Subject: A Death Question
From: october@zone.com (eddz)
Newsgroups: alt.fan.neil-gaiman
Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1999 06:47:07 GMT

Hi, I'm going to pretend to delurk here and ask a newbie question. I just read Orpheus, and it was really cool to see Death's house, but how/why does she have 20th century creature comforts when it's not the 20th century yet? and if she could tell the future, why wouldn't she have 21st 22nd century stuff?

(e)

Subject: Re: A Death Question
From: squidboy@visi.com (Lance "Squiddie" Smith)
Newsgroups: alt.fan.neil-gaiman
Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1999 07:18:46 GMT

october@zone.com (eddz) writes:

>Hi, I'm going to pretend to delurk here and ask
>a newbie question. I just read Orpheus, and it
>was really cool to see Death's house, but how/
>why does she have 20th century creature comforts
>when it's not the 20th century yet? and if she could
>tell the future, why wouldn't she have 21st 22nd
>century stuff?

'Cause that's what she likes.

Lance Smith

Subject: Re: A Death Question
From: october@zone.com (eddz)
Newsgroups: alt.fan.neil-gaiman
Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1999 08:35:00 GMT

>'Cause that's what she likes.

how would she know that she liked it if it didn't even exist yet? Death can't go hopping about in time, can she? how does that fit into the mythology of death?

(e)

Subject: Re: A Death Question
From: "The NightWalker" <nightwalker@nightwalker.net>
Newsgroups: alt.fan.neil-gaiman
Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1999 02:04:25 -0700

eddz wrote:
>how would she know that she liked
>it if it didn't even exist yet? Death can't
>go hopping about in time, can she? how
>does that fit into the mythology of death?

Simple...Death is everywhere, in every time, in every existance. There is a passage ('Facade' in the collection 'Dream Country') in which she talks about being there when a race of crystalline beings die on a far off planet...how she was there when the first thing was born, and how she'll be the last thing when the universe itself is dead. She's everywhere. Also, there are plenty of cross-planar theories that say everything is happening at once, just in different dimensions. For example...as I'm writing this, a group of Space Marines are terraforming a planet, the human race is discovering fire, and Napoleon was just defeated at Waterloo. The realms of the Endless are beyond normal space and time. The answer is simple, really.

Subjective reality can be a wonderful thing.

* Scotch - Because one doesn't solve the World's problems over white wine.

Subject: Re: A Death Question
From: Mariane Desautels <desautelsmarianeMEURS@POLLUTIONvideotron.ca>
Newsgroups: alt.fan.neil-gaiman
Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1999 07:54:00 -0400

eddz wrote:
>
> >'Cause that's what she likes.
>
> how would she know that she liked
> it if it didn't even exist yet? Death can't
> go hopping about in time, can she? how
> does that fit into the mythology of death?

Look at it this way: she knows where people were before they were born, she knows when they will be born, she knows when they will die, and what happens afterwards.

I wouldn't assume her to be incapable of a certain anachronistic eclectism.

Subject: Re: A Death Question
From: "Eden Miller" <eamiller@longwood.lwc.edu>
Newsgroups: alt.fan.neil-gaiman
Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1999 10:06:22 -0400

Mariane Desautels <desautelsmarianeMEURS@POLLUTIONvideotron.ca> wrote:

> eddz wrote:
> > >'Cause that's what she likes.
> >
> > how would she know that she liked
> > it if it didn't even exist yet? Death can't
> > go hopping about in time, can she? how
> > does that fit into the mythology of death?

> Look at it this way: she knows where people were before they were born,
> she knows when they will be born, she knows when they will die, and what
> happens afterwards.
>
> I wouldn't assume her to be incapable of a certain anachronistic
> eclectism.

And besides, I think it's funny...so that makes it okay.

But I mean, she's not just the Death of earth. She's Death. Period. Who's to say that's there isn't some other planet out there at that point that is having something very similar to earth's 20th Century? There's lots of explanations. But I just like the humor element of it, personally, so I really didn't care much.

Eden