One of the many fascinating aspects of Bruce Sterling's "Schismatrix (plus)"  
world is the depiction of entities that live for hundreds of years.

Some of them start out as people and remain essentially people, other people 
morph over time in to other kinds of things. They maintain an identity over 
periods of years or decades, but over the course of centuries evolve into 
things that have barely any resemblance to what they started out as.

I don't remember the book well enough to give anything by way of concrete 
example; I just remember the weird sensations reading the book evoked. It all 
seemed so plausible, in some ways alluring, in many ways disturbing.  I seem to 
recall one plot thread of a young couple madly in love who risk all to be with 
each other. Yay, happy ending! But wait. 250 years in to their marriage they 
don't even speak the same language.  Or something like that. I should go read 
that book again. I've forgotten most of it, and it's only been a decade or two 
since I read it, not centuries!

jrs

On Mar 12, 2014, at 5:55 AM, Deepa Mohan wrote:

> I, personally, can't imagine wanting to. I'd rather try a "may be could be"
> scenario where I could have a quick, easy, painless death.


Reply via email to