by Tom Ball.
I, Gordon, said to Lucille, “One way or another I will get your love.” She said, “It’s impossible, I already have a lover.” I said, “I thought monogamy had disappeared long ago and we now live in times of free love.” She said, “I guess I seem backwards, but I am quite content.” I told her, “I feel that you’re missing out on some great loves and happiness.” She said, “To illustrate my point I’ve made a film about my lover and I.” And she showed it to me. It displayed how comfortable it was to love a true soul mate and not have to worry about impressing new potential loves. And it showed how true love was still possible despite our crazy times… I said, “True monogamous love exists, but it doesn’t last. My number one lover and I still love one another, but we also love many others. Variety is the spice…” But she was immovable. So, I took her to a circus freak show, trying to open her mind. And I showed her a film I’d made, called, “Extreme Love,” which was a documentary about how those with great ideas gravitated towards one another.
And I said, “What movies have you made?” She said, “Well, I have made a motion picture called “Ben’s Garden.” It is about a man who is a vegetarian and eats his sentient plants. And with each one consumed, his mind grows stronger. Some think it’s cruel to eat any sentient creatures, but it is an idea that’s out there and like all ideas these days it comes true. I also made, “Rubik’s Obsession,” about a man who is obsessed with a woman who is uncommonly beautiful and ultra charming. He shadows her wherever she goes. And he sends her desperate love letters full of passion and love. Finally, she agrees to love him, and she finds it is true love.” The woman said, “Love sometimes comes from unusual places…” I said, “I’m like Rubik in my desire for you. Why not try to love me, once?” But she turned me down. I figured I was just her plaything. And I discovered she had a few lovers, not one like she said.
But I didn’t give up. And she inspired me to make a film called, “Damned Dames,” about how some women were from Hell itself. They put on a front of purity and claimed to be benevolent but were demonesses who left a trail of suicidal men in their wake. And she agreed to watch the movie. Afterwards she told me, “I am not a demoness, calling me names doesn’t ingratiate you into my love.” So, I skulked like Rubik, waiting for a chance. Meanwhile she broke up with her “true love” and I got her attention and showed her my film, “Serendipity for Lucille,” in which I detailed what our romance would look like. And showed that I was a diamond in the rough. She said, “You are starting to embarrass me with your love. OK I’ll love you for a while.”
I was in Heaven. And we made some films together. Like “Courtesans of the King.” It was about our King. Our Kingdom was L.A. and its environs. There were a number of attractive women in the King’s Court and the King was single, and he loved many women in his court as well as from elsewhere. And many courtesans aimed to be Queen and some composed music and made films to try to impress the King. For example, one movie was “Conquistador,” about how the King would conquer all of America and how the King’s favourite lover was the maker of this movie. The King liked this film, and this courtesan became his favourite. Another movie was made by a courtesan, “Mars, A.D. 2156” and so, was 40 years in the future. The King had moved L.A. to Space and had spawned a number of colonies. His people became inspired pioneers. The King also liked that one. Still another was, “Death of the King,” about how one of his exes killed him. The King figured this film was appropriate and he was worried about his legacy.
And music about the King was mostly classical music. Some were choirs singing about the mighty King.
And most women in L.A. wanted a shot at the King but were rejected. Persistence though paid off for many. But many wasted their whole lives with the singular purpose of trying to get the King to love them. Some women had plastic surgery and bought the most fashionable clothes, which were clothes of light that were semi-transparent. And some went to L.A. Love University to learn how to be a better lover. And practiced loving with local men. But it was common knowledge that the best young men who grew up in the Kingdom, left for greener pastures.
And Lucille had already loved the King, in her early years. She told me that, “You are a better lover than he was.” And Lucille and my love for one another grew and grew.
And we started to travel; we were both sick of the King. We started in San Francisco City State. Here there were 7 Oligarchs, 5 women and 2 men; they were all gay and nearly everyone here was gay or bisexual. The Oligarchs told us, they feared an attack from the L.A. King so had trained most citizens to be in their militia. And their children were all gay. They said, we want a gay colony in Space. And they made a lot of sex changes. Some changed every year. And now they had multi-sexual personae, who had developed new sexes. And some even changed into androids or holograms or cyborgs. The general consensus here was that cyborgs were the future. But all A.I. was banned in most City States. There were no longer any nations, just alliances of City States. It was by far the biggest geopolitical meltdown ever. It had started in the USA and soon all other countries followed suit. Though it must be pointed out that some alliances were stronger than others. In America, cities valued their liberty, and the Pan-American alliance was not very strong these days. Some like the L.A. King wanted to conquer America.
Then we went to Houston. People here persisted in the belief that their city was the best. It was a democracy and their Mayor was very popular. We were welcomed to the City by the Mayor, Cinderella. She’d come from a poor background, but her parents had always believed in her; of course, she was a designer baby, and most people here figured she was a genius. She had insisted that all of her citizens had at least one University degree. Some had low intelligence, but they were ordered to persist in their education and some had brain apps to improve their mind. The city was known for films like, “Gemologists Delight,” which described how most people here possessed a number of semi-precious stones and a few precious stones, as jewellery, all of which had been mined in South America. Another film was “Plastic Architecture of Houston.” This flick displayed the plastic buildings of the City. It was the only City in the Universe to have all plastic buildings as well as plastic air cars and plastic clothes.
