GRGR(8)--parallel worlds

[Henry M]

John -

The SF plot types that you mention all have something in common that 
GR doesn't. Which SF writer was it (Serling?) who suggested calling 
SF/Fantasy "If" fiction? Well, there is no "if" there. There is 
nothing about which one might posit "If this one thing had been 
different..." Except, it just now occurs to me, If the war hadn't 
ended...

My only thought on the incorrect number, other than an oops on the 
part of author and editor, is the possibility of thinking of the start 
of the war as being before it was officially declared. 

Meta-fict puppet-master Tom just likes to sink things. Boats. Love. 
Even hate (Tchitch/Enzian). Isn't that also what entropy is all 
about?

On 21 Jan 97 at 18:18, MASCARO at HUMnet.UCLA.EDU wrote:

> As the GRGR (8) thread runs its course, I need to try again to
> explain my dilemma.
>  Last week I pointed out a *glitch*, called it a conundrum, in this
>  section of GR.  Was 
> referring to the *seventh Christmas of the war* remark made by the
> narrator.  As noted, most folks, following Weisenburger,  write this
> off as a simple blunder on TRP's part but that *solution* leaves me
> w/ a nagging frustration.  Isn't it odd that this novel, which we
> have all noted contains such exactitude, such meticulous cross
> references and documentary material (especially in this section,
> where, if my memory is correct, Weisenburger has tracked down the
> actual BBC programme for the day in question and found that the
> songs on the radio were *actually* on the radio), contain such a
> howler?  Tommy forgets how to count to six!  Something seems off.  I
> actually think that some serious weirdness in the book's time frame
> comes into being in this section, and that it centers on the Roger
> and Jessica story.  We are so sucked in to the power of their love
> story that it really hurts to see it finally, 600 pages later,
> apparently resolved in favor of the Beaver (not him!).  Do you feel
> as depressed as I do when I reread these sections and realize they
> aren't gonna end up together.  Surely, we might say, if any two
> people should end up together, (excepting Henry and his own troo)
> it's these two, whose very love is nuclear light!  It seems so
> cynical and so gratuitously mean to give Jessica over to Them in the
> form of her Beaver.  Is there a way out of this sad ending? Or
> Tommy's innumeracy?
> 
> Well, since the leitmotif of this section might arguably be: *which
> do you want it to be?* What if TRP were playing here w/ an
> *alternate* or *parallel universe* type of narrative thing?  You
> know the device--doesn't Phillip K. Dick use it in one of his
> novels--What if Germany had won the war?  What if Hitler had been
> assassinated? What if Kennedy hadn't? etc.  It's a tried and true
> science fiction/fantasy device, I believe.  (I am sure you erudite
> folks will provide other examples of the genre--I really am
> interested in knowing).  Anyway, there's a coupla other suspicious
> time warps (which I have to go back to my notes to properly
> describe) that lead me to wonder if maybe *which do you want it to
> be* might also apply to Roger and Jessica's fate.  Imagine another
> world in which the war doesn't end in 1945, but continues, maybe
> forever.  Dismal thought, but what if in this world Roger and
> Jessica stay together, also maybe forever?  What if there werre a
> little door to this world in this section of the narrative?  
> 
> An outlandish attempt to save the text, but lotsa fun to imagine. 
> Is it nonsense, or just maybe plausible?  Which do you want it to
> be?
> 
> john m
> 
> 

Keep cool, but care. -- TRP
Moderation in moderation. -- Husky Mariner

http://www.nicom.com/~gravity