In the story “The Clockwork Trollup” did the mecha-whore actually smile because that is the one who killed her, the big brawny sailor and walked past the other sailors to get to him…since the professor casts its likness from the drowning victim?
Not just cast from the dead woman — Haversham used the dead woman’s actual hair when constructing his automaton.
In earlier drafts of the story, cut for length and pacing, the professor revealed that the woman had died of a dislocated neck. The time that it took for Haversham to build the body from first casting to its ultimate test roughly matched the time it would take a man in the China trade to sail from London to Shanghai and back.
As to whether the Trollop actually smiled? It’s likely that it was merely a trick of the light, as the professor said. Whether Archie was more sensitive to the unseen world than his scientific friend — of that I have no doubt.
(If you’re asking whether this is a ghost story of revenge from beyond the grave … the answer is ‘yes.’)
JAMES D. MACDONALD
In the story “The Clockwork Trollup” did the mecha-whore actually smile because that is the one who killed her, the big brawny sailor and walked past the other sailors to get to him…since the professor casts its likness from the drowning victim?
Not just cast from the dead woman — Haversham used the dead woman’s actual hair when constructing his automaton.
In earlier drafts of the story, cut for length and pacing, the professor revealed that the woman had died of a dislocated neck. The time that it took for Haversham to build the body from first casting to its ultimate test roughly matched the time it would take a man in the China trade to sail from London to Shanghai and back.
As to whether the Trollop actually smiled? It’s likely that it was merely a trick of the light, as the professor said. Whether Archie was more sensitive to the unseen world than his scientific friend — of that I have no doubt.
(If you’re asking whether this is a ghost story of revenge from beyond the grave … the answer is ‘yes.’)