The light marriages are still there.
I believe he said "line marriages".
A ghost? What's the deal? Is every frat on this campus haunted? And if so, why do people keep coming to these parties, cause it's not the snacks.
Xander ,'Dirty Girls'
The Minearverse 3: The Network Is a Harsh Mistress
[NAFDA] "There will be an occasional happy, so that it might be crushed under the boot of the writer." From Zorro to Angel (including Wonderfalls and The Inside), this is where Buffistas come to anoint themselves in the bloodbath.
Betsy HP - Jan 20, 2005 1:19:01 pm PST #4003 of 10001
If I only had a brain...
dcp - Jan 20, 2005 1:24:26 pm PST #4004 of 10001
The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know.
The light marriages are still there.
I think this is supposed to be "line marriages."
The catapult is still there...The idea is this sort of Ferris wheel thing that takes it up over the gravity well and drops to Earth.
Oh, God, no! The lunar catapult is a linear motor. [link] Like a railgun [link] for cargo containers. See also: [link]
Maybe he was thinking of Artsutanov's rotating skyhook. See [link] and [link] But that is a very different launch device than what is used in TMiaHM, and one impossible to protect from attack.
I've given the citizens of Luna ocular 'ident stamps,' which are the equivalent of prisoner tattoos, and Mike finds a way into the personalized signature of people, so he can show himself to you, but no one else can see him. So that's maybe the thing I added.
I don't understand this part. Is he saying Mike will appear to Manny (and the audience), but will be invisible to passers-by?
Betsy HP - Jan 20, 2005 1:27:24 pm PST #4005 of 10001
If I only had a brain...
Geek high five! t slaps DCP
Allyson - Jan 20, 2005 1:28:38 pm PST #4006 of 10001
Wait, is this real-world child support, where the money goes to buy food for the kids, or MRA fantasyland child support where the women just buy Ferraris and cocaine? -Jessica
I don't understand this part. Is he saying Mike will appear to Manny (and the audience), but will be invisible to passers-by?
I think that's the case.
dcp - Jan 20, 2005 2:41:29 pm PST #4007 of 10001
The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know.
::high-fives Betsy back::
I was twelve the first time I read TMiaHM, so making sense of how the catapult worked was much more important to me than figuring out why different forms of marriage were considered scandalous.
I'm a lot older now, and I have more confidence that a linear motor would work as a lunar catapult than a line marriage would work anywhere, but at least Heinlein explained them both well enough that I remember them.
dcp - Jan 20, 2005 3:03:51 pm PST #4008 of 10001
The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know.
I still can't get my head around the idea of Mike manifesting in some way other than as a voice over the telephone or an image in a video screen.
Allyson - Jan 20, 2005 4:01:53 pm PST #4009 of 10001
Wait, is this real-world child support, where the money goes to buy food for the kids, or MRA fantasyland child support where the women just buy Ferraris and cocaine? -Jessica
I can't get around Wyoh prancing around in a too tight dress and giggling like an empty headed hole, and yet, that's how Heinlen wrote it.
dcp - Jan 20, 2005 4:20:40 pm PST #4010 of 10001
The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know.
Yet, sad to say, not an unrealistic character. I've met people just like that.
Allyson - Jan 20, 2005 5:26:41 pm PST #4011 of 10001
Wait, is this real-world child support, where the money goes to buy food for the kids, or MRA fantasyland child support where the women just buy Ferraris and cocaine? -Jessica
She's presented as the model woman, though. That's the issue.
dcp - Jan 20, 2005 5:43:40 pm PST #4012 of 10001
The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know.
I don't remember her as The Model Woman. I remember her as The Unlikely Revolutionary, and the audience surrogate for most of Prof and Manny's exposition sequences.