The Gap into Conflict: The Real Story - Chpt 2

[lucimay]

drew. here's your thread for chapter 2 driver. have at it!

[drew]

Remember when David Copperfield (the magician, not the book) was dating Claudia Schiffer? I gave him more respect as a magician at that point...thinking that he must have put a spell on her or something, in order to bag a catch like that. After all, he was just a hack, but got a girl who was well above him on the attractivness scale.

Judgemental? Perhaps.
But to some of the fellows frequenting Mallory's it would have been feasible

...these men know how to listen, how to ask questions, how to interpret what they saw-and when to go somehere else for information.

So there was more than meets the eye in chapter one; and its not just the reader (or the author) who know about it.
I guess Angus wasn't as sneaky as he thought.

The chapter goes to talk about these observant folk, hidden in the corners of the bar, not really drinking-just paying attention, looking for information.

They could see Morn's body language when she sat with Angus

...the men in the corners noticed the way her whole body seemed to twist away even when she sat close beside him

Ah, body language speaks volumes, even when the person cannot.
Later in the same paragraph...

And they observed that he kept one hand constantly fisted in the pocket of his grease stained shipsuit.

The first glimpse we catch of the Zone Implant-the central article to the entire series.

These voyeurs, or SPIES as I'd like to call them, find out that Morn is from a rich ore-mining family, who had gotten themselves a good peice of information on a good piece of ore ladden asteroid, and that they decided to mine it on their own, and reap the rewards.

Okay at this point, they are incorrect, and correct at the same time---later, in another chapter, we'll come to find out the truth about the Davies' family, but we'll also find out that they were incognito, and THIS is what they were posing as.

One may ask, Why Ore? And the author, only gives us a small explanation, but its enough; enough for us to use our imaginations to assume the Earth has used up most of the ore it once housed, and more must be found elsewhere:

Back on Earth, civilization and political power required ore. Withour the resources which stations like Com-Mine supplied, no government could maintain itself in office. By some standards, the United MIning Companies, Com-Mine's corperate founder, was the only effective governemnt in human space.

It sounds like Oil now-a-days. With the resource (oil today-ore tomorrow) there is no way for society to continue. Here we also hear of the United Mining Companies for the first time; the first thing I though of, was OPEC; holding controll over oil producing countries...so here is a good indicator, that the UMC is NOT one of the good guys.

Anyways, the SPIES assume, that Angus (who never worked an honest day in his life) found out about the Davies' knwoledge, and decided to follow them, and reap their rewards as his own...and that he came back with a trophy; namely Morn.
And the only conceiveable way for this, is if he had control over her with a Zone Implant.

Zone IMplants were illegal, of course. They were so illegal that unauthorized use carried the death penalty.

NExt, is the first example of an Ancillary Documentation that so fill the GAPs in the remaining novels...though this is much shorter than those Chapterettes, one can't help but wonder if this explanation gave the author the idea.
Bacically, he goes on to explain that a Zone IMplant fits inside the skull, originally used to control seizures, yet it was found that it could control many different zones in the brain.
The implant, can unfortunately be used in less than noble ways. Given an "unscrupulous control operator", it could be used to control a person, to be used as a slave.
This Ancillary Documentation-ette aslo tells us of Gap Sickness, and why Zone Implants are so common, even though they are so illegal.
Gap Sickness effects around one percent of the population, and can cause

• psycotic killing
  null wave transmitters
  raving bullimics
  gleefull self flagellance
  pedophilia
  pill-junkie

And for that reason, most ships keep them on board to protect the rest of the crew from what may come about.
Basically, a ZOne IMplant, can't cure Gap Sickness...yet it can fight any of the symptons that may arise.

-Did anybody else think of when Linden tried the possess Covenant in the Second Chronicles?
Possesion is Evil, but sometimes for the greater good....?

When we get back to the story, we find that the men of DelSec are a bunch of horney buggers.

What the men in the bars and sleeps talked about most often however, was Women. Women were rare on mining staions. Single women were even rarer. And avalable women were so rare that they were orihibitively expensice...men with nothing beter to do rarely thought about anything else...Gorgeous women. Women with zone implants, who did everything a drink fuddled mind could imagine. Women like Morn Hyland

So it was surmised that Angus was probebly as rangy as the rest of them, and took this opportunity.
THe one question I had here (to question these SPIES...why didn't Angus do this earlier? He's been around for years, why did he wait until now to zone a woman? I guess this is a clue that THIS chapter is not the Real Story either.)

We now catch our first glimpe of what Angus really is. A monster contructed of pure hate.

He hated everything. He hated everybody...HIs life was strewn with hate...now his hate was fixed on her, and he disired the thing he hated. Capable of any degradation his filthy appetires could conceive-and able to be hurt by it.

OKay, we get it. But why is like that? I guess we'll have to wait again for the Real Story.


-Well gang....I'm afraid that's it for tonight. The second part of this chapter, we'll get to hear more about Nick Succorso, and his possible plans for ridding Angus of the hatred he desired tomorrow.

[drew]

As promised, Nick Sucorso enters at this point.

