pizoi\literatre: stories; Soft Fall - Prelude and piano exercises

Soft Fall
See also: [SF Stoires]
[SF Index]
[SF General]

See also: [Hard Fall]
[After Fall - coda and printemps]

The HardFall Trilogy
Soft Fall - Prelude and piano exercises

On this page: {SoftFall: Intro}
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In the film (i talk a lot about films - it's
part and parcell to the way that i see the world
; well that, and *process* the world). I hope you
don't mind me taking in the first person - they
that's the easiest way to write a story. And i
can't write; well, not fiction anyway. It cost
me $600 -no. That/s not write.

And i'm not a writer. It cost me six hundred bucks
at the local university to find that out. All of
these cute little stories that i had written weren't
fiction. That's before i found out that i was/am/will-be
a blogger not a writer per-se.

Anyway, i've gotta start with the story. They say that's
the best way to start a story is with a quote or a story
that's relevant to the work at hand.

So, in this film "Annie Hall", Woody Allen tells about
this guy who goes to a psychiatrist and tells him (it's
always a HIM in these stories - well at least about
psychiatrists) - come to think of it, i don't think
i've ever heard of a woman psychiatrist.

So, the guy says, "Doc, you gotta help me, my brother
thinks he's a chicken". And the doc says, "How long
has he been this way?" And the guy says, "Thirty years".
And the Doc asks, "Why didn't you bring him in earliers?"
And the guy responds, "Because we needed the eggs."

So, that's how people are supposed to start a story
(or in that case, end up finishing a v. autographical
film) - what films of Allen's *aren't* autographical???

Well, it's a start.

First off, i'm an alien. No, not that kind - i get the
"wetback" jokes or at least "that" look, all the time.
Not because of how i look; or maybe. But, probably just
because of the way tha i act.

Anyway, i can immagine. No. I can just imagine. Yeah,
that's it.

Anyway, i can just imagine how difficult it is or you
to read this. I mean, i don't know you and you don't
know me. Well, other (so far) than i like films, love
telling corny jokes, and say that i'm an alien.

Oop. There went the lights - flaashed on and off. It's
raining outside and probably it was the thunder that
woke me up. See. Now you know something else about me:
I can hear. That is i'm not deaf. Of course, i *could*
be deaf, and just felt the thunder from the storm and
that shock-wave woke me up. Right? No. I'm not deaf,
but of course it certainly could have been the shock
wave that woke me up - we get some pretty strong storms
here in Texas. I was working one time for Ericsson
(the Swedish TeleComm company) and it was "just doing
its thing" outside and one of the Swede;s (Saruen)
asked me (shakily): "Is this a tornado?". I laughed
(probably the best thing that i could hae doen in the
situation to calm him down), and sed, "Oh, no. Hunh,
huh. This is just a storm. They get pretty windy,
though?" And then we had a discussion (shih, there
flashed the lights again) - got my truty re-chargible
battery-flash-light handy - about the storms in
Sweden and here in the US.

I think that one of the hardest things for us (even as
Americans - can an alien be an American even if he
hasn't been naturalised?) is that we forget how big
it is. Of course Texasans (there's an old saying:
You don't have to ask someone if they are from Texas
or not - they will eventually tell you), is that
"everthing is big down here".

One of my fav comics (goes with the jokes), is a guy
known as "Redd Foxx", he *actually* was Sanford. So,
was one of my grandfathers - although probably not
the same one.

So, John Sanford (Redd Foxx - who was born in Misouri)
tells this joke:

"Of course, down there in Texas they
got miles and miles of miles and miles..."

So, it's like that with me. Or like in the movie
Star Trek Four - the one with the whales, when
Scotty says, "I find it hard to believe that
i've come millions of miles", and the doctor
corrects him quickly, "THOUSands"...

So, is that a good start?

I don't know. Like i said, i wasted (or did i - i
bought the book and one of them - the class was
on the WRITING THE SHORT STORY - had stories by
John Dos Passos and quite a few other authors
that i'd never read before. So, i guess it can't
be a complete waste of time and money. But, did
it have to cost me SIX hundred bucks to find
tat out????

START AGAIN

One of my fav TV shows is Monty Python's Flying Circus.
And they use that all the time when the joke seems to
grind to a halt: Some one steps into the scene and says,
"Start again." or "The Colonel" (a sort of "Colonel Blimp"
kind of overly officious character) all dressed in uniform
steps into frame and says, "Now let's just stop that. This
scene has gotten all together too silly. Now, why not do
something good. Something uplifting. Something to get some
air into your lungs."

