The Stainless Steell Rat Sings the Blues

After which, knowing their record for veracity, they probably felt that they could do whatever they wanted with me.

This was sounding familiar. There has never been a strongman, dictator, military ruler, who did not believe that he somehow came from superior stock. “You are different, sir,” Floyd said, almost humbly.

Of course! Obvious by hindsight. I knew of a dozen hypnotic gases that lowered the ability to think clearly, that left the brain open to outside influences. So it hadn’t been emotion but plain old chemistry that had carried me away. Steengo had suspected this-but why hadn’t he told me? Depressingly, I realized that the state of mind I had been in, probably caused by drugs in the earlier session, rendered that impossible. He knew he couldn’t tell me. But had been suspicious enough to wear the plugs himself.

Myths deal with emotions, not facts. Let’s look at the symbols. Did the young man bail out the pool and find Iron Hans, or Iron John at the bottom?” “That’s exactly what happened.”

It is,” Steengo said, swinging his feet around so he sat up straight on the couch. “Mankind invents cultures-and cultures invent myths to justify and explain their existence. Prominent among these are the myths and ceremonies of the rites of passage for boys. The passage from boyhood to manhood. This is the time when the boy is separated from his mother and the other women. In some primitive cultures the boys go and live with the men-and never see their mothers again.”

No one ever got into trouble by being prepared-as we used to say in the Boy Sprouts.

thought that it looked pretty thin for that job, but wisely kept my mouth shut

Acoustic microphones aimed our way? I realized now that my carefully planned crime had apparently been a disaster from the moment I had conceived it.

It was only recently produced by the overly-paranoid management here