Magic From Gaia

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JoanDrake

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I've recently came up with the idea that the Gaia hypothesis could be used to explain magic in a world I'm working on; the idea being that the world itself is alive and takes a part in the physical workings of its environment.

Does anyone know of any books or stories that use a similar idea? I've already thought of Avatar but my concept goes further, the living world makes certain physical processes work differently or not at all, and the natives regard this, rather rightly, as magic and/or its effects.
 
As far as I remember, the Gaia hypothesis is merely that the planet is, by chance, a self-regulating system. I saw a BBC documentary series a while back called "All watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace" which put the boot into this idea, showing that many environmental "systems" have failed to regulate themselves, to disastrous effect, even when not interfered with from outside.

If you mean it has some kind of co-ordinating consciousness on some level, I believe Anne MacCaffery wrote a trilogy about a sentient planet (with a co-author? It involved twins who could change into seals, I think) but I haven't read them.

My own WIP goes in this direction, after a while, so I'd be interested in discussing it further. How would a planet possess "sentience" separate from the life-forms that live upon it? Or is it somehow a collective that transcends and includes them all? What gives rise to its sentience in the first place?
 
Not any book in particular, but it puts me in mind of some of the Celtic mythology and fairy tales I grew up with. Not the twee miniature fairies of Victorian sensibilities, but the Earth spirit types. Tam Lin, the Faerie Piper etc.

You could visit, but if you partook, by drinking, eating or dancing, you couldn't leave, or at least not for centuries that might seem like only one night to you. There was a whole system of physical laws that were changed in those stories and plants, animals and even the land itself could be alive and sentient.

Your idea might be very different, but I'd recommend looking them up for ideas. Even if you're writing sf, they might be useful.
 
I don't think I've seen it used very heavily before, but then, I haven't read as much as others hear undoubtedly have. :p
I think the concept itself is good, and as far as the Why is this world sentient? and How is this world sentient? goes, you could probably use mythology to explain it quite quickly (thus avoiding an info-dump at any point). What I mean is this: Perhaps the world is one of many like it, and it's merely a member of a celestial species. Or, if there are gods and deities in your story, they might have been responsible, and gave the planet sentience so that it could defend itself. Explanations like these could be useful if you don't plan to use complex backstories and histories, since they'd explain the sentience idea quite neatly. This could be handy if you want the world's 'self-awareness' to effect the story, but not warrant a whole load of explanation scenes. :)
 
HareBrain said:
If you mean it has some kind of co-ordinating consciousness on some level, I believe Anne MacCaffery wrote a trilogy about a sentient planet (with a co-author? It involved twins who could change into seals, I think) but I haven't read them.
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That would be Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough Powers That Be, Power Lines, Power Play, and Changelings. The planet is sentient and capable of rapid evolution, among other things.
 
I don't know of any story lines exactly as you describe, but there is a similar concept in Asimov's Foundation series. "Foundations Edge." The people of a planet named 'Gaia' were all tied together into a telepathic group consciousness. In addition all inorganic material of the planet and non humans were tied in this consciousness.
 
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Yes, the aforementioned Peeteebee was the first thing that came to my mind, too; but as well as sentient planets (I'll doubtless think of some more just after posting, there are a number of sentient biospheres, which are actually closer to the Gaean ideal. One that bobs to the top of this confusion I call a brain is Harry Harrison's "Deathworld", but I know I've read several others, even set on Earth (Baxter's "Flood" espouses many of the same concepts, that Earth has got tired of man's domination and organises his elimination).

Didn't Stanislaw Lem's "Solaris" have a sapient ocean? And there's a Reynolds book with another, if I'm not confusing authors. Quite a fashionable development, in a way.
 
You can also borrow from several native North and South American Indian mythos that states that the land of the world is the back of a turtle, with varying degrees fo belief in the turtles' sentience.

Your land may not be a turtle, but it could be a similar life form swimming the galactic seas.
 
Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series has Gaia as one of the Incarnations, who can encompass and feel and work her magic with/on any or all of the planet and its workings. Being a Green Mother is the specific book that deals mostly with her, though all the Incarnations are in all seven of the books, to some degree or other.
 
Tecdavid said:
as far as the Why is this world sentient? and How is this world sentient? goes, you could probably use mythology to explain it quite quickly
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Or not. After all, does anyone ask Why isn't our world sentient? But perhaps it is and we're too insensitive to notice.
 
I believe the Final Fantasy series of games and films used the Gaia hypothesis. I'm not sure if there were any books in this series.
 
Glitch said:
I believe the Final Fantasy series of games and films used the Gaia hypothesis. I'm not sure if there were any books in this series.
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Yes, Final Fantasy VII particularly. I'd forgotten that. You basically had a conflict between a megacorporation and the planet, acting as backdrop to the main character conflict, which fed into it. Superb story along this theme. Shame it's only accessible by spending forty hours battling random monsters.
 
That wasn't based on the games in particular, though it did contain some of the same themes. There is a film based on FFVII (a sequel to the game's events) called Advent Children, but ... meh.
 
Some of these ideas are already being very helpful in giving more form to this story, and even some others I've been working on. And the best thing is now I have so many new things to read. Thank you all and please send some more
 
The Gaia theory does not say that the Earth is alive, still less that it is sentient. Lovelock quite rightly gets angry when people say it does. The Gaia Theory says Earth acts over very long periods of time as a self-regulating system, which could be re-stated as a self-regulating organism. In Lovelock's later works, not least his autobiography, you can read about the various ludicrous things said on his behalf...
 
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