Our list of plural-related fiction

[sethrenn.livejournal.com]

Our compiled list of fiction related to multiplicity in some way:

http://www.dreamshore.net/amorpha/plural-fiction.html

This is as comprehensive a list as we can come up with, although we don't even pretend to be objective. We've put up links to reviews of several of the books on Pavilion. Anyone who's read any of these books is free to contribute opinions or reviews (and if anyone knows of a book that isn't listed, you can suggest it for the list).

Comments

[idianshire.livejournal.com]

I read Multiple Wounds ages ago. I actually liked the way their system was organised, the whole greek mythology thing was really interesting. the rest of the book, not so much. The ending still makes me laugh. Don't read the next paragraph if you want to read the book.



Basically she gets shot at the end of the book, and when she comes out of surgery all her other people have gone, poof instant integration. The joke going around here is who needs therapy to integrate, just get shot and all the other people will fall out the holes.

[sethrenn.livejournal.com]

Basically she gets shot at the end of the book, and when she comes out of surgery all her other people have gone, poof instant integration. The joke going around here is who needs therapy to integrate, just get shot and all the other people will fall out the holes.

ROFL!! Well, that's at least a more original way to get rid of them than 'new medication' or 'realizing they were all me.' Where on earth do people come up with these ideas?

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

I could have sworn I once heard of a group who integrated as the result of a rape. I can't remember details, however. I may be on crack.

The most reasonable "unusual" integration we ever heard of was Tina Sikorski's (the erstwhile Maelstrom/ Blackbirds -- this is long before The Blackbirds as in zaphkiel. She integrated on one of those extreme roller-coaster rides. I believe she stayed that way and was somewhat bewildered by the whole thing. I haven't been in touch with her for years.

Andy says it might have had something to do with the disorientation and changes in one's center of gravity, etc. This would imply that one could integrate in a sensory-deprivation unit, or a float tank, that sort of thing.

[sethrenn.livejournal.com]

My guess was that they were probably on the verge of integrating already and it helped to have their biochemistry stirred up a bit. The effects of roller coaster rides aren't just physical-- the 'dropping' sensation also releases an adrenaline rush; I wonder if that might have been something to do with it.

[echoesnspectres.livejournal.com]

Children of Rhatlan by Jonathan Fesmire may be something for this list, if you want to include fantasy/SF approaches to plurality; it's about "duals", twins who share a body that shapeshifts depending on who's out. Seeds of Vision is a collection of stories one of which is also about duals. Haven't read any of it.

The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon has an autistic person who ends up being two people, in a nice reversal of the common (but mistaken) idea that there's a normal person "locked inside" the autistic. It's only a small element in the story, which is mostly about the "cure" discussion, and even the readers who "get" the irony of the ending don't seem to notice (or maybe just don't mention) it; to us it seems very important.

Daniel Keyes' Flowers for Algernon, in a similar way; the original, retarded Charlie is both transformed into a genius and "left behind" by that genius. He returns to being one person, but not through integration.

And Schachnovelle by Stefan Zweig (don't know the English title); this is about a man who psychologically survives confinement by playing mental chess against himself, and he has to split himself in two for this purpose. He calls it "artificial schizophrenia", but obviously he means artificial multiplicity. It's not a good/evil split, but very trauma-connected; it has saved his sanity, but seems to threaten it later (a game of chess being the "trigger", of course).

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefan_Zweig

That book is called The Royal Game in English.

[beyli.livejournal.com]

Toasters, and lots of them?

What does that mean?

[sethrenn.livejournal.com]

Oh! http://astraeasweb.net/plural/glossary.html#toaster

[appadil.livejournal.com]

I've got a list of my own that I started recently (yay perseverations), but I don't have it on this computer so I'll have to rattle them off some other time. Here's the few I can remember off the top of my head.

Aaron Allston's Rogue/Wraith Squadron series from Star Wars has a positive portrayal of a character named Runt who is a member of a naturally multiple alien species, but it's been so long since I've read any of them that the books have kind of blurred together in my head and I can't remember which he appears in.

Peter Patterson's Fal the Dragon Harper has a bit towards the end where a character ends up sharing posession of her body with another character who lost his own..

Sundiver by David Brin is a surprisingly dissapointing offering by him- I'd completely forgotten about that aspect of the plot until I reread it recently. The main character more or less autohypnotizes himself into something vaguely approximating artificial multiplicity to avoid dealing with his guilt and grief over the loss of his wife, and it winds up backfiring on him at an inopportune time. Bonus negative points for nicknaming the other "Hyde".

Later books in this series are better- the traeki species in the Jijo trilogy Brightness Reef, Infinity's Shore and Heaven's Reach are naturally multiple (albeit in a rather alien way), and their unified and egomanaical evolutionary "cousins" the Jophur who attempt to forcibly integrate them are one of the villains of the series.

Finally, there's the Tribe of One trilogy for D&D's Dark Sun campaign setting, but I can't say if it's any good or not since I haven't actually read it yet.