And of course, they would. The next scene would be with some
rousing "outdoor music" with full orchestration and obviousely
as the camera pans into the scene of nature at her finest,
we *expect* a nature show. And then the camera would come
to John Clese (the serious/heartless one of the group) sitting
with a suit and tie on at a desk plonked right there in the
middle of the glade behind a desk, with a large microphone on
the desk in front of him, holding a script of papers and then
he would say, "And now for something completely different."

The Universialities of Life

If there is one thing that studies have shown, that
were ever it is *possible* that life might be, there
you WILL find life. At the lava-hot temperatures of
sub-ocean volcanic vents - the water boiling all around,
you find bacteria that for whom that place IS heaven.

And so, it's the same all over. They even find bacteria
growing at the south pole, and even Lichen (which are
more "advanced" than bacteria) growing there and at the
North Pole as well. Well, they used to. I don't know
about lately, i haven't been there myself. So, it might
all just be a part of the big lie that is the Matrix.

Another great film. I "read it as" (interpret what it's
saying) taking one-self out of the consummer trap, and
buying into the over-materialisation of the world around
us. There's a really good book called, "The Matrix and
Philosophy" that explores most of the ideas of reality,
perception and such - the classic "existentialist" and
"experientialist" approaches to philosophy. The articles
cover Plato's Cave (the idea that we might all be just
chained up inside a cave and the "reality" that we
see is merely the shadows on the walls of some "greater"
wall). But, of course, if we've lived all our lives in
that cave, then or us those shadows ARE our reality.

But, as with most things, they miss a lot of ideas.

What about the community of people
that are chained to the walls?

Do they have children? If so, what
*stories* do they tell them?

Who feeds them? This would be some way that
food gets passed around, right? So, is there
like a deformed dwarf that pulls a large sack
behind him (it's always a HIM) and passes out
chunks of bread. And behind him, is a thin,
girl (it's always a thin girl) who carries a
a water jug and pours out a cup of water and
hands it to each person chained to the wall?

See, that's the sort of "fiction" that i'd right.

I wouldn't even bother with the question of REAL
REALITY verses PERCEIVED REALITY. One idea might
be that the philosophers chained to the wall -
wy are they there? Maybe one is a priest who
was cast out by the church by asking too many
questions, one might be a political prisoner
-- which implies that the cage is where the
various "un-desirables" are sent. I'd deal with
that of course as well. And what the deformed
dwarf and the thin girl did when they weren't
feeding the prisoners. And of course, then you
have to have the "sweeper" - the person who
sweeps out the (uhm) "detrius"; the ofal. You
know. (I'm trying to keep this PG-13, don;t
you know?).

So where are we now?

My view is that most of the upper classes of this
planet are like the chained philosophers. And most
of the working peoples are like the sweeper. So,
that in that case the only "problem in philosophy"
that remains is: What about the dwarf and his
daughter?

Reality considered as a one-way street with no exits

Naturally, if you think about it. There MUST be other caves.
I mean an entire civilisation can't be based on a single
line of caves. Well, i'm wrong there. All human civilisations
(modern ones, with universal remote controls for the TV (High
Def of course), and newly "green" cars) are based on the
"Standard One Cave Model".

Ok, i,m going to have to insert SOME ideas here, so we might
as well get it over. I'll try to make it as painless as
possible.

Mathematics can use symbols to stand for numbers or even
groups of numbers. Thus, "I" can stand for the set of
all Integers. Thus, we might right (nicely caligraphically),

I = { ..., -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, ... }

Most humans forget about the negative numbers, and even more
oddly they forget about zero. Of course the "..." stands for
infinity. Hmmm, i think i can get the editor to put that in.
Just a second,...

Let's see if this works: ∞ (ampersand poundsign eight seven three four semicolon)

Cool! It actually worked! But, of course, you already
know that because you're reading this page. So, you
don't know if maybe i tried 2 or 3 different computer
codes to display the "lazy eight" (as infinity is
some times called). But, no. It actually worked just
as "written" - write out of the maths section of The
Library. Still, i think its pretty cool. I mean there's
othing to suggest that

8734 "means" infinity.

Now 1/0 that's infinity. And of course 1/∞ that's zero.

I',m just like a kid with a new toy - righ?

So, there's this really neat book on maths and space
and relativity and such,

"1, 2, 3, ..." by George Gamow

(guh moiy is how i've always pronounced his last name)
But, i've heard it GAH MawwV as well.

Well, i'm a bit tired of writing this story. So, i'll
stop for now. You might want to read up on the following
topics (HE's giving us HOME WORK ON THE VERY FIRST DAY????
-- it's always a HE) before reading further:

"Wedding Rain", Liz Story, "Pure Liz". CD-Music.

"The Matrix and Philosophy"

(actually these are pretty likely to NOT be mentioned
in the next section are two, since they were (part of)
the input in this and the previous sections).

(next section)

NEXT: eof!

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