The Organ

[Guest Larstrup]

On 1/17/2018 at 7:58 PM, Larstrup said:

 

As much as I was against the reboot of the show, this episode was everything to me and particular to me in my place and time. It was not only funny, it was sadly actual.

No one else could have pulled this off so perfectly than Ben Platt. I love this episode.

 My Boner has already called a Lyft! Brilliant writing actually. For those here who don’t know what a Lyft is, it’s a ride away……

[Lucky]

15 minutes ago, Larstrup said:

 The physical surrender of hate Has never been the surrender of the soul.

Profound! Way too good for this website.  I could never be so original. So I borrow....

[Lucky]

On 1/17/2018 at 4:51 PM, Larstrup said:

 Music and our arts,  Is the only thing that’s going to save us all from ourselves.

The hits keep coming! Since I can't come up with stuff like that, I will find a quote from someone who can!

[Lucky]

On 1/13/2018 at 5:30 PM, Larstrup said:

The foot-wear at Walmart will contribute to be the issues which you will then be sharing with your current (or new) podiatrist in the future. Walmart may offer you foot-gear for you lifestyle, but it will be absent of the foot-gear which your (or mine) feet need to continue our  activity.

Never buy anything for your feet at Walmart. Tee-shirts, socks, perhaps, but never, ever, foot-gear.

This should be understood by any and all.

 

Good advice, Larstrup!

 

[Guest Larstrup]

 And just sometime earlier in this thread;, Lucky came here, to the Organ thread, and asked.....why are you here?

well Lucky, now you know why. 

[AdamSmith]

2 minutes ago, Larstrup said:

 And just sometime earlier in these past thread;, Lucky came here, to the Organ thread, and asked.....why are you here?

well Lucky, now you know why. 

thk u.

Personal attacks are not the aim of this (Larstrup's very much appreciated) Organ thread.

[Guest Larstrup]

17 minutes ago, AdamSmith said:

thk u.

Personal attacks are not the aim of this (Larstrup's very much appreciated) Organ thread.

This thread will always belong to @AdamSmith   I’m just a carrier of his truth and his silenced free speech elsewhere.

[Guest Larstrup]

On 8/1/2017 at 6:54 PM, Larstrup said:

 

[Guest Larstrup]

 Fuck you, Lucky.  You’re sudden apology ( via pm no less) for your comments here are meaningless to me. As I’m sure you expected me to respond. 

You’re a cunt. Publicly or privately. It makes no difference to me.

[Lucky]

59 minutes ago, AdamSmith said:

thk u.

Personal attacks are not the aim of this (Larstrup's very much appreciated) Organ thread.

I couldn't agree more. You know, I saw that Adam and Lars were having a bro fest here and I was hesitant to interrupt. But I could not pass without complimenting Lars on his observations. Would that I could think of such stuff.

So I stepped in. My regret is that I could not say some nice things about Adam, and that's not because he didn't post some good stuff, it's just that I was so focused on Lars. Would that more people were commenting.

Anyway, I leave the thread back to you two. Carry on!

[Lucky]

37 minutes ago, Larstrup said:

 Fuck you, Lucky.  You’re sudden apology ( via pm no less) for your comments here are meaningless to me. As I’m sure you expected me to respond. 

You’re a cunt. Publicly or privately. It makes no difference to me.

What? I didn't apologize to you in a pm! You are getting delusional now. Did my compliments go to your head? I simply said I had to go and would check back tomorrow. Then I found an opportunity to come back only to find this insult. Well, I did invite you to have at me, but this is beyond the pale! Surrender your hate, dude!

[Guest Larstrup]

23 minutes ago, Lucky said:

What? I didn't apologize to you in a pm! You are getting delusional now. Did my compliments go to your head? I simply said I had to go and would check back tomorrow. Then I found an opportunity to come back only to find this insult. Well, I did invite you to have at me, but this is beyond the pale! Surrender your hate, dude!

 I would suggest that the viewers of this thread, few that there are, can embrace and understand where this sudden hate from you has come from.

this is a kind and joyful thread of the arts, amongst other wonderful and beautiful moments in life.

where did your ugliness suddenly come from? And why?

you might think of yourself as being a queen of all people but you’ll never become the Queen which you  desperately want to become. 

Example:

 

[Lucky]

I just can't win with Lars. I think he is upset that I didn't compliment Adam too. He's rather protective that way.

But don't get me wrong, I could find some compliment for Adam if he wants.

[AdamSmith]

9 minutes ago, Lucky said:

I just can't win with Lars. I think he is upset that I didn't compliment Adam too. He's rather protective that way.

But don't get me wrong, I could find some compliment for Adam if he wants.

