soul full ness

long ago I read The Lady Who Sailed the Soul

by Cordwainer Smith (secret identity Paul Myron

Anthony Linebarger), about a woman who had a

starship across a vast distance while her c o n

s c I o u s n e s s was slowed so that it seemed to

her her hair gushed out of her head.

later he began “Himself in Anachron”

but died before he finished. an artificial intelligence

just told me it is about a man who must save his wife

by divorcing himself from time and space,

in the sacrificial sense similar

to “The Lady Who Sailed the Soul.”

the author and editor Harlan Ellison went to some

length to acquire “Himself in Anachron” for the third

volume of his Dangerous Visions trilogy. his effort

was in vain.

today i walked two miles to see the west Toledo

library for the first time. I perused the science fiction

shelves and found Tommy dismay that they had NO

Poul Anderson books, NO Isaac Asimov. But they had

a single volume of Harlan Ellison, copyright 2014:

The Top of the Volcano, a compilation of Ellison

stories that had won awards.

i had read most of them but there was a long story

i had not. in it a man named bailey

had his soul yanked from him to be placed

into the soul of an alien military subaltern named

Pinke, there to cajole Pinke into ending a war that

had gone on for generations.

i have not finished the story. I will leave that

for another visit. rather, now, i reflect on the amazing

succession of life-events: i read Cordwainer Smith,

his story was covered by Harlan Ellison, i found the

Ellison book in the West Toledo Public Library, and

I began to read his story of the abduction and

exploitation of souls…

three weeks to the day

after having arrived in Toledo

from Phoenix, Arizona

in the company of my sweetheart

in an automobile of make Kia,

model

Soul.