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After Some Tomorrow - B50-795
The year is some indeterminate time in the future; Micky Grant and Anna Enesco are involved in special studies for people who have shown extraordinary ESP talent. Their progress is as frightening as it is incredible.
But when our government sends them on missions that become increasingly dangerous and difficult, are their lives the price of their special pre-knowledge?
But when our government sends them on missions that become increasingly dangerous and difficult, are their lives the price of their special pre-knowledge?
158 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published November 1, 1967
About the author
Mack Reynolds
503 books43 followersDallas McCord "Mack" Reynolds was an American science fiction writer. His pen names included Clark Collins, Mark Mallory, Guy McCord, Dallas Ross and Maxine Reynolds. Many of his stories were published in "Galaxy Magazine" and "Worlds of If Magazine". He was quite popular in the 1960s, but most of his work subsequently went out of print.
He was an active supporter of the Socialist Labor Party; his father, Verne Reynolds, was twice the SLP's Presidential candidate, in 1928 and 1932. Many of MR's stories use SLP jargon such as 'Industrial Feudalism' and most deal with economic issues in some way
Many of Reynolds' stories took place in Utopian societies, and many of which fulfilled L. L. Zamenhof's dream of Esperanto used worldwide as a universal second language. His novels predicted much that has come to pass, including pocket computers and a world-wide computer network with information available at one's fingertips.
Many of his novels were written within the context of a highly mobile society in which few people maintained a fixed residence, leading to "mobile voting" laws which allowed someone living out of the equivalent of a motor home to vote when and where they chose.
He was an active supporter of the Socialist Labor Party; his father, Verne Reynolds, was twice the SLP's Presidential candidate, in 1928 and 1932. Many of MR's stories use SLP jargon such as 'Industrial Feudalism' and most deal with economic issues in some way
Many of Reynolds' stories took place in Utopian societies, and many of which fulfilled L. L. Zamenhof's dream of Esperanto used worldwide as a universal second language. His novels predicted much that has come to pass, including pocket computers and a world-wide computer network with information available at one's fingertips.
Many of his novels were written within the context of a highly mobile society in which few people maintained a fixed residence, leading to "mobile voting" laws which allowed someone living out of the equivalent of a motor home to vote when and where they chose.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 10, 2026
After Some Tomorrow was published in 1967 by Belmont, a very prolific year for Reynolds. He had a short story published in If magazine in 1956 with the same title, but I can't confirm that the novel is an expansion of it. It's set in the relatively near future (let's say the year 2000 since it's Reynolds, though I don't believe that's specified), when everyone has the guaranteed income that Reynolds incorporated into most of his works. This one is psi spy sci fi (say that real fast three times with ice cubes in your mouth!) thriller about ESP/telepathic powers. Mickey Grant and Anna Enesco are involved with researching their abilities, and the government sends them on missions to take advantage of them. There's a bit of political/economic theory discussed between adventures, but it's a pretty fast-moving, typical '60s story.
February 13, 2023
review of
Mack Reynolds's After Some Tomorrow
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - February 11-12, 2023
For the complete review go here: http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/CriticA...
It's tempting to just review Mack Reynolds's bks. This is, maybe, the 22nd one I've read so far. I enjoy them all, they have plenty of content that appeals to me & they're easy to read. Why wd anyone want to read a bk of mine when there're things like Reynolds novels out there? My bks are so hhhhaaaaaaarrrrrrdddddd to understand, why on earth do I bother to write them? Ahem.
As w/ most of the Reynolds novels I've read so far the future has a welfare state where everyone's guaranteed a basic income that enables them to eat, have a place to live, & to get wasted watching TV. This novel's a bit different, though. Here, the main characters are psychics who're being studied w/ an eye to exploitation by forces beyond their ken.
""Perhaps a bit of self interest of a pecuniary nature might tend to up Mr. Grant's run percentage."
"The ex-soldier snorted sourly. "That was the good old days, Doc." He brought his credit card from the pocket of his jerkin. "Bu that's the trouble with the Welfare State and the elimination of money. Nobody but I can spend my credit, nobody can steal it from me, and nobody can gamble it away from me or con me out of it. With my Inalienable Basic Bonds I've got security from the cradle to the grave—whether I want it or not." He grunted. "Precious little security, but security."" - p 7
"It occurred to Mick Grant that the unemployment question of the early and middle twentieth century had been solved not without some far out aspects. As automation threw large numbers of the labor force out of work, and increasingly liberal provisions had been made for those so affected, it became increasingly profitable not to work, even were a job available."
