From:        Raphael, raphael@asu.edu

On Fri, 14 Feb 1997, Ben Kosse wrote:

WARNING! Spoilers inherent. Read this damn fine (top 10) fic before
reading any reviews on it. All time spent trying to decide if you want
to read this fic is just wasted time. GO READ IT NOW!

   Agreed. If you're reading this post and haven't read this fic yet, go 
back and read it, darn it! In the words of Akiko, "Shut up and start 
reading." :)

Thirded. <Sigh> Makes a message that you've been unsubscribed because 
your ISP's bouncing messages seem not so bad. <wry, sad g>

   And yet, if anyone had seriously thought long enough about it (as I'm 
sure Mr. Lawson did), they would have known that this exact scenario 
would have been inevitable. Mr. Lawson takes the reality of what it would 
mean for a cat's brain to be artificially amplified for so long and draws 
the most logical response -- that it wouldn't be able to handle it and 
would eventually die. What makes the difference, though, is how Nuku-Nuku 
handles her impending death and how she takes pains to make sure her work 
would not vanish after she was gone. 

It's interesting to compare and contrast this with "Flowers for Algernon" 
-- both have a protagonist elevated to a high peak, before sinking into 
senility... but Nuku handles it a lot better than Charley did.

I added the scenes back in when one of my prereaders felt that 
there was something missing, ending it like I did.  So I added the 
scenes back, and another one of my prereaders felt that the scenes 
were too unnecessarily depressing.  I want to know what you think; 
would it be better to leave out the final stages of Nuku Nuku's 
breakdown?

     No. Keep it there. It needs to be there, much as I don't like
to read it.

   Yes, I agree again. (sorry about that, guys) These scenes are what 
create the emotional "punch" that carries the theme of the fic through -- 
that all good things must eventually end, and that we should make the 
most of them while we still have them. Without these scenes, the fic 
would lose a lot of the finality and realism (and depression power :P) 
that I love about this thing. 

Well, another voice in the chorus. <rueful g> The fic does need those 
scenes for closure; not just to say "yes, it did happen, and there's no 
convenient escape clause" -- but also to bring home how she knew what was 
coming and planned for it.

   The last two speeches Nuku-Nuku makes in the end are probably both 
the saddest and happiest moments of the fic both at the same time. I 
don't cry at movies, or fics, period (I'm an engineering major :P), but 
the lump in my throat and the grey haze clouding my vision are still 
there as I'm writing, just thinking about those speeches. If I scored 

Yeah. I'm just sort of trembling, a little, from the emotional tension. I 
figured out what she was doing a short ways into the first speech, and it 
still grabbed me by the throat and wouldn't let go. One of the best, and 
most moving, visits from beyond that I've seen. They bring home how much 
she cared, and how much she planned.





Travis Butler
(The Professor, formerly of Myth and Magick!, Lawrence, KS;
 tbutler@tfs.net, now from the Wandering Powerbook;
 <http://www.tfs.net/personal/tbutler/>;
 Mac page <http://www.tfs.net/business/tbutler/>)

...Cats are the proof of a higher purpose to the universe.