From: Spectacled Bear <spectacled.bear@pobox.com>
Subject: Re: (urth) Pullman Again
Date: Thu, 02 Aug 2001 15:38:51 +0100

At 00:42 2001-07-31, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes wrote:
...
>On a larger scale: does anyone, _can_ anyone, believe that in a world this 
>different -- where every human has an externalized animus/anima, where bears
>are sentient, etc. -- the history of the world would be _similar_ enough that
>someone called John Calvin would become something called Pope of something
>called the Catholic Church? (I set aside, as irrelevant Christian-baiting the
>nature of "the Church" in this world.) 

I think Pullman actually acknowledges this point, and not only rejects
the criticism but makes a feature of it. I'm thinking of the scene where
Lyra sees the photo of the sledge in our world, identical in every detail
to the one she has ridden, far more recently, in a different universe.
Things are a lot more connected than she (or we) would expect. No attempt
at explanation is made; it's simply beyond our present degree of knowledge.
I can respect that a lot more than books that simply ignore the question.

In a multiverse where this sort of thing *did* work as we expect,
any change will sooner or later alter the moment of conception of
a human being, a different sperm will win the race, and a different
person will be born. Only half of them will even be of the same sex
as their counterparts. Histories will diverge quite rapidly thereafter.

Spectacled Bear.


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