[..]
"But what was the end? Hadn't something like this happened in Rome, back in ancient times? Didn't it finally get to the point where everything was free for the Roman citizen, no matter how low on the totem pole? Free bread from the provinces, free circuses to keep them amused, free handouts from the patrician politicians who wanted their votes." - p 26
Is that true? I've read some Roman history & that's news to me. I have faith in Reynolds's exactingness so I believe him. How weird. When I read this, I was reminded of the early days of the covid quarantine when people cdn't work but cd get unemployment & other stimulus checks wch enabled them to both hang on & to be not particularly concerned about what was really going on.
Mick Grant, the ex-soldier/psychic is already having his basic income augmented by a grant given under the condition that he studies paranormal phenomena, wch really means that people study & encourage him. NOW, much to his confusion, he's offered a 2nd fellowship.
"["]The Monad Foundation insists that you earn your award. It insists that you study, study, study. It burns with the desire that our young people take more interest in sociopolitical matters. Ah, yes, one more thing. During the summer vacation months, the Foundation will most likely suggest a guided vacation tour."
""To where?"
"Tarabya made with one of his almost continual shrugs. "Most likely to Common Europe. Possibly to Italy and Greece, so rich in the political history of the ancient past."
"Mick was truly staring now. "You mean, on top of the five shares of Convertible Mutual, I get a free vacation in Common Europe?"
""First class," Mustapha Tarabya nodded unctiously." - p 35
This bk's from 1967.
""I thought possibly we might conduct some further experiments, using it, or possibly one of the other psychedelics . . ."
""Come again?"
""Psychedelics. Literally, mind-manifesting or consciousness-expanding compounds. Lysergic acid diethylamide, better known as LSD-25, mescaline, psilocybin, Bannisteria caapi, dimethyltryptamine, bofotenine."" - p 40
These days, some people say "entheogen" instead of psychedlic. I've always preferrred "consciousness expanders".
1967 might've been the yr that awareness of LSD was coming more to the forefront in the USA. It wasn't made illegal until 1968. I can remember in 1966 or 1967 seeing Timothy Leary on TV wearing a white flowing robe. Even tho I probably knew very little about LSD at the time it was obvious to me that he was very high. He actually seemed to glow. I haven't taken LSD for decades but I'm told that it's very hard to get now. That's too bad b/c I found tripping on it to be a mind-bogglingly positive experience. I don't recommend taking it lightly but I do wish it were legal & available.
Mick starts to get inquisitive about the people who're funding him.
"He had been unable to find any record of Joshua Porsenna.
"He had been unable to check up upon the Monad Foundation.
"Dr. Ramsey, who Mick had vaguely thought of as one of the big wigs of the Earl University experiments with ESP, wasn't even connected with the school." - p 44
Having accepted the offer of the Monad Foundation, he's surprised by what they have him study under the supervision of a tutor.
""We might as well start you off tonight, on your supplemental reading. I've brought along a few basic works."
""Supplemental reading," he said unhappily.
""There'll be a great deal of it," she said, as though with satisfaction. "Now, what do you know about anarchism, Michael?"" - p 47
Ha ha! Somebody being pd to study anarchism. That's a hoot.
""However, D. D. Home and Eusapia Palladino are another thing. Both lived at about the turn of the century, Eusapia Palladino, in particular, performed before most of the outstanding scientists of Europe of that period, including both the Curies, Oliver Lodge, Courtier, Favre, Ochorowicz, oh, a multitude of others. Under the strictest of conditions, by the way. None of this seance requirement in the dark." - p 58
Almost all, if not all, of Reynolds's bks teach me about something that I wasn't previously familiar w/ that's of interest to me. Here's yet-another example.
"Daniel Dunglas Home (pronounced Hume; 20 March 1833 – 21 June 1886) was a Scottish physical medium with the reported ability to levitate to a variety of heights, speak with the dead, and to produce rapping and knocks in houses at will. His biographer Peter Lamont opines that he was one of the most famous men of his era. Harry Houdini described him as "one of the most conspicuous and lauded of his type and generation" and "the forerunner of the mediums whose forte is fleecing by presuming on the credulity of the public." Home conducted hundreds of séances, which were attended by many eminent Victorians. There have been eyewitness accounts by séance sitters describing conjuring methods and fraud that Home may have employed."
