Alright so about this Lucian sci-fi experiment thing – it all started when I was digging through some crazy old manuscripts last month. Totally random find honestly. This Lucian dude wrote this wild “True Story” satire like 1,800 years ago describing moon wars and space aliens and crap. Mind officially blown.
Why Bother With Ancient Nonsense?
Curiosity killed the cat I guess. Couldn’t stop thinking about how this old geezer basically invented sci-fi tropes before sci-fi existed. So I grabbed:
- Beat-up Loeb translation with Greek on left
- My cheap notebook with half the pages torn out
- Three different colored pens (blue, black, red – classy)
- Cold brew coffee turning lukewarm
The Messy Process Step-by-Step
First I tried reading it straight through like some scholar. Epic fail after two paragraphs. Needed a new angle.
Dumped the notebook on my kitchen counter – pen smudges everywhere now – and started marking up the translation like a madman:
- Blue pen for anything remotely sci-fi (alien races, weird tech, space travel)
- Black pen scratching notes about why people back then might believe this garbage
- Red pen circling bits that felt…weirdly accurate? Like Lucian predicted space battles centuries before Star Wars
Took forever. Coffee got replaced by beer around page four. My handwriting turned into doctor scribbles. But patterns started jumping out.
The Holy Crap Moment
Sitting there at 1am surrounded by papers when it hit me: Lucian wasn’t just making stuff up. He was dripping with sarcasm about sailors’ tall tales and philosophers’ wild theories. The moon people with vegetable bodies? Pure mockery of academic nonsense back then. That snake warrior army? Digging at military propaganda. Genius.
Ripped out a fresh notebook page and scrawled:
- Satire FIRST, sci-fi ACCIDENTALLY
- Proof humans always craved escapism
- Old ≠ Dumb – Lucian understood human nature
Why This Matters For Us Storytellers
Finished my lukewarm beer realizing something big: Lucian’s “bullshit detector” still works today. Want authentic sci-fi? Study the fakers. Need compelling aliens? Steal Lucian’s trick – make them reflect human stupidity. Obsessed with worldbuilding? Copy his confidence. Dude sold intergalactic wars like it was yesterday’s weather report.
My kitchen looks like a tornado hit it now. Worth every stained notebook page though. Ancient insights? Turns out they were hiding in plain sight all along. Who knew.
