And Why Did They Appear?

Tony Ellis · 19 Oct 2000, 12:54 · from urth-v0030.mbox · original

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From: "Tony Ellis" <tony.ellis at futurenet.co.uk>
Subject: (urth) re: And Why Did They Appear?
Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 13:54:09 +0100
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Talarican wrote:

> I thought Tony Ellis' suggestion that House was itself a trap and danger,=
 al
> la HAL 9000 or Harlan Ellison's AM, was intriguing but not a total
> explanation.
>

Actually, that wasn=E2=80=99t quite what I was trying to suggest. House as a
danger, yes, but as a =E2=80=98mad computer=E2=80=99, no.

I think that =E2=80=98=E2=80=A6And When They Appear=E2=80=99 is, among othe=
r things, a
rite-of-passage story, as I=E2=80=99ve said before. I think that one of the
=E2=80=9Cother things=E2=80=9D it also is, however, is an exploration of th=
e relative
merits of the real versus the fantastic, the =E2=80=98spiritually true=E2=
=80=99 or
whatever you want to call it. We=E2=80=99re repeatedly shown that lonely li=
ttle
Sherby wants real things, and surely he has a point, but House=E2=80=99s
illusions, as Talarican points out, embody truths just as important.

The two themes, rite-of-passage and reality-versus-fantasy, are
complementary. They're two sides of the same coin: to leave behind
childhood is to stop believing in Father Christmas. =E2=80=9CWhen I was a c=
hild=E2=80=A6
I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish
things.=E2=80=9D

I think that the danger House embodies is metaphysical rather than
actual. It doesn=E2=80=99t lure Sherby down to the basement in the HAL-like
expectation that he will be trapped there, but to protect him.
Nevertheless we, as reader, are expected to pick up on the fact that
Sherby -would- have been trapped there, had he stayed, and to ponder the
suggestiveness of a freezer (containing one's dead parents) as the best
shelter House has to offer against brute reality. To live, Sherby has to
escape House.

> The insurrection, whatever its issues might be (class warfare, literally?=
),
> is total; not only riffraff and perverts like Corporal Charlie participat=
e,
> but also the police and firemen.
>
Actually, these are House's holos, trying vainly to keep the attackers
at bay - that's why one of them has the face of the fox, and nobody
takes much notice of them. Yet another way of showing that fantasy and
make-believe can't protect you from reality.

> Is House trying to explain to
> Sherby that the insurrection is just a cusp in a civilization's cycle of
> decay and rebirth, and that all of life is composed of such?
>
I think that=E2=80=99s certainly part of what it is trying to do, yes. The
=E2=80=98magic of Christmas=E2=80=99 can be described on all sorts of diffe=
rent levels,
though, and I think House really wants Sherby to learn all of them.

--
Tony Ellis
On-line Editor, PC Format magazine
01225 442244 x2349
http://www.pcformat.co.uk

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