@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @@@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 09/19/97 -- Vol. 16, No. 12
Table of Contents
MT Chair/Librarian:
Mark Leeper MT 3E-433 732-957-5619 mleeper@lucent.com
HO Chair: John Jetzt MT 2E-530 732-957-5087 jetzt@lucent.com
HO Librarian: Nick Sauer HO 4F-427 732-949-7076 njs@lucent.com
Distinguished Heinlein Apologist:
Rob Mitchell MT 2D-536 732-957-6330 rlmitchell1@lucent.com
Factotum: Evelyn Leeper MT 3E-433 732-957-2070 eleeper@lucent.com
Back issues at http://www.geocities.com/~ecl.
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/6960/alaska.htm and http://www.geocities.com/Athens/4824/alaska.htm. Our trip logs for Alaska. [-ecl]
In Vancouver, where I visited recently, there is a Chinese Cultural Center with a big Chinese gate. Behind it is a small park with a pond and duck and very large carp. Now a lot of people would just look at this and continue with their business. And they might be better off. But I am not a lot of people. I started trying to see the pond from the point of view of the carp.
It strikes me that to a fish, a duck is a weird fish that hugs the top and has two big funny-shaped fins. Sometimes the weird fish will disappear entirely into the above-the-surface world. Sometime it will just materialize from no place. When you are a fish you no longer have a law of conservation of matter. You can be staring at the surface, which for you is the edge of you world and suddenly a creature will be there where there was none before. It is one thing being a large carp that no duck would attack, but for smaller fish this could be a pretty scary situation. Of course, some fish would know there is more to the world above the surface. For them the above-the-surface world is probably a source of wonder. There are some fish that realize there is something in the other world and funny creatures up there.
Most have no idea. They just look in wonder as some pieces of floating food actually pull fish into the strange world above the surface. Some of these fish disappear forever, some come back someplace else. And those fish that come back have a real fish story to tell if only they could figure out how. I guess we are getting into the realm of piscine theology. Flying fish must be mystics among fish. They routinely jump into the mystic world, take a quick look at it, and return to the real world.
Take a look at the movie JAWS again, but from the point of the shark. The shark knew there was a world above because he could stick his head out to see. But this shark, who we are told is one smart fish, is actually caught in a life and death struggle with creatures from that other world above the surface. All the shark knows is it is eating food as it has to do--and it is pretty bad food, a lot of bones and almost no meat-- and suddenly it has a new friend. The friend from beyond the surface. I say friend because it is certainly dropping tasty food down, the surface aliens call it "chum." Suddenly the aliens attach it, trying to pull it into the other world. "Barrels" are nothing more than surface huggers, or strange devices that try to hug the surface if you pull them down. The aliens try to shoot sharp pieces of metal into you to tie you to these top- huggers. Now you know you are in a life and death struggle with these aliens who are invading your space. You can no longer escape. You have to kill the aliens. But what are they? And why are they attacking you? It makes no sense. You have to think how to fight back. Think. What you see of them is mostly this big hard shell of their attack ship with the spinning flesh-cutter at the back end. That's not where the enemy but it is where your enemy is attacking you from. Think. The aliens drop into your world in some sort of funny square bubble with a hard shell around them. You can tear up the bubble but the alien inside swims away. Your only hope is to destroy the alien craft. You jump on it with the full force of your weight. Just the tipping pulls one alien into your mouth. Serves him right. Go for the last invader! He's put something in your mouth. You can't close your mouth. He's wedged your jaws open. Can you bite through it? What the... [-mrl]
Mark Leeper
MT 3E-433 732-957-5619
mleeper@lucent.com
Politics, n. strife of interests masqueradading
as a contest of principles.
-- Ambrose Bierce
I thought that was most of the world's religions.
Not yours of course.
--Mark Leeper