[..]
"Home never directly asked for money, although he lived very well on gifts, donations and lodging from wealthy admirers. He felt that he was on a "mission to demonstrate immortality", and wished to interact with his clients as one gentleman to another, rather than as an employee. In 1852, Home was a guest at the house of Rufus Elmer in Springfield, Massachusetts, giving séances six or seven times a day, which were visited by crowds of people, including a Harvard professor, David Wells, and the poet and editor of the New York Evening Post, William Cullen Bryant. They were all convinced of Home's credibility and wrote to the Springfield Republican newspaper stating that the room was well lit, full inspections were allowed, and said, "We know that we were not imposed upon nor deceived". It was also reported that at one of Home's demonstrations five men of heavy build (with a combined weight of 850 pounds) sat on a table, but it still moved, and others saw "a tremulous phosphorescent light gleam over the walls". Home was investigated by numerous people, such as Professor Robert Hare, the inventor of the oxy-hydrogen blowpipe, and John W. Edmonds, a trial court judge, who were sceptical, but later said they believed Home was not fraudulent."
[..]
"At a séance in the house of the solicitor John Snaith Rymer in Ealing in July 1855, a sitter (Frederick Merrifield) observed that a "spirit-hand" was in fact a false limb attached on the end of Home's arm. Merrifield also claimed to have observed Home use his foot in the séance room."
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_...
I'm more inclined to think that Home was a very clever trickster than I am to think that he actually levitated &/or contacted the dead. That doesn't make him any less fascinating. Ditto for Palladino.
"Eusapia Palladino (alternative spelling: Paladino; 21 January 1854 – 16 May 1918) was an Italian Spiritualist physical medium. She claimed extraordinary powers such as the ability to levitate tables, communicate with the dead through her spirit guide John King, and to produce other supernatural phenomena.
"She convinced many persons of her powers, but was caught in deceptive trickery throughout her career. Magicians, including Harry Houdini, and skeptics who evaluated her claims concluded that none of her phenomena were genuine and that she was a clever trickster.
"Her Warsaw séances at the turn of 1893–94 inspired several colorful scenes in the historical novel Pharaoh, which Bolesław Prus began writing in 1894."
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eusapia...
"["]You know, I came up with one funny thing. Most of these big name anarchists weren't half-educated slum elements that couldn't make the grade and hence wanted to take by force the wealth of those who made it. As a matter of fact, this Bakunin was an aristocrat who studied philosophy at the universities of Moscow and Berlin. And another was a prince, Prince Peter Kropotkin, who wasn't only the top anarchist of his time but one of the top scientists. And this Leo Tolstoy, the writer, he was born an aristocrat too."
""Was he an anarchist?" Anna said.
""Yeah, one of the most influential, evidently."" - pp 60-61
"["]Friend, the day that vote was counted, and it turned out the DeLeonists had won, that's the day the police, the F.B.I., the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines would move in. That's the day a big national emergency would be declared by the powers that be, and we'd wind up with a dictatorship and no more of this democratic voting jetsam. Democratic voting is all very fine as long as you vote for the right guys. It's something like freedom of speech. It's great so long as you say what the ruling caste like to hear, but start sounding off otherwise and you'll soon find you're not getting through."" - p 62
That's something I don't have to be any more convinced about than I already am.
""Holy Zen," Mick said in disgust. "Why give me that jetsam, Freddy? You know damn well that the reason you kept in the army was that you knew you couldn't get a job on the outside, and you rebelled against just sitting around doing nothing."
"Fred looked at him from the side of his eyes again. He said, "A good hundred million people in the United States of the Americas are doing it, Spooky."
""Probably more," Mick growled. "People's Capitalism! Look what the country's finally come to. A nation of bums. Practically everybody's on what used to be called relief in the old days. The big difference is, before you went on relief when the situation pickled for you. It was a temporary something, until you could get back on your feet. Now you're born on relief, for crissake."" - p 75
Of course, the 'advantage' for ruling elites of having such a large 'surplus' population is that there's more potential cannon fodder there, etc. Furthermore, the Welfare State helps justify the Police State as government (& shadow government) takes over more & more of the support functions for people it simultaneously takes over the control functions.
