Shay wrote:
> 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":
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> "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.
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> 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."
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> 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

No clues?

Post a reply to this message