Synchronicity

[ret2ak]

Sorry, synchronicity is not in my unabridged Random House dictionary. Is it really a word? Apparently synchronic has a meaning in linguistics, the study of a language at a specific time without regard to its history. If you mean there is a relation between what is happening to Henry, Ali and Trevor I could buy that. I had been wondering about Ali and am glad to see him go. The two crewmen in their greed could end up spilling their tale and sending out an alarm.

So Trevor is headed for the Iles Kerguelen with only a hundred scientists as occupants. If my time line is correct it is summer down there, but hypothermia would still be a problem in such a windy place. I hope Trevor likes seal meat.

Thanks so much for such an interesting story. I am beginning to build my week around Tuesday.

You are an excellent teacher. Since many gay stories are about people who hate math and science it is refreshing to learn so much practical knowledge from a series. I used to entertain myself on two week ANWR backpacks trying to get my location by flooding sand, putting a stick on the north side and timing when the shadow was the shortest. Longitude was pretty accurate but latitude was off by a hundred miles. It never occured to me to use the tube from my pen like Trevor did.

Charles Lane, Anchorage

[Benji]

......................Synchronicity; an apparently meaningful coincidence in time of two or more similar or identical events that are causally unrelated. My guess is the 'low' pressure front which is keeping Trevor continuing south while the the roaring forties are being left behind. By the time Trevor breaks free of it, he will be in the furious fifties.

[C James]

Sorry, synchronicity is not in my unabridged Random House dictionary. Is it really a word?

 

Here's the wikipedia definition. I'll quote a bit below.

 

Synchronicity is the experience of two or more events that are apparently causally unrelated occurring together in a meaningful manner. To count as synchronicity, the events should be unlikely to occur together by chance. The concept of synchronicity was first described by Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung in the 1920s.[1]

 

I have an interest in psychology, so the concept appealed to me. I'll reveal what I was trying to do at the end of this post.

 

Apparently synchronic has a meaning in linguistics, the study of a language at a specific time without regard to its history. If you mean there is a relation between what is happening to Henry, Ali and Trevor I could buy that. I had been wondering about Ali and am glad to see him go. The two crewmen in their greed could end up spilling their tale and sending out an alarm.

So Trevor is headed for the Iles Kerguelen with only a hundred scientists as occupants. If my time line is correct it is summer down there, but hypothermia would still be a problem in such a windy place. I hope Trevor likes seal meat.

Thanks so much for such an interesting story. I am beginning to build my week around Tuesday.

You are an excellent teacher. Since many gay stories are about people who hate math and science it is refreshing to learn so much practical knowledge from a series. I used to entertain myself on two week ANWR backpacks trying to get my location by flooding sand, putting a stick on the north side and timing when the shadow was the shortest. Longitude was pretty accurate but latitude was off by a hundred miles. It never occured to me to use the tube from my pen like Trevor did.

Charles Lane, Anchorage

 

Thank you!

 

I enjoy learning, and I always enjoy adding technical detail when I can. In one of my other stories there's an extremely detailed description of the internal workings of a nuclear warhead. I still get mixed review from that: some people hated it, some loved it.

 

Wow, solar navigation in ANWR? Good idea on the flooding sand: that would level it, and make for accuracy. I love Alaska. I've never been north of Fairbanks, but I'd like to, to see more (though there's a heck of a lot south of Fairbanks I haven't seen yet, either).

 

......................Synchronicity; an apparently meaningful coincidence in time of two or more similar or identical events that are causally unrelated. My guess is the 'low' pressure front which is keeping Trevor continuing south while the the roaring forties are being left behind. By the time Trevor breaks free of it, he will be in the furious fifties.

 

The furious 50's... and in the most violent streach of sea on the face of the earth. Not a good mix.

 

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Okay, Synchronicity...

 

The synchronicity was Trevor and Ali. They both were, in rather similar circumstances, shoved up against the railing, then thrown into the sea to die. The first time (Trevor) was at Ali's orders, done by his crew. The second time, it was done to Ali by his crew. A further connection is that Trevor's work was responsible for causing Ali's fate: Ali's paranoia was triggered by the sabotaged engines.

 

Here's part of the scene with Ali,

 

In spite of his agony, Ali heard the words. Gasping in abject fear, Ali made a weak attempt to twist free, but the strong, calloused hands of the crewmen would not be denied, and Ali felt every touch, every bump, as he was shoved up onto the railing, and then with a final, brutal shove, sent toppling over backwards, into the waiting sea.

 

Ali felt the splash of the warm waters enclosing him, his heart pounding in his ears. Weakly, in wretched agony as the salt water seared at his gaping wound, Ali surfaced. Through a red haze of pain, he looked at the Algol, watching her moving slowly away.

 

Here's Trevor, in chapter 48,

 

With time seeming to slow to a crawl, Trevor felt every touch, every bump, as he was shoved up onto the railing, and then with a final, brutal shove, sent toppling over backwards.

 

Suddenly weightless, falling though the dark, Trevor took a deep breath as he fell the few feet into the dark and waiting sea.

 

Trevor felt the sharp sting against his back, and felt the splash, of the warm waters enclosing him, his heart pounding in his ears. He struggled, twisting his bound wrists, trying desperately to free them, but the rope was too tight.

 

Feeling himself drifting deeper, he kicked hard, driven by instinct to reach the surface he could not see, struggling against the dragging weight of the belt, his breath burning in his lungs.

 

Trevor’s head broke the surface, allowing him to take a huge gulp of air, and then another. He looked at Atlantis, forty feet away in the dark and moving further away by the second, and saw Ali looking back at him.

 

There are many parallels, including some of the phrasing. One other example is that Ali and Trevor both had to watch their boats being taken away, leaving them to near certain death.