Whimsical depiction of Asimov's replicoid traveling through time to meet Jack Vance. Sadly, the replicoid was too tiny to be seen by humans. |
I'm still struggling to understanding of the complex Reality Change that converted the Ekcolir Reality into the Buld Reality. I've been greatly aided by the Atlantis Clones, a group of ladies who apparently were carefully designed and crafted and positioned on Earth so as to be able to access information that exists in the Sedronic Domain. Particularly, they can access information about past Realities. And, of course, most importantly, the clone sisters of Ivory have been allowed to share their knowledge of other Realities with me.
The Foundations of Eternity |
The Rules of Observation that guide the tryp'At were formulated as part of the Trysta-Grean Pact. We Earthlings are allowed to discuss the alien Huaoshy, but only in the context of science fiction. In fact, science fiction as a literary genre had to be brought into existence in order to satisfy the terms of the Trysta-Grean Pact. Thus, it should not be a surprise that some of the time travel events that were used to create the Buld Reality were concerned with shaping the lives of science fiction writers. And, in particular, Isaac Asimov has played a central role (as a time traveler) in creating the world as we know it.
Here, I want to explore my growing awareness of Asimov as a time traveler. I've long known how Asimov first became a time traveler. That is a story told in The Foundations of Eternity. However, I've recently learned that just before the Huaoshy ended time travel, Asimov's replicoid was sent back in time to contact Jack Vance. Apparently, that time travel is an "echo" of events in the Ekcolir Reality where Asimov was involved in making it possible for the twin brother of Jack (John Vance) to "cross over" from the Ekcolir Reality into the Buld Reality.
I've long been amused by the back cover of my copy of Gold which proudly states:
"HE INVENTED SCIENCE FICTION".
However, what if that were true? Towards the end of last year, I became aware of the fact that John Vance and Isaac Asimov (see Assassination by Subtraction) had written collaboratively. Anney has now informed me that their collaborative efforts began in the Ekcolir Reality and even more startling, it was in that Reality that science fiction was first invented.
In the Ekcolir Reality
In the Ekcolir Reality |
In particular, Five Gold Bands was published as a science fiction story and it included a fairly detailed account of five alien species and their interactions with we humans. According to Anney, those alien species were the Nereids, the Asterothropes, the Pharazen, the Prelands and the Kac'hin.
Publication of Five Gold Bands was something of a "test case" or "trial run" for the Trysta-Grean Pact and the entire Buld Reality.
Apparently only one person in the Ekcolir Reality ever looked upon Five Gold Bands as being anything other than science fiction and that was Jack's twin brother John.
According to Anney, John was at first upset that his brother Jack had written such a fine novel by collaborating with Asimov. At that point, John reached out to the "younger Asimov" who was also upset by Five Gold Bands, but for his own unique reasons. The "younger Asimov" was puzzled because he recognized his own writing style as being present in Five Gold Bands, but he knew that he had never collaborated with Jack Vance to write Five Gold Bands.
Jack Vance patiently explained that his collaboration with someone who claimed to be "Isaac Asimov" had been carried out by means of the mail and telephone calls. Jack, John and Issac at first concluded that someone had impersonated Isaac, someone who seemed to know all the intimate details of Isaac's life and who was able to write science fiction in Asimov's distinctive style.
As an experiment, John Vance and the "younger Asimov" collaboratively wrote several science fiction stories and published them in the Ekcolir Reality. During those years, Jack Vance continued to have contacts with the "older Asimov". Jack, John and the "younger Asimov" were never able to trace the "older Asimov", and John Vance began to suspect that the "younger Asimov" might have had a "twin brother". All the story plots that originated with the "older Asimov" were full of characters who were human clones (and the stories also involved time travel). John began to suspect that he and his brother might not be normal twins, but rather, artificially produced clones.
Sedronites (image credits) |
Special thanks to Miranda Hedman (www.mirish.deviantart.com) for the DeviantArt stock photograph "Black Cat 9 - stock" that I used to create the blue "sedronite" who is in the image shown to the right.
Replicoids
replicoids |
Replicoids were an "invention" of R. Gohrlay and her tribe of positronic robots. Replicoids were a solution to a problem that had long troubled Gohrlay. Gohrlay wanted to use time travel as a means to shape the evolution of the human species, but she was plagued and frustrated by the difficulty of creating desirable Realities.
Replicoids normally inhabit the Hierion Domain. |
Until recently, I made the natural assumption that Gohrlay's replicoids, although made of exotic matter (hierions), were the same size as we Earthlings. However, apparently the Huaoshy developed their own replicoid technology and they have the power to make "sedronic replicoids" that have zeptoscale components.
submicroscopic replicoids |
In the Buld Reality
image credits |
Live in Future |
As had been the case in the Ekcolir Reality, the time traveling "copy" of Asimov in the Buld Reality was a replicoid, composed of zeptite components and too small to be seen. Asimov "visited" Jack Vance, although Anney says that it is best to say that Asimov's replicoid "haunted" Vance. Apparently Vance was never consciously aware of the fact that Asimov was present and influencing Vance's thought processes.
For me, Anney's tales of invisibly small replicoids only confirms my worst fears. How can any of we Earthlings know that we have not been "haunted" in the same way? However, I've ranted on this topic previously and I don't want to go down that path in this blog post. Replicoids are essentially immortal and it is going to take me some time to adjust to the idea that an immortal "copy of Asimov" is present here among we mortals.
Time Loop
Hildemar Dasce, A.K.A. "Spock" |
1) 1963. Vance's Star King includes mention of both "Spock" and a "fantastic voyage". "Spock" is an alias used by Hidemar Dasce. Vance used the word "fantastic" three times in Star King: once to describe the trip to Tehalt's planet, once to describe the fantastic alien creatures that were native to that world and a third time to refer to the "most fantastic of human constructs".
Anney believes that Vance was in contact with Asimov's replicoid and being subconsciously influenced by Asimov. She thinks that Vance was vaguely aware of the presence of the submicroscopic Asimov replicoid and it was truly the "most fantastic of human constructs".
2) in 1964, Roddenbury included an alien, Spock, in his new science fiction television show.
I've previously mentioned that Star Trek was of minor importance in the Ekcolir Reality, being out-shown by Assignment: Earth.
3) According to Anney, Drexel Bixby was another writer who was influenced by Asimov's replicoid. Writing for Star Trek, Bixby created the episode "Requiem for Methuselah" which explored Bixby's obsession with the idea of an immortal inhabitant of Earth. Anney claims that Bixby was subliminally aware of the presence of Asimov's replicoid and knew that such replicoids are immortal.
4) Bixby wrote the story for Fantastic Voyage. Anney says that Bixby was subconsciously aware that it is possible to make submicroscopic "copies" of people who are composed of hierions or sedrons.
5) Asimov later wrote his own miniaturization novel, published in 1987. Anney claims that by this time, the Asimov analogue of the Final Reality had himself come under the influence of the "Asimov replicoid".
The time traveling Asimov replicoid had been shown a desired future and he was sent back into the past in order to make sure that the desired future came into existence. Apparently that "copy of Asimov" is still on Earth, as an active member of the Dead Widowers.
visit the Gallery of Posters |
visit the Gallery of Book and Magazine Covers |
No comments:
Post a Comment