{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/1428", "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it. Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.", "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'" }, "archive": "urth", "thread": { "id": 1428, "subject": "Ozflash Revised, Part 5", "messages": 1, "voices": 1, "first": "1999-03-12T23:05:46+00:00", "last": "1999-03-12T23:05:46+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "William H. Ansley", "address": "wansley at warwick.net" }, "date": "1999-03-12T23:05:46+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Ozflash Revised, Part 5", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "The New Improved Wonderful Eyeflash of Oz\nOz References in \"The Eyeflash Miracles\" Part 5\n\nLittle Tib learns that he has slept for more than a day and that Dr.\nPrithivi wants him to appear as the boy Krishna in a sort of pageant he is\nputting on. Since Dr. Prithivi has paid for the motel room where he, Nitty\nand Mr. Parker are staying, he feels obliged to agree to participate.\n\nMr. Parker decides to use Dr. Prithivi's pageant as a diversion while he\ngoes into the County Adminstration Building and reprograms the central\ncomputer so that he and Nitty will get their old jobs back. But first he\nneeds Little Tib to get into the building and retrieve the keys to the\npadlock on the side door. Little Tib is small enough to squeeze between the\nbars of a window with a broken latch so he can get into the building,\nthough the bars are much too close together for a grown man to fit between.\nWhile Mr. Parker is explaining what he wants Little Tib to do, the boy asks\nwhere the computer is, because he is afraid of it. Nitty tries to reassure\nhim that the computer can't hurt him.\n\nLittle Tib succeeds in getting into the building through the window. Once\nhe is inside he has another vision. \"It was the funniest-looking man Little\nTib had ever seen.\"[20] Little Tib then realizes that what he is seeing is\nnot a man but a suit of clothes, stuffed with dried grass, with a sack with\na face painted on it for a head. Because of this, Little Tib refers to him\nas the Clothes Man. Little Tib can see the Clothes Man and the things he\ntouches, such as a locked door which blocks him from going any further into\nthe building and getting the keys. (Mr. Parker had forgotten all about this\ndoor when he sent Little Tib in through the window.) With the encouragement\n(or possibly aid) of the Clothes Man, Little Tib is able to \"teleport\"\nthrough the locked door.\n\nBefore he can get to the keys, Little Tib has to pass the room containing\nthe Computer. It speaks to him in a deep, horrible voice and groans as if\nin agony. Even though the Clothes Man tells Little Tib not to go into the\nComputer's room and Little Tib says he won't, he does go in. The Computer\nspeaks to him again, asking if he has come to torment it. Little Tib asks\nwhat its name is. The Computer makes a horrible thundering, grinding noise\nin which Little Tib thinks he hears hundreds or thousands of voices, all\nspeaking at once. Little Tib tells the Computer to answer him and it says:\n\"We are legion. Very many.\" Little Tib shouts, \"Get out!\" and there is a\ndeep moaning sound. Something in the room falls and shatters. Then the\nClothes Man says, \"They are gone.\" Little Tib tells the Clothes Man that he\ncan get the keys without any help and the Clothes Man disappears. Little\nTib finds the keys and passes them out another window, then climbs out\nhimself.\n\nThe Clothes Man is obviously the Scarecrow, also known as the Straw Man,\nwho appears in all (or nearly all) of Baum's Oz books and in the movie.\nLittle Tib's teleportation through a locked door is the fourth miracle. I\nam going to count the event with the Computer as the fifth, although it is\nnot clear what that event is. The resemblance to the Biblical description\nof Jesus driving out demons in Mark 5: 5-9 is too strong for even me to\nmiss, so it is very tempting to say that Little Tib drove demons out of the\nComputer. But whether that's actually what happened is unclear, at least to\nme. Later on in the story the Computer is found to no longer be working,\nbut whether this is due to what Little Tib did or Mr. Parker's attempt at\nreprogramming is never revealed. The Scarecrow definitely had a role in\nLittle Tib passing through the locked door although exactly what his role\nwas is uncertain, but whether he was needed when Little Tib drove the\ndemons out of the Computer is less clear. Having a witness seems to have\nbeen important, however.\n\nMr. Parker takes the keys and unlocks the padlock on the side door while\nNitty takes Little Tib back to the motel to get ready for Dr. Prithivi's\npageant. Nitty helps Little Tib put on his costume and takes him to the\noutdoor stage where the pageant is to take place. They meet Dr. Prithivi,\nwho introduces Little Tib to one of his fellow performers, a man wearing a\nwooden mask (Little Tib knows this because he asks to feel the man's face),\nwho will portray the god Indra.\n\nLittle Tib is left alone in the trailer with Indra, who tells him a story\nthat turns out to be about Little Tib. I'll be as brief as I can.\n\nA group of women (teachers at a college and the wives of college teachers)\nvolunteered to have their ova genetically altered in a way meant to produce\nsuperior human beings: smarter, healthier, stronger, etc. Other women with\nunaltered children the same age were brought into the study as controls.\nThe parents of the unaltered children were paid and recruited from the\nsurrounding area. This occurred at a medical center in Houston, Texas.\n\nNothing unexpected occurred until the children turned six. At that time,\nstrange things started to happen.\n\n-----------------------\n\"People and animals-- sometimes even monsters--were seen in corridors and\ntherapy rooms who had never entered the complex and were never observed to\nleave it. Experimental animals were freed--apparently without their cages\nhaving been opened. Furniture was rearranged, and on several different\noccasions large quantities of food that could not be accounted for was\nfound in the commons room.\"\n-----------------------\n\nThis was of great concern to the government-sponsored scientists running\nthe program. They determined that these events happened at the time of the\nexaminations given to the genetically altered children. The children were\nexamined exhaustively for paranormal abilities, but none were found. The\nscientists tried to isolate these phenomena to an individual by examining\nonly half of the genetically-altered children at a time, but the phenomena\noccurred when either half was being examined. This was considered evidence\nthat several individuals were involved and so alarmed the government that\nthey took over the program and decided to terminate it. All of the\ngenetically-altered were killed and the controls sent home.\n\nWilliam Ansley\n\n[20] This phrasing is so reminiscent of Baum's early Oz books that I was\nsurprised to find that it does not actually occur in any of them. Many\nsimilar phrases do occur, however, most of them using the word \"queerest\"\nwhere Wolfe used \"funniest.\" Obviously \"queerest\" has a rather different\nconnotation now than it did in Baum's time, which may be why Wolfe didn't\nuse it." } ] } ] }