WMartin@Office-3@sri-unix.UUCP (08/05/83)
From: WMartin at Office-3 (Will Martin) Larry Seiler's message about the seemingly independent actions of characters within his creations brought an idea to mind, and I wonder if anyone else recognizes this as the tenet of some mystic belief-system or even the subject of an essay or story from the SF past. The idea is that someone "creating" fiction, either writing or tale-telling or script-writing or whatever, is really mentally perceiving the the actual actions and events and inhabitants of an alternate universe. There would have to be some sort of differential time rates, of course, as it doesn't take an author a lifetime to develop the life of a character. Since I have long personally been convinced that there really are an infinity of parallel universes, wherein all possible actions are taking, have taken, or will take place, and that there must be some methodology of moving either matter or information between these alternate universes, this idea fits in well with this world-view. This would mean that creative talent or inspiration is really more of a telepathic sensitivity than something totally internal; I am not sure if this viewpoint is flattering or denigrating to authors and artists. Since I have this conviction, I have long found alternate-universe SF to be my favorite sub-genre. I wish that more authors wrote about this, and that those that did took greater advantage of the multiplicity of wildly divergent or closely parallel environments the concept provides them. And, if I am right, and we find practical methods to move between these universes, the results would be much more rewarding than space travel could be! (Infinite energy, infinite resources, infinite dumping grounds, infinite interesting intelligences or animals, infinite room... ) Anyway, I have drifted off my starting point. Does anyone recognize this "fiction as mental perception of other realities" concept as something printed or discussed in SFdom? Or did I make it up myself (or steal it from the brain of a dolphin scientist on Earth MMMMLXXVII)? Will Martin (PS -- How WOULD you label alternate universes anyhow, so you could identify them in discussions? Numbering infinity gets tedious... WM)
israel@umcp-cs.UUCP (08/09/83)
From: WMartin at Office-3 (Will Martin) . . . Does anyone recognize this "fiction as mental perception of other realities" concept as something printed or discussed in SFdom? Or did I make it up myself (or steal it from the brain of a dolphin scientist on Earth MMMMLXXVII)? This is a major point in Heinlein's "Number of the Beast". In NotB, someone discovers that there are six dimensions to the universe, and that there are 6**(6**6) accessible universes (hence the name; according to the bible 666 is the number of the beast). An inter-dimensional traveler is built, and our four intrepid heros sail off into the cosmos in their ship to screw around and argue among themselves. The majority of the book is actually the four characters arguing among themselves (You see, they alternate as captain of the ship, and the three who aren't captain don't take the discipline easily and end up giving the captain alot of guff, and ... anyway, you get the idea). It is an extremely long-winded book and it is written for SF fans only. There are a lot of references to other works and meeting other fictional characters (i.e. Barsoom, Lazarus Long, Lensmen, Jubal Harshaw, Alice in Wonderland, OZ etc.). There are also some inside SF jokes (one of my favorites was a character saying something like "'Stranger in a Strange Land'? Ugh. What some writers will do for money!" Which I thought was cute in a book written by Heinlein). Anyway, it's got too much discussion, not enough action, the plot is muddy and elements are left unresolved and shrugged off, and it ends with the wierdest conglomerations of characters from Heinlein's books and other books all going to a pan-universe convention on solipsism. I recommend it only if you enjoy seeing characters that you've met in other books. I enjoyed it for that reason. -- ~~~ Bruce ...!seismo!umcp-cs!israel (Usenet) israel.umcp-cs@Udel-Relay (Arpanet)
geo@watarts.UUCP (08/10/83)
In his original article Will Martin expressed his belief, that in some sense, all the alternate universes that we think about, exist. Since this isn't net.physics, I won't ask him questions like what about the alternate universes we imagine that contain inconsistent physical laws. Instead I would like to draw attention to one of Martin Gardner's columns. About seven or eight years ago Gardner wrote a column entitled something like "On everything there is, was, and ever will be", in which he explored this idea. Cordially, Geo Swan, Integrated Studies, University of Waterloo (allegra||ihnp4)!watmath!watarts!geo
kcarroll@utzoo.UUCP (Kieran A. Carroll) (08/10/83)
The idea that science-fiction writers find their inspiration through unconscious divination of events occuring in parallel universes was recently used by Robert A. Heinlein in "The Number of the Beast". For alternate universe stories in general, H.Beam Piper is my favorite, with his Paratime Police series. Others that come to mind are Niven's "Svetz" stories in "The Flight of the Horse", and Laumer's "Worlds of the Imperium" (at least, I >think< that title fits one of Laumer's alternate-worlds series), and his recent books "The Time Bender", "The Shape Changer", and something else. There are more, of course. -Kieran A. Carroll ...decvax!utzoo!kcarroll
andrew@orca.UUCP (Andrew Klossner) (08/11/83)
Will Martin's notion that writers are actually recording the events of
a parallel universe doesn't mesh well with the writing styles of many
authors, which can involve extensive rewriting and sometimes
rearranging of entire chapters. [Unless perhaps the author is slipping
time tracks?]
Heinlein's "Number of the Beast" did *not* use this model of the
creative process; rather, it was reveated that the act of writing a
story generates a universe in which that story occurs. This leads to
the beautifully self-referential situation in which two authors are
each writing about the other writing about the first writing about ...
Heinlein made up some mumbo-jumbo about "fictons", the quantum unit of
fiction. Of course, all this was tongue-in-cheek; as Heinlein put it,
"Number of the Beast" was "a party for old friends", i.e., long-time
Heinlein readers.
As to a method for numbering universes: why, it's simple. This one is
number zero. The first one we discover is number 1. And so on.
-- Andrew Klossner (decvax!tektronix!tekecs!andrew) [UUCP]
(andrew.tektronix@rand-relay) [ARPA]jonb@cucard.UUCP (08/27/83)
I've seen the "perception of other realities" concept in various places, but the only one that comes to mind is the comic-book "Warriors in the Shadow Realm," which describes an alternate universe called "Weirdworld." The comic wasn't that great, but Doug Moench (the author) mentioned the possibility of inspiration from alternate worlds. I'm sure I've seen it in other places as well, because it sounds very familiar. As to how this reflects on fantasy and sf writers, well, it denigrates their creativity (all the stuff they thought they made up themselves turns out to be real!), but it indicates that these writers have exceptional perception and sensitivity to AUW's (Alternate Universe Waves, of course). Is that good or bad? I dunno. I guess I agree with you that there is a possibly infinite number of alternate realities, although of course there's no way of proving this (yet). Isn't it exciting to think that places like Middle-Earth, Melnibone, The Land, or whatever you like, actually exist out there, as described? Kinda neat, ain't it? Get down, get funky! Jon Bornholdt