From: "Roy C. Lackey" 
Subject: (urth) DOORS: Tina
Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 01:50:39 -0600

I had the impression that dolls such as Tina were given primarily, if not
exclusively, to boys. It also seemed to me that boys lost interest in them,
or were made to give them up at some point, perhaps at puberty. At any rate,
most men in the Otherworld do not seem to have retained them as adults. The
shopkeeper in the doll hospital implied that dolls sent there for repair
were not often picked up, and if they were, it was usually by the owner's
mother. He said of Tina, "The boy who owned her's been dead now for about
eight years. Malicapata." (10) Eight Otherworld years would be a lifetime
ago in our world. Such a life-like doll as Tina was beyond the technical
ability of our world fifteen years ago, yet in every other way the
Otherworld seems decades behind ours in technology.

I don't recall any reference to Christianity in the Otherworld, and what
would have been Christmas season was called Yule.

However, when Green rediscovered Tina in our world, everything changed. Tina
claimed to have been "born" (i.e., first activated) on Christmas day. (251)
She mentions Christmas presents and a pretty tree. She also refers to Green
as her "god" and compares him to "a jealous god, like the one they talk
about". That's an obvious Old Testament reference. So, both books of the
Bible are known in the Otherworld. Yet the Goddess is a living reality and
the society is matriarchal. I don't see how two such antithetical traditions
could co-exist.

Further, Tina claims to have been the doll of a "goddess", who also got a
kitten for Christmas that year. That goddess was a girl old enough to walk
to school by herself, but young enough to be still making paper crowns for
herself and her doll. Then "something bad" happened, and the next thing Tina
knew was Green activating her again with his tears. (252) Tina is a
programmed, mechanical doll without the ability to lie, and not much memory.
But she can remember the "goddess" she first belonged to, and the day she
was "born". She could remember Green "a little bit" (272) after her power
source ran down, but she didn't know about the little boy who died eight
Otherworld years before Green bought her, if he even existed.

Who was the little girl to whom Tina first belonged, and why would a girl
have been given such a doll? For that matter, why give them to boys?
Anatomically correct female dolls in the hands of boys is bound to stir
sexual urges, especially as the boys mature. Orgasm seems to be fatal. How
many would die from having a wet dream?

-Roy


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