Please leave me out of this.

You and I know each other in person too well.

[AdamSmith]

 

[Guest Larstrup]

43 minutes ago, Lucky said:

I just can't win with Lars. I think he is upset that I didn't compliment Adam too. He's rather protective that way.

But don't get me wrong, I could find some compliment for Adam if he wants.

 Don’t get me wrong lucky. I don’t think  you’re really a cunt. You just behave like one. You may know Adam Smith more than I do personally, but I’ll take Adam Smith over your disparagement of him every day of the week.

 While you are always the loudest, often non-poster here, screaming about why more people don’t post here,  I’ll be holding up a mirror in front of you for you to  reflect upon as to why.

Adam Smith is a better man than I, because if you ever had  posted some the things that you have posted about him about me,  i’d be very much less enduring and kind.

That’s what makes Adam Smith a better person than you or I’ll  ever be.

 

[AdamSmith]

On 1/19/2018 at 10:32 PM, AdamSmith said:

 

Worth noting that Elizabeth Regina herself, personally, would rather a porchside picnic, out in the bracing Balmoral chill.

With an equally bracing gin & Dubonnet. 

Bitch knows how to live.& survive!

As fitting of any descendant of Edward the Conqueror.

[AdamSmith]

 

[AdamSmith]

 

[AdamSmith]

Again...

 

[AdamSmith]

 

[AdamSmith]

[AdamSmith]

 

[AdamSmith]

Childhood's End

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

 

This article is about a novel. For other uses, see Childhood's End (disambiguation).

Childhood's End

Cover of first edition hardcover
Author	Arthur C. Clarke
Cover artist	Richard M. Powers
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre	Science fiction
Publisher	Ballantine Books
Publication date	1953
Media type	Print (hardcover and paperback)
Pages	214
ISBN	0-345-34795-1
OCLC	36566890

Childhood's End is a 1953 science fiction novel by the British author Arthur C. Clarke. The story follows the peaceful alien invasion^[1] of Earth by the mysterious Overlords, whose arrival begins decades of apparent utopia under indirectalien rule, at the cost of human identity and culture.

Clarke's idea for the book began with his short story "Guardian Angel" (1946), which he expanded into a novel in 1952, incorporating it as the first part of the book, "Earth and the Overlords". Completed and published in 1953, Childhood's Endsold out its first printing, received good reviews, and became Clarke's first successful novel. The book is often regarded by both readers and critics as Clarke's best novel,^[2] and is described as "a classic of alien literature".^[3] Along with The Songs of Distant Earth (1986), Clarke considered Childhood's End to be one of his favourites of his own novels.^[4] The novel was nominated for the Retro Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2004.

Several attempts to adapt the novel into a film or miniseries have been made with varying levels of success. Director Stanley Kubrick expressed interest in the 1960s, but collaborated with Clarke on 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) instead. The novel's theme of transcendent evolution also appears in Clarke's Space Odyssey series. In 1997, the BBC produced a two-hour radio dramatization of Childhood's End that was adapted by Tony Mulholland. The Syfy Channel produced a three-part, four-hour television mini-series of Childhood's End, which was broadcast on December 14–16, 2015.

 

Contents

  [hide] 

• 1Plot summary
  • 1.1Earth and the Overlords
  • 1.2The Golden Age
  • 1.3The Last Generation
• 2Publication history
  • 2.1Original short story
  • 2.2Development into full-length novel
  • 2.3Publication
• 3Reception
• 4Adaptations
• 5See also
• 6Notes
• 7References
• 8Further reading
• 9External links

 

Plot summary[edit]

The novel is divided into three parts, following a third-person omniscient narrative with no main character.^[5]

Earth and the Overlords[edit]

In the late 20th century, the United States and the Soviet Union are competing to launch the first spacecraft into orbit, for military purposes. When vast alien spaceships suddenly position themselves above Earth's principal cities, the space race ceases. After one week, the aliens announce they are assuming supervision of international affairs, to prevent humanity's extinction. They become known as the Overlords. In general, they let humans go on conducting their affairs in their own way. They overtly interfere only twice: in South Africa, where sometime before their arrival Apartheid had collapsed and was replaced with savage persecution of the white minority; and in Spain, where they put an end to bull fighting. Some humans are suspicious of the Overlords' benign intent, as they never visibly appear. The Overlord Karellen, the "Supervisor for Earth," who speaks directly only to Rikki Stormgren, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, tells Stormgren that the Overlords will reveal themselves in 50 years, when humanity will have become used to their presence. Stormgren smuggles a device onto Karellen's ship in an attempt to see Karellen's true form. He partially succeeds, is shocked by what he sees, and chooses to keep silent.

