SPOILERS The Long Earth "Code" - SPOILERS!

[Jan Van Quirm]

I wasn't disagreeing with you, merely saying there's a wider picture :whistle:

Yes - the trolls are fleeing back to Datum (or the worlds in between) from the High Meggas, hence the next book will explore the Eastern path and the final one will be Lobsang's solution with FPS to re-align the hominid hegemony (including Datum sapiens) in some manner

Funny thing though - if the Gaia monster/FPS is the big threat why did Joshua's migraine/sense of pressure/foreboding that he apparently shares with the trolls stop when the crew of the Mark Twain met her? Surely it should have got even worse? If the trolls get the same thing as Joshua then are they really running away from her, or is there something else further on? Are there trolls on the East (of Datum) Earth side? :|

In fact, is the Long Earth a left brain/right brain thing? Why do people in the 'western hemisphere' style cultures seem to step west more? Do left-handers fight a compulsion to go east and not westwards?

 

[poohcarrot]

Did I say you were disagreeing with me? I'm pretty sure I didn't. I only asked if you were agreeing with me.

The Gaia monster could be like a hurricane. In the eye it's calm - hence the lack of headache.

People in the west (the US) go west because they live in the west, and ingrained in their psyche is the desire to go west when pioneering. A desire that originated in 1620 on the Mayflower. Being left-handed has nothing to do with which way they are programmed to go.

Several times it stated that Sally was looking for her father. As her father can't step, why didn't she spend all her time looking on Datum Earth? Why go to the High Meggas?

And the family that left their son behind were a bit selfish, don't you think? I wouldn't do that, would you?

 

[Jan Van Quirm]

Ah - but left handers are right brained so perhaps it's natural for them to go 'left' which is west on most atlases. Actually you're right, but not culturally necessarily - it's a solar thing. People tend to want to face the direction of the movement of the sun for some reason, which is why turnwise (clockwise) is one of the cardinal points of the compass on the Disc...

Sally's father invented the Stepper - why can't he get to the High Meggas too even if he didn't use the 'soft' places?

Agree with you about the kid who got left behind - if I had a kid I couldn't do it either, but it's not unknown in nature for even really great parents to sacrifice some or all of their young if there's some great imperative to do so. On the other hand I wouldn't use being left behind as an excuse to be a bomb mule - especially if I'd been left well provided for, which he had been. And, has been observed on many occasions, as a species we ain't that nice :shifty:

 

[poohcarrot]

Sally's father invented the Stepper - why can't he get to the High Meggas too even if he didn't use the 'soft' places?

True! It was a spur of the moment comment that I didn't think through before posting.

Page 62/63
Hermione has a song lyric engraved on the inside of her ring (page 62).
When Hermione leaves (page 63), she left a song lyric as a note. What's the title of the song which that lyric came from?

BTW half way down page 62, does it say "It's never stopped before", or "It's never stopped US before?" :dance:

 

[Jan Van Quirm]

Oooh - I wanted to know more about her! Will look that up when it's bedtime

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

Going to start it tonight, but when I read that about the song, Fleetwood Mac popped into my head.

 

[Quatermass]

Now, I've heard Johnny Depp and Stephen Fry as Lobsang, but (although he's been dead since 1984), I actually have to admit that, although I didn't actually hear his voice while reading, John Dearth would have made a good Lobsang, if only for the fact he plays a not dissimilar, albeit villainous role in the Doctor Who story The Green Death, aka The One With The Giant Maggots. He plays the Biomorphic Organisational Systems Supervisor, aka B.O.S.S.

 

[poohcarrot]

For some reason I think of Rimmer's voice from Red Dwarf as Lobsang.

 

[Quatermass]

For some reason I think of Rimmer's voice from Red Dwarf as Lobsang.

Actually, what I did hear when reading was something between Chris Barrie (Rimmer) and Norman Lovett (Holly Mk 1).

 

[poohcarrot]

This is the bit that started making me think of Rimmer. :dance:

Invite her to the ship! Tempt her! We have superb cuisine, somewhat wasted on you, I must say. Offer her sex! Whatever you do, get her on this damn ship!

 

[Quatermass]

That bit reminds me of the Red Dwarf episode Legion, where Rimmer, somewhat ineptly, attempts to persuade Legion to join them on Starbug. Which ends when Rimmer crosses the anti-matter chopsticks. Food flies, hilarity ensues.

I can also imagine David Tennant voicing Lobsang. Any voice that can do a sense of wonder, arrogance, and a playful sense of humour. Which means that any Doctor could play Lobsang, pretty much. :|

 

[poohcarrot]

ALICE IN WONDERLAND/LONG EARTH CONNECTION cont....

I just dug out my Alice in Wonderland book, read chapter 7 (A Mad Tea-Party) and all I can say is I'm Gobsmacked!!

Not only is there an anagram of Alice (thus leading the reader to find the "Allys" anagram in chapter 7 Long Earth), but also if , you know your Discworld, you'll see where the name "Lobsang" comes from!!

 

[Jan Van Quirm]

I always though Lobsang was just an orange-clad monk joke, it being a reasonably common Tibetan name (Dalai Llamas etc?)

Come to that - have we mentioned Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance at all yet...

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

ALICE IN WONDERLAND/LONG EARTH CONNECTION cont....

I just dug out my Alice in Wonderland book, read chapter 7 (A Mad Tea-Party) and all I can say is I'm Gobsmacked!!

Not only is there an anagram of Alice (thus leading the reader to find the "Allys" anagram in chapter 7 Long Earth), but also if , you know your Discworld, you'll see where the name "Lobsang" comes from!!

Ah sweeper! good bit detective deduction there.

 

[poohcarrot]

ALICE IN WONDERLAND/LONG EARTH CONNECTION cont....

...so in A Mad Tea-Party (Chapter 7 - Alice), the Dormouse tells a story about three little sisters whose name were Elsie, Lacie and Tillie . Lacie is an anagram of Alice.

"If you knew Time as well as I do," said the Hatter, "you wouldn't talk about wasting it. It's a him."

The Mad Hatter quarrelled with Time last month and Time won't do a thing now so it's always 6 o'clock. :dance:

In the end of Thief of Time, Time is called Lobsang!

 

[Jan Van Quirm]

:clap: Now go out and get some fresh air please

 

[Del]

Started The Long Earth Yesterday... almost through.

I know the song. Will have to go back and reread to get it again.

I wouldn't step east.... I would end up in the Pacific. The deep Pacific West? Hmmmmm not much out that way except desert THOUGH it would be interesting as when I lived out in the outback we regularly found seashells.

I was so disappointed with the speech for the Australian parts (mates?????? NOONE says mates plural... even in the passage with the modern day aborigines)

Yeah Jan..... Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was the first thing I thought of when I read what he had been

 

[Batty]

Conclusion

So there we have it. A totally pants theory/code jobbie, which if I were you, I'd take with a large pinch of salt. :dance:

I'm quite clearly barking mad ...

Yep! You are entertaining, though!

You haven't offered any 'code' theory for the number of humans to trolls: 1890. Is that date or number important? It's mentioned more than once, so it may be.

I was really pleased that David Kossof was remembered (P.231).
My very first Saturday job was on the loose sweet counter at Woolworths, in East Dulwich. I used to serve him every Saturday. He really was a gentle man.

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

Maybe something to do with 1890 land grant universities.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_la ... iversities

 

[Batty]

I nearly went Coo! at that information Dug, until I looked up Wisconsin - Mitchigan, and it gave the date as 1866.

I'm very impressed with your research, though! :clap: