X-Message-Number: 555
Date: Thu, 28 Nov 91 11:46:29 -0500
From: csoc::csoc::mrgate::"a1::beattyr"
Subject: CRYONICS Re: Scary Stories

From:	NAME: Roy Beatty, Contractor        
	FUNC: Du Pont Chemicals - IS          
	TEL: 999-3382  FAX:9-4324 CRP-HR-1132 <BEATTYR AT A1 AT CSOC>
To:	NAME: VMSMail User "kqb <""@>


  #553 - Re: Scary Story [Stewart]

>>  P.S.:  As far as murder stories go, they would probably follow a
>>  formula such as this:  the hero is either a back up copy or
>>  simply a copy of the murdered.  Someone has, through extremely
>>  interesting logistics, murdered all of the other copies and/or
>>  back up copies of the individual.  The hero would then be working
>>  to find out who the murderer is, all the time wondering if he
>>  would be next.  (The author could put the twist on the story that
>>  the murderer is, in fact, one of the person's *other* copies, of
>>  course....)

    In fact John Varley wrote such a story.  I forget now, but it may have
    had "Kansas" in the title.  The protagonist was a musical composer
    living in a society where everyone got "backed up" about once per year
    at the insistance of their insurance companies.  Some thieves broke
    into a vault housing the protagonist's backup, mistook her for someone
    else who, according to the thieves, knew how to get them some treasure,
    etc.  After the thieves discovered their mistake, the copy was left to
    her own devices in a society where copies must be put to death
    immediately.  So the copy murdered the original several times, even
    destroying some back-ups and each time the insurance company and their
    hired detectives detected the crime and restored the original from an
    earlier backup.  Finally the copy, who got a sex-change, and the
    "original" fell in love and decided to flee to Pluto together where
    there are no laws against copies.

    Varley has written at least one other story in which the plot turns on
    down-and-up-loading. 

    Roy

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