Saturday, May 02, 2020
Reprint and revise
Time to go back to the 'fable' I wrote during the 2008 TARP coup. Some of the narrative (eg Sheikh Osama) has been superseded or modified by later learning and experience. I'll reprint the first segment up to the crucial point, where one line needs to be FEROCIOUSLY superseded. In 2008 I couldn't possibly imagine that this point would need revision!!!!!!!
= = = = = START REPRINT:
June 2008, at the Mill.
Polistra was heartbroken to see her home town of Manhattan smashed by a tornado. She is certain that nothing will improve. All factions of the American power structure are frozen in absolute gibbering insanity, utterly incapable of taking the most obvious steps in any positive direction. We have surrendered to Sheikh Osama, surrendered to Reckless Desire and Ruthless Greed, surrendered to every imaginable variety of falsehood and fraud, to every false god known to history, and to some never before imagined.
She prays for relief.
Huh?
= = = = =
June 1939, Ponca City, the Arcade Hotel.
Fran is a free-lance magazine writer. Tonight she's working on a draft while half-listening to Information Please.
What's this? Radio overheating? Can't be. It's a nearly new Philco.
Huh?
Howdy. You're surprised, aren't you? This is going to take some explaining...
And Polistra proceeds to explain the situation ... that she's a cartoon character from 2008 who dreamed her way back to 1939. Since Fran is a writer, she has sufficient imagination to encompass the idea.
Fran asks Polistra the inevitable questions.
Fran: Well, what great advances has America made since '39? Cured cancer?
Pol: No. We have lots of fancy machines and drugs, but except for childhood leukemia, which we can definitely cure, we haven't improved the survival rate in general. You could even say that the fancy machines make things worse, because people know about the cancer earlier.
Fran: That's dismal. Well, cured infantile paralysis?
Pol: Yes, in 1954.
Fran: Cured the common cold?
Pol: No.
= = = = = END REPRINT. START REVISION. Pol: You won't believe this. We haven't cured the common cold, but we've renamed the common cold as an Official Witch Curse that requires EXTREME MEASURES.... Fran: Try me. Pol: Because of the renamed common cold, everyone in the world must be imprisoned and starved. The whole world is under a state of siege by nearly all governments. Fran: You're right. I don't believe you. = = = = = END REVISION, END CIVILIZATION. Fran would have immediately called the cops to pick up this hopelessly crazy girl who thought she was a time traveler. The cops would have hauled her out to Fort Supply Insane Asylum, where she would have made medical history as the craziest and most deluded person ever observed.
Polistra was heartbroken to see her home town of Manhattan smashed by a tornado. She is certain that nothing will improve. All factions of the American power structure are frozen in absolute gibbering insanity, utterly incapable of taking the most obvious steps in any positive direction. We have surrendered to Sheikh Osama, surrendered to Reckless Desire and Ruthless Greed, surrendered to every imaginable variety of falsehood and fraud, to every false god known to history, and to some never before imagined.
She prays for relief.
Huh?
= = = = =
June 1939, Ponca City, the Arcade Hotel.
Fran is a free-lance magazine writer. Tonight she's working on a draft while half-listening to Information Please.
What's this? Radio overheating? Can't be. It's a nearly new Philco.
Huh?
Howdy. You're surprised, aren't you? This is going to take some explaining...
And Polistra proceeds to explain the situation ... that she's a cartoon character from 2008 who dreamed her way back to 1939. Since Fran is a writer, she has sufficient imagination to encompass the idea.
Fran asks Polistra the inevitable questions.
Fran: Well, what great advances has America made since '39? Cured cancer?
Pol: No. We have lots of fancy machines and drugs, but except for childhood leukemia, which we can definitely cure, we haven't improved the survival rate in general. You could even say that the fancy machines make things worse, because people know about the cancer earlier.
Fran: That's dismal. Well, cured infantile paralysis?
Pol: Yes, in 1954.
Fran: Cured the common cold?
Pol: No.
= = = = = END REPRINT. START REVISION. Pol: You won't believe this. We haven't cured the common cold, but we've renamed the common cold as an Official Witch Curse that requires EXTREME MEASURES.... Fran: Try me. Pol: Because of the renamed common cold, everyone in the world must be imprisoned and starved. The whole world is under a state of siege by nearly all governments. Fran: You're right. I don't believe you. = = = = = END REVISION, END CIVILIZATION. Fran would have immediately called the cops to pick up this hopelessly crazy girl who thought she was a time traveler. The cops would have hauled her out to Fort Supply Insane Asylum, where she would have made medical history as the craziest and most deluded person ever observed.
Labels: Jackboot stomping forever
¶ 5:44 AM
