SILICON SOAPWARE wafting your way along the slipstreams of the Info Highway from Bubbles = Tom Digby = bubbles@well.com http://www.well.com/~bubbles/ Issue #226 New Moon of May 9, 2013 Contents copyright 2013 by Thomas G. Digby, and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. See the Creative Commons site at http://creativecommons.org/ for details. Silicon Soapware is available via email with or without reader feedback. Details of how to sign up are at the end. ********************* We just recently had an anniversary of the birth of author James Matthew Barrie, creator of Peter Pan. The novel version, published around 1911, was originally titled PETER AND WENDY. Since it's available on the Web I read it. I had previously only known the animated Disney version. At one point the narrator says that different people can have their own versions of Neverland. That got me to thinking about what my version of the place would have been like had I been thinking in terms of creating a specific place to set my fantasies in when I was that age. Aside from the Lost Boys and the Fairies, the Neverland in the story seems to be populated mainly by bad guys, enemy combatants, and other menaces: Indians on the warpath, bloodthirsty pirates, a hungry crocodile, and mermaids bent on luring people to their doom. I don't think my personal Neverland would have emphasized enemies and menaces the way Peter Pan's version did. Instead of the traditional pirates and Indians or maybe the more contemporary Nazis and Communists and Mafia hit men it would have been full of fairies and dragons and various magic-workers and such, most of them friendly. It would have also had Martians and other beings from various planets and dimensions. Again, many of these would have been friendly. The Martians might have had to keep far away from the fairies and dragons and other magical beings lest the various magical and non-magical forces they worked with interfere with one another, but they would have been there somewhere, along with quite a few scientists, mad and otherwise. With that in mind I don't think the place would have been just one island that you could walk around in a day. It probably would have been a planet, or maybe a whole solar system. Or was I not thinking that big when I was that age? One planet might have been enough at the time, as long as creatures from more exotic realms could now and then have come visiting. I'm pretty sure the place would have been well equipped with dimensional portals and magical gateways and such, not to mention a few spaceports here and there. It probably would have been at least a planet. So what was your Neverland like? ********************* Could Peter Pan come today? He would face obstacles now, at least in developed countries, that didn't exist a hundred years ago. First, could he get into a modern child's bedroom? The bedroom windows in the story didn't seem to have screens or security grills or safety barriers or anything like that. Nowadays there would be all sorts of safety stuff to keep the kids on the inside from falling out, and those would probably also be obstacles to anyone wishing to enter. But they didn't seem to worry about that kind of thing back then. I suppose Peter could land in the yard and knock on the front door and hope someone favorably disposed answers, but what with all the hoopla today about child molesters that doesn't seem too likely either, especially if it's late at night and he's wearing clothing made of leaves. But let's assume that obstacle is overcome. Peter Pan, Tinker Bell, and several children (along with their vitamins and medications and such) are flying off to Never-Never Land. Although this next thing isn't really a barrier, I suspect they would be the subjects of quite a few UFO reports, many with smartphone video as supposed proof. This may cause the parents some consternation when the media pick it up. Also, the first reaction of parents upon finding that their children have apparently left by way of an upper-floor window is likely to be to panic and call the cops. This could turn into a rather bizarre missing-children case. This wouldn't in itself keep the kids from getting to Never-Never land, but it could complicate their eventual return. So the children do eventually return. Assume they manage to get the window open (if it isn't open already) and that the parents are at home (rather than in jail or whatever) to receive them. What do they tell the cops and the neighbors and the media? What version of events will the authorities believe? I don't think any of this will be as simple as it would have been back in Barrie's time. ********************* "Once my parakeet has learned to say 'Nevermore' I'm going to dye it black and start taking it to poetry readings." ********************* Imagine a musical ensemble touring a space colony. The place consists of a bunch of domes and such, all with artificially maintained atmospheres. They're all breathable by humans, but beyond that there's little attempt at standardization. Specifically, while they all have about the same partial pressure of oxygen, the inert filler gases differ. Some use nitrogen, giving a mixture similar to Earth's atmosphere. Others use helium, which happens to be easy to get from a nearby gas giant and is therefore cheap. In addition to these extremes, some may use mixtures of the two. What this means is that the speed of sound in Dome A may not be the same as in Dome B. If the difference is great enough it will make people's voices sound different. In that case someone is likely to notice it and bring the problem to the attention of the appropriate tech people in time to either work out a solution or abandon the whole idea of a concert tour. What's more likely to be a problem is if the difference is relatively small, say around a five or ten percent difference in the speed of sound, and nobody notices before the tour starts. A five to ten percent difference in the speed of sound may not change people's normal speaking voices enough for the casual listener to notice, but it would throw an orchestra into chaos. Part of the problem is that not all instruments would be equally affected. To a first approximation strings, bells, and so-called free-reed instruments like the accordion would be pretty much unchanged, while those depending on the length of an air column to define their pitch (brass and woodwinds) would have their pitch shifted up or down in proportion to the speed of sound in that atmosphere. A ten percent difference is a little less than two semitones. That's definitely a problem for musicians, even if ordinary people don't notice it in everyday speech. As narrators of blurbs for comedy movies and such are stereotyped as saying, hilarity would ensue, especially if the people involved have no idea what's causing the problem. ********************* I remember grade-school teachers saying that the snail carries his house on his