""What is there about a Welfare State that it also step by step becomes a police state? I don't know about you, but I caught a funker named Samuelson searching my rooms. How do these people get that way? Once a man's home supposedly was his castle. They needed a warrant to enter it, and they had to have a good reason before one was issued. But then came the FBI and later the CIA and tapping wires, bugging homes, opening mail seemed to get to be routine. Now it's the FIA. You'd think it was a government all of its own."" - p 84
"Anna said slowly, "Actually, it's a rather fascinating subject. The term is too elastic, something like socialism. It came to mean just about anything reactionary. They called the Nazis fascists, and Mussolini's Italian organization, and Salazar in Portugal, and Franco in Spain. Actually, of course, there was little similarity between the four."
"Mick scowled at her. "They were all dictatorships."
"She nodded, "Yes, but fascism and dictatorship aren't synonymous. For instance, Julius Caeser was a dictator, but he wasn't a fascist. So was Stalin. Come to think of it, you could have fascism without a one man dictator.""
[..]
"["]fascism is a socioeconomic system, or, at least, the final stages of one. DeLeon foresaw it and called it Industrial Feudalism.["]" - p 89
The only bk I ever read by Murray Bookchin was one about the Spanish Civil War. In it, he made the point that Franco wasn't, strictly speaking a fascist. It made sense to me. Nonetheless, the nazis backed him in the civil war.
""Lord Krishna," Ramsey said. "I see that the LSD is beginning to affect you. Krishna was historic; in the early Vedic period a chieftan of the aborigines. His mother's name was Mari and she gave birth to him while still a virgin. He was born on December 25th, escaped a massacre of the innocents, taught the bortherhood of man, was crucified and then resurrected."
"Mick decided it was awfully funny and laughed. "You mean Jesus, Doc."
""No, I mean Krishna. He lived some two thousand years before Jesus."" - pp 102-103
Sound familiar? Check out Brian Flemming's great 2005 documentary "The God Who Wasn't There" in wch the myths of Jesus are explained as cooptations of earlier myths & historical figures: https://youtu.be/alurfHwH_zY .
"And then he stopped laughing, and began to cry.
"Ramsey said from a great distance, "It was Timothy Leary who said that those who begin laughing always feel the terror later. They realize the joke is on them."" - p 103
"When they dropped her at her door, Anna looked at Mick Grant, a mocking quality there. "Behind that craggy face, you have a beautiful soul, Mick."
"He utilized some of his new-found wisdom. "Haven't we all?" he said. "It's the same one."
"She laughed—with him, not at him, and was gone." - p 107
""Now as to Technocracy," he said. "I have here several volumes by Howard Scott and others. You'll be able to study them at your leisure, however, in the way of background, Anna will be interested to know that there is some surface resemblance, at least, between Technocracy and the Socialist Industrial Unionism of Daniel DeLeon, whose program she has already investigated."
""I'm fascinated," Anna said. "Simply."
"Dusage had taken a seat. He said, "The Technocrats were first organized in 1932. For a time they attracted considerable attention. Their basic premises were that social phenomena are scientifically measurable and that the laws of social control may be derived from such measurements. Further, that the introduction of the machine and of science into the economic machine made antiquated many of the old institutions such as the use of gold as a medium of exchange. They suggested instead, a unit based upon energy, the erg. Free enterprise, they claimed, had collapsed, and a new social system was needed. Above all, they declared that the workings of a modern society were above the abilities of politicians and control should be put in the hands of scientists, engineers, technicians—in short, the Technocrats."" - p 121
I propose rare ideas as a new medium of exchange. I'd be rich!
For those of you for whom all this DeLeon stuff is obscure, consider this:
"Reynolds was born in Corcoran, California, the second of four children of Verne La Rue Reynolds and Pauline McCord. When the family moved to Baltimore in 1918, his father joined the Socialist Labor Party (SLP) so that from an early age Reynolds was raised to accept the tenets of Marxism and socialism. ("I was born into a Marxian Socialist family. I am the child who, at the age of five or six, said to his parent, 'Mother, who is Comrade Jesus Christ?' —for I had never met anyone in that household who wasn't called Comrade.") In 1935, while still in high school in Kingston, New York, Reynolds joined the SLP and became an active advocate of the party's goals. The following year, he toured the country with his father giving lectures and speeches, and became recognized as a significant force in advocating the SLP." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mack_Re...
