资料文稿详解james patrick kelly-the propotion of light in vaccuum.pdfVIP

ThePropaionofLightinaVacuum

JamesPatrickKelly

Introduction

ThePropaionofLightinaVacuumisprobablymyfavoriteJamesPatrick

Kellystorythatnooneknowsabout.IwasquitethrilledtosellittoBob

SilverbergandKarenHaberbackin1990fortherevivaloftheUniverseseries

oforiginalanthologies,editedbyTerryCarr.Unfortunately,Universe

collapsed.

Thestoryisastylisticexperiment:magicrealismhitchingarideonahard

sciencestarship.Ifreelyadmittocommittingacircularplot,yingwith

punctuationandjumpingoffthepagetothrottlethereader.Also,thisisthe

onlystoryofminetoincludearecipe.

DipointedthatThePropaionofLightinaVacuumdidnotimmediately

finditsaudience,Itooktoreadingitinpublic.Itprovedaninteresting

piecetoperform;audiencesseemedtolikeit.In1996,Irewroteitasaone

acty;ithasreceivedseveralstagedreadingsandwillgetitsfirstfull

productioninMayof1998.

Page1

ThePropaionofLightinaVacuum

Womenhaveservedallthesecenturiesaslooking-glassespossessingthe

magicanddeliciouspowerofreflectingthefigureofmanattwiceits

naturalsize.

VirginiaWoolf,ARoomofOnesOwn

MaybeyouthinkImdifferent,butIvegotthesameproblemseveryonehas.Just

becauseImonastarshiptravelinthespeedoflightdoesntmeanmy

feelingscantbehurt.