Notes

This story isn’t based on any real event or biological fact. I try to write one or two such “freeform” stories per cycle, and most of them end up in this specific time period, for it is roughly “the modern age”.

When I invented the Saga of Life as a young kid, the idea for Slumberland was already there. It sounded like something fun and magical to add. An absolutely stunning but hidden place where a bunch of sloths lived in the laziest way possible. Even the core idea of this story—defend this piece of unspoiled nature against humans—was written down back then.

It’s funny to see how many of those ideas (which I had as a ten year old) still hold value. But I execute them completely differently now than I would’ve back then. The original story was meant to be extremely light-hearted and funny—truly a snackstory. Now I’m older and the final story became far more serious, emotional, and perhaps a bit more cynical.

I think the story I ended up writing now is far better than the light-hearted candyland story I would’ve written fifteen years ago. I also know it was very hard for me to write Slumberland as this magical, beautiful, carefree place. As a child, the world feels more carefree in general; as an adult it feels unbelievable and bizarre to pretend a society of hidden sloths wouldn’t have all sorts of major problems.

I still think the story spends enough time on the beauty and coziness of Slumberland. But, well, I have a maximum word limit! Short stories have to remain short stories!

Wishing into the future

Hopefully the idea of the story is clear. People and their technology—and our wish to progress and invent—can do a lot of good, but also a lot of bad. The idea of wanting, of wishing for something, is usually seen as something great and fruitful. In fact, visit a random school or course and the first thing they’ll teach is how you need to define concrete goals, otherwise you will never learn, achieve or finish anything.

Whoever searches for writing tips will hear the same kind of principles. Every story needs a hero who has a clear goal or wishes for something they can’t have. Hmm, funnily enough all stories are filled to the brim with conflict, sadness, and other nasty things …

In practice, I believe, having strong goals or wishes brings more bad than good.

You wish for something, your wish doesn’t come true (for whatever reason, maybe it only partially comes true), and now you are disappointed or frustrated. Even though you otherwise have a pretty comfortable life with little trouble.

On the other hand, if you wish for something and it comes true … you won’t feel much, because you expected that! You had predicted it, you had prepared for it, which usually means we don’t really experience joy at a long-time wish coming true.

Now imagine … you never wished for anything. You just did. You just lived. You would never be disappointed by an outcome, or frustrated, or bored. Things happen, and you are happy making them happen or letting them happen, and so you live life without a goal but with joy.

I purposely ignore my planning or to-do list half the time, just so I can do something new and surprising each day. Reaching a deadline (such as “finish story 9 of this cycle of the Saga”) practically brings me no joy—the doing, the living, the writing should bring the joy. The goal is really just a thinly-veiled trick to get us going sometimes.

The common “argument” against my view is that, without looking ahead or having strict goals, you “obviously” can’t achieve anything or function in society. I hope the existence of me and my projects is enough evidence to disprove that. I have no plan or wishes. I don’t really look further ahead than, say, a week. And yet I create more projects in a year than most will in a lifetime. I never missed a deadline or had any issues with people who hired me for freelance work. Just work hard, play hard every day, and the rest will come.

Perhaps the biggest hurdle is one of trust. The need for humans to control and get certainty is mostly a flawed way to combat the fact they distrust themselves or others. A reaction to bad experiences in the past where they did miss a deadline or get a bad grade. Maybe … just as you shouldn’t look too far ahead, you certainly shouldn’t get stuck in the past for too long ;)

(This is, by the way, also how something like gambling addiction works. By giving people a goal that they sometimes achieve and sometimes don’t. Random rewards! You play a gambling game with the clear and logical goal to earn more money, but you’ll statistically only achieve that sometimes. And so you keep experiencing surprise and randomness, while also having a clear goal you’re working towards—which is the perfect balance for addiction that never ends.)

Animals are perfectly content living without long-term clear goals, wishes, planning, or any view of the future. Humans kind of “ruin” it for themselves (and sometimes others) by always wanting things and looking ahead trying to predict the future. We can’t! We can barely know what we’re going to do an hour from now!

This cycle started with this message and thus it will end with it too: the meaning of life is to live; having any other goals is likely to sow more discontent than blossoming flowers.

Ismaraldah’s Role

What happens to Ismaraldah here is very important. The reason why, though, and the plan that is set into motion now will have to wait for several cycli before it’s revealed.

That’s why I hesitated including something so crucial in a “snackstory”—which many readers might skip. But I think it’s alright. This story is important too, even if it’s mostly standalone. The story has a deeper layer and a serious undertone, even though it’s still about a bunch of sloths who live in a bizarre empire called Slumberland.

Nature vs Nurture

The other theme in this story is about how much you can control/influence the world, and how much is simply due to things outside of your control. (Such as genes, bad luck, etcetera.) Because of my strict word limit, I couldn’t really explore this deeply in this story, but it will surely return often in the Saga of Life.

In practice, it usually turns out to be a balance. A part of your life is outside of your control and you simply have to accept that. For example, some people are more inclined to be lazy than others, while some do have an easier time building muscle than others. The other part of life, though, is entirely within your control. Such as endless studies that show people who regularly exercise are always far stronger, fitter and more energetic than others—regardless of genes or physical build.

Here, too, humans kind of ruin it for themselves. They “use” the things out of their control as an excuse to give up. To say “well I give up! The world is against me!”, with which they only confirm and amplify the idea that they’re helpless. For example, take someone who says “exercise isn’t my thing, I simply have bad stamina”, whilst the entire reason their stamina is bad is because they never exercise!

Those were my brief thoughts on this story and its themes. I’m still not sure what I should write in the notes for stories that are not based on any science or history at all. So I write rambling thoughts like these. Is that interesting?

Characters

• Sotho: a restless sloth who wants to take action and do stuff, instead of hide and be angry about the curse.
• Lothan: his best friend who works against him initially, but eventually sees he is right. They should just ignore the curse and live life together while they still can.
• Mindy: the famous researcher, but very young here. She finds Slumberland and tries to help them understand the Flamefeaster.
• Businessman and Glassesman: a nice team of two with a “business” half and a “science” half. They join an expedition expecting to find riches. (This is portrayed a bit stereotypically on purpose, otherwise the story became too long and needed too much explanation.) Glassesman is the only one smart enough to stay away and keep his armor/pantser loaded, which means he’s the only one who doesn’t forget Slumberland and can continue the Flamefeaster research.
• Ismaraldah (& Co): our Goddess of Time who appears alone first (very early on her personal timeline) as she discovers Slumberland and tries to help. Then she returns with friends/travel companions (later on her personal timeline) because she knows something important is about to happen.