The Golden Age[edit]

Men called them Overlords
They had come from outer space—
they had brought peace
and prosperity to Earth
But then the change began.
It appeared first in the children
—frightening, incomprehensible.
Now the Overlords made their announcement:
This was to be the first step
in the elimination of the human race
and the beginning of—What?

—Original back cover quote, paperback edition

Humankind enters a golden age of prosperity at the expense of creativity. Five decades after their arrival, the Overlords reveal their appearance, resembling the traditional Christian folk images of demons: large bipeds with cloven hooves, leathery wings, horns, and tails. The Overlords are interested in psychic research, which humans suppose is part of their anthropological study. Rupert Boyce, a prolific book collector on the subject, allows one Overlord, Rashaverak, to study these books at his home. To impress his friends with Rashaverak's presence, Boyce holds a party, during which he makes use of a Ouija board. Jan Rodricks, an astrophysicist and Rupert's brother-in-law, asks the identity of the Overlords' home star. George Greggson's future wife Jean faints as the Ouija board reveals a number which has no meaning to most of the guests. But Jan recognizes it as a star-catalog number and learns that it is consistent with the direction in which Overlord supply ships appear and disappear. With the help of an oceanographer friend, Jan stows away on an Overlord supply ship and travels 40 light-years to their home planet. Due to the time dilation of special relativity at near-light speeds, the elapsed time on the ship is only a few weeks, and he arranges to endure it in drug-induced hibernation.

The Last Generation[edit]

Although humanity and the Overlords have peaceful relations, some believe human innovation is being suppressed and that culture is becoming stagnant. One of these groups establishes New Athens, an island colony in the middle of the Pacific Ocean devoted to the creative arts, which George and Jean Greggson join. The Overlords conceal a special interest in the Greggsons' children, Jeffrey and Jennifer Anne, and intervene to save Jeffrey's life when a tsunami strikes the island. The Overlords have been watching them since the incident with the Ouija board, which revealed the seed of the coming transformation hidden within Jean.

Well over a century after the Overlords' arrival, human children, beginning with the Greggsons', begin to display clairvoyance and telekinetic powers. Karellen reveals the Overlords' purpose; they serve the Overmind, a vast cosmic intelligence, born of amalgamated ancient civilizations, and freed from the limitations of material existence. The Overlords themselves are unable to join the Overmind, but serve it as a bridge species, fostering other races' eventual union with it.

As Karellen explains, the time of humanity as a race composed of single individuals with a concrete identity is coming to an end. The children's minds reach into each other and merge into a single vast group consciousness. If the Pacific were to be dried up, the islands dotting it would lose their identity as islands and become part of a new continent; in the same way, the children cease to be the individuals which their parents knew and become something else, completely alien to the "old type of human".

For the transformed children's safety — and also because it is painful for their parents to see what they had become — they are segregated on a continent of their own. No more human children are born, and many parents die or commit suicide. The members of New Athens destroy themselves with a nuclear bomb.

Jan Rodricks emerges from hibernation on the Overlord supply ship and arrives on their planet. The Overlords permit him a glimpse of how the Overmind communicates with them. When Jan returns to Earth (approximately 80 years after his departure by Earth time) he finds an unexpectedly altered planet. Humanity has effectively become extinct, and he is now the last man alive. Hundreds of millions of children – no longer fitting what Rodricks defines as "human" – remain on the quarantined continent, having become a single intelligence readying themselves to join the Overmind.

Some Overlords remain on Earth to study the children from a safe distance. When the evolved children mentally alter the Moon's rotation and make other planetary manipulations, it becomes too dangerous to remain. The departing Overlords offer to take Rodricks with them, but he chooses to stay to witness Earth's end, and transmit a report of what he sees.

Before they depart, Rodricks asks Rashaverak what encounter the Overlords had with humanity in the past, according to an assumption that the fear that humans had of their "demonic" form was due to a traumatic encounter with them in the distant past; but Rashaverak explains that the primal fear experienced by humans was not due to a racial memory, but a racial premonition of the Overlords' role in their metamorphosis.

The Overlords are eager to escape from their own evolutionary dead end by studying the Overmind, so Rodricks's information is potentially of great value to them. By radio, Rodricks describes a vast burning column ascending from the planet. As the column disappears, Rodricks experiences a profound sense of emptiness when the children have gone. Then material objects and the Earth itself begin to dissolve into transparency. Jan reports no fear, but a powerful sense of fulfillment. The Earth evaporates in a flash of light. Karellen looks back at the receding Solar System and gives a final salute to the human species...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childhood's_End

[MsAnn]