From: blewis@be.seas.upenn.edu (benn bet nun nun lewis)
Newsgroups: alt.prose,alt.non.sequitur
Subject: the other night you were with some friends
Date: 23 Jan 93 22:22:55 GMT
Followup-To: alt.prose
Organization: University of Pennsylvania


	On the coalition for non-science:
	there you are, in a restaurant telling these people about what happened
the other day:
	"So, we had a choice, we could eat, we could watch the Star Wars Trilogy,
or we could do something else fun!"
	"Ohh, please," we cried, "think of a fun game for us to play!"
	"All right,  but somebody else has to promise that after this,
somebody has walk down to the snack machines and buy me a candy bar, and
somebody else has to think of the next fun thing!"
	"O.K."
	"O.K."
	"And would somebody buy me a coke?"
	"Oooh, that sounds soooo good, can I get a diet pepsi?"
	"O.K."
	"O.K."
	there were people all over the room.  well, actually it wasn't very many
people, just a few but they were vibrating so much that it look like
there were two of each.  you could spend hours describing what else
was in the room but only two things counted, 1) a TV set and VCR,
and 2) an makeshift alter on top of a trunk.  the alter was full
of college like trinkets: cigarettes, candy wrappers, a tape mix
someone made in high school, and other things...
	But right now, YOU are describing this to other people
in a restaurant.  You are trying to make some point.  Or, at least
you think you are because the people you are eating with NOW are all
silent and listening you tell them what happened.  You figure you
should try to say something incredible novel but you are afraid.
	then the first fun thing happened!
	"I have an idea, let's put a new answering machine message on my
answering machine!  O.K.?!  O.K., I'll say 'leave a message please'[imitating
Dave from 2001].  and you'll say, 'I'm sorry Dave, but I can't do that' 
[imitating HAL]."
	you didn't understand it at first, but then it came to you.  you
figured you could be really rich if you wanted to.  so you had yourself
a monologue, "I could continue to help greater humanity or be fucking rich
and just call you guys all the time and invite you over.  All the stuff
and food will be my treat!"
	you've seen the Big Chill/Peter's Friends/St. Elmo's Fire/Grand Canyon
and you've learned a few things, 1) that your heart dies when you grow old,
2) that your really the same person when you get old 3) and you'll probably be
rich.
	"Yeah, you're right," she says to you, "I can totally imagine all
of us getting together in ten, twenty, thirty years.  Like you'll call
me at all these random times and say, 'Hey, it's me, guess what I've got.'  And 
I'll say, 'Ohhhh, noooo.  You didn't?'  and you'll invite me down
to wherever and I'll fly or take the train, or drive down or you'll
fly or take the train or drive up and we'll hang out a few times a year."
	And then you wonder why your telling people this.  Because, you
think they have done the same thing.  In fact some of these people were
with you the other day when it happened.  But you guess that it
is fun to peer into the inevitable.
	"The other night," you say, "the other night we were having this
conversation about how time is the last boundary that humanity is passing.  I mean
like how you can look up history and actually see the video tapes, or
listen to the GREATEST SPEECHES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY CD, and
at the same time can watch some of this science fiction special effects
movies that probably make a pretty good guess at what the future will
eventually look like.  You can look up economic outlooks, population charts,
food supply predictions, the earth's position around the sun, what day
of the week your birthday will be on in 2039.  You know?"
	you know you do.  you know these people do because
now they inherently argue about who agrees the most with you.  so where does
that leave you, you wonder?
	and you suddenly find you self caught in another recursive loop where
you are talking to these people in a restaurant about what you said before
and then you are talking about you talking about what you said in that
restaurant.
	and they are caught in their own little loops and you realize that
you have lots of these loops in you life and sometimes these loops cross each
other and the same exact thing happens, with no noticeable change in scenery
and thats what THEY call deja vou.
	but you really don't want to talk about any of that.  you're really 
not sure what you really want to say.  you really just want to say
how cool you think it is, when you sit in the front row of a movie theater
and the movie and the action and the dialogue and the plot is right
and front of you and no matter where you look it is ALL there.  the
faces are blurry they are so big and you can see where the make-up on
the actors/actresses is flawed and you can see the scars underneath.
	that's what you really mean, getting a head/neck ache from
sitting too close to a movie screen, but you are happy because you know
that you can't get radiation poisoning with a movie like you can with
a TV set.

*****************************************************************
sure it's shit but i can get away with that here

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BENNBENNBENNBENNBENNBENNBENNBENNBENNBENNBENNBENNBENNBENNBENNBENNBENNBENNBENN
blewis@eniac.seas.upenn.edu  room 420 McKean (upperquad) 215-573-5532
"My brain?  But that's my second favorite organ!"  -Allen
"Your conscience never stops you from doing anything.  It just stops you
from enjoying it." -????
 TO B.E. OR NOT TO B.E.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!