What Sime Gen Means to Me
What Sime Gen Means to Me
He had tentacle extending from his arms and with his right hand he had a hold of the womans wrist while tentacles bound their arms together. Behind them on the wall was a stared cross carved into the rock, and the name of that book was House of Zeor.
I did not even have to read one word of what the book was about to know I wanted to read it. Something about that image was enough to buy the book and sit in the corner of the bookshop, as I often did, and start reading. I was only half way through when I was totally hooked. I was already identifying with the characters, especially with the tentacled Sime, Klyd.
The stories set in the Sime Gen universe are more than just science fiction. They are personal stories of individuals and communities struggling with and doing their best to overcome overwhelming circumstances and trying to reunite the human race.
I found that the internal and external troubles resonated with me and proved a powerful analogy to my own life. At ten my grandmother died sleeping beside me and It was something I could never talk about until I read that first Sime Gen book.
Thirty years after that childhood event I tried to talk to a professional and while I could talk about some things I could never talk about that night my Grandmother died. I felt just like the young children of Gens in the Sime~Gen stories who through no fault of their own, went through changeover to become Simes and in Need, Killed the first person they came across, usually a relative. I took House of Zeor to my doctor and said, Read this so you will understand what I need to tell you.
When she had read it, I told her my story in Sime~Gen analogy. I told her that at ten I changed over and the only person there was my grandmother and that I had Killed her and that I had to go through a long process of disjunction, (separation from the Kill) Even that matched Sime~Gen as I ended up in a girls home for just over a year.
Having read the book, my doctor knew what I was inferring to and we were able to talk about it without my emotions overwhelming me before I could get it out. That was the first time I had been able to discus that aspect of my life. Thanks to the writing of a deeply powerful human story I was able to tell my story to someone else. For this alone I will always be grateful to Jacqueline Lichtenberg.
As an adult I was treated in real life as the Channels of the books, the special Simes that acted against their societies norms and thus deemed perverted for not wanting to Kill or harm those who were not like them, and to help other learn not to Kill. Of course it is more than just being different for Simes and Gens, it is life and death for both, but the reactions from people and the feelings for me were as strong. From that first book I eagerly awaited each new one.
In 1989 for my Birthday a friend called the author, Jacqueline Lichtenberg, without saying anything and handed me the phone. Perplexed I asked who it was when she said hello. The voice said This is Jacqueline Lichtenberg here. Thinking I was being set up by friends who knew how much I lived in the Sime~Gen universe, I was shocked into silence by the fact that I was really speaking with Jacqueline. Like any fan my first words ran along the I love your books lines. and then we settled into a good talk about all sorts of things and Jacqueline was as surprised by speaking to someone from Australia as I was about speaking to her. From that conversation my connection to Sime Gen deepened.
Some years later I found the Sime~Gen webpage and other fans and fan fiction. I thought I was the only one in Australia up until that point. Through the role playing forum that was happening at the time I found a true friend who identified as Gen. She too used Sime~Gen as an analogy to life and we became best friends. In Sime~Gen parlance we became Channel and Companion.
I have written some short story fan fiction and some novel length stories. In 2011 I was lucky enough to get to go to my first WorldCon and I spent some amazing time with both Jacqueline Lichtenberg and Jean Lorrah, who is Co-author in the Sime Gen universe.
The great thing about these stories is that they can be read in any order and by any generation. Although some of these books were written some time ago they do not suffer the problem of being dated by the era of their writing, which can sometimes happen with older publications and movies. They can be read now in 2012 and be as easily readable as they were in the seventies and eighties.
It has been thirty six years since I read my first Sime~Gen book and each time I read them I get something new, something different, and something meaningful from each story. With every re-read my connection deepens with the struggles of the characters, and strength needed to push through and do the best they can to survive and make the world better for others.
And now, with the new books and re-releases, the books are also going audio, with my favourite, House of Zeor being the first. Michael Spence does an amazing job of putting new life into the words and it is like experiencing the story anew. One of the newest stories, Personal Recognizance, has also been put to audio, and others are in the works. No doubt I will still read the books, but I will certainly be listening to them as well. I cannot get enough of the Sime~Gen universe.
Thanks to these stories I have been able to push myself to face what I would have shied away from, and to look into myself and try to be the best I can be. I may not be the best person there is, but I try to be the best person I can be, and when I falter I think of Zeors motto which says that it is not the achievement of excellence, but the continual striving for excellence that is the important quality. Striving for excellence and striving to better myself and be of use to others is what keeps me looking ahead and positive.
