Same premise as Mark Twain's The Mysterious Stranger http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mysterious_Stranger
The Egg (2009)
141–150 of 159 posts
Re: The Egg (2009)
#142I guess I'm in the minority that doesn't find this story uplifting. The memory reset is the biggest problem, since it doesn't allow the main character to learn from his mistakes. At the end of time, the main character will have his memories and personalities merged. Then he'll look back on countless lifetimes of the same mistakes and regrets. It would be like if someone slipped you some Ambien (to prevent memory form…
My thoughts exactly. I feel there's something interesting there that doesn't quite work. There needs to be a stronger link between re-living life and steadily 'improving', whether this 'improvement' is something alien to us (as mdisraeli suggests), or whether these improvements fit our human view of things.
For example, the story could focus on a subset of 'humanity', some kind of smaller community, and highlight how the protagonist, through inhabiting all people in this community, broadened and deepened his understanding and/or compassion. This subset could be a family, for example, or a set of different 'archetypes' (leader, priest, caretaker, slave, etc.).
Re: The Egg (2009)
#143On HN, we want to hack the way our systems work. We want to see through the obscurity and complexities advanced systems have brought along and find the most elegant and quickest way to challenge and control them. Why can we not look at hacking religion? Why can we not hack philosophy? I like this story, but more than that I like the fact that it has reached page 1 on HN. I think many people here are not looking for s…
"Why can we not look at hacking religion" I'm in the camp of people that considers religion a hack already - a psychological manipulation of emotions and thoughts to bring about a particular state of being and behaviour. In many cases it's a beneficial symbiosis - and in others a spiritually parasitical one - between the 'host' religion and the 'client' believer. So what does it mean to 'hack' region? To further twis…
I know a number of people who 'hack' religion, in the sense that they don't necessarily buy into all of it, but use it to further an agenda that I would consider good. My former pastor (and father) is one of them. I've also known a number of gay individuals who did not believe they were 'sinful' and yet actively worked within a religious framework that condemned them, because they felt the benefits were worth it.
That said, most of them do believe quit a bit of their chosen religion.
Re: The Egg (2009)
#144This is within an iota of the precise cosmology of my religion of birth: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashmir_Shaivism Except that, coming from that background, I expected the big reveal to be that the Egg is talking to himself, hatched. As unprovable speculations about the nature of reality go, I rather like this one.
I was expecting that too. Son was okay, but a bit Jesusy. Self would've been more of a head scratcher.
Re: The Egg (2009)
#145What about pre-human hominids? Was he also all the Homo Ergasters? Homo Habilis? Australopithecus Afarensis? The great apes? All the mammals? All multi-celled life? I don't get what's interesting about this story. It's pretty silly and not very enlightening.
Maybe he lived as all of them on the way up.
Or WILL live as all of them on the way up, depending on your worldview.
Re: The Egg (2009)
#146First time reading this story would be nice if someone can explain the takeaway from this? It's a very deep story but trying to rationalize the meaning or concept behind the idea of this story. Thanks:)
I didn't take anything from it, just thought it was a very creative idea.
I suppose there's a 'every experience makes you grow' angle - but I don't think the author was really trying to push it. It's mostly about the clever construction.
Re: The Egg (2009)
#147This seemed cute the first time I read it, and it explains the "why I am me?" question that most religions just don't. But I realized, this is would be an absolute disaster if true. True story: life more or less sucks if you aren't near a local maximum of a food chain.
Yeah, but then you hatch into a megabeing that can make and destroy universes. Swings and roundabouts.
Re: The Egg (2009)
#148This seemed cute the first time I read it, and it explains the "why I am me?" question that most religions just don't. But I realized, this is would be an absolute disaster if true. True story: life more or less sucks if you aren't near a local maximum of a food chain.
I always thought the point of he story was to call attention to that fact and plead for empathy and compassion.
I think there's an inevitability to his eventual hatching of superpowers. Whether or not he's good, bad, or indifferent to people, all he has to do is wait it out —til they're all dead — and he hatches into super universe monster. Pretty sweet.
Re: The Egg (2009)
#149This would have been a significantly more enjoyable experience if the title of the submission didn't give away the ending.
well. The story seems to actually be called "The Egg"
I don't feel it's any greater spoiler than "The Last Question"
edit: oops
Re: The Egg (2009)
#150This would have been a significantly more enjoyable experience if the title of the submission didn't give away the ending.
On the other hand, a title of "The Egg" might not have attracted enough views and upvotes for you to have seen it. There's a pique/spoil trade-off, now in social media more than ever. (In this case, the first line might have worked just as well, though: "You were on your way home when you died...")
I submitted this story to Reddit a few years ago with the title "You were on your way home when you died." Grabs your attention, but gives nothing away since that's just the first line. It's a great first line.