Will Vixenites still staff their weather monitoring service after an alien invasion? Dominic Flandry answers:
"'...the human engineers are very probably still on the job. Humanity always continues as much in the old patterns as possible, people report to their usual work, hell may open but the city will keep every lawn mowed....'" (p. 93)
Flandry echoes James Blish's Cities In Flight Tetralogy and After Such Knowledge Trilogy. In Cities In Flight, the Okie city, New York, trading around the galaxy, displays the slogan, "Mow your lawn, lady?," to signal its willingness to perform itinerant labour. In After Such Knowledge, an arms merchant's personal assistant still thinks in terms of company time even after Armageddon!
In Rockets in Ursa Major by Fred and Geoffrey Hoyle, a factory worker is asked what he thinks about the prospect of alien conquest of Earth. He replies that he expects that they will still need factory workers. It shook me when I read that a long time ago.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Ha! For the first time ever, I paid to have other guys mowing my lawn this year. Because of still recovering from cervical myelopathy surgery. Up till last year I did the lawn mowing.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
A friend mowed the lawn at his church for 45 years (or something)before saying he had had enough but still does other things for them. He had a persistent pain in one arm which went instantly when the vicar prayed over it.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
That was good, both your friend's mowing of the church lawn and that arm pain being cured.
Ad astra! Sean
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