YASID: A John Carter of Mars
Esa Perkio
Which John Carter story featured a slowly rotating cylindrical underground
building (a temple?) with only one entrance, aligning usefully with the
exit only once in an inconveniently, but not insurmountably, long time? (A
month or a year or something.)
[This question was originally posted by accident to rec.arts.sf.science
and canceled.]
--
Esa Perki�
James Nicoll
reappears in THE WARLORD OF MARS.
--
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GSV Three Minds in a Can
James Nicoll <jdni...@panix.com> said
>In article <h28ep7$t67$4...@oravannahka.helsinki.fi>,
>Esa Perkio <epe...@cc.helsinki.fi> wrote:
>>
>>Which John Carter story featured a slowly rotating cylindrical underground
>>building (a temple?) with only one entrance, aligning usefully with the
>>exit only once in an inconveniently, but not insurmountably, long time? (A
>>month or a year or something.)
>>
>>[This question was originally posted by accident to rec.arts.sf.science
>>and canceled.]
>>
> I believe it shows up at the end of THE GODS OF MARS and
>reappears in THE WARLORD OF MARS.
But something very similar shows up in one of the three Helliconia
novels by Brain Aldiss?? ISTR it was some sort of retreat, where a whole
bunch of folks wre being cycled through at any one time.
--
GSV Three Minds in a Can
15,016 Km walked. 2,773 Km PROWs surveyed. 50.1% complete.
Dorothy J Heydt
I think that was the first one, _A Princess of Mars._ It was
a cliffhanger at the very end, Dejah Thoris was trapped
inside the rotating gizmo (the interval was five years, IIRC,
but not whether Terran or Martian years), and the question
was how to get her out before she died of asphyxiation -- and
at that inconvenient moment Carter was transported back to
Earth, where the Apaches who had been chasing him turned tail
and ran away.
If I'm not remembering correctly, plenty of people will
remind me. I do have the book, but ...
(everybody join in on the chorus:)
"It's still packed."
Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at hotmail dot com
Should you wish to email me, you'd better use the hotmail edress.
Kithrup is getting too damn much spam, even with the sysop's filters.
Drak Bibliophile
after opening the door to the Air Factory thus saving all life on Mars.
John Carter does wake up in the Arizona cave.
--
Paul Howard (Alias Drak Bibliophile), AIM id DrakeBookLover
*
Sometimes The Dragon Wins! [Polite Dragon Smile]
*
"Dorothy J Heydt" <djh...@kithrup.com> wrote in message
news:KLyt3...@kithrup.com...
David DeLaney
>Esa Perkio <epe...@cc.helsinki.fi> wrote:
>>Which John Carter story featured a slowly rotating cylindrical underground
>>building (a temple?) with only one entrance, aligning usefully with the
>>exit only once in an inconveniently, but not insurmountably, long time? (A
>>month or a year or something.)
>>
>>[This question was originally posted by accident to rec.arts.sf.science
>>and canceled.]
>
>I think that was the first one, _A Princess of Mars._ It was
>a cliffhanger at the very end, Dejah Thoris was trapped
>inside the rotating gizmo (the interval was five years, IIRC,
>but not whether Terran or Martian years), and the question
>was how to get her out before she died of asphyxiation -- and
>at that inconvenient moment Carter was transported back to
>Earth, where the Apaches who had been chasing him turned tail
>and ran away.
>
>If I'm not remembering correctly, plenty of people will
>remind me. I do have the book, but ...
>
>(everybody join in on the chorus:)
>
>"It's still packed."
Checking Gutenberg, which can unpack the first five of these books at will,
shows it's actually the end of The Gods of Mars.
Dave
--
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It's not the clock that slows the hour The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is all it takes to make a family" - R&P. VISUALIZE HAPPYNET VRbeable<BLINK>
http://www.vic.com/~dbd/ - net.legends FAQ & Magic / I WUV you in all CAPS! --K.
Jack Bohn
>It wasn't Princess of Mars as that one ends with John Carter passing out
>after opening the door to the Air Factory thus saving all life on Mars.
>John Carter does wake up in the Arizona cave.
