Comments on: The Woman In The Street http://2eyesopen.com/2005/07/24/the-woman-in-the-street/ Jeremy spoke in class today Thu, 08 Dec 2011 16:31:53 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 By: Jim http://2eyesopen.com/2005/07/24/the-woman-in-the-street/comment-page-1/#comment-9 Jim Mon, 25 Jul 2005 19:11:05 +0000 http://2eyesopen.com/2005/07/24/the-woman-in-the-street/#comment-9 Jeremy - wow, what a shock that encounter must have been! and, then, to discover that the thing to do was to 'walk on by.' The obvious comparison that comes to mind is the indifference of big city inhabitants up here to the plight of street people, etc. Sounds like the peasant village version, which, of course, is not entirely de-personalized (the locals knew the history and made the reasoned choice to let the situation take care of itself; and, if they had thought the woman was in serious danger they probably would have done something to help), but, still, if the experience was multiplied many times over, it's not hard to see how it would be easiest to just'walk on by' most of the time. Anyway, your description was vivid enough to make my stomach clench up at the first image of the woman in the road. . . . I also want to say that I very much like your concept for a science fiction story based on the notion of drug-induced highs from the sampling of arcane languages. Many possibilities elaborate out of that at-first seemingly simple idea, don't they? Perhaps, the person who becomes an expert in a forbidden language has the power to self-induce a hallucenogenic state with rational and cognitive components that are usually eliminated or distorted by conventional drugs - a kind of 'soma holiday' with extras that is not an 'escape from' but an 'escape into.' Anyway, it's a novel and fascinating idea. . . . Sounds like a tremendous experience you're having down there. Continued good luck on Jeremy's Summer Vacation (hmmm, IS it a vacation??? how about Jeremy's Mind-blowing Excursion or, maybe Immersion) Basta! Keep the posts coming. Jim Jeremy – wow, what a shock that encounter must have been! and, then, to discover that the thing to do was to ‘walk on by.’ The obvious comparison that comes to mind is the indifference of big city inhabitants up here to the plight of street people, etc. Sounds like the peasant village version, which, of course, is not entirely de-personalized (the locals knew the history and made the reasoned choice to let the situation take care of itself; and, if they had thought the woman was in serious danger they probably would have done something to help), but, still, if the experience was multiplied many times over, it’s not hard to see how it would be easiest to just’walk on by’ most of the time. Anyway, your description was vivid enough to make my stomach clench up at the first image of the woman in the road. . . . I also want to say that I very much like your concept for a science fiction story based on the notion of drug-induced highs from the sampling of arcane languages. Many possibilities elaborate out of that at-first seemingly simple idea, don’t they? Perhaps, the person who becomes an expert in a forbidden language has the power to self-induce a hallucenogenic state with rational and cognitive components that are usually eliminated or distorted by conventional drugs – a kind of ‘soma holiday’ with extras that is not an ‘escape from’ but an ‘escape into.’ Anyway, it’s a novel and fascinating idea. . . . Sounds like a tremendous experience you’re having down there. Continued good luck on Jeremy’s Summer Vacation (hmmm, IS it a vacation??? how about Jeremy’s Mind-blowing Excursion or, maybe Immersion) Basta! Keep the posts coming.

Jim

]]>