So, you're not married to Mark or Kate, Betsy? They're just in your line?
And everyone but you gets to be married to two people at a time?
When you look back at this, in the three seconds it'll take you to turn to dust, I think you'll find the mistake was touching my stuff.
Buffy ,'Lessons'
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.
Jesse - Jan 26, 2005 10:22:49 am PST #4074 of 10001
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.
brenda m - Jan 26, 2005 10:24:05 am PST #4075 of 10001
If you're going through hell/keep on going/don't slow down/keep your fear from showing/you might be gone/'fore the devil even knows you're there
Ok, but is there back and forth along the line? Is ita restricted to Tim and Mark, or can she mess around with you and Kate Winslet if the spirit moves her?
Or, if the het thing messes things up, say Kate then marries Sean. Free for all, or do you and ita just get to gnash your teeth jealously?
Betsy HP - Jan 26, 2005 10:27:47 am PST #4076 of 10001
If I only had a brain...
I'm married to everybody in the line. Everybody is married to everybody else. You just sign up boy, girl, boy, girl in order.
The way I should have put it: I marry Tim. Tim and I marry ita. Tim, ita, and I marry Mark. And so on. So when Kate marries Sean, ita and I are in clover. Assuming it's Sean Bean. If it's Sean William Scott, ita and I exercise our veto power.
Because this is middle-period Heinlein, it never even occurs to ita and me to mess around with Kate. What a waste.
DXMachina - Jan 26, 2005 10:35:13 am PST #4077 of 10001
You always do this. We get tipsy, and you take advantage of my love of the scientific method.
It's essentially a way of dodging inheritance taxes.
Betsy HP - Jan 26, 2005 10:37:39 am PST #4078 of 10001
If I only had a brain...
As originally conceived, it's a way of setting up a stable family in an environment that is both very dangerous and woman-poor. (Yes, the boy-girl rotation doesn't work with that. It's presented as one family's habit. Don't yell at me, yell at Heinlein.) If you have two mothers and three fathers in the family, when a parent dies, there are still several people around to raise the kids.
JenP - Jan 26, 2005 10:49:00 am PST #4079 of 10001
Is there a limit to the number of people in a line marriage? I'm having fun making mine up, but I think it could get unwieldy.
Allyson - Jan 26, 2005 10:52:39 am PST #4080 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
And Tim, as first husband, at age 102, has the right to bed down with all teh new wives first, right-o?
Betsy HP - Jan 26, 2005 10:55:55 am PST #4081 of 10001
If I only had a brain...
Right-o. Also, I, as first wife, at a ripe and shapely 45 (hey, if this is my fantasy, I'm going with it) get first dibs on Tim, Mark, and Sean-if-it's-Bean.
Tim, Mark, and Sean would presumably not have signed on for the whole shebang if they couldn't stand the thought of bedding me.
Topic!Cindy - Jan 26, 2005 11:00:31 am PST #4082 of 10001
What is even happening?
Wow. RH needed some saltpeter.
Strix - Jan 26, 2005 11:04:56 am PST #4083 of 10001
A dress should be tight enough to show you're a woman but loose enough to flee from zombies. — Ginger
And in TMisHM's Luna, women toally have the power when it comes to sex. There are so few of them, it's ladies-choice, all day, every day.
But grandpa still gets the droit de seigneur.
I understand the whole "propogation is the ultimate biological imperative" argument of RAH's, and for species survival, this is true. I'm just saying that there's more to marriage than biological imperative. And RAH just gets all end-all-and-be-all smug about "women breed, men protect, and if you don't belive this, you're an idiot."