me a position on the Police Department--back when I thought that being a Law meant that they paid you good money to be a "Gun-Nut".....or gotten me a quick, no-hassels Discharge from the US Army when I found that I hated the Army more than I hated life itself.....or gotten me one of the many positions that I fought so hard for, while I spent many fruitless years jobless.
No, my Father was a good guy.
I Remember one Thanksgiving Day, shortly after he died. My sister had invited a couple from her Church over and they had a couple of seventeen year old sons.
I asked one of them if he and his brother were going to the Shrine Circus. He replied that the Shrine was a Cult.
I argued momentarily.....then arose with my Thanksgiving Dinner half eaten, drove off in my Truck, and didn't come back till the next morning.....
I thought that was preferable to starting a Brawl in my Father's House.
So remember, when you slander the Masons, you are slandering my, and a great many other folk's Fathers.
For anyone not acquainted with my writing.....
"
Calderas" is the only story that I ever attempted on anywhere near this scale.....
And truthfully--It i
s/was a lot of work.
I have committed to reading this one chapter at a time--and then stopping to comment--on the Story--or anything else under God's Green Earth that seems Comment-Worthy to
Me.
But so far, Shorty is doing a workmanlike job with a difficult Story Format......RVM45