"The Socialist Labor Party (SLP) is the first socialist political party in the United States, established in 1876.
"Originally known as the Workingmen's Party of the United States, the party changed its name in 1877 to Socialistic Labor Party and again sometime in the late 1880s to Socialist Labor Party. The party was additionally known in some states as the Industrial Party or Industrial Government Party. In 1890, the SLP came under the influence of Daniel De Leon, who used his role as editor of The Weekly People, the SLP's English-language official organ, to expand the party's popularity beyond its then largely German-speaking membership. Despite his accomplishments, De Leon was a polarizing figure among the SLP's membership. In 1899, his opponents left the SLP and merged with the Social Democratic Party of America to form the Socialist Party of America." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociali...
I admit to being usually down on socialists as people likely to exploit, kill, & imprison anarchists but w/ Reynolds as an example I'm all for them. Then, again, the SLP forced him to resign.
For the complete review go here: http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/CriticA...
Mack Reynolds's After Some Tomorrow
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - February 11-12, 2023
For the complete review go here: http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/CriticA...
It's tempting to just review Mack Reynolds's bks. This is, maybe, the 22nd one I've read so far. I enjoy them all, they have plenty of content that appeals to me & they're easy to read. Why wd anyone want to read a bk of mine when there're things like Reynolds novels out there? My bks are so hhhhaaaaaaarrrrrrdddddd to understand, why on earth do I bother to write them? Ahem.
As w/ most of the Reynolds novels I've read so far the future has a welfare state where everyone's guaranteed a basic income that enables them to eat, have a place to live, & to get wasted watching TV. This novel's a bit different, though. Here, the main characters are psychics who're being studied w/ an eye to exploitation by forces beyond their ken.
""Perhaps a bit of self interest of a pecuniary nature might tend to up Mr. Grant's run percentage."
"The ex-soldier snorted sourly. "That was the good old days, Doc." He brought his credit card from the pocket of his jerkin. "Bu that's the trouble with the Welfare State and the elimination of money. Nobody but I can spend my credit, nobody can steal it from me, and nobody can gamble it away from me or con me out of it. With my Inalienable Basic Bonds I've got security from the cradle to the grave—whether I want it or not." He grunted. "Precious little security, but security."" - p 7
"It occurred to Mick Grant that the unemployment question of the early and middle twentieth century had been solved not without some far out aspects. As automation threw large numbers of the labor force out of work, and increasingly liberal provisions had been made for those so affected, it became increasingly profitable not to work, even were a job available."
[..]
"But what was the end? Hadn't something like this happened in Rome, back in ancient times? Didn't it finally get to the point where everything was free for the Roman citizen, no matter how low on the totem pole? Free bread from the provinces, free circuses to keep them amused, free handouts from the patrician politicians who wanted their votes." - p 26
Is that true? I've read some Roman history & that's news to me. I have faith in Reynolds's exactingness so I believe him. How weird. When I read this, I was reminded of the early days of the covid quarantine when people cdn't work but cd get unemployment & other stimulus checks wch enabled them to both hang on & to be not particularly concerned about what was really going on.
Mick Grant, the ex-soldier/psychic is already having his basic income augmented by a grant given under the condition that he studies paranormal phenomena, wch really means that people study & encourage him. NOW, much to his confusion, he's offered a 2nd fellowship.
"["]The Monad Foundation insists that you earn your award. It insists that you study, study, study. It burns with the desire that our young people take more interest in sociopolitical matters. Ah, yes, one more thing. During the summer vacation months, the Foundation will most likely suggest a guided vacation tour."
""To where?"
"Tarabya made with one of his almost continual shrugs. "Most likely to Common Europe. Possibly to Italy and Greece, so rich in the political history of the ancient past."
"Mick was truly staring now. "You mean, on top of the five shares of Convertible Mutual, I get a free vacation in Common Europe?"
""First class," Mustapha Tarabya nodded unctiously." - p 35
This bk's from 1967.
