Tales of Alien Worlds

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In my previous blog post I discussed a short story that Isaac Asimov published in 1977. Let's now go back to 1950 when "Legal Rites" was published in Weird Tales. Apparently Fred Pohl resurrected this story from among Asimov's rejected works.

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I long ago decided to write Asimov into The Foundations of Eternity. Not satisfied to stop there, Asimov also appears as a character in the other two books of the Exode Trilogy. Starting with hints that I received from Ivory Fersoni, I've previously explored the idea that Asimov might have been one of the lucky Earthlings who was given a second life out there among the stars.

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According to Ivory, Asimov once met Trysta Iwedon and I've previously mentioned that the one time I met Asimov at a SciFi convention, Thomas Iwedon was also present, so I know that they met at least once. Apparently Asimov was upset by the many annoying attempts made by Thomas to contact him, so it is not clear that they had a later meeting. Apparently Parthney came close to meeting Asimov, but it seems that Asimov stayed working at his typewriter and left it to his wife to hand Parthney a copy of one of Thomas' books (Daveed the Luk'ie).

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I've previously suggested the possibility that a "copy" of Asimov might return to Earth. In Exode, the physical details of anyone who is ever teleported are kept preserved and available in the Sedronic Domain. Thus, it is trivial for copies of people to be instantiated. Ivory told me that there is a copy of Asimov that is still alive.

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Carl Sagan found it difficult to escape the feeling that he had some kind of contact with his dead parents. What if there is some basis in reality for human interest in the ability of people to live on after death?

If some Earthlings have a genetic endowment that provides them with an innate ability to use the Bimanoid Interface then maybe they can have some sort of limited contact with "dead" people. I say "dead" because, in the case of Asimov, there might be one dead Asimov and a living copy of Asimov. Who knows? Maybe Sagan's parents also had "copies" who achieved some limited contact with their son.

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What if my interpretation of Ivory's tales has been wrong? What if the "copy" of Asimov already returned to Earth? Maybe Ivory had met the "copy" of Asimov and she was protecting his privacy and working to conceal him from the prying eyes of the media.

I must also account for my own undying fascination with the idea that Asimov was taken from us too soon. I might be one of the Earthlings who can access the Sedronic Domain, thus I might have some personal knowledge of the "copy" of Asimov, although the "knowledge" seems to be embedded at a fundamentally unconscious level of my mind.

I've never read "Legal Rites", but I'm intrigued by Asimov's attempts to write fantasy stories. According to Elton Gahr, "Legal Rites", is "more satire than either science fiction or fantasy". It is fun to imagine Pohl and Asimov laughing to the bank (although apparently Weird Tales never paid authors very much $) while making fun of fantasy and ghost stories by publishing "Legal Rites" in Weird Tales.

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I've been working for several years to find a way to write a fantasy story and so far I've failed. I've only gotten as far as imagining that Thomas could have written a spoof fantasy novel in an effort to attract Asimov's attention (see the image to the left).

Asimov returns from the "dead".
(click the image to enlarge)

The whimsical magazine cover to the right is having fun with the idea that it might be possible for me to make contact with the "copy" of Asimov.

I'm amused by the idea that a "copy" of Asimov might have had the opportunity to travel to the Andromeda galaxy and visit many new worlds.

Kach went to Andromeda in search for the Creators of the human species, but she could not even make contact with the Nereids since they long ago crossed over into the Sedronic Domain. However, I suppose there must still be a few Grendels on the Nereid home world, so it is fun to imagine Asimov telling the tale of his encounter with the Grendels. I'd be particularly thrilled if the "copy" of Asimov could provide me with some tips for how to make more efficient use of the Bimanoid Interface.

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