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Man and the Amazon, The
Man and Amazon
Image from Steve Bowers

A popular docudrama about the explorer visiting an all-female hider clade, falling in love, getting captured, and finally escaping with his new life companion.

In more detail, it is the recreation of the male explorer Jhona Spacar's visit to the home of the Amazon clade of the Umlaut system. Jhona spent several years studying the clade with remotes, before he finally visited it in 6732 a.t.. Disguised as a specific member of the clade, Brien Astorof, he managed to covertly insert himself inside the clade, and then spent several weeks living amongst them. During this time he met Martens Sylverin, a member of the Amazon clade, with which he fell in love. After a brief, but ardent courtship, his feelings were answered by her. Shortly after this he revealed his true nature to her. Surprisingly this didn't drive her away, but merely drove the relationship to new heights. This proved to be Jhona's undoing. As the talk spread, the real Brien heard about the relationship, and could reveal that she knew nothing about it. Driven into a corner, Jhona was revealed as being an outsider and imprisoned, while the elder council of the Amazons deliberated over his fate. In an action that promised her exile from all that she had ever known, Martens came to his rescue, and freed him from his cell. Making their way through the hider habitat, Jhona faked their deaths in an antimatter explosion that made part of the habitat lose all power. Under the cover of the blackout, Jhona and Martens made their escape in his vehicle.

The Man and the Amazon was originally released as a holovision docudrama from Alt Sera. Since then it has been adapted into many other versions and media with greater and lesser success. This resulted in a certain amount of pilgrimage to the Umlaut system, where the authorities had much trouble keeping the tourists from disturbing the Amazons, especially the many would-be-Jhonas. The fear was that if the Amazons became aware that they had been discovered, they would leave the system, thus completely destroying the Umlaut system's new tourist industry. Thankfully, due to constant vigilance from the authorities, no tourists managed to actually reach the habitat, or in any other way make themselves known to the Amazons. In 7940 a.t. the NoCoZo-affiliated po Silver Film took over the protectorship of the habitat, and launched a virch-show portraying every aspect of everyday Amazonian life. Thanks to this, the Amazonians may be one of the most well-known hider clades in terragen space, entirely without their knowledge.

Another all-female clade of great antiquity is the Clade Parthene; however molecular analysis shows that the two clades are almost certainly not closely related.

 
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Development Notes
Text by Thorbørn Steen
Initially published on 18 March 2008.

 
 
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