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143 lines
3.8 KiB
Text
143 lines
3.8 KiB
Text
.LP
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.ce
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.ps 16
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.CW
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I'M JUST SAYING
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.R
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.ps 8
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.CW
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tags: 1979, christopher, violet
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.R
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.PP
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.ps 10
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"Every time I walk past your desk you're reading that damned feed."
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.PP
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.ps 10
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"Do you see the flaw in this?" Violet asked. "Every time you see me
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reading the feeds, you're away from your own desk. You'd never even
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know I was breaking the rules if you weren't up, walking around,
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breaking them yourself."
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.PP
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.ps 10
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Frankly, there had been little to distinguish her until fairly
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recently. The spring quarter had perhaps brought about a kind of
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transformation. Certainly, she'd taken well to his instruction.
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Christopher mused (to himself) that perhaps what he admired in her
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most was his own reflection. But this was a profoundly disagreeable
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notion, and he discarded the thought. The light from the office window
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played softly in her hair. He would try again. There could be no harm
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in trying.
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.PP
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.ps 10
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"No, Violet, Newton did
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.I
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not
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.R
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hold that the Green was eternal. A
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gentleman of his era would not even have been able to perceive the
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Green."
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.PP
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.ps 10
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"Now you're just
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.I
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lying,"
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.R
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said Violet.
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.PP
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.ps 10
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.I
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"Nullius en verba,"
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.R
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sighed Chris. "Trust, but verify. Or in other
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words, do your own research. You see, it doesn't matter if you believe
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me or not. This isn't a relative matter. The Green did not exist in
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the seventeenth century\(emit's not merely an assertion, it's an
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incontrovertible fact."
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.PP
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.ps 10
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"According to your essentialist bias," Violet said. "But what are
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'facts,' anyway?"
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.PP
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.ps 10
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There was no answer. It was a meaningless question.
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.PP
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.ps 10
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Violet's mouth creased acutely at its corners, her eyes tracing the
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arc of the golden ratio as Christopher shifted in his work trousers,
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unsure of how to proceed. He could no longer remember what he had been
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trying to say, or why. He stopped typing in order to formulate his
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response.
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.PP
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.ps 10
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"All you need to know about Newton is this: his work on optics may
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have indeed set the stage for the eventual overturning of his work on
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motion."
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.PP
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.ps 10
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"That's
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.I
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seriously
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.R
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not even true," said Violet. "Einstein was very
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clear that his own work should not be seen to
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.I
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supersede
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.R
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Newton's, but
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merely to build upon the foundations laid by his able predecessor.
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Newtonian mechanics is still quite viable from virtually any
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perspective. Even today."
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.PP
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.ps 10
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"I'm just saying," she added.
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.PP
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.ps 10
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"And yet, you cling to this notion that Newton knew of\(emcommuned
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with\(emthe Green. That he had some sort of access to the network."
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.PP
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.ps 10
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"Didn't he?" asked Violet, rolling her eyes behind her face\-mask.
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.PP
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.ps 10
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.I
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"No,"
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.R
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said Chris, finding himself increasingly frustrated, in more
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ways than one.
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.PP
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.ps 10
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Violet drifted away. She thought to herself:
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.I
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When I lay my head
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down, now, my dreams are as stories, are no longer as the psychotic,
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Dadaist collages to which I've become accustomed. Humble, linear
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narratives. But what is more important to me? Lucid memories of my
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childhood or the removal of this block, the lifting of this veil that
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has descended, that so complicates my machinery?
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.R
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She was unaware of
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how she appeared, laying prostrate over her desk. Consequently, she
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was oblivious to her co\-worker's mounting discomfort.
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.PP
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.ps 10
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Christopher excused himself and retreated to the men's room.
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.PP
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.ps 10
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He latched the stall. He took down his trousers and began to
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masturbate furiously into the toilet. His heartbeat rapidly outpaced
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the ticking of his chronometer. His breathing quickened appreciably as
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the sweat from his forehead poured into his eyes.
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.PP
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.ps 10
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Presently, a long, slow moan escaped from his lips.
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.PP
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.ps 10
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It was then that Christopher noticed the presence of a co\-worker,
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seated in the adjacent stall.
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.PP
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.ps 10
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"I'm just saying," the co\-worker said, and folded his newspaper.
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