Question: Do you guys think Biostasis freeze the morphing clock?
I reckon Rachel and Ax weren't that close to becoming nothlits if it did.
Well, that all depends on exactly what the reason for the morphing time limit is... which is unclear. A reasonable guess is that the clock has to do with how long the technology is capable of keeping your physical body in Z-space linked to the animal that you have morphed, that for some reason it is able to maintain this link only for two of our hours and then the link is severed and you are unable to retrieve your own body (though that it is still capable of maintaining the link between your own mind and the morphed brain is odd; but maybe it is a separate and much more indefinitely sustainable link). If this is the case, I would say that Biostasis of the morphed body wouldn't actually would stop whatever time-limit there is on the Z-space link.
However, this explanation fails to address how metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly would somehow restore the link and reset the clock, so it in itself doesn't explain everything; apparently for unknown reasons the time link is somehow dependent on the biological function of the morphed body as shown in the caterpillar/butterfly reset, so it is entirely possible that a biostasis could in fact be a morph-clock pause button.
Well, while I'm here:
Questions (that I feel I have something to contribute to)1) This is more of a comment, really, but did anyone else feel a bit like Ax re-reading this book? I found the idea of a 14k modem laughable and the chat text frustrating and backwards. I can feel Ax's pain dealing with mid-90's technology! I forgot how bad it was!Upon re-reading it yes it is quite laughable and funny. However, it is almost just as funny re-reading Ax's descriptions of advanced technology, which is in itself antiquated (not in that we have all of the level of technology that he speaks of, but in that his views of 'futuristic' and thoughts on what are important technological issues are already a bit dated, having already being put into public, commonplace terms).
2) What do you think of Esplin 9466 the Lesser's character in general? Do you think the fact that he became successful as a human is betrayal of his species or admirable?3) What do you think of Esplin the Lesser's survival method? Should Jake have let him go, even knowing that a human host must die for his cannibalism every three days? Or did Jake do the right thing in keeping his word?Um, I'm going to address these two questions and a lot of their responses by saying that I'm actually kind of appalled at this discussion:
2. well I wouldn't call it betrayal. If you can't succeed in one thing, then succeed in another. I'm not too good in language, but I'm good in math so I'm fine with that
3. I honestly don't see why cassie was that upset. I mean I'd be a little upset that I'd want to kill him but not so upset that I'd go against jake to kill him. Did jake do the right thing? no. should jake have killed him? no. this is one of those shades of gray.
2. ...As for him being successful as a human, I think it's cool he didn't take his fate lying down. I don't think that particular action was a betrayal of species but more of a betrayal of government.
3. It's a sick method. No question, Jake had to make a tough call. Letting Fenestre go isn't a shining example of virtue, but I think if they hadn't, it would have messed up the Animorphs themselves more. The moral lines they drew would have been gone a lot quicker.
OK, here's the thing: When you go see this "oh, that poor guy is oppressed by his society as a second class citizen because he was the 'lesser twin,' I can identify with someone being a second class citizen wanting to find a clever way to escape society's confines." (and just to make it clear, he was not betraying a bad government because he was against its policy toward other sentient creatures, he made it clear that he was escaping a society that treated him as a second class citizen with a lowly position)
But here is what makes Fenestre/Esplin different from that inspirational main character in Gattaca: his solution involves murder; indefinitely ongoing, ruthless, cold-blooded murder. And this isn't the "Well, the Yeerks believe that other races are inferior, so his killing humans without regard for their life is to be expected" situation, because he is eating his own kind, something that is an outright atrocity punishable by death in his culture, he has decided that he doesn't care for any type of morality or value of life, just himself.
So no, he is not admirable. He may have been quite clever and shown a strong spirit that did not blindly accept conventions, but admirablity takes some amount of decency. If you read a story about a slave who escaped in the 1800s and then the entire story was about him hiding out and murdering slave children in the fields to take their food and assure that he wasn't caught you wouldn't even think to ask if he was admirable, you would go "I'm sorry for his life as a slave, that was definitely wrong of the society of the time; but if the only way you can find to escape in and survive is through murdering innocent people who are just as shackled to the society as you are, then you can't actually consider that an alternative." Fenestre/Esplin's fate wasn't even that of a slave, just someone stuck in a low end of society with a menial job (not all that different from the guy in Gattaca again), not glorious or satisfying by any means, and sure otherwise good people have resorted to a life of crime to escape that life; but it takes a complete sociopath to resort to not just petty theft but the most atrocious, gruesome crime. I'm not saying I didn't understand his motives, he treated the world as Dog-eat-dog (actually, pretty literally) and decided to look out solely for himself, but if he decided that this was worth it above allowing people just as oppressed their chance to do the same then there is no way he could be considered admirable. It is terrible to say that "If you are not good at English, get ahead in math" is morally equal to "If you can't get ahead in society, get good at murdering and escaping justice."
As far as Jake's side goes, the only thing wrong on his part was that he was locked into a promise he shouldn't have to keep, he should have restricted his promise to hearing out Fenestre/Esplin and the decision to completely let him go and not come back for him later was completely morally wrong. To say that deciding to kill Fenestre/Esplin would damage the Animorphs or ruin their moral lines by making them willing to cross them only shows really poorly drawn moral lines. If a criminal is guilty of violent and despicable acts such as rape or murder and there is no way to bring that person to justice and stop them other than killing them, there is almost no moral or ethical system in history that would say you should do anything other than kill them in order to stop them; to willing let them go free to do it again is the morally reprehensible and socially irresponsible act. This was one case where Cassie was completely right instead of making up morals based on her 'uncomfortable feelings' and the Animorphs decision to let Fenestre/Esplin go was not only a poor moral one (because they were allowing him to go on murdering unsuspecting people of
both species in the hopes that this would slightly weaken the Yeerk effort), but also a terribly foolish one: As if ten random, low level Yeerks taken out each month would make any difference when; as they discovered, part of Fenestre/Esplin's way of maintaining their safe position was feeding V3 and the Yeerk Empire valuable information; letting him go was an act of betrayal to their cause, if they had to do it to rescue their frozen friends in that situation then the very next mission should be planning a new way to take out Fenestre/Esplin.
2) What do you think of Esplin 9466 the Lesser's character in general? Do you think the fact that he became successful as a human is betrayal of his species or admirable?
I am trying to remember if Visser Three’s twin was actually banished by the Empire or just rejected by his stronger twin. One can call it ‘inventive’ the process he developed in order to survive, but it’s difficult to admire.
3) What do you think of Esplin the Lesser's survival method? Should Jake have let him go, even knowing that a human host must die for his cannibalism every three days? Or did Jake do the right thing in keeping his word?
The fact that he persevered to come on top and made the most of his situation on Earth, shows the Yeerk’s adaptability and capacity to look for other ways to succeed, than their own conventions.
I think that's a much healthier perspective on Fenestre/Esplin: Inventive, persistent, determined and clever: Yes. But these things do not make someone admirable. And to clarify your question, Fenestre/Esplin being assigned to a lowly menial position on the planet that V3 was conquering may have been part of V3's doing to rub it in his inferior brother's face, but Fenestre/Esplin says that as the lesser twin his society considers him a lesser, weaker citizen so he would have gotten crappy, inglorious missions regardless; he was never actually exiled, he was just in a crappy position at the bottom of the Empire, his 'escape' was of his own doing though after renegading, making his host rich and converting to cannibalism and living the ritzy life he does it is not be possible for him to return to the Empire as he would be facing a death penalty.
