Peter Corinth keeps remembering and linking "things." (p. 18) Authors should usually avoid vague terms like "things." However, Poul Anderson uses this word more than once in this passage:
We all know what it is suddenly to remember "things" that we have forgotten until now. This process is "boiling" inside Corinth so that new chains of thought rattle "...in his skull." (ibid.) He notices the elevator operator as if for the first time, suddenly realizing that this human being is not just "...part of the machinery..." (p. 19) but a living, unique part of the universe. The operator in turn has woken up wanting more than a job and a pension. He agrees to Corinth's suggestion that he "'...take a night course...'" (ibid.)
One of Corinth's two assistants has got a new idea similar to Corinth's. The other man, usually silent, discusses it eagerly. Corinth's colleague, Nathan Lewis, studying neurons, finds that neuronic signals have intensified while the inactivation time between signals has shortened. The computer and other instruments are making errors. Lots of researchers are conceiving new projects and competing for use of, e.g., the centrifuge.
Corinth quotes:
"'"Curiouser and curiouser," said Alice.'" (p. 23)
Are nerve cells speeding up? Has something happened to electrochemical phenomena? Sf readers are used to new inventions and to alien invasions but not to changes in natural forces. But it is the task of sf writers to imagine everything.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I agree, what you said about the task of science fiction writers.
Ad astra! Sean
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