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"Retire? Yeah, I want to die with my head in the typewriter. That's my idea of retirement."
- Alfred Bester
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| Suspensor | ||
| An energy field that can nullify gravity for small objects. |
I sometimes wonder if this term originated as a pun on the word "suspender." The obese Baron Harkonnen uses suspensors to hold his weight.
| The Baron moved out and away from the globe of Arrakis. As he emerged from the shadows, his figure took on dimension - grossly and immensely fat. And with subtle bulges beneath folds of his dark robes to reveal that all this flesh was sustained partly by portable suspensors harnessed to his flesh. He might weigh two hundred standard kilos in actuality, but his feet would carry no more than fifty of them. |
| Technovelgy from Dune,
by Frank Herbert. Published by Putnam in 1965 Additional resources -
|
Described in the glossary at the end of Dune as a secondary (low-drain) phase of a Holtzman field generator. It nullifies gravity within certain limits prescribed by relative mass and energy consumption."
Suspensors could also be used by troops in battle.
(Pain box from Denis Villeneuve's 2020 film Dune)
Suspensor technology was used for all manner of lifting tasks; here's a suspensor litter sling for the wounded from Heretics of Dune:
Miles Teg awoke in darkness to find himself being carried on a litter sling supported by suspensors. By their faint energy glow, he could see the tiny suspensor bulbs in an updangling row around him...The bobbing motions of the dark shapes around him suggested they were descending uneven terrain. A trail? The litter sling rode smoothly on its suspensors. He could sense the faint humming from the suspensors when his party stopped to negotiate the turn of a difficult passage.
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'I made disks of my own voice to the number of five hundred very carefully chosen words.'
'His sensors out and working, and the whirring of the tape that sucked up sight and sound and shape and smell and form...'
'It sounds to me as though you had invented a kind of metal earthworm.'
