originally begun by Menolly:
Posted: 09 Oct 2007 09:56 Post subject: Searching for a story...
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*also posted on the Watch*
Beorn has gotten interested in discussing the possiblity of brain transplants and extending life, et. al. He and Hyperception have had some in depth conversations regarding it. Not my choice of topic at all...
However, the discussions reminded me of a short story I read long ago, but the details are sketchy at best and title/author long forgotten. It may have been one I read in one of my Daddy's TMoF&SF.
The plot basically is that science has come up with a way of superimposing a personality of someone on top of a volunteer's surpressesd one. For the first try, a long dead famous composer is chosen. The story opens with his remembrance of his last breath in his bed chamber with his wife at his side, and then his eyes opening in the future.
It continues with him learning to adjust and live in this new time, and ends with a revelation as his first new major work is debued.
Does this sound familiar to anyone? It's probably famous, and I just have no idea where to find it. But, I think it's a story Beorn may really enjoy at this time...
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Duchess of Malfi
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Posted: 09 Oct 2007 12:28 Post subject:
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What is Quote:
TMoF&SF
?
This story does not ring any bells, but if you find out what it is, please let me know, as it sounds like it might be very good.
I have read a couple of novels along the basic lines of what you are describing, one with an actual brain transplant, one with recovering DNA from dead persons and using it in live people to give them a second personality, that of the dead person.
The first one, with the brain transplant, was by Heinlein, and it was horrible. Just horrible and stupid and self-indulgent. It was the first thing by that author I had ever read, and kept me from reading anymore, even with all of Fist's urging for...oh, about thirty years. Yeah, it really was that bad. AVOID ! AVOID! AVOID!
It is this one:
http://www.amazon.com/I-Will-Fear-No-Ev ... 955&sr=1-1 The second one was fairly mediocre, but had interesting aspects to it. The DNA everyone was scrambling to uncover was that of an ancient Egyptian Queen...so there were a lot of action/adventure scenes to the book as well. It is this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Channeling-Cleopa ... 0441010210 While the average Amazon rating is a four, I personally would probably give it a three.
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Menolly
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Posted: 09 Oct 2007 14:18 Post subject:
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Sorry Duchess.
TMoF&SF is The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction which my Daddy was a charter subscriber of and received monthly for oh...40+ years I guess. I mostly read his copies during middle and high school, so if the story was in there it could have come out sometime in the 1970s.
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The UnTitled
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Posted: 10 Oct 2007 00:50 Post subject:
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*shrug* I didn't think I will Fear No Evil (the Heinlein book) was that bad. It sure wasn't great or anywhere near his best, but not that bad.
Of course, I was already a confirmed lover of Heinlein by the time I read it, so that probably helped.
Story doesn't ring a bell. Something slightly related is Aldiss' Brothers of the Head, a weird story about two conjoined twins with one body.
If I think of any others, I'll mention it.
--A
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Menolly
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Posted: 10 Oct 2007 07:22 Post subject:
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Thanks Av.
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Duchess of Malfi
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Posted: 10 Oct 2007 12:06 Post subject:
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There are a couple of science fiction novels by Zelazny with this sort of theme, Dreammaster and Psychoshop.
This is probably a worthless suggestion, but if you can still remember this story this many years later, perhaps it was good enough to be nominated for a Hugo or Nebula? Maybe you can find it if you much around in their archives (which I am sure can be found online someplace or other)?
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Menolly
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Posted: 10 Oct 2007 12:24 Post subject:
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Duchess of Malfi wrote:
There are a couple of science fiction novels by Zelazny with this sort of theme, Dreammaster and Psychoshop.
I'll see if I can find them, thanks Duchess.
Duchess of Malfi wrote:
This is probably a worthless suggestion, but if you can still remember this story this many years later, perhaps it was good enough to be nominated for a Hugo or Nebula? Maybe you can find it if you much around in their archives (which I am sure can be found online someplace or other)?
Maybe...
...but my taste has always been different from most. There was another short story I read, probably about the same time, that I was reminded of when I was honored by being asked to read the first drafts of a couple of submissions for the KW Anthology by a poster . Again, I could only remember the very basic plot line of the story, no title or author, nor the character names. And again when I described the story, it had never been heard of. So who knows?
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Duchess of Malfi
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Posted: 10 Oct 2007 13:10 Post subject:
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Does the magazine itself still exist? If they have a readers' forum, perhaps you could ask there if anyone remembers it?
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Menolly
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Posted: 10 Oct 2007 13:15 Post subject:
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Hmm...
Now that's a possibility.
I need to see if it's still published. Like a fool, I had let my Daddy's subcription lapse a year or so after he passed, so it's been two decades since I've seen it. But I like that idea.
Thanks!
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Menolly
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Posted: 10 Oct 2007 13:34 Post subject:
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*wow*
There is an entire bibliography available at
http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/bibliography/bibliography.htm . If these stories are from TMoF&SF, it would help if I had an idea of the author, date or title. But, at least it is a place to begin!!!
Thanks again for the suggestion.
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