On physiology and dimensional travel...

[mark_engels]

Another author, Alan Harnum, wrote a piece (still unfinished) titled "Mortal Engines" which addressed this issue... but from a different angle.
(yeah.. I know... you have it up on your website... heh)

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You'll see that the explosion seems to wash along a spherical "safe" area around Makoto, looking rather like the force bubble that demongods are supposed to have around them according to the manga.

I sure liked Harnum's work...right up to the point where it ended UNFISHED.  Meh.  I HATE when that happens!

Thankfully, there are a number of writers who have the decency to finish what they start.  

Speak of finished series, my friend and co-author Ken Wolfe wrote some solo work expanding on your last point.  Those of you who have read his "Earth" series will recall the question Ken posited in the last part of the sixth installment--just how WOULD the conflict between Makoto's mortality and Ifurita's apparent immortality be resolved?

Your point of Makoto appearing to possess something only demon-gods were supposed to have foreshadows Ken's work nicely.

And yes, I'm deliberately being vauge for the benefit of those who might not have read the work.  

MJE

[belldandyfan]

I totally agree,

Alan Harnum's work has always been top notch as far as I am concerned.. better even than th vast majority of professional authors I've read. His style is one that I only wish I could emulate. He can, with few words, evoke images of startling crystal sharpness, and set a mood that is amost frighteningly vivid.  

I also agree that I wish he'd finish Mortal Engines...it was too good a story to leave it unfinished. Who knows, maybe if enought people _politely_ told him how good the fic is... and how they wished he'd have finished it.. he might (one day) take up the story again.

As to the mortality issue... well... there have been a number of angles taken to address this issue by other authors. I enjoyed Ken's take on it. (which I'll also be notably vague about in the event someone has not read it yet)

Some of the more orginal have been ones like the one used in the story pair , A Paradise Built for Two and The Tale Of The Jinniyah And The King by Vince Seifert (I liked this one, while at the same time was a little creeped out by it... It's just too plausible for Makoto and Ifurita to fall into the trap shown in these two fics)

(Which again I won't spoil for the reader because it's too good to spoil.)

However, I have a particular like for Alan's thoughts on the matter because I believe his solution to the issue fits on so many different levels.

First, from a cultural perspective, the idea that Makoto might be changing into something more compatible with Ifurita fits nicely with the Japanese ethos of doing for others without worring about self.

Second, it fits the Zoroastrian/ indo-iraqi mythological mix that is found in El Hazard to a T. Specifically, if you know what to look for, you find references throughout the story to actual elements of the Zoroastrian religeon, and if you follow that vein you quickly find that Motoko falls squarely into the role of a meshiah (Saoshant) who would save the world, and bring about the triumph of truth, light, and freedom while becoming immortal himself in the end. (There has been a great deal of arguement among scholars of biblical lore that the three wise men supposedly present at the birth of Jesus were actually Zoroastrian priests) Anyway, back to El-Hazard... If one takes a look at Makoto's name, that right there is the first piece of the puzzle... His name translates to "truth". I think the rest of his deeds speak for themselves as to the light and freedom part of the story.

Third, during the OVA, there are a number of event clues that seem to indicate that Makoto's fate appears to be that he becomes something more than human. Specifically,  note the opening credits where he is shown flying, with a contrail of some sort being left behind him (rather like Ifurita's contrail when she initially fly away from the forbidden island after she'd been awoken.), the previously mentioned oddity of Ifurita's attempt to blast him after their first "contact", and even how makoto was able to move fast enough to dodge her attempt to kill him in the bugrom hive at very close range.

Of course the real reason I support Alan's view  is 'cus I like the symetry of it all.

Of course, all this could be moot, because after 10,000 years without a service checkup... Ifurita's warrenty could be up.  That right there is one thing that I don't think anyone has explored. How would Ifurita and Makoto deal with the concept of Mortality if it suddenly came up that Ifurita was dying.

I've had an idea for a fic that initially focused on this issue perking around in my head for ages... (just haven't had the time to write it) where Makoto returns with Ifurita to ElHazard, and after arriving , they re-wind her "spring". However, during the process, a distinct snapping sound is heard and they discover that the stresses her being subjected to the eye of god  and the passage of time has so damaged her systems, that only a partial rewind was possible. Furthermore, while a demongod can self repair to a great extent... the rewind mechanism is too complex for her self repair systems to fix, and it is no longer functional. This leaves her with a limited lifespan of perhaps (at most) 4 or 5 years living as a human, and less if she makes significant use of her full powers. Yeah I know, a bit contrived.. but it has a purpose for later in the plot ida, dealing with her love for makoto, or more specifically where her love for him springs.

[mark_engels]

Unfortunately, every source I have suggests that all "polite" requests to Harnum to finish Mortal Engines were rebuffed.  A few years back I guess the Utena fict bug bit him hard--he has yet to recover.  

