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This time, Seth is joined by Thomas Hornigold of the podcast Physical Attraction to discuss Frederik Pohl’s 1978 Hugo Winner, Gateway.
Time Codes:
| Start – 5:17 | Intro/getting to know Thomas |
| 5:18 – 21:29 | Non-Spoiler discussion |
| 21:30 – end | Spoiler discussion |
Notes:
Physical Attraction:
http://www.physicalattraction.libsyn.com/
https://twitter.com/physicspod
Hay-on-Wye, city of books:
http://www.hay-on-wye.co.uk/
Thomas’s writing on Singularity Hub:
https://singularityhub.com/author/thornigold/
io9 “Blogging the Hugos” entry on Gateway:
https://io9.com/5659500/gateway-by-frederik-pohl-the-most-dreadful-of-hugo-winners
Enjoyed this discussion. Read this recently and really enjoyed it. There was one page I wanted to rip out that dealt with domestic violence, but overall a great read. I believe there were no other overlapping nominees among the Hugo and nebula h gems that year. No one likes the sequels but I’m still curious to read Beyond the Blue Event Horizon. And the prequel Merchants of Venus is pretty good.
~spoilers below~
I’m only like 6 years behind the discussion on this one, but I just found your podcast this weekend. I feel you guys glossed over 2 of the most interesting aspects of the conclusion. First, Bob is kind of an asshole. The whole book it’s implied that he’s kind of a selfish loner and therefore that he probably pushed the button to save himself. (Obviously, that’s my interpretation). But to back that up, you didn’t mention that Bob received the entire $10MM instead of having to split it.
So not only did he (probably) save himself at the expense of his colleagues, he also got a reward for it. That means that he doesn’t only have to live with killing his love to save himself, he also eternally tormented by the fact that every penny of his millions he spent is on the backs of the others he sacrificed. No wonder he’s so combative with the therapist!
That’s a totally fair assessment, and I always love to get additional discussion going on social media or the comment section, because any conversation is going to miss something.