back. Does that mean that slugs are homeless? ********************* Speaking of stories written and set roughly a century ago, I also recently read one by Lovecraft: "Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family". The complete text is available online. Wikipedia also has a synopsis. Just search on the title. It was written in 1920, with the events described taking place between about the 1750's and 1913. I noticed a couple of things in the story that do not fit our current culture. First, when the story was published much of Africa was still pretty much a land of mystery, so that an ancient ruined city of ape-men was not outside the realm of possibility. The modern equivalent might be an alien installation on the back side of the Moon or possibly on Mars, mostly underground so that it has so far escaped notice even though the general area has been photographed. Another difference is that apparently immigration and other documentation formalities were simpler back in seventeen-whatever than they are now, so this explorer was able to bring back from Africa a woman who was supposedly of Portuguese ancestry but who later turns out to be some sort of not-quite-human ape. They also bring an infant son, who carries on the family line. Everybody apparently just takes the man's word for all this: No databases, no birth certificates, no nothing. Then there's the rather extreme reaction of later generations of the family when they discover that one of their ancestors was not a European woman, or even a native African, but one of the half-ape creatures. One goes on a murderous rampage, ending up in prison or maybe an insane asylum while never divulging the secret to anyone else. Another a couple of generations later commits suicide. Some of this might be explained by some sort of genetic tendency toward mental instability that appears to have arisen from the original union of the family patriarch with the ape-woman, but that doesn't seem to be the whole explanation. As an indication of how scandalous this all was, after Arthur Jermyn's suicide by fire out in the English countryside his remains are never collected and buried or otherwise disposed of. They are not even gathered up as potentially hazardous material. The whole matter is simply hushed up. This seems rather extreme, at least from a 21st Century American viewpoint, although it may have been plausible for a member of the British nobility (or even for status-conscious upper-class Americans) of a century ago. From what I've read such things were taken more seriously back then than they are now. So the real world has shifted out from under yet another fantasy story. ********************* Speaking of stories and Never-Never Land ... Realities? I Honey Child And Mom and Dad and Older Brother Had come all the way To Grandma's House. Restless from a day of travel, The children wanted to explore While the adults talked Of boring grown-up stuff. "The woods out back are safe enough As long as the kids stay together And don't wander away from the path And come back when I ring the dinner bell." Mom and Dad reluctantly agreed. While Older Brother would have preferred to go alone, Exploring the woods with Honey Child was still better Than not exploring the woods at all. So off they went. They never agreed on what it was That Honey Child found Beside the path Deep in the woods Just before the dinner bell rang. For her it was a dead fairy With wings that glittered rainbow colors When the sunlight hit them just so. He saw only a lump Of formless forest mould With a piece of aluminum foil or something Stuck in it. It couldn't be a fairy Because he was too old to believe in fairies And besides, Fairies were sissy girl-type stuff. He tried to dissuade her, But she insisted on bringing it back. II When Honey Child showed her find to Grandma Grandma couldn't really see it. She started to say so, but then remembered A trip to the seashore When she was Honey Child's age. She had found a baby mermaid Washed up on the sand. But then the withering scorn Of all those grown-up uncles and aunts and cousins Had turned her mermaid into a pile of smelly old seaweed. Ever since then she had been afraid To look too closely At anything that might be magical. She gave a noncommittal "That's nice" And advised Honey Child Not to show it around To the other grown-ups Lest their scorn and disbelief Turn it to formless forest mould With aluminum foil stuck in it. III Maybe Older Brother told Mom and Dad, Or maybe they found out some other way. They ordered Honey Child To throw that dirty stinky mess in the garbage. Honey Child refused. Grandma proposed a compromise: Honey Child could keep her treasure For the rest of their stay at Grandma's House But was not to try to bring it home. She put it on the table by the children's bedroom window. IV That night when Grandma helped put Honey Child to bed She turned out the light And noticed the moonlight Shining in the window On Honey Child's clump of formless forest mould With aluminum foil stuck in it. Had she been hoping to see something different? The next night When Grandma turned out the bedroom light And glanced over toward the clump Of formless forest mould She wasn't really sure what she saw there. Mermaid memories More than half a century old Filled her eyes Too full of tears. The night after that she was certain: While it was still formless forest mould by day Or in the harsh glare of the table lamp, In the moonlight it was indeed a fairy with rainbow wings, The colors barely visible when the light hit them just so. V The next night was to be their last Before returning home. Mom and Dad asked Honey Child "Should we throw that mess of yours in the garbage tonight Or do you want to do it in the morning?" Grandma answered for her: "It isn't going into the garbage at all. Instead we will have a Fairy Funeral. Tonight by moonlight Honey Child and I Will lay the corpse to rest In this little cardboard box I found. Then by the first light of dawn We will dig the grave By the edge of the woods Where the lawn mower never goes. Then we will mark the spot With bricks left over from that patio project. It won't take long, And won't disrupt your travel plans. Those who do not wish to attend Do not have to. But if you do, please show respect." VI Once again Grandma remembered her mermaid But this time it didn't hurt like before And she somehow knew That she would no longer be afraid To look at things that might be magical. -- Tom Digby Written 22:39 Thu March 5 2009 Title Added 19:58 Sun March 29 2009 ********************* HOW TO GET SILICON SOAPWARE EMAILED TO YOU There are two email lists, one that allows reader comments and one that does not. Both are linked from http://www.plergb.com/Mail_Lists/Silicon_Soapware_Zine-Pages.html If you are already receiving Silicon Soapware you can tell which list you are on by looking at the email headers. 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