{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/2706", "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it. Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.", "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'" }, "archive": "urth", "thread": { "id": 2706, "subject": "Alien Stones, spoilers", "messages": 2, "voices": 2, "first": "2001-06-29T08:44:04+00:00", "last": "2001-06-29T15:47:28+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Michael Andre-Driussi", "address": "mantis at siriusfiction.com" }, "date": "2001-06-29T08:44:04+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Alien Stones, spoilers", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "For some strange reason I see this story in a very clear light right now.\n\nPlease forgive me if I belabor the obvious.\n\n\"Alien Stones\" is quite dense. It is a braid of a few different\nstories/types of stories. In the past I've become bogged down in one or\nthe other.\n\nThe primary story is a \"Star Trek\" (and I mean that in a loving way) sort\nof sf adventure about first contact. The empathy specialist goes on the\nlanding party. Trying to get attention from the hiding aliens, he breaks\nsome alien machinery. Then he is abducted. The captain and the empath's\nwife go on a search mission. The captain starts to figure it all out, and\nrepairs a broken machine, at which point the weird zombie form of the\nempath shows up to say that first contact is over, both sides have to\nretreat to think it all over. The point of this story: the aliens are\nmachine-based (evolved from radar arrays), and the empath, having no sense\nof non-biological forms, broke a machine (that is, unwittingly attacked an\nalien); to which the aliens responded in kind (by killing him). When the\ncaptain used his engineering skills to heal the break (repair the machine),\nagain the aliens responded in kind by sending a repaired empath. The\nbiological bias of sending an empath has been revealed, and the rift has\nbeen mended by the engineer, healer of machines.\n\nThere is also a PKD type of story about training starship cadets through\nvirtual reality to become real (\"virtuous\"? well, competant) starship\ncaptains. Yes, like the Lewis Carroll \"red king dreaming of a butterfly or\nvisa versa,\" but in the PKD development. Who is real, the captain or the\ncadet? What does \"is\" mean in this context? Which highlights a number\nof things, including the fact that biologicals use computers (machines)\nthat blur things in this way (life/non-life), and perhaps the machine\naliens have a biological analog (bios that they use as tools). The virtual\nreality, while not a \"heaven,\" is still something that has aspects of\nangels/ghosts to it (the cadet offers advice), as well as \"life is but a\ndream,\" sure.\n\nThere is also a strange romance of the captain and Helen, a tale of\npassion, obsession, and possible treachery. This story is jelled by the\npassages from the Bible (although the passages may also apply to the other\n\"stories\" within the story as well). The implication seems to be that the\ncaptain knowingly sent the empath to his death so that he could marry the\nwidow, the coveted woman.\n\n=mantis=\n\n\nSirius Fiction\nHas Moved To\nhttp://www.siriusfiction.com/" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Michael Straight", "address": "straight at email.unc.edu" }, "date": "2001-06-29T15:47:28+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) Alien Stones, spoilers", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On Fri, 29 Jun 2001, Michael Andre-Driussi wrote:\nThere is also a strange romance of the captain and Helen, a tale of\npassion, obsession, and possible treachery. This story is jelled by the\npassages from the Bible (although the passages may also apply to the other\n\"stories\" within the story as well). The implication seems to be that the\ncaptain knowingly sent the empath to his death so that he could marry the\nwidow, the coveted woman." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Another point of the Bible story:\n\nWhen the zombie empath shows up, the woman asks the aliens something like\n\"Is that my husband?\" And they say something like \"The question is\ndifficult. What is meant by 'is'?\" \n\nThe passage from the Bible is where the Saducees, who do not believe in\nthe resurrection, ask Jesus about a woman who has been widowed several\ntimes and remarries each time. In the resurrection, whose wife is she?\n\nThus: Is the empath still her husband if he's dead?\n\n-Rostrum" } ] } ] }