""I thought possibly we might conduct some further experiments, using it, or possibly one of the other psychedelics . . ."
""Come again?"
""Psychedelics. Literally, mind-manifesting or consciousness-expanding compounds. Lysergic acid diethylamide, better known as LSD-25, mescaline, psilocybin, Bannisteria caapi, dimethyltryptamine, bofotenine."" - p 40
These days, some people say "entheogen" instead of psychedlic. I've always preferrred "consciousness expanders".
1967 might've been the yr that awareness of LSD was coming more to the forefront in the USA. It wasn't made illegal until 1968. I can remember in 1966 or 1967 seeing Timothy Leary on TV wearing a white flowing robe. Even tho I probably knew very little about LSD at the time it was obvious to me that he was very high. He actually seemed to glow. I haven't taken LSD for decades but I'm told that it's very hard to get now. That's too bad b/c I found tripping on it to be a mind-bogglingly positive experience. I don't recommend taking it lightly but I do wish it were legal & available.
Mick starts to get inquisitive about the people who're funding him.
"He had been unable to find any record of Joshua Porsenna.
"He had been unable to check up upon the Monad Foundation.
"Dr. Ramsey, who Mick had vaguely thought of as one of the big wigs of the Earl University experiments with ESP, wasn't even connected with the school." - p 44
Having accepted the offer of the Monad Foundation, he's surprised by what they have him study under the supervision of a tutor.
""We might as well start you off tonight, on your supplemental reading. I've brought along a few basic works."
""Supplemental reading," he said unhappily.
""There'll be a great deal of it," she said, as though with satisfaction. "Now, what do you know about anarchism, Michael?"" - p 47
Ha ha! Somebody being pd to study anarchism. That's a hoot.
""However, D. D. Home and Eusapia Palladino are another thing. Both lived at about the turn of the century, Eusapia Palladino, in particular, performed before most of the outstanding scientists of Europe of that period, including both the Curies, Oliver Lodge, Courtier, Favre, Ochorowicz, oh, a multitude of others. Under the strictest of conditions, by the way. None of this seance requirement in the dark." - p 58
Almost all, if not all, of Reynolds's bks teach me about something that I wasn't previously familiar w/ that's of interest to me. Here's yet-another example.
"Daniel Dunglas Home (pronounced Hume; 20 March 1833 – 21 June 1886) was a Scottish physical medium with the reported ability to levitate to a variety of heights, speak with the dead, and to produce rapping and knocks in houses at will. His biographer Peter Lamont opines that he was one of the most famous men of his era. Harry Houdini described him as "one of the most conspicuous and lauded of his type and generation" and "the forerunner of the mediums whose forte is fleecing by presuming on the credulity of the public." Home conducted hundreds of séances, which were attended by many eminent Victorians. There have been eyewitness accounts by séance sitters describing conjuring methods and fraud that Home may have employed."
[..]
"Home never directly asked for money, although he lived very well on gifts, donations and lodging from wealthy admirers. He felt that he was on a "mission to demonstrate immortality", and wished to interact with his clients as one gentleman to another, rather than as an employee. In 1852, Home was a guest at the house of Rufus Elmer in Springfield, Massachusetts, giving séances six or seven times a day, which were visited by crowds of people, including a Harvard professor, David Wells, and the poet and editor of the New York Evening Post, William Cullen Bryant. They were all convinced of Home's credibility and wrote to the Springfield Republican newspaper stating that the room was well lit, full inspections were allowed, and said, "We know that we were not imposed upon nor deceived". It was also reported that at one of Home's demonstrations five men of heavy build (with a combined weight of 850 pounds) sat on a table, but it still moved, and others saw "a tremulous phosphorescent light gleam over the walls". Home was investigated by numerous people, such as Professor Robert Hare, the inventor of the oxy-hydrogen blowpipe, and John W. Edmonds, a trial court judge, who were sceptical, but later said they believed Home was not fraudulent."
[..]
"At a séance in the house of the solicitor John Snaith Rymer in Ealing in July 1855, a sitter (Frederick Merrifield) observed that a "spirit-hand" was in fact a false limb attached on the end of Home's arm. Merrifield also claimed to have observed Home use his foot in the séance room."
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_...
I'm more inclined to think that Home was a very clever trickster than I am to think that he actually levitated &/or contacted the dead. That doesn't make him any less fascinating. Ditto for Palladino.
"Eusapia Palladino (alternative spelling: Paladino; 21 January 1854 – 16 May 1918) was an Italian Spiritualist physical medium. She claimed extraordinary powers such as the ability to levitate tables, communicate with the dead through her spirit guide John King, and to produce other supernatural phenomena.
"She convinced many persons of her powers, but was caught in deceptive trickery throughout her career. Magicians, including Harry Houdini, and skeptics who evaluated her claims concluded that none of her phenomena were genuine and that she was a clever trickster.
"Her Warsaw séances at the turn of 1893–94 inspired several colorful scenes in the historical novel Pharaoh, which Bolesław Prus began writing in 1894."
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eusapia...
"["]You know, I came up with one funny thing. Most of these big name anarchists weren't half-educated slum elements that couldn't make the grade and hence wanted to take by force the wealth of those who made it. As a matter of fact, this Bakunin was an aristocrat who studied philosophy at the universities of Moscow and Berlin. And another was a prince, Prince Peter Kropotkin, who wasn't only the top anarchist of his time but one of the top scientists. And this Leo Tolstoy, the writer, he was born an aristocrat too."
""Was he an anarchist?" Anna said.
""Yeah, one of the most influential, evidently."" - pp 60-61
"["]Friend, the day that vote was counted, and it turned out the DeLeonists had won, that's the day the police, the F.B.I., the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines would move in. That's the day a big national emergency would be declared by the powers that be, and we'd wind up with a dictatorship and no more of this democratic voting jetsam. Democratic voting is all very fine as long as you vote for the right guys. It's something like freedom of speech. It's great so long as you say what the ruling caste like to hear, but start sounding off otherwise and you'll soon find you're not getting through."" - p 62
That's something I don't have to be any more convinced about than I already am.
""Holy Zen," Mick said in disgust. "Why give me that jetsam, Freddy? You know damn well that the reason you kept in the army was that you knew you couldn't get a job on the outside, and you rebelled against just sitting around doing nothing."
"Fred looked at him from the side of his eyes again. He said, "A good hundred million people in the United States of the Americas are doing it, Spooky."
""Probably more," Mick growled. "People's Capitalism! Look what the country's finally come to. A nation of bums. Practically everybody's on what used to be called relief in the old days. The big difference is, before you went on relief when the situation pickled for you. It was a temporary something, until you could get back on your feet. Now you're born on relief, for crissake."" - p 75
Of course, the 'advantage' for ruling elites of having such a large 'surplus' population is that there's more potential cannon fodder there, etc. Furthermore, the Welfare State helps justify the Police State as government (& shadow government) takes over more & more of the support functions for people it simultaneously takes over the control functions.
""What is there about a Welfare State that it also step by step becomes a police state? I don't know about you, but I caught a funker named Samuelson searching my rooms. How do these people get that way? Once a man's home supposedly was his castle. They needed a warrant to enter it, and they had to have a good reason before one was issued. But then came the FBI and later the CIA and tapping wires, bugging homes, opening mail seemed to get to be routine. Now it's the FIA. You'd think it was a government all of its own."" - p 84
"Anna said slowly, "Actually, it's a rather fascinating subject. The term is too elastic, something like socialism. It came to mean just about anything reactionary. They called the Nazis fascists, and Mussolini's Italian organization, and Salazar in Portugal, and Franco in Spain. Actually, of course, there was little similarity between the four."
"Mick scowled at her. "They were all dictatorships."
"She nodded, "Yes, but fascism and dictatorship aren't synonymous. For instance, Julius Caeser was a dictator, but he wasn't a fascist. So was Stalin. Come to think of it, you could have fascism without a one man dictator.""
[..]
"["]fascism is a socioeconomic system, or, at least, the final stages of one. DeLeon foresaw it and called it Industrial Feudalism.["]" - p 89
The only bk I ever read by Murray Bookchin was one about the Spanish Civil War. In it, he made the point that Franco wasn't, strictly speaking a fascist. It made sense to me. Nonetheless, the nazis backed him in the civil war.
""Lord Krishna," Ramsey said. "I see that the LSD is beginning to affect you. Krishna was historic; in the early Vedic period a chieftan of the aborigines. His mother's name was Mari and she gave birth to him while still a virgin. He was born on December 25th, escaped a massacre of the innocents, taught the bortherhood of man, was crucified and then resurrected."
