DOORS: Tina's origins

The lady in the haberdasher's called Tina a "magic doll", and in a world with a real goddess that has to be a possibility, as Mantis suggested. But at lunch with Lora, Green talks about how Tina isn't really magic, and that Heathkit will sell you a robot and the Air Force have planes that can fly and fight and land themselves. "I couldn't build her, and I don't know anybody who could. But somebody here might be able to, if we put our minds to it." (p270) Maybe they did? I know it doesn't work if the time differential is constant. I know artificial intelligence isn't as easy as it seemed, and it never seemed very easy - though from the point of view of a mechanical engineer, in the late Eighties, it might seem possible enough to allow willing suspension of disbelief. I can believe it, for a story. But the really interesting question about Tina, that I have not seen addressed before, is: how does she know about Daddies? For his birthday, "Didn't Mama and Daddy give you anything?" (p228) Green hasn't seen his father for years, but Tina says his father still loves him. "I know about Daddies, though. And you don't." And so on. Where in the world - in which world - did she learn about Daddies? Spectacled Bear.

And just to confuse things further; when they were in the limo Tina said to Klamm, speaking of Green: "He needs your help, Papa." Klamm matter-of-factly answers her: "Then he shall haff it. Whatever I can give." (300) Why did Tina call him "Papa"? Almost by definition, children in the Otherworld to whom the dolls were given wouldn't have a daddy. Given the necessarily limited amount of memory available in a mechanical doll, I don't think it would be expended on a person the child could never know. -Roy

I think she simply recognized him as such - but was it only because he was acting in a helpful and fatherly manner, or is he really Green's father? Some versions of the legend of Attis have him being the son of Cybele as part of a cycle of death and rebirth. This fits with Green having memories of Billy Hurst's life come back to him. But if all Lara's lovers are Attis reincarnated, it's hard to see how there can be two of them around at the same time in Green and Klamm. But if they aren't (and the story really doesn't seem to be constructed that way), why does Green feel that he is remembering a previous life as a sea captain?

That's right. Whereas if it was manufactured here, the manufacturers might well not be in on the secret of the existence of the Otherworld, and would program the doll for life in our world. Spectacled Bear.