Transcribe
Translate
A Tale of the 'Evans, v. 3, issue 3, Summer 1945
Page 5
More information
digital collection
archival collection guide
transcription tips
OL' MAN EVANS by Ol' Man Evans Our Battle Creek gang were sitting around the Slan Shack living room, fan-gabbing as always, when the argument swerved around to longevity. Remembering various STF stories of long-aged people, they started shooting off their mouths about how they would, or would not, like to live for hundreds or thousands of years, or even be immortal. Ashley, especially, was most vociferious in his claim that he would just love to live a thousand years or more, and that he would even be glad to face immortality itself without a single qualm. Th' crazy goon! I tried in vain to point out to him the many, many things which would tend to make him sorry for such a thing, in short order. The long, lonely years rolling onward in unceasing procession, with only a weak human brain to cope with them. The fact that, as an untutored colored gal once pointed out -- "Live is so damned daily!" True, if one had unlimited financial backing, constant fullest physical health and strength, and a mind as strong and complete as, say, Kim Kinnison's, iy wouldn't be quite so bad, but bade enough in any circumstance for a finite human. For the ordinary mind is not fitted to cope with such problems as would come up with such a life. The synapses will not take care of the multiplicity of details that would be forced onto the brain. One thinks he would just be able to learn more and more, and would thus soon become a fountain of knowledge. But for the common man it does not work out that way. One forgets as fast as he learns. The things he studies so hard to understand and master in one century are mainly forgotten in the next hundred years. And these intervals, seemingly so long to the ordinary individual, are but a moment in the lifetime of an immortal. True, there will remain scattered memories, but they will only be highlights, such as another might learn from reading history. An occasional personal memory will remain, but not many. One might have known fluently ancient Greek, Egyptian, Summerian, Coptic or other forgotten language, and it would be thought -- how greatly he could assist in translations of rediscovered writings or sculptures. Bah! your human immortal would have long ago forgotten them, in the learning of the newer languages which he must learn in order to keep himself in the march of the present. Suppose one did try to give minute facts about some great happening of the past. He is looked upon merely as an imaginative liar. All this I tried to point out to the gnaf, merely as if I were -5-
Saving...
prev
next
OL' MAN EVANS by Ol' Man Evans Our Battle Creek gang were sitting around the Slan Shack living room, fan-gabbing as always, when the argument swerved around to longevity. Remembering various STF stories of long-aged people, they started shooting off their mouths about how they would, or would not, like to live for hundreds or thousands of years, or even be immortal. Ashley, especially, was most vociferious in his claim that he would just love to live a thousand years or more, and that he would even be glad to face immortality itself without a single qualm. Th' crazy goon! I tried in vain to point out to him the many, many things which would tend to make him sorry for such a thing, in short order. The long, lonely years rolling onward in unceasing procession, with only a weak human brain to cope with them. The fact that, as an untutored colored gal once pointed out -- "Live is so damned daily!" True, if one had unlimited financial backing, constant fullest physical health and strength, and a mind as strong and complete as, say, Kim Kinnison's, iy wouldn't be quite so bad, but bade enough in any circumstance for a finite human. For the ordinary mind is not fitted to cope with such problems as would come up with such a life. The synapses will not take care of the multiplicity of details that would be forced onto the brain. One thinks he would just be able to learn more and more, and would thus soon become a fountain of knowledge. But for the common man it does not work out that way. One forgets as fast as he learns. The things he studies so hard to understand and master in one century are mainly forgotten in the next hundred years. And these intervals, seemingly so long to the ordinary individual, are but a moment in the lifetime of an immortal. True, there will remain scattered memories, but they will only be highlights, such as another might learn from reading history. An occasional personal memory will remain, but not many. One might have known fluently ancient Greek, Egyptian, Summerian, Coptic or other forgotten language, and it would be thought -- how greatly he could assist in translations of rediscovered writings or sculptures. Bah! your human immortal would have long ago forgotten them, in the learning of the newer languages which he must learn in order to keep himself in the march of the present. Suppose one did try to give minute facts about some great happening of the past. He is looked upon merely as an imaginative liar. All this I tried to point out to the gnaf, merely as if I were -5-
Hevelin Fanzines
sidebar
