without theslightest trace of the personality of Jason Rowe. In this debutperformance young Rowe achieves the hitherto unattainable goal ofcompletely displacing the feeliegoer's identity with that of thecharacter he portrays. We expect great things from him for a talent suchas his illumines the theater but once in a millennium. Thanks to Mr.Jason Rowe, the U-Live-It Corporation can now completely guarantee thepromise of its name." Herschell dropped the newspaper on the desk. "Howdo you like that, Cy?"
* * * * *
"I like it so well, I surrender," Lemson said with a pleased smile. "Youwere right all along in pushing him so we'll put him in 'Land' as youwant and I'll at last have you off my back."
"Y'know, Cy, Lorancelli is wrong about the receptorman."
"He didn't exactly say--"
"Oh Zack is the best there is," Herschell interrupted, "but right afterwe started recording the Rowe feelie he came in all shook up to see me.Said the Rowe stuff was recording as if he was actually living the part.There were no extraneous sublevels at all and that's just never happenedbefore. It's like Lorancelli says about Rowe dying and the charactercoming to life. Zack swears that Rowe just disappears. There isn't aspeck of him that shows on the strip."
"Then Zack should be happy, not having to over-engineer the recording."
"Oh now, it isn't all breeze. There's highlighting and emphasizingselected perceptics and such. You know Zack's the difference between theartist and the photographer. Actually Zack's real difficulty is thebattle he has to keep from getting completely sucked in to Rowe'sportrayal while he's recording. Don't misunderstand. He's notcomplaining. In fact when I suggested relieving him if the strain wastoo much he said if he couldn't do Rowe's feelies I could relieve himfrom the payroll. It's that much of a challenge for him. So much so,he's designed a new receptor adaptor to prevent Rowe's potency fromoverpowering him."
"Will there be any trouble in making 'Land'?"
"Yes," Herschell said bleakly as Lemson prepared to hear the worst, "weneed horses. In this atom age I'd like to know where I'm going to get acouple of divisions of cavalry."
* * * * *
"Why you can't even see where they put it," Robina said, fingeringJason's skull. "Oh, wait, Ah feel a little hard lump right here. Ah'mright ain't Ah? That's the relay."
"No it ain't," Jason said laughing. "Got that fallin' off a horseyesterday."
"But why do you have to have one at all? Ah thought you could projectwithout it."
"Well Ah can, but this makes it better. This picks up all the tiny wavesfrom mah brain that wouldn't otherwise get recorded. Like the differencebetween super high-fi an' ordinary high-fi. It makes the feelie morereal."
"When are you goin' to be in somethin' else besides westerns? Ain't youever goin' to get to do some romancin'?"
"Now don't you go lookin' at the wrong end of the hog, Robee. They beenkeepin' our bellies filled. Besides this one Ah'm doin' now ain't nowestern."
"Then what's all them horses over there for?"
"Confederate cavalry, you melon head. What you think this uniform isAh'm wearin'? Fine southern daughter you are!"
"Oh, a civil war feelie! What's it called?"
"... uh ... A Stillness in the Land." Jason smiled, "An' it sure wouldmake Mr. Lemson happy to know Ah remembered the title. They say it was abig best seller book. Goin' to cost ten million dollars. Ah play thelead; Jed Carter, young southern fella. Lots of love an' battles an' thebest thing is Ah don't have to fret about mah accent." Jason took hissister's arm. "C'mon now if you want to see the set. Ah'll be havin' togo to work in a few minutes."
* * * * *
They passed by one of the receptors and Jason stopped. "Now here's themachine that picks up an' records what Ah'm thinkin' an' feelin'. Thereceptorman wears this gizmo on his head an' cuts in to what Ah'mfeelin' an' he fiddles them dials an' switches an' amplifies weaksignals an' cuts down overpowerin' ones an'--well, Ah don't want tofrazzle you with the technical details; he jus' controls the quality ofthe recordin'. He cuts out stuff that don't belong like if Ah should bekissin' the gal an' somewhere under those passionate thoughts Ah mightwonder when we're goin' to knock off for lunch. Here, slip this headseton an' Ah'll get Zack to run it so you can feel how it works."
"Don't do anythin' strong," Robina advised.
"Don't worry. Jus' a peaceful bit."
Zack came over at Jason's call and ran the receptor while Jason wentthrough a few quiet lines with an extra.
"Why it's funny, somehow," Robina said after they removed the headset."It jus' didn't seem very good. Ah've felt you better without it,Jason."
"You didn't get the full projection," Zack explained. "You see, MissRowe, the receptorman has got to be alert. He can't just relax and enjoythe scene and become the actor like a paying customer. He's got to work,keeping the perceptics, the feelings coming through in balance. Sothere's a circuit, a part of this machine that sort of shields enough ofthe operator's mind and keeps it from getting lost in the story while itruns the receptor and lets the other part live the scene."
"That sounds hard to do," Robina said.
"It takes training and special conditