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Where's Waldo('s Ending)? 
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Heinlein Nexus
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Post Where's Waldo('s Ending)?
Just finished Waldo (inseparable from Magic, Inc., of course, for no literary reason I can discern). The ending leaves a number of questions unanswered in a way that doesn't seem deliberate (i.e., there doesn't appear to be a payoff from leaving the questions out there).

Principally I am thinking about the nature of the Other World. Power is being sucked out of it; do the inhabitants of that world notice? Do they mind? What are the consequences for their universe? These seem like questions that the story was designed to answer but doesn't, as though a word limit had been reached.

I believe there have been several other stories and Star Trek episodes that take the same premise and provide answers to the questions.


Mon Jun 09, 2008 8:29 pm
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NitroForum Oldster
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Post Re: Where's Waldo('s Ending)?
It sounds like the ultimate deus ex machina ending. It's been a long time since I read that story, mostly because I hate fantasy stories. Maybe I'll go back and take a look at it - it's not very long.

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Tue Jun 10, 2008 10:39 am
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Post Re: Where's Waldo('s Ending)?
It's been a while since I read it, but I thought I recalled Waldo sitting down to work out the details of the Other World (size-wise, at least), as if he could create it by defining it. Although I don't recall it being stated, that could allow for defining it in a way that caused no harm to any inhabitants it had (if his definition allowed for inhabitants).
I later took this as a forshadowing of the World as Myth concept. When people stopped believing in their power system, it stopped working. Gramps Schnieder (sp ?) helped them believe in something else so strongly that the 'something else' began to work. Then Waldo defined the details in such as way as to cement his control of the new system.
That would make Waldo a Fabulist as well as an engineer, dancer, inventor, etc.
However, I might have mixed details from one of those Star Trek episodes you mentioned with the Heinlein story. It's easy to look back and see what wasn't there then.

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Fri Jun 13, 2008 1:38 pm
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Post Re: Where's Waldo('s Ending)?

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In the end, I found Heinlein is finite. Thus, finite analysis is needed.


Sun Jun 29, 2008 3:20 pm
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