Monday, September 10, 2012



We were somewhere around the Serpent Swarm at the edge of the Wunderland system when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like "I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe we should switch to autopilot . . . ." And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the space outside our transparent hull was full of what looked like huge bandersnatchi, all throbbing and creeping peristaltically and respiring wetly around the ship, which had dropped into plain space just about the time I had ingested these terrible, terrible alkaloids. And a voice was screaming, "Holy Jesus, what are these goddamn Slaver relics?
 

Then it was quiet again. My puppeteer attorney had taken his sash off, and was mixing a Singapore Sling in one of his mouths, stirring it with a swizzle stick held in the other. "What the hell are you yelling about?" he muttered, staring out towards the crimson disc of Centauri B. "Never mind," I said. "It's your turn to pilot. And give me a beer. I'm starting to turn red." I powered down the fusion drive and turned the Skydiver about. No point mentioning those bandersnatchi, I thought. The poor cowardly bastard will see them soon enough.




2 comments:

  1. R: I don't have any Hunter Thompson with me right now, so I can't continue from this point, at least not right this second. But I can get back to you....
    I also don't see why this wouldn't work with some of Thompson's Watergate coverage, with Nixon's henchmen rendered in the imagery of H.P. Lovecraft: Haldeman & Ehrlichman as Cthulu & Yug-Sluggoth or whatever. (Can I utter those forbidden names in public without The Destruction coming down upon me? Etc.)
    There are some other obvious possibilities too: F&L at the Kentucky Derby, CAMPAIGN TRAIL '72, HELL'S ANGELS.... I'm away from my library at the moment (don't even own a copy of F&L IN LAS VEGAS), but can do summa this stuff from memory. Am not sure I've read enuf Niven to keep up. (Have read a couple novels & a handful of short stories.) But lemme know what you have in mind....
    No reason we couldn't mash-up other well-known writers too....
    Oh, & you oughta try to get this published for $$$ somewhere if you can keep going. ASIMOV's useta B pretty open-minded....

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  2. OK, am now reunited with my library & my Hunter S. Thompson BEST OF, will get back 2 you in a coupla days with some proposed NEXT paragraphs....

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