A character in an sf story can explore a succession of future periods, alternative realities or virtual realities. The same kind of imaginative, extrapolative writing is involved in each of these three scenarios and the author can take his time about telling us what is really going down.
The virtual reality scenario is unique in assuming that the protagonist's body remains safe somewhere throughout the ostensible action. One way to terminate a virtual reality is to simulate death. If the protagonist then enters sensory deprivation with partial amnesia, he thinks that he is dead whereas sensory deprivation plus total amnesia would equal unconsciousness.
There are similarities between the last virtual reality in "The Fatal Fulfillment" and "The Last of the Deliverers" but the latter is set in a "real" future - but both are fictions. And human minds are very strange in their ability to handle all this stuff.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Hmmm, the idea of a special volume collecting Anderson's most difficult or shocking stories does have a certain kind of appeal. I can easily think of some: "Welcome," "The Martyr," "Murphy's Hall," "Eutopia," "Night Piece," "The Fatal Fulfillment," "Door to Anywhere," and possibly "The Last of the Deliverers." You or others can probably think of others.
And one thing I remember about the ending of "The Fatal Fulfillment" is how the POV character was DELIGHTED to find out that the efforts being made for solving the problem he had been trying to study was not being done in an arbitrary, allegedly rational, one size fits all manner. Rather, contending groups were wrangling, log rolling, dickering, putting shoes on the wrong foot, etc. It was precisely that kind of bickering which would most likely end in a compromise that WORKED.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I meant the difficult-to-understand ones. (Not many.)
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
And I appreciate the "difficult to understand" stories Anderson sometimes wrote. I approved of and admired how, from time to time, he experimented with stories set outside his comfort zone.
And should we include "In Memoriam" as one of those "difficult" stories? Strictly speaking, I would say it reads more like a thought experiment than a story.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I didn't find it difficult to understand though.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I agree! But some might find "In Memoriam" sad or disturbing to read. Again, it was Andersmon going beyond his zone of comfort.
Ad astra! Sean
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