Subject: (whorl) Generation Ships

From: David_Lebling <david_lebling at avid.com>
Date: Tue, 25 Feb 1997 09:18:59 +0000

[Posted from Whorl, the mailing list for Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun]

mantis,

Not to blow my own horn, but I wrote _Starcross_, the Infocom game you
mention.  It was modelled most explicitly on _Rendezvous with Rama_. The
idea was that the generation ship was a puzzle posed by its builders,
and the prize was a star-drive.  Each system it stopped in had
"contributed" inhabitants.

Don't forget Damon Knight's _Thorinn's World_, where (IIRC) the
protagonist gets the chance to land the ship and doesn't.  Like _Long
Sun_, it starts looking like something very much else (in this case, an
Icelandic saga).

There was also the classic van Vogt (?) story where the home technology
surpasses what was available when the ship was launched, so it arrives
at Alpha Centauri to find a thriving colony already in place.

rat,

Those are great references.  I had completely forgotten the "Starlost"
monitors (no doubt Harlan Ellison would like us to forget all of it). 
BTW, I think Joe-Jim in _Orphans of the Sky_ was the leader of the
muties; the "normal" people were ruled by a thearchy.

The monitors also remind me of the "Mirror, mirror, on the wall" in
"Snow White" (not to mention the one in Vance's _Lyonesse_ trilogy). 
Recall that "glass" is an old synonym for "mirror." No wonder Hyacinth
got caught by Kypris; she's the original stereotypical woman who can't
walk by a shop window without looking at her reflection.

     -vizcacha (watch that 'z'!)
     (david_lebling at avid.com)

Questions or problems to whorl-owner at lists.best.com

---

From: m.driussi <m.driussi at genie.com>
Date: Wed, 26 Feb 1997 05:15:00 +0000

Reply:  Item #2848746 from WHORL at LISTS.BEST.COM@INET#

vizcacha,

Re: "Starcross," frankly I thought it was better than RENDEZVOUS
WITH RAMA.  Maybe because of the interactive nature?  Here I was
going to mention the whole "floater vector" thing, or "what happens
when an object leaves the surface of a big centerfuge, even if it is
near the axis" which is covered in "Starcross" and had my friends arguing
over the physics.  That was the very best Infocom game, imho--kudos
to you!  (Did you write any other games?)

The van Vogt you are thinking of is "Alpha Centauri," I believe.
(They use a suspended animation drug and a slower than light drive.)

Kiernan Cleary,

Hello and welcome aboard.  Re: Moly, right, it is short for
Molybdenum--this is given in the text and in the lists.  I just
wanted to point out that it is another case where the name has two
meanings.  While we're on the topic of names, do you (or anybody
else, for that matter) have a notion of what animal Jerboa is
thinking of (IV, 172) when he wonders if "Incus" is a egg eating,
tree-dwelling creature?  (For the answer I'm braced and ready for
a very bad pun.)

Re: Flier names, Derek Bell caught most of them.  Of course, if you
and Derek (and anybody else) could find the other odd Flier words, or
determine what the male/female naming conventions are ("Sumaire"
seems quite strange--unless she is an inhumu, of course.  Then it
makes perfect sense! <g>), that would be a handy thing.

alga,

Re: "Black Sheep," it reads like one of the "The Island of Doctor
Death and Other Stories" stories.  Imho.

=mantis=