Science fiction, in its full glory, teases our imagination and asks us to question the very nature of ourselves and our universe. The Sighted Watchmaker, by Vylar Kaftan, is such a story.
Umos isn’t a maker. Or at least, he doesn’t think he is. The makers abandoned him, and now he must fulfill their desires by guiding another species to full intelligence. But why did the makers leave him? And for that matter, who made them?
I thoroughly enjoyed this thought-provoking tale, and found it easy to read, despite its strangeness. I think that’s because the strangeness was only skin deep; looking deeper, I saw something very familiar.
Quotable line: “…if he did create a species capable of comprehending him, he wanted to be interesting.”
I highly recommend this story.
Title: The Sighted Watchmaker
Author: Vylar Kaftan
Length: 3100 words
Availability: Lightspeed
Vylar Kaftan writes speculative fiction of all genres, including science fiction, fantasy, horror, and slipstream. She’s published stories in places such as Clarkesworld, Realms of Fantasy, and Strange Horizons, and founded a new literary-themed convention called FOGcon. She lives with her husband Shannon in northern California and blogs at www.vylarkaftan.net. Her story, “I’m Alive, I Love You, I’ll See You in Reno”, was nominated for a Nebula Award.
Can you tell us a little bit about your inspiration for writing “The Sighted Watchmaker?” What do you hope readers will take away from your stories?
I was challenged to write a story based on a poem. The inspiration here is “Enigmas” by Pablo Neruda, which has these two final lines:
and in my net, during the night, I woke up naked, / the only thing caught, a fish trapped inside the wind.
That gave me a starting image. The rest just wrote itself, which is very unusual. It felt like I was reading off a page where this story was already written, and I was just as surprised to find out what happened as anyone. Some writers call this “a gift from the Muse,” and it’s lots of fun when it happens.
If you were permanently stranded on a deserted planet, with no hope for escape, what would you write, knowing no one would ever read it except you?
Well. The word HELP in the sand comes to mind.
If no one would _ever_ read it? I’m not sure I’d write anything. Now, if we have someone reading it five hundred years from now, I’d write The Swiss Family Kaftan and include exhaustive descriptions of how completely BORED I was. I’m more social than most writers.
What are you working on now?
Making sure I never ever get stranded on a desert island. So far, so good. Also trying to produce some new short stories.