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"I am first of all not a science fiction writer … I write, I suppose, what the Latin Americans call magic realism."
- Harlan Ellison
 |
| Permanent Skywriting | ||
| Non-wispy skywriting letters. |
Everett Mordecai had one last chance at H.J. Spurgle Soap Company; advertising skywriting pilot. Unfortunately, his best efforts blew away after just a minute or two. H.J. Spurgle wasn't too happy. "I'm not paying you to trail a lot of smoke across the sky that nobody can read. Why, I could do better with a thirty-cent cigar! ...I want more permanence in those letters! Permanence!"
After several weeks of research...
| Mordecai hauled out a stop watch, turned his eyes upward to the slogan he'd just written.
"Possibly you'd like to time these letters..." Automatically Spurgle gazed up too. The letters, still firm, still strong and perfectly formed, seemed to be settling earthward, undisturbed by the brisk breeze that scudded across the field... Silently the three walked over to the slogan. Spurgle kicked at the letter G... It was a monstrous white thing, ten feet thick, half a city block long, composed of a flexible elastic substance that resembled something between jello and foam rubber, yet was opaque and so light that despite its size, Mordecai could pick the entire letter up with one hand. "You asked for permanence... It's just a little synthetic rubber derivative with a dash of neoprene and a couple of jiggers of koroseal..." |
| Technovelgy from Soap Opera,
by Alan Nelson. Published by Magazine of F and SF in 1953 Additional resources -
|
Taking to the skies, Mordecai began skywriting with a vengeance:
Compare to the Orbiting Casino Advertising Sign from One Against The Legion (1939) by Jack Williamson and the lunar advertisement from Watch This Space (1957) by Arthur C. Clarke. See also Get Out of our Skies (1957) by E.K. Jarvis.
By dusk of the second day, the downtown area was completely paralyzed. All traffic had stopped. Rubber letters completely smothered every street, lay crazily across roof tops, stacked up on one another like a gigantic, disordered wood pile. Only the peaks of the tallest buildings were visible.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Soap Opera
More Ideas
and Technology by Alan Nelson
Tech news articles related to Soap Opera
Tech news articles related to works by Alan Nelson
Permanent Skywriting-related
news articles:
- Put Your Ads Where Space Begins
- Flogo Clouds Are Floating Ads
- HLYWD Migratory Anagram
- SmileCloud Bubloons Are Custom Clouds
- Bubloons May Be The Start Of Something Much Bigger
| 'Facetime Facelift' Beautifies Video Chats |
| Meeting Wendy Of Wendy's |
| Narrative Science And Phil Dick's Homeostatic Newspaper |
| BookTrack Adds Sound To Books |
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'...the rocket’s landing-arms automatically unfolded.'
'...points and patches of light... sliding all over their faces in a programmed manner that had been designed to foil facial recognition systems.'
'...the combined Wind-Suncatcher, like a spray of tulips mounted fanwise.'
'I went to the control room where the three other men were manipulating their mechanical men.'
'The low-slung monorail car, straddling its single track, bored through the shadows on a slowly rising course.'
'It was a smooth ovoid floating a few inches from the floor...'
'... he thrust in his charging arm to replenish his store of energy.'
'...the terrible Jovian gravity that made each movement an effort.'