Thank you Jacqueline, and Jean, for without Sime~Gen my life may have turned out different, and not so positive.
Zoe Farris
I did not even have to read one word of what the book was about to know I wanted to read it. Something about that image was enough to buy the book and sit in the corner of the bookshop, as I often did, and start reading. I was only half way through when I was totally hooked. I was already identifying with the characters, especially with the tentacled Sime, Klyd.
The stories set in the Sime Gen universe are more than just science fiction. They are personal stories of individuals and communities struggling with and doing their best to overcome overwhelming circumstances and trying to reunite the human race.
I found that the internal and external troubles resonated with me and proved a powerful analogy to my own life. At ten my grandmother died sleeping beside me and It was something I could never talk about until I read that first Sime Gen book.
Thirty years after that childhood event I tried to talk to a professional and while I could talk about some things I could never talk about that night my Grandmother died. I felt just like the young children of Gens in the Sime~Gen stories who through no fault of their own, went through changeover to become Simes and in Need, Killed the first person they came across, usually a relative. I took House of Zeor to my doctor and said, Read this so you will understand what I need to tell you.
When she had read it, I told her my story in Sime~Gen analogy. I told her that at ten I changed over and the only person there was my grandmother and that I had Killed her and that I had to go through a long process of disjunction, (separation from the Kill) Even that matched Sime~Gen as I ended up in a girls home for just over a year.
Having read the book, my doctor knew what I was inferring to and we were able to talk about it without my emotions overwhelming me before I could get it out. That was the first time I had been able to discus that aspect of my life. Thanks to the writing of a deeply powerful human story I was able to tell my story to someone else. For this alone I will always be grateful to Jacqueline Lichtenberg.
As an adult I was treated in real life as the Channels of the books, the special Simes that acted against their societies norms and thus deemed perverted for not wanting to Kill or harm those who were not like them, and to help other learn not to Kill. Of course it is more than just being different for Simes and Gens, it is life and death for both, but the reactions from people and the feelings for me were as strong. From that first book I eagerly awaited each new one.
In 1989 for my Birthday a friend called the author, Jacqueline Lichtenberg, without saying anything and handed me the phone. Perplexed I asked who it was when she said hello. The voice said This is Jacqueline Lichtenberg here. Thinking I was being set up by friends who knew how much I lived in the Sime~Gen universe, I was shocked into silence by the fact that I was really speaking with Jacqueline. Like any fan my first words ran along the I love your books lines. and then we settled into a good talk about all sorts of things and Jacqueline was as surprised by speaking to someone from Australia as I was about speaking to her. From that conversation my connection to Sime Gen deepened.
Some years later I found the Sime~Gen webpage and other fans and fan fiction. I thought I was the only one in Australia up until that point. Through the role playing forum that was happening at the time I found a true friend who identified as Gen. She too used Sime~Gen as an analogy to life and we became best friends. In Sime~Gen parlance we became Channel and Companion.
I have written some short story fan fiction and some novel length stories. In 2011 I was lucky enough to get to go to my first WorldCon and I spent some amazing time with both Jacqueline Lichtenberg and Jean Lorrah, who is Co-author in the Sime Gen universe.
The great thing about these stories is that they can be read in any order and by any generation. Although some of these books were written some time ago they do not suffer the problem of being dated by the era of their writing, which can sometimes happen with older publications and movies. They can be read now in 2012 and be as easily readable as they were in the seventies and eighties.
It has been thirty six years since I read my first Sime~Gen book and each time I read them I get something new, something different, and something meaningful from each story. With every re-read my connection deepens with the struggles of the characters, and strength needed to push through and do the best they can to survive and make the world better for others.
And now, with the new books and re-releases, the books are also going audio, with my favourite, House of Zeor being the first. Michael Spence does an amazing job of putting new life into the words and it is like experiencing the story anew. One of the newest stories, Personal Recognizance, has also been put to audio, and others are in the works. No doubt I will still read the books, but I will certainly be listening to them as well. I cannot get enough of the Sime~Gen universe.
Thanks to these stories I have been able to push myself to face what I would have shied away from, and to look into myself and try to be the best I can be. I may not be the best person there is, but I try to be the best person I can be, and when I falter I think of Zeors motto which says that it is not the achievement of excellence, but the continual striving for excellence that is the important quality. Striving for excellence and striving to better myself and be of use to others is what keeps me looking ahead and positive.
Thank you Jacqueline, and Jean, for without Sime~Gen my life may have turned out different, and not so positive.
Zoe Farris