Hey! This may be the slowest uptake on record, but does he leave
a body on Mars? When he gets back at the beginning of The Gods
of Mars, he is in the land of the dead, which would make sense if
the next guy to the air factory floated the ostensible corpse
downriver...
--
-Jack
William December Starr
djh...@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) said:
> and at that inconvenient moment Carter was transported back to
> Earth, where the Apaches who had been chasing him turned tail and
> ran away.
(1) Does that mean that zero time had passed in Earth while he'd
been away?
(2) Why did the Apaches turn tail and run away?
-- wds
Quadibloc
> In article <KLyt3F....@kithrup.com>,
> djhe...@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) said:
>
> > and at that inconvenient moment Carter was transported back to
> > Earth, where the Apaches who had been chasing him turned tail and
> > ran away.
>
> (1) Does that mean that zero time had passed in Earth while he'd
> been away?
>
> (2) Why did the Apaches turn tail and run away?
What happened was this:
John Carter was being chased by Apaches after rescuing the dead body
of his companion from them. He hid in a cave. When in the cave, vapors
overcame him and he was paralyzed. While paralyzed, he saw the Apaches
enter the cave.
But at that point, instead of killing him as he lay helpless, they
turned and ran away.
After that, his struggles to shake free from his paralysis bore fruit,
of a sort. His body still did not move, but his spirit stood free of
his body, as in astral projection. In this disembodied state, he
walked outside the cave, looked up at the night sky, and stretched out
his arms to the planet Mars... and then found himself on it.
When he returned to Earth, he was back in his body, now no longer
paralyzed. He looked behind him, and saw what had frightened the
Apaches - the mummified corpse of an old woman, apparently in the act
of mixing a magic potion on a cauldron.
Thus, we are at least invited to suppose that it was her ghost that
created the vapors that paralyzed John Carter, and frightened away the
Apaches. And time elapsed normally on Earth this time - as it did
during his return to Mars, since the introduction to the book notes
that John Carter is now believed to have passed away on Earth, but his
body is in a special coffin which can be opened _only from the
inside_.
At the end of The Gods of Mars, Dejah Thoris is trapped with others -
I think two others - in a prison cell which is the rotating structure
of the question, including one other woman who is intent on killing
her. The gap in the door is already too small to escape through, but
they are able to rush and push through the gap many tins of
concentrated food so that Dejah might have a chance to survive for the
Martian year that will elapse until the entrance to the prison comes
back to the only way out once again.
John Savard
Peter Knutsen
> But something very similar shows up in one of the three Helliconia
> novels by Brain Aldiss?? ISTR it was some sort of retreat, where a whole
> bunch of folks wre being cycled through at any one time.
It's been over 1 1/2 decades since I read "Heliconia", and I didn't even
finish the series (it was slowly being translated into Danish), but I
don't remember any such thing in those books of the series that I did read.
Doesn't mean all that much, though.
--
Peter Knutsen
sagatafl.org
William George Ferguson
wrote:
I think it's established that Dorothy misremembered and conflated the ends
of Princess and Gods.
In Princess, John Carter is in a cave ready to stand off the apaches, when
they turn tail and run away. He hears something behind him, but cannot
turn. He passes out, and wakes up on Barsoom, beside the Thark incubator.
At the end of Princess, as described in other posts, he passes out after
opening the door of the atmosphere plant, and wakes up back in the Arizona
cave. Several years have passed, and when he looks behind him there is a
mummified Indian corpse, presumably what frightened away the Apaches.
He cashes in on the gold mine he and his (dead) partner had found back at
the beginning of the book, and builds a house on the Hudson in New York.
When he apparently dies, he has his body entombed in a special mausoleum on
the estate, with a door that opens from the inside.
Gods ends with Dejah, Thuvia and the Thern high priestess trapped in the
rotating tower room. Warlord picks up immediately after, when he finds the
Thern priests had a secret entrance to the tower room, and he sees them
making off with Dejah and Thuvia.
--
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
(Bene Gesserit)
Chris Thompson
You won't have got there, as "the Great Wheel of Kharnabhar" comes into
the plot towards the end of the third book, _Heliconia Winter_.
