Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Should Juliet Read The Time Traveler's Wife?















I came across a possible reason why all the pregnant women on the
Island die while reading The Time Traveler's Wife.




















Henry, the time traveler in the book, has a genetic
mutation that results in his involuntary movement
through time. One minute he's in the present, and
the next he's naked and somewhere else in time. A
geneticist replicates this mutation in mice, but it took
a while because:

The hard part was getting the dams, the mother
mice, to carry the altered mice to term. They kept
dying, hemorrhaging to death. . . . The mothers died,
and the babies died. We couldn't figure it out, so we started

watching them around the clock, and then we saw what
was going on. The embryos were traveling out of their
dam's wombs, and then in again, and the mothers bled
to death internally. Or they would just abort the fetus
at the 10-day mark.


According to Wikipedia, 10 days would be about halfway
through a mouse pregnancy. Sound familiar?

Is there something about the super sperm of the Island or
some other Island property that makes babies conceived on
the Island time travelers, that is, not enslaved by time and
space? Do the embryos travel out of their mother's wombs
and back creating internal bleeding in the mother leading to
the death of both mother and child? Does the mother's body
abort it half-way through the pregnancy (though I wouldn't
think that would kill the mother too?)

9 comments:

pgtbeauregard said...

Tres cool Memphish.

You should be a writer on the show, At the very least, you could be a consultant!!


Keep up the good work.

Capcom said...

By jove, I think you've done it! You've cracked the mystery! OK, so like, let's not let TPTB know what you've found out, so they don't feel like they are forced to change it. We don't want another useless stand-alone Pikki episode so they can reconstruct their story!!!! :o)

But seriously, that's a great find, and sounds totally plausible. Maybe that's why when Juliet told Ben that if she could get the women off the island before they gave birth she could tell for sure, that he said that it was impossible! Maybe it is bad enough that the first time jump harmed the mothers (or the ovum or the sperm), but a second or third, etc. with the fetus, would be even worse. It could be that even if you crash on the island, to get there requires some kind of time or portal opening, and once you go through it you're changed forever. If you got sent there by Dharma or Mittelos thru a portal, the problem would be a given anyway. So then every time you get pregs after getting to the island (accidently or on purpose) you have this problem?

I wonder if we will find that Ben's mother somehow went through a portal to result in him to be born early and kill her too? Because it sure seems as if there is some kind of correlation there as well, but that's on a different note. Hmmmmmmmmm.

Capcom said...

P.S. I would not be at all surprised if we find out that Ben knows exactly what is wrong with the mothers and fetuses (fetii?) and is not telling Juliet, because he can't tell her about the time-travel to the island. He might be just trying to get his fertility expert to find a way to keep the babies and mothers alive in the womb till term, without telling her what the problem and cause really is. And of course any scientist knows that you can't really solve a systemic problem without knowing the causes.

Capcom said...

P.S.S. It also could be that if you crash on the island somehow getting thru the portal accidentally, that it doesn't affect you the way that it does when you purposely go through a time warp thingy to get there. That could be why Rousseau/Alex and Claire/Aaron are OK. And maybe Sun and her baby will be OK too. Just wondering.

Boy, this opens up all kinds of speculation!

Capcom said...

Triple-P.S.(sorry), it also sounds very familiar with someone waking up naked after time travel as well! :o)

memphish said...

Too funny Capcom. More on naked time traveling tomorrow.

Unknown said...

Wow. That's a brilliant observation. I think I have something to add to my reading list now. :)

Amused2bHere said...

Great find, Memphish!

I don't always comment, but I love your blog. You always keep us thinking.

Ange said...

MEMPHISH! Sorry, I have been out and about so much these days and neglecting the Internet...heh. This is one of my favorite books ever, EVER, and it seems so obvious to me after reading this post and the one above it. GREAT thinking...seriously. And I do think this explains Desmond as well (even though you can't figure out how). I just don't think we've been shown that part yet. Wouldn't it be cool if all of the Losties are "travelers" and have the traveler genetics. That would certainly warrant them all being rounded up and herded to a place where they could be looked at! Also, time travel would account for the knowing things before they happen, and also how it seems Walt can make things happen. I've been calling it looping all along, and going on the theory that I think Des, Ben, Walk, and Locke are all doing it. Jeez though, genetic time travel would be so much cooler.