Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 09:03:08 -0800
From: Michael Andre-Driussi 
Subject: (urth) DOORS: Time flow, death trigger, societies, W.F.

Roy wrote:
>The time difference was even greater for those four months Green was gone
>from the Otherworld; more like 14 to 1.

Yes, something like 14.67, nearly double the previous rate of 8.25 (or at
least it is still higher than the probably more accurate 11:1 ratio
proposed by Stone Ox).  So do we agree that the rate ebbs and flows like a
tide, or do you think Wolfe was just being sloppy?

About the death trigger, Roy wrote:
>I disagree. If the "death trigger" mechanism were something that simple,
>some smart cookie would have made a fortune selling condoms and other
>barrier methods of birth control. Males in the Otherworld must have an
>innately weak libido for any such insectile biological reproductive system
>to work. And if that's the case, then they aren't men like us, and North's
>sexual revolution would never even have gotten off the ground.

That would be a completely different story, wouldn't it?  A more
traditional sf story, where a competant technological man discovers a world
with such an imbalance, and he goes about fixing it.  In a weak story he
would fix it on the first go; or it could cycle through a few fix/breakdown
stages to reach a new equilibrium.  But TAD is not a story about solving
this situation in such a manner; and it is a story which could not take
place if the situation had been so solved.

(I'm not saying that the people of Otherworld even know what the trigger
is, and with all the scientists being women, and "birth control" for them
being all about getting more zygotes from reluctant men, well I can see how
they would not discover it.  Like all those arguments from women about how
male scientists created the Birth Control Pill but to be used by women --
where is the Male Pill, they ask, and then tell you it won't be invented by
male scientists.)

The secret societies: "Blue Semptember," "Iron Boot," and "Immortals."
North does not seem a part of "Immortals," but has he become the chief of
"Iron Boot"?  Fanny is somewhat connected to "Immortals": is this a group
that captures Earth men (who would not die by zygote transfer), or a
chastity group?

>BTW, pursuant to your theory of names and initials, what does W.F. stand
>for?

Well sure, I guess that the "W" is another "William," but that's as far as
I've gotten.  If it is William, then maybe he is keeping hidden from the
goddess by not having that name spoken.

=mantis=




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