[HPforGrownups] Re: PoA Plot does not work.

[MadameSSnape at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 91230

In a message dated 2/18/2004 6:51:58 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
silmariel at telefonica.net writes:
She's only using a timeline, but I don't agree that implies by default that 
two Harry's had ALWAYS been there.  Determinism is not a necessity for PoA to 
be explained. As a reference, 'The End of Eternity' by Asimov plays with a 
unique timeline being rewrited multiple times.
===========

Sherrie here:

But as Heinlein points out, that doesn't change the original timeline - it 
merely creates an ALTERNATE timeline, which branches from the original at a 
given crux.  (See NUMBER OF THE BEAST and THAT CAT WHO WALKED THROUGH WALLS, among 
others.)

The trouble is in perception - because we read the incident twice, we think 
of it as having occurred twice, when really, there was only one unique 
incident, which we are seeing from two different points of Harryvision.  Harry was 
there twice, yes - but it only HAPPENED once, and the presence of both sets of 
H&H was necessary for it TO happen.  (For a story showing this a bit more 
clearly, I guess, try Harlan Ellison's "One Life, Furnished In Early Poverty".)

Sherrie


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