Friday, 18 October 2019

Sensations And Anticipations

See Is Samael Prescient?

Haverner knew that Julia's challenge was going to be an LSD trip. Either Haverner told Samael this or the latter would have been able to overhear, observe etc. Thus, it would not have been difficult to anticipate the outcome.

Preparing for the trip, Julia has eaten early, exercised and kept her senses wide open. See Julia Petrie's Five Senses. Returning from her morning walk, she continues to be assaulted by sensations:

shadowy veranda;
glowing windows;
coffee and bacon smells;
white table linen;
silver tableware;
"...startling orange of an egg yolk." (p. 233)

By the rules that Poul Anderson has established for this novel, we will read a first person, present tense account of Julia's trip but will merely observe the effects on Ellis. However, we can guarantee him a bad trip.

(I walked to Morecambe instead of driving, lunched with a former work colleague and visited Andrea who showed me Star Trek Continues. It really is possible to learn something new every day. See Tech Or Trek and Explorers And Engineers.)

2 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I certainly learned more about LSD and its effects from reading how it affected Julia and Ellis! I had never before taken any interest in that drug.

Ad astra! Sean

S.M. Stirling said...

I (wisely IMHO) avoided LSD as a student in the 1970s because I have the sort of personality that needs heavy superego control at all times -- it's an effort for me to function in a socially acceptable way anyway, and I need to do by will and conscious decision things other people manage more easily because they've got a more typical inner emotional structure.