I was essaying:
Speaking of Earth 2, I just want to share that I was moved by an episode of The Ark, (Season 2, episode 4, ‘another you’)
An Ark from an alternate world, call it Ark 2 gets temporarily and invisibly, tied to theirs. (They break free at the end)
Only if your character has died in the other universe do you transfer, sans clothes.
An executive finds himself on Ark 2, where he is a dead war hero, having prevented oodles of deaths of relatives of folks on the Ark. But in his (our) world, he secretly wimped out. (As revealed in a subsequent episode)
A blond finds herself on Ark 1 where she runs to hug her “husband,” their prominent scientist, who at first doesn’t believe they were ever married, because she is so nice and he is so unpleasant, even spending time in the brig.
When they are together he says something arrogant and she cheerfully replies, “True, but my ‘you’ would never have said that.”
That same scientist, helping the executive over on Ark 2, is very decent… while an expert with several degrees in Ark 1’s world is, on Ark 2, a twisted up cynical sanitation person, who couldn’t afford to finish the first year of university.
At the end the blond vanishes, and a tough man cries.
I was moved by thinking that our lives, and our reputations, are the result of many little decisions over time, and… it just doesn’t have to be this way.
We ourselves live on Earth 2, right? After all, if scientists in 1980, from a magic time-cupboard, read my essay about the USA of 2026 their jaws would drop. Where did we go wrong?
… …
I am writing:
to a fellow who loves English literature, yet he still can like popular culture, in a small way that is, while knowing zero about media sci-fi or sf books.
Given his tastes, I don’t have to worry about SPOILERS. I wrote a reply:
Not all Alternate Earth stories need ray guns or grand heroes.
There was an art house cinema movie, lacking special effects, (maybe called Another Earth) where an alternate earth appears in the sky. So the lady protagonist, a hopeful student, looking at it through her windshield, kills a wife and does prison time for drunk driving. Then, like an old Greek play, gets out of prison all haggard and takes a domestic job at the house of the husband/widower. At the very end, from the other earth, she meets her affluent functional self. Fade to black.
The 1980’s IRA film Cal, with a beautiful Celtic soundtrack, has a similar Greek plot. Oh, hey, so does the Japanese feature anime, Samurai X, where he finally gets the X, from a second slash to his face, from the widow at the end.
Lastly, there’s a show that maybe you might like. Called “Counterpart.”
The homely J. K. Simmons plays the lead —him? The lead? I just had to see it!— in a period 1980s TV drama where a secret tunnel under the Berlin Wall, between two spy agencies, opens at two alternate Earths. He is a drab non heroic bureaucrat, but for the fate of Earth One he has to go impersonate himself. I forget which guy has the family. His more dynamic, less moral version of himself —so hard to imitate—despises him.
I like the series and I would buy it if I could, but it’s not out on DVD. Somebody told me it’s now streaming on (gem?)
… …
I guess I am, in a way, like the guy who reads an English literature classic on his own, not in a class, goes “Wow!” and then feels lonely. I knew a man who told me he felt awful and bitter than he was probably the only one in our city reading War and Peace.
(He finished it. For my part, since Penguin published it in two volumes, I only read volume one. Never set down a classic!)
… …
… …
Sean Crawford
Calgary,
Which has gone past the million people stat since I immigrated here,
November
2026
Remembrance of Times Past: There was a time when I had no roof over my head. So I haven’t had the heart to evict my distressed tenant. Although for a while I thought of selling my joint and doing mega-travel to Hawaii. Well, some other year, maybe.
Right now, I can gratefully sit on my own patio where none can make me afraid.
My dad overseas, and soldiers who can be happy just to wiggle a finger, and super-enjoy a smoke, would understand.
