Summary

This short story creates an alternate history of the birth of cable television, and is told with the pomp and grandiosity of an elaborate and important Greek myth. The story is narrated by a supposed historian of entertainment named Ovid the Obtuse, who references himself in the third person on many occasions.

Agon M. Nar is a powerful television executive (for the company Tri-Stan) who has three daughters, the youngest of whom, Sissee, has received so much innovative plastic surgery that she is considered around Hollywood to be a "goddess" (237). Another senior executive, Stasis, admires Sissee so much that he keeps "distant video tabs" (237) on her at all times, to witness her beauty more often. This is to the great distress of Stasis' wife, Codependae, who hatches an elaborate plan of revenge that will unfold throughout the rest...