--
Chris Thompson
Email: ce...@cam.ac.uk
Matthew Malthouse
<pe...@sagatafl.invalid> wrote:
> GSV Three Minds in a Can wrote:
> > But something very similar shows up in one of the three Helliconia
> > novels by Brain Aldiss?? ISTR it was some sort of retreat, where a whole
> > bunch of folks wre being cycled through at any one time.
>
> It's been over 1 1/2 decades since I read "Heliconia", and I didn't even
> finish the series (it was slowly being translated into Danish), but I
> don't remember any such thing in those books of the series that I did read.
Book three.
Matthew
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Michael Stemper
>Bitstring <h28h21$9n7$1...@reader1.panix.com>, from the wonderful person James Nicoll <jdni...@panix.com> said
>>In article <h28ep7$t67$4...@oravannahka.helsinki.fi>, Esa Perkio <epe...@cc.helsinki.fi> wrote:
>>>Which John Carter story featured a slowly rotating cylindrical underground
>>>building (a temple?) with only one entrance, aligning usefully with the
>>>exit only once in an inconveniently, but not insurmountably, long time? (A
>>>month or a year or something.)
>> I believe it shows up at the end of THE GODS OF MARS and
>>reappears in THE WARLORD OF MARS.
>
>But something very similar shows up in one of the three Helliconia
And more recently in _Anathem_ by Stephenson. The temple didn't
rotate, but ingress/egress were only possible annually or decadely.
("Decadely" is not a word, but I think there's a niche for it.)
--
Michael F. Stemper
#include <Standard_Disclaimer>
Always remember that you are unique. Just like everyone else.
Lawrence Watt-Evans
(Michael Stemper) wrote:
>In article <ajvmKCCN...@from.is.invalid>, GSV Three Minds in a Can <G...@quik.clara.co.uk> writes:
>>Bitstring <h28h21$9n7$1...@reader1.panix.com>, from the wonderful person James Nicoll <jdni...@panix.com> said
>>>In article <h28ep7$t67$4...@oravannahka.helsinki.fi>, Esa Perkio <epe...@cc.helsinki.fi> wrote:
>
>>>>Which John Carter story featured a slowly rotating cylindrical underground
>>>>building (a temple?) with only one entrance, aligning usefully with the
>>>>exit only once in an inconveniently, but not insurmountably, long time? (A
>>>>month or a year or something.)
>
>>> I believe it shows up at the end of THE GODS OF MARS and
>>>reappears in THE WARLORD OF MARS.
>>
>>But something very similar shows up in one of the three Helliconia
>
>And more recently in _Anathem_ by Stephenson. The temple didn't
>rotate, but ingress/egress were only possible annually or decadely.
>
>("Decadely" is not a word, but I think there's a niche for it.)
I think "decennially" already has the job.
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Michael Stemper
>On Tue, 7 Jul 2009 17:27:24 +0000 (UTC), mste...@walkabout.empros.com (Michael Stemper) wrote:
>>And more recently in _Anathem_ by Stephenson. The temple didn't
>>rotate, but ingress/egress were only possible annually or decadely.
>>
>>("Decadely" is not a word, but I think there's a niche for it.)
>
>I think "decennially" already has the job.
Thank you. I knew there was a niche there; I just couldn't think of
anything that filled it.
--
Michael F. Stemper
#include <Standard_Disclaimer>
Reunite Gondwanaland!
Anthony Nance
> In article <i42755d9mr593bqo6...@news.eternal-september.org>, Lawrence Watt-Evans <l...@sff.net> writes:
>>On Tue, 7 Jul 2009 17:27:24 +0000 (UTC), mste...@walkabout.empros.com (Michael Stemper) wrote:
>
>>>And more recently in _Anathem_ by Stephenson. The temple didn't
>>>rotate, but ingress/egress were only possible annually or decadely.
>>>
>>>("Decadely" is not a word, but I think there's a niche for it.)
>>
>>I think "decennially" already has the job.
>
> Thank you. I knew there was a niche there; I just couldn't think of
> anything that filled it.
Plus, it simply beats the snot out of "hemiscorely".
If you go with SI prefixes, "centikilennially" sounds kinda cool
(and "decihectennially" decidedly doesn't).
And "picodekaterennially" is right out.
Tony