Numbercruncher #4 (of 4)

[laughing_tree]

I wanted our 'hero' to be a normal Joe: someone without superpowers or big muscles or military training, a guy who uses his natural cleverness to literally break the rules of the Universe. Certain options presented themselves, but mostly they're the hackneyed nonsense you'd expect: cabbalistic deals, sorcery, latter-day Faustian pacts. So I started thinking about it all in more modern terms. Y'know who gleefully breaks the rules of reality everyday? Quantum theorists, existential physicists, and mathematicians. -- Si Spurrier

Comments

[lissa_quon]

Okay I must be really dense - cause still have no idea what that end was.

[kd_the_movie]

Its not just you. Personally, I find Spurrier a annoyingly confusing writer (i'm not the sharpest tool in the shed though) but, best I worked it out....

The last body that the mathematician reincarnated into was present for pretty much all of the other bodies (and their deaths) he incarnated in. This was planned.

By doing this, he was able to prevent this body from committing acts that wouldve put a negative balance on her soul so he was at "0" at the time of this bodys death i guess?.

I dont know if the woman is meant to be dead or not but either way, with her at "0" the original contract is null and void meaning the original ghost guy can pass on without the mathematician taking his spot.

[lizard_of_aus]

Aw, you cut out the last couple pages. The ones that turned this into a TRULY bewildering- and almost incestuous -ending.

[tcampbell1000]

I don't believe that having impure thoughts counts as a sin, but if you've gotten as far as buying the letter bomb, well, I'm not sure that's quite as "sinless" as this makes it out to be.

[palgrave_goldenrod]

It depends on how you define sin. This isn't really a strictly "religious" approach where simply thinking the bad thought is a sin in and of itself. In the world of the story, a 'sin' is essentially committing an act that denies yourself or someone else the ability to make a choice, from stealing a chocolate bar from someone (denying them the choice to eat it or not) to killing them (denying them the ability to make any choices whatsoever). Just thinking about or planning something without carrying it out doesn't affect another person's ability to choose, so planning to use and even building a letter bomb is harmless if you never actually deploy it.

In short, the metaphysics of this universe don't really care about someone's intentions, just the effects of their actions.

[tcampbell1000]

Fair enough!