I'd like to point out how cool this idea for a chpater is; We get introduced to all the charactors in chapter one, and then we get to haer about them all again, but we don't need an INTODUCTION to them, so the author can just bring Nick in with a pragraph like this; while on the subject of the poissbile control for the possible zone implant

On this subject, Nick Succorso kept his opinion to himself. Perhaps his attraction to Morn was so strong that he didn't think about anything else.

That paragraph is a VERY IMPORTANT fact to the rest of the story. Nick SHOULD have figured out about the Zone IMplant...other in the bar had, yet he was too self absorbed to think about it. And it led to his ultimate doom.

The SPIES surmissed that NIck figured out about the implant, and was going to try to get Angus caught...if Nick hadn't have been so inattentive, he could have easily got Angus Captured, and executed, and Morn would be his...to bad for him.

Next, the story lead us into Nick's past for a while. His ship, Captain's Fancy is a frigate, although it has a Gap drive. And he started hanging out at Mallory's whenever he was in ComMine.

We hear how he is able to talk his way out of simple problems like matter cannon holes in the side of his ship.

Captain Succorso, hand over your computer's datacore....
No, he said again. Now his grin didn't look so amiable. I'm not required to let you look at my datacore unless you have evidence of a crime. That's the law. Has there been a crime?

I like this next line too, kind of some foreshadowing to the rest of the series:

...and spending money as if he had a UMC credit line....

The story goes on to talk about how obvious his lust over Morn was. We get the impression that if Nick is a pirate, h'e not like Angus, he's glamorous; ready to rescue the distressed maiden.

But Nick was smart enough to realise that Angus could best him. He was stronger, and very secrative. He would have to outsmart him...get him captured. If he did that, not only would he win Morn...he would have thee satisfaction of knowing he was able to Beat Angus.

The way the story is written now, it doesn't come right out and say that Nick had a plan; it could have been a very lucky coincidence...

The incomming supply ship fromEarth was in trouble....Apparently one of the crew had been taken by gap sicness...A full standad year's worth of food was floating out there ripe to be rescued, salvaged, or guttet.

That was lucky..Nick and Angus both raced out, barely making it awa from ComMine before they opened fire.
Two days later, both returned. Bright Beauty was banged up-matter cannon fire, but he kept his mouth shut, and went back to Mallory's with Morn.
No trace of the supply ship was found.
Unfortunatly for Angus, ComMine secrurity, came in to arrest Angus, and found all of the missing supplies on his ship.

Durring the arrent, a very important action takes place.

...he and Morn began to scuffle: he was apparently trying to hold her back. Nevertheless she managed to break away just as security closed in on him. And then she and nick were gone, they dissapeared as effectively as a blink crossing.

It looked as though everything worked itself out, except for two things:
The supply ship arrived on schedule, and there was no zone implant control...that kept Angus from being executed; he should have ben released from lockup--this is another bit of foreshadowing to the next book..if he ws innocent, (or at least innocent of stealing supplies) why is he still in lockup?

The last line sums it up:

The crown at Mallorys would have found the real story much harder to live with.

I like this chapter-largly because of its non-importance.
Chapter one tells the thumbnail version of the story; chapter's three to eighteen tell the Real Story, why do we need an almost accurate telling of the events?

I think when the author origionally wrote this story, which was as he admitted, only going to be a novella, this chapter was not included. Later, when he dusted this off, and decided it was going to be the prequill to the GAP cycle, that he had to pepper in a few clues and secondary stories to help us understand what's going to be going on next.
While seeing what the SPIES were accurate, and mistaken in their observations, we got to se what kind of person Nick could be...that's he's not so great, more like a big grinning jerk.

[Avatar]

I'm not sure if others in the bar had figured it out, or if they were merely guessing. How can the magician have such a hot woman? He must have put a spell on her.

Still, they guessed right, even if maybe many of them didn't quite believe in their own guessing.

As Drew mentions, we're still not getting The Real Story here. We're still seeing the story through the eyes of observers, who can see all the events, but not have the faintest clue about the intentions or motives of the players.

--A

[Relayer]

One of the things I love about the first two chapters is the conversational and playful tone SRD uses...

Chapter one tells the thumbnail version of the story; chapter's three to eighteen tell the Real Story, why do we need an almost accurate telling of the events?

I think the point is to flesh it out, giving us much more information (like you said, much of it is similar to the Ancillary Doc). And to tell it at a different level of awareness. But of course it still isn't the real story... the inside story. But it's much closer. This is also setting the stage for the concept of many simultaneous and varied viewpoints that we're going to get for the next 2000 pages My guess is that he did write it this way, w/ the 2 "introductions" but I do agree that when he realized he had a whole series he went back and added a few hints...

I also loved "Being of various moral character, there were those among the onlookers who considered it a crime that Angus had given her a zone implant. Others considered it a crime that the control was in Angus' pocket."

[wayfriend]

What makes RS interesting is that we know how it ends, we just don't know how we get there. Chapter 1 gave us the outer layer of the onion, but we need Chapter 2 to tell us why there is more to it than we think. Chapter 1 had a conclusive ending ... Chapter 2 fizzled out with lots of questions that needed answering.

