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Carlo C. wrote:
> A incipit from "THE STATUS CIVILIZATION", by Robert Sheckley
>
> "
> His return to consciousness was a slow and painful process. It was a journey in
> which he traversed all time. He dreamed. He rose through thick layers of sleep,
> out of the imaginary beginnings of all things. He lifted a pseudopod from
> primordial ooze, and the pseudopod was him. He became an amoeba which contained
> his essence; then a fish marked with his own peculiar individuality; then an ape
> unlike all other apes. And finally, he became a man.
> [...]
> "
>
> link:
> http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/20919
>
OK, what is a reader meant to take from this? I'm trying to "get" other
types of writing. Here are some examples of writing I do "get":
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"What of it, if some old hunks of a sea-captain orders me to get a broom
and sweep down the decks? What does that indignity amount to, weighed, I
mean, in the scales of the New Testament? Do you think the archangel
Gabriel thinks anything the less of me, because I promptly and
respectfully obey that old hunks in that particular instance? Who ain't
a slave? Tell me that. Well, then, however the old sea-captains may
order me about- however they may thump and punch me about, I have the
satisfaction of knowing that it is all right; that everybody else is one
way or other served in much the same way- either in a physical or
metaphysical point of view, that is; and so the universal thump is
passed round, and all hands should rub each other's shoulder-blades, and
be content."
Having read that, I'm sure you'll reference it at some point in the
future. It's very universal, I think.
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Here's another. I left work after a twelve hour day of manual labor in
the desert summer and drove to a swimming hole in Balmorhea, TX. I swam
out through the cold water to a ruined boat lift and dove off several
times. As I did, I strongly recalled the following:
"I waded out. The water was cold. As a roller came I dove, swam out
under water, and came to the surface with all the chill gone. I swam out
to the raft, pulled myself up, and lay on the hot planks. ... I lay on
the raft in the sun until I was dry. Then I tried several dives. I dove
deep once, swimming down to the bottom. I swam with my eyes open and it
was green and dark. The raft made a dark shadow. I came out of the water
beside the raft, pulled up, dove once more, holding it for length, and
then swam ashore."
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I can never recall having felt like "a fish marked with his own peculiar
individuality." Have you? Do readers of sci-fi feel this way sometimes?
Or are you taking something else from the reading besides an
understanding of how the character feels? What do you want from a
passage like the one Carlo quoted?
-Shay
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