"Mick decided it was awfully funny and laughed. "You mean Jesus, Doc."
""No, I mean Krishna. He lived some two thousand years before Jesus."" - pp 102-103
Sound familiar? Check out Brian Flemming's great 2005 documentary "The God Who Wasn't There" in wch the myths of Jesus are explained as cooptations of earlier myths & historical figures: https://youtu.be/alurfHwH_zY .
"And then he stopped laughing, and began to cry.
"Ramsey said from a great distance, "It was Timothy Leary who said that those who begin laughing always feel the terror later. They realize the joke is on them."" - p 103
"When they dropped her at her door, Anna looked at Mick Grant, a mocking quality there. "Behind that craggy face, you have a beautiful soul, Mick."
"He utilized some of his new-found wisdom. "Haven't we all?" he said. "It's the same one."
"She laughed—with him, not at him, and was gone." - p 107
""Now as to Technocracy," he said. "I have here several volumes by Howard Scott and others. You'll be able to study them at your leisure, however, in the way of background, Anna will be interested to know that there is some surface resemblance, at least, between Technocracy and the Socialist Industrial Unionism of Daniel DeLeon, whose program she has already investigated."
""I'm fascinated," Anna said. "Simply."
"Dusage had taken a seat. He said, "The Technocrats were first organized in 1932. For a time they attracted considerable attention. Their basic premises were that social phenomena are scientifically measurable and that the laws of social control may be derived from such measurements. Further, that the introduction of the machine and of science into the economic machine made antiquated many of the old institutions such as the use of gold as a medium of exchange. They suggested instead, a unit based upon energy, the erg. Free enterprise, they claimed, had collapsed, and a new social system was needed. Above all, they declared that the workings of a modern society were above the abilities of politicians and control should be put in the hands of scientists, engineers, technicians—in short, the Technocrats."" - p 121
I propose rare ideas as a new medium of exchange. I'd be rich!
For those of you for whom all this DeLeon stuff is obscure, consider this:
"Reynolds was born in Corcoran, California, the second of four children of Verne La Rue Reynolds and Pauline McCord. When the family moved to Baltimore in 1918, his father joined the Socialist Labor Party (SLP) so that from an early age Reynolds was raised to accept the tenets of Marxism and socialism. ("I was born into a Marxian Socialist family. I am the child who, at the age of five or six, said to his parent, 'Mother, who is Comrade Jesus Christ?' —for I had never met anyone in that household who wasn't called Comrade.") In 1935, while still in high school in Kingston, New York, Reynolds joined the SLP and became an active advocate of the party's goals. The following year, he toured the country with his father giving lectures and speeches, and became recognized as a significant force in advocating the SLP." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mack_Re...
"The Socialist Labor Party (SLP) is the first socialist political party in the United States, established in 1876.
"Originally known as the Workingmen's Party of the United States, the party changed its name in 1877 to Socialistic Labor Party and again sometime in the late 1880s to Socialist Labor Party. The party was additionally known in some states as the Industrial Party or Industrial Government Party. In 1890, the SLP came under the influence of Daniel De Leon, who used his role as editor of The Weekly People, the SLP's English-language official organ, to expand the party's popularity beyond its then largely German-speaking membership. Despite his accomplishments, De Leon was a polarizing figure among the SLP's membership. In 1899, his opponents left the SLP and merged with the Social Democratic Party of America to form the Socialist Party of America." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociali...
I admit to being usually down on socialists as people likely to exploit, kill, & imprison anarchists but w/ Reynolds as an example I'm all for them. Then, again, the SLP forced him to resign.
For the complete review go here: http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/CriticA...
August 30, 2022
Picked this up on a whim for a dollar based on the back cover blurb. Enjoyable, but had the potential to be so much more. Too short and too underdeveloped as written.
August 2, 2012
Reynolds strikes again. Another enjoyable book by him. I didn't care for it as much as I did for some of his other works. I think it was the abstractness of the whole premonition time travel bit. I think he was stretching in that area just a bit. The story itself was good though. Still Reynolds amazes me in his ability to create characters worth caring about within the confines of 150 or so pages. Time to hunt for more of his books.
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