Yeah, Seifert's "A Paradise Built For Two" was funky spooky weird.  But he more than redeemed himself with "Jinniyah and The King."  Maybe I'm just dense, but I was guessing as to just whom the storyteller was right up to the final TWO WORDS.  And in those last two words, the entire story seemed strangely satisfying.

Seifert and I have corresponded several times in the last couple years but it's been awhile.  Being that I used to read a lot of Ranmafict, I also enjoyed his "Taming of the Horse" series.

<reads of Zoastrian mythology and a new story idea>

Hmm...

<checks the profiles page and notes Belldandyfan's hails from Spokane...>

Avery, is that you?  From our dialogue after Wolfe and I published Rough Justice I would say so!  I thought you'd have finished that work by now.  It was a good idea then and is a good idea now.  When last we corresponded, you figured that you would have a LOT of spare time on your hands.    If you haven't written the piece yet, I hope I can take that to mean you're gainfully employed once again.  

And the last line of your last post contains an absolutely hideous pun, I'll have you know.

M. J. Engels
Signal Technician
Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen LU 14
CN Rail
Valparaiso, Indiana  USA

[belldandyfan]

Unfortunately, every source I have suggests that all "polite" requests to Harnum to finish Mortal Engines were rebuffed.
...

Yeah, Seifert's "A Paradise Built For Two" was funky spooky weird.  But he more than redeemed himself with "Jinniyah and The King."  Maybe I'm just dense, but I was guessing as to just whom the storyteller was right up to the final TWO WORDS.  And in those last two words, the entire story seemed strangely satisfying.
...


...
Avery, is that you?  From our dialogue after Wolfe and I published Rough Justice I would say so!
....
If you haven't written the piece yet, I hope I can take that to mean you're gainfully employed once again.  

And the last line of your last post contains an absolutely hideous pun, I'll have you know.

In order of responces

I contacted harnum also, but he was unfailingly polite on the issue. He said that yes he had been bitten by the Utena bug, but that seems to have subsided. He also said that he was going to keep the fic to himself because he still might finish it someday. But that of course has been a long while now.

Yeah , that was spooky, but the ending in the followon piece made such sense.

Yep it's me

Oh as to the free time and employment.. that concept of having any free time lasted a couple days... and then I made a decision.. to return back to school, use the GI bill I still had.. and finish my EE degree. Just finishing up now.. just a class in VHDL, data structures, and engineering 408 to go ...As to employment... I'm working for a company called Quad group... you can find em at www.quadgroupinc.com. They do some really cool engineering stuff... Though currently I am just an intern, the owner likes me and is already talking permenant employ... but I am just waiting to see what develops. The interesting thing is that the owner, this 77 year old WWII vet, worked with Shockley(I forget the spelling) back in the 60's when the whole field of microelectronics was invented. Very cool guy... and a total genius. But I digress... anyway, free time evaporated the instant I decided to finish my engineering degree.. you know what I mean, late nights, lotsa calculus, lotsa circuit analysis.

Maybe someday I will actually get on with that fic idea of mine.. till I actually have the time to do it, I continue to develop the story line in my head and do a little outlining now and then to satisfy the demon... you know what I mean.

Later

Steve

[mark_engels]

I've posted here before that I have an engineering background myself (BS Electrical Engineering Technology, Lake Superior State University, Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan May 1993.)  So I can appreciate what you're going through.  I use basic Boolean algebra and various DC and AC circuit theory concepts every day in my work, but on a very applied and specialized level.

http://www.csx.com/employee/index.cfm?fuseaction=jobs.desc&i=5118

I used to work for this company but now work for CN Rail in their US divisions.  My "home road" used to be known as the Grand Trunk Western.

Before that I was a freelance electrical engineer and software tester all around Minneapolis.  Suprised I never met Xel but I'm sure we ran with different packs.  I was a member of a Minneapolis anime club for awhile, though.  Used to hang out with Spanner from time to time up there.

So the (meta)physics of this thread interests me to no end.

Glad to hear you're back in school.  As I recall, our listmeister Showalter is working to attain a technical degree too.  

Shine on you crazy diamond!

And Adcock and Morris are both programmer peeps (bit heads!)

My email should be on my profile.  Send me a note off list any time you want to talk shop.

Ah yes, memories.  Visions of double integrals dancing in my head.  Brr.  Shiver.  Having said that, however, the engineering principles still astound me to this day given that there were people over 100 years ago like Tesla, Edison and Westinghouse who first put them to practical use.  Even the DC track circuit, the foundation of all railroad signaling practice, was first patented in the 1880s.

And the fellow you're thinking of is Shottky.  The Shottky diode is named for him.  Robert, help me remember here...I believe they use a P-type material along with a conductive metal like gold or silver instead of a standard PN junction used in a silicon or germanium diode.   As I recall, this resulted in much faster switching speeds than other diodes, enabling the development of MOSFETs and CMOS ICs.  From there we went almost immediately to the commercialization of microelectronics, including personal computers.  And the rest, as they say, is history.


MJE