（外文电子版资料）Walter Jon Williams - The Bob Dylan Solution.pdfVIP

The Bob Dylan Solution Walter Jon Williams 1 Pus-yellow smog drifts through the artificial canyons of Hollywood like windblown sand silting over the foundations of a Western ghost town. Anything moving below the smog curtain is invisible, certainly insignificant. Robertson takes a certain satisfaction in the thought. Ive heard the songs Sorrels recorded so far, says Brenner. Theyre a mess, I agree with you. Hes spending millions in studio time and the project isnt even near completion. A disaster. The computer projections arent good. Robertson, staring down at the smog from his air-conditioned aerie, feels a reflex irritation at the back of his throat. Suddenly hes glad he gave up smoking. He clears his throat. The whole middle-class rebellion thing is dying out. The declining economy wont support it. People are too interested in hanging on to their jobs to worry about ideology. He clears his throat again. Sorrels career peaked two albums ago. Hes going to lose his audience in the next eighteen months. Something has to happen to make him recast his message. He needs to go affirmative. The psych profiles arent encouraging, either. Hose-covered thighs sing against one another as Brenner crosses her legs. Hes losing his inspiration. Velda isnt helping. He needs something to shake him up, jump-start his creativity. Move him in a new direction. Robertson nods. Sorrel had been his discovery, the means by which he ascended from among the smog-bound proles below to the highest penthouse atop the Lizard Records building. Talent like that comes once a decade. But what happens when the talent uses itself up? Velda, Brenner says, could have an accident. Her voice is tentative. Hell find someone else just like her. Veldas arent hard to find. Then were in the same bind. Robertson turns away from the transparent, bulletproof, evolv