Lots of questions.

So I disagree with Drew's theory. I think that some details like the UMC and the UMCP were probably changed and refined. But I think this chapter fits in and of itself.

What the men in the bars and sleeps talked about most often however, was Women. Women were rare on mining staions. Single women were even rarer. And avalable women were so rare that they were prohibitively expensive.

This is important. On Com-Mine, women are objects; they don't have their own desires, their own plans.

After reading Mordant's Need, you just have to know that this is significant: that women's roles and attitudes towards women are part of the deeper subtext in this work.

What does the Com in Com-Mine stand for? And in what way is it a Mine?

[lucimay]

What does the Com in Com-Mine stand for? And in what way is it a Mine?

[Relayer]

COMpany. As in United Mining Companies. The mines in the nearby asteroids are under their jurisdiction. The station is theirs...

...the United Mining Companies, Com-Mine's corporate founder...

Holt: "You are mine."

[lucimay]

dang. i'm so enjoying reading this book again!!!

[wayfriend]

So... Company Mining Station, or Com-Mine for short. I can buy that.

[Avatar]

What makes RS interesting is that we know how it ends, we just don't know how we get there.

Exactly. It's being told backwards. A technique that gets largely left out in the subsequent books, but certainly works in this one.

--A

[Zarathustra]

Ok, I'm gearing up for my dissection contribution. That WILL be done later today. However, before I do that, I have to settle in my own mind what has gone before.

“Chapter one tells the thumbnail version of the story; chapter's three to eighteen tell the Real Story, why do we need an almost accurate telling of the events?”

As some have said, this is simply peeling away another layer. That in itself accomplishes nothing except showing that there ARE layers, i.e. that the story is complex. And really, if there were only two layers, then the whole idea of there being a Real Story (one which is missed by nearly everyone) would be lame. Only the most inattentive among us could fail to see past the surface, on to the very next layer. So there has to be several layers, merely for this Real Story idea to be a plausible narrative device.

But what are these layers? The Chapter One layer is the melodrama, the romanticization of this very unromantic triangle, the animal passion in: “. . . just another example of animal passion. . .” (p.3) The Chapter Two layer is the “common sense” in: “The only uncommon feature was that in this case the passion included some common sense.” (p.3). It’s the plotting behind the scenes, Nick’s plan to get Angus arrested and rescue the maiden. The trickery and subterfuge. It’s the plot.

So by making this a “framed story,” by telling us the the necessary events and how they turn out (Chapter 2), Donaldson is saying that the actual events aren’t the Real Story either. You can know what happened between these characters, the external outcomes, and still not know the Real Story . . . because the Real Story isn’t what happened, but how[/] it happened. These events wouldn’t have been possible if fundamental alterations in the psychology of these character hadn’t occurred (mostly Angus).

That’s the Real Story. It explains both layers spelled out in the first two chapters: it’s how the events come to fruition (chapter 2), and how the melodrama becomes drama (chapter 1).

But of course, to recognize the psychological changes these characters undergo, we have to know where they start. Angus starts by hating everything. This is why he took Morn. She was desirable, and he hated her. (What??) “He desired the thing he hated. He wanted her to be what only a zone implant could make her. Beautiful and revolted.” Capable of being degraded and hurt.

But this universal hatred is contradicted by one small detail. The key to how Angus gets from this starting point of hate to where he gets by the end of this series rests on the detail of him adding a fresh coat of paint to the letters of Bright Beauty. This has always been my favorite detail about Angus, maybe even my favorite detail of the entire series. You’ve got a guy who is himself physically repulsive, who commands a ship that looks like it’s about to fall apart. He hates everything, and yet he obviously loves his ship. It’s the chink in his armor of callous indifference, the flaw in his illusion of depravity. Not only the action of going EVA to apply the paint, but the name itself implies a contradiction in his universal hatred.

Despite his appearance, beauty is important to him. Despite his pervasive hate, there is also something a little like “love” hidden deep within him. He loves his ship, and what it can do for him. His ship is freedom and autonomy. It is power and deception. It enables his existence—in effect, his ship is himself. He hates himself, and yet, he still does everything in his power to preserve himself. That detail is the clue to Angus’s transformation.

So chapter 2 ends with two very important mysteries, the first real clues that the plot isn’t the Real Story. Though the “story” is known, there’s two flaws in this story. 1) The supply ship from Earth arrived on schedule. 2) The control to Morn Hyland’s zone implant was never found.

The first mystery has to do with Nick’s cleverness. The second has to do with Morn’s victimization. Conspicuously . . . there’s a flaw left out here. Donaldson is saving something for the end. The triangle isn’t complete. There’s a third flaw in the chapter 2 “story” that Donaldson comes back to on the very last page:

Spoiler

The real story, however, was that Angus never complained he’d been framed. He never mentioned there was a traitor in Security; he made no effort to defend himself. For the most part, he betrayed no reaction at all to his doom. When he heard Bright Beauty was going to be dismantled, he howled as if he were in agony; but he let Morn and Nick go. He had that much courage, anyway.