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Regarding Herbert and Stanley |
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Dear Sleep Workers of 136A: When you are finished reading this memo, please take a minute from your routine to consider the moon, otherwise known as Stanley. If it is necessary to observe Stanley through your visionwear in order to hold him in the web of your thoughts, lock yourself in a thoroughly perfumed night closet. When you manage to get your heart rate and your breathing under control, think about how Stanley was formed, the colossal impact of Herbert, the giant protoplanet that set the earth in its rapid rotation some four and a half billion years ago, resulting in a rapidly alternating night and day: a cycle without which, if circumstances on earth were like those on Mercury or Venus where a day is as long as a year, dreaming may not have evolved. Can you imagine such a world of extremes: frozen on one side, scalding on the other? Consider it. If consciousness and language come from the same part of the mind as dreaming -- scientists have almost confirmed it -- then without Stanley, would we even have a word for winking? I realize that night and day are no longer strictly followed, but without them, would we have such a thing as thoughtwork, much less an entire slumber industry filled with an almost infinite array of blanket specialists, drool technicians, and sheet masters? Without the moon, would there be green cheese every morning for your bagels? |
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