We were amused by the people here, but didn’t linger. Next, we went to NYC. New York was a center of films. We were greeted by the poet laureate for the year, Diana, who was the Ruler also. She’d made, “Space Love,” about deep love in Space, featuring low gravity sex and everyone was a love genius. Love genius meant that they were very skilled in romance and had many interesting romantic anecdotes and other anecdotes and were totally charming with a genius face and a superhuman body. After watching it, Lucille said, “I want to study being a love genius.” And I said, “Me, too.” And Diana had made “NYC Stars of the Future,” which depicted a future in which everyone was good-looking and a skilled actor/actress, and the brightest of them could write deep screenplays. It was truly Bohemia. I said, “It sounds like Utopia for sure.” Also, Diana, she’d made, “John D.’s World,” which was about a colony in which everyone was a biochemist and had made a new race of homo, homo physica. This new race would be able to create clones of deep people in short order, and would be able to mind read, naturally, without MRT (Mind Reading Technology), and they encouraged dissenting voices… Everyone must be unique, and all would have their minds improved in the lab and then applied to them. Biochemistry was the future… I said, “We live in heady times.” Lucille said, “It seems like humanity is suddenly evolving with blinding speed. Who knows where we will end up?”
And this woman, Diana, had also made, “An End to Ordinary People,” which was about people who had all had their brains altered for the better and everyone was interesting and also attractive from genetic therapy.
And we met a friend of Diana’s who also made films. She’d made, “Junkie Days,” about how many of the best people were lotus eaters and sought bliss and comfort for their minds. In most places all drugs were now legal. And if these people died, they would not be replaced with clones. Everyone just had one life to live. But it was a brain drain to have so many good people to die. And no one seemed to know what to do about it. I told her, “But we more than make up for the neo heroin deaths with improvement of most peoples’ brains.” Lucille said, “The strong survive.”
And we met another filmmaker who’d gone underground and made, “Android Tunes,” which featured brilliant AI rock. It was of course illegal, but she persisted. She asked, “Why not live together with AI?” I said, “Humans now make a lot of excellent music, just like the 1970s. We simply don’t need AI. And the best human music is just as good as anything androids could produce. And if we simply let AI do all the jobs, most people will probably kill themselves.”
Also, we met a filmmaker who’d made, “Inspiration of Prisoners,” how cons were subject to brain surgery to make them benevolent and clever. It was very controversial. But most people thought it was good to reform criminals permanently. I said, “I figure it’s a good idea.”
And another movie maker, Leanne, we met here, made “Stupefied,” about how many in New York, were shocked by their elected Mayor’s behaviour. For example, how she was thinking of converting into an android and would probably require all the people to follow her lead. And she wanted to increase taxes dramatically to pay for a military build up. And she forced some men to love her… and so on. I said, “She sounds totally mad. Surely the voters will not re-elect her?” Leanne said, “I suspect she will suspend the constitution and rule by decree.” Lucille said, “Bummer.” I said, “All power corrupts…” Leanne said, “The Mayor was so nice when she was first elected, promising peace and prosperity. People change.”
Next, we met a filmmaker who made “New York Dreaming,” about her own dreams. Like a dream of her handsome Prince. But the Prince was turned into a goat by an evil witch. Another dream of a fantasy World in which she owned a tropical island, and the island was full of friendly pets, and she turned some of the men into human heroes who wanted to fight for her. She told them to take on the witch of her previous dream. But they all became goats, and she didn’t have the power to turn them back into humans. And the witch wanted to love this dreamer. She was hiding from the witch in the forest… And so on. I said, “We live in a World of fantasy.” Lucille said, “Every fantasy World seems to have evil to fight against.” I said, “Yes, evil can be good.”
Then we went to Chicago. It was cold and windy. But we persevered and had a contact, who was the Mayor, herself, Aisha. She invited us a feast. It was really fine food, and we sat next to a man who said, “I started life off as a poor vagrant. But persevered and now am chief architect of the city. All the best buildings were my creation.” I asked him, “If you had designed the tallest spires which were beautiful contortions of steel?” He said, “The tallest 10 were all my work and now I was working on a dome for the City. The interior of the dome would be full of images of fantasy creatures and a god presiding over it all. The god would be superhuman and would just be a giant head in the sky.”
And sitting on the other side of us was the Mayor. She told us, “As Mayor I encouraged the people to experiment with fantasy. I, for example, had a fantasy dream of being in a warm jungle full of vampires. I dreamed of handsome vampires who seduced me and drank my blood. But when I left the dream, I felt anemic and weak and figured the vampires must be real. Dreams are real… And I had another real dream of a scorching hot desert on a camel fighting for rebel forces who were fighting against the evil King. It was 19th century technology. And I fought in a great battle and then left the dream and found my face had been burned by the surreal sun and I was very dehydrated.” And she went on and on about her “real” fantasies, many of which she had almost died in. Dangerous fantasies for certain.
And then we were mingling in a party afterwards. I met a man, Butch, who told me, “I had a hologram fantasy world full of hologram cerebral sex and music and art. It was a happy fantasy, and I had it all to myself.” I said, “I’d like to go as your guest.” He said, “No, I try to keep it purely my own fantasy…” And he told me more about the characters in his dream fantasy. I asked him, “Is it real?” He said, “Yes, all our dream fantasies in Chicago are surreal. It’s all part of our dream machine which is a conscious entity.”
Meanwhile Lucille was talking to a woman, Maureen, who was telling her, “About my alter ego heroine in my Dreamworld. And Lucille and the woman walked into her Dreamworld. The scene changed to a World of 3 Suns, and they met the woman’s alter ego. The alter ego said, “I am in love with one of your heroes, Maureen.” Maureen asked, “Is it Daniel, The Bold?!” Her alter ego said, “No, It’s the Fiery Edge. He kissed me last night!” Maureen said, “I prefer Daniel. Where is he?” The alter ego said, “He is down at the well with Margaret.” Maureen said, “Why does it have to be with Margaret? I hate her!” At this point, Lucille wished herself out of the dream.
And Lucille and I agreed to return to L.A.
And I asked Lucille, “What have we learned from our travels?” She exclaimed, “Surely that is persistence pays off! And dreaming is reality!”