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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!teklds!davidl
From: davidl@teklds.UUCP (David Levine)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: Who are you?
Message-ID: <1085@teklds.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 30-Sep-85 14:04:56 EDT
Article-I.D.: teklds.1085
Posted: Mon Sep 30 14:04:56 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 3-Oct-85 03:49:36 EDT
References: <3773@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU> <22@hadron.UUCP>
Reply-To: davidl@teklds.UUCP (David Levine)
Organization: Tektronix, Beaverton OR
Lines: 46
Summary: 

In article <22@hadron.UUCP> klr@hadron.UUCP (Kurt L. Reisler) writes
about a story in which a revolutionary was tortured by being repeatedly
killed, then restored as a clone.  This puts me in mind of "Rogue Moon"
by Algis Budrys (more famous these days as a reviewer than as a
writer).  I think that "Rogue Moon" is relevant to the topic, but
because it is relatively obscure and hard to find, I'll post here some
of its important concepts (hopefully, not enough to make this article a
spoiler).

In this book, an alien base is discovered on the Moon at about the same
time that matter transmission is becoming feasible.  The alien base
kills anyone who walks into it if they violate certain obscure and
incomprehensible rules.  For example, it's certain death to write the
word "yes" with either hand, but you can write "no".  Nobody has been
able to survive for more than a few minutes inside.

As it happens, the matter-transmission process works by making a copy
of the thing being transmitted.  If a person is transmitted, the
thought processes of the original and duplicate are identical for the
first ~30 minutes, allowing instantaneous telepathy (even over
interplanetary distances) between the two for this initial period.
After that, the two start becoming different enough that telepathy is
impossible.  Naturally, someone tries sending a copy of an intrepid
adventurer into the deadly base.  Unfortunately, being in telepathic
contact with the duplicate when he dies drives the adventurer insane.

Enter the protagonist of the story, a professional death-defier.  This
man (whose name I forget) is a race-car driver, high-diver, stunt man,
and general lunatic who doesn't mind the thought of death.  He is brought
into the project because the head of the project thinks (correctly) that he 
might be able to stand being in telepathic contact with a copy while the
copy dies.  The bulk of the book details his relationship with the head
of the project as he attempts to penetrate the alien artifact, "dying"
several times a day.

This is one book in which the main character dies in chapter 2, and
dies several hundred times more in the course of the story.  The real
subject of the story is how a man deals with death, brought into focus
by that death being his own.  I found it fascinating, although it might
not be for you (even if you can find a copy).  Like much of Budrys'
fiction, "Rogue Moon" is darkly introspective and gripping on a
psychological level, dealing with the concept of identity.  Three stars 
(out of five).

David D. Levine       (...decvax!tektronix!teklds!davidl)    [UUCP]
                      (teklds!davidl.tektronix@csnet-relay)  [ARPA/CSNET]


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