#812 And Weep, Like Alexander- Neil Gaiman

#812 And Weep, Like Alexander- Neil Gaiman

A little man walks into a bar and demands a whisky, because he deserves one. He has been here before but nobody remembers him. It’s an occupational hazard; he is an uninventor. He begins telling his tales of uninventing great technological devices like the jet-pack, flying cars, transporters, etc. The bar is enrapt in his unbelievable story. But why uninvent these potentially world changing advances? The answer lies in the cell phones the entire bar immediately went to after the story, those invented items that include things like the “unofficial Simpson’s Fart App.”

Satire about the too fast changing of technology can get a bit preachy at times, and often tend towards the luddite-shouting–at-the-moon caricature. But this one was just funny. The commentary only came at the end. The whole ride was a bunch of word play on “UN” inventing things:

-Still no use crying over unspilt milk, and you can’t mend an omelette without unbreaking a few eggs.

-It’s all about unpicking probability threads from the fabric of creation. Which is a bit like unpicking a needle from a haystack.

-It’s all been uninvented. There are no more horizons left to undiscover, no more mountains left to unclimb.

That last one leads to the title of this piece: “I shall go home…and weep, like Alexander, because there are no more worlds to unconquer.”

Rating: 8-9-8-8 Total= 33