So, it's a standard story in sci-fi

[conuly]

The intrepid hero(es) wander off and do something that gets them "out of phase" with the rest of the universe. They can see and hear everybody, but nobody else can see or hear them. Maybe they're totally incorporeal, and maybe they can move things around.

But why doesn't it ever work the other way? Everybody else can see and hear them, but they're wandering around in a fog, only able to see the other things and/or people out of phase?

Comments

[sporks5000.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure that that happened in one flew over the cuckoo's nest.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Oh man, the book you've gotta read is Woman On The Edge Of Time (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22Woman+On+The+Edge+Of+Time%22&btnG=Google+Search) by Marge Piercy.

[conuly]

I was just telling a Ramona yesterday that nobody ever writes books about Connies!

[darkpoole.livejournal.com]

If gravity still affects people when they're out of phase, why don't they fall through the floor? If gravity doesn't affect them, why don't they float away? In either case, if they're out of phase with everything, how can they walk? What are they walking on?

And when someone becomes invisible, with light either (a) passing through them or (b) bending around them, how do they see?

[conuly]

Now you're just overthinking things. Why would you want to inject sense and logic into silly sci-fi themes?

[darkpoole.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you're right. But phasing is one of those stock sci-fi things that just, y'know, bugs me after a while. "So, if you're out of phase with all the matter around you, what are you breathing" kind of stuff. It's the way my mind works.

[conuly]

Maybe not all the air in the universe is in the same phase as the air we now breathe, and our intrepid heroes are breathing the out of phase air.

[brownkitty.livejournal.com]

It does work the other way. They're called ghost stories.

[conuly]

Not the same, though, because then they're dead.

[sporks5000.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure that that happened in one flew over the cuckoo's nest.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Oh man, the book you've gotta read is Woman On The Edge Of Time (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22Woman+On+The+Edge+Of+Time%22&btnG=Google+Search) by Marge Piercy.

[conuly]

I was just telling a Ramona yesterday that nobody ever writes books about Connies!

[darkpoole.livejournal.com]

If gravity still affects people when they're out of phase, why don't they fall through the floor? If gravity doesn't affect them, why don't they float away? In either case, if they're out of phase with everything, how can they walk? What are they walking on?

And when someone becomes invisible, with light either (a) passing through them or (b) bending around them, how do they see?

[conuly]

Now you're just overthinking things. Why would you want to inject sense and logic into silly sci-fi themes?

[darkpoole.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you're right. But phasing is one of those stock sci-fi things that just, y'know, bugs me after a while. "So, if you're out of phase with all the matter around you, what are you breathing" kind of stuff. It's the way my mind works.

[conuly]

Maybe not all the air in the universe is in the same phase as the air we now breathe, and our intrepid heroes are breathing the out of phase air.

[brownkitty.livejournal.com]

It does work the other way. They're called ghost stories.

[conuly]

Not the same, though, because then they're dead.