Just before the text to Traveling in Space was finalized, my publisher at Blüroof Press, Dave Doody, asked me to provide brief descriptions of the characters in my novel, providing a Dramatis personae that he could place in the front of the book. As I've always loved, and found helpful, such lists in books, I quickly set to the task.
Of an on, for several years, I worked with the great American animated cartoon director, Chuck Jones, and Chuck always maintained that in storytelling, "Character is everything! If you know who your characters are, the plot will follow because you'll know how they must react to the situations your throw at them." I don't know if that's actually a universal law, but I've followed it more often than not and it has never let me down. So I have a great fondness for my characters and it's a pleasure to introduce them to you in this way.
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Dramatis personæ
Life: Persons from The Living World, a contingent of whom travel in space in their huge lifeship, The Curious, finding facts, never to return home. They believe(d) themselves to be the only life in the universe. Each has a name that reflects a physical or personal attribute, or their position in society. When either change they undergo a “name metamorphosis.” They swear a lot.
Life Seeder (name metamorphosis Leif): The narrator of our story. His task on the lifeship is to look for a planet suitable for life so that the factfinders can eventually settle on it and plant their seed. A task disturbingly interrupted when a planet is discovered not only suitable for life but already teeming with it.
She (name metamorphosis Sheila): The owner and manager of a fieldfloat sports team (her vocation) and one of the finest pleasurepals (her advocation) on the lifeship. Both vocation and advocation are dispensed with when she is given the task to study the strange Otherlife institution of marriage.
Our Leader (name metamorphosis — it’s better you don’t know that right now): The leader of the lifeship and of the Life within. Gruff, insulting, bold and, worse, bored with traveling in space.
The Large Man (Member, Lifeship Council; name metamorphosis Angel Voice): Sublimely superb in the composition and performance of hums. He has an ego as outsized as his body.
The Very Small And Delicate Woman (Member, Lifeship Council; name metamorphosis Venus): Supremely intelligent factfinder even among all the other factfinders who are, of course, supremely intelligent. She would rather keep her eyes on the stars than stick her feet into the mud of the Otherlife’s planet.
The Very Ugly Man (Member, Lifeship Council; name metamorphosis The Nurturer): Interpreter of the laws as they were perceived and created by The Master Provider. He likes to see things grow.
The BT Maker (Member, Lifeship Council): He makes Brain Teasers and Brain Ticklers, and all his communications bubbles are flashy and multicolored.
The Lanky Gentleman (Member, Lifeship Council; name metamorphosis Argus): The lifeship’s expert on ignorance and hate, and is therefore given the task to study ignorance and hate among the Otherlife. It is a daunting task.
The Large Handed Woman (Member, Lifeship Council): The lifeship’s expert in mental states who is given the task to study the odd Otherlife phenomenon of religion.
The Pilot: He pilots the lifeship, keeps to himself, and loves to look at the stars.
The Life Seeder’s Assistant (name metamorphosis Life Seeder): Happy in his position but still bearing a racial grudge millennia old. Upon the discovery of the Otherlife, he is forced to grow and find a creativity in himself he did not know he had.
The Tenpercenters: As dictated by The Master Provider, ten percent of all births result in an ignorant. Collectively known as the Tenpercenters, they are cared for responsibly by their parents who hate them deeply, as does all of Life’s society. Represented in the story by the Life Seeder’s Assistant’s son, a particularly puerile and putrid pocket of puss.
Otherlife: They’re human — what else do you need to know?
President Crowell (Otherlife): Until the arrival of the Life in the lifeship, he had been the United States Speaker of the House. However as the previous president dies of a stroke, and the vice president quickly resigns, he finds himself in the Oval Office with aliens from outer space. A classic pol from the old school, he is a bit intimidated by statesmanship.
General Millikin (Otherlife): A very grounded professional soldier who discovers the power of zero gravity.
Michael Torme (Otherlife): Ex-TV star and owner of Michael Torme’s Honeymoon Paradise Resort. He knows that love and marriage go together like a horse and carriage.
Stan and Mary (Otherlife): A young honeymoon couple. She’s pregnant and he’s delighted.
Josh and Rachel (Otherlife): An old honeymoon couple. Jewish, they fell in love while singing Sunrise, Sunset.
John and Carole (Otherlife): A Christian honeymoon couple. God was the Matchmaker, so who are they to argue?
Margaret Cleveland (Otherlife): Works for the International Genocide Project. Wise beyond her years — and she’s ninety-five years old.
Patricia Barks (Otherlife): White House intern charged by the president with the task of helping the Life understand Otherlife religion. She fails.
Joseph Gillette (Otherlife): Owner of the Atlantis Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Thinks the Large Man as Angel Voice will be a giant in the entertainment business.
Stuart (Otherlife): A loving father down on his luck in Vegas. Convinced Angel Voice can take him to heaven, he starts a riot.
David (Otherlife scientist, name metamorphosis Bushface): Studies quantum physics, he believes science and religion can coexist.
Andrew (Otherlife scientist, name metamorphosis Sharp Chin/Sharp Nose. A biologist.
Sara (Otherlife scientist, name metamorphosis Bright Smile): An astronomer and astrophysicist.
Adrian (Otherlife scientist, name metamorphosis Angel Hair): A neurobiologist, he thinks Bushface has his thumb up his bum.
Sally (Otherlife scientist, name metamorphosis Tits): A well-endowed paleontologist who knows how to make a mean Bone Diggers Delight.
Pope Peter II (His Otherlife Holiness): Previously the Archbishop of Canter- bury who effected a reconciliation between the Church of England and the Catholic Church, and now is determined to bring all other religions under the vast dome of the One True Church. He wants his “Children from the Stars” to help.
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READ THE PREFACE TO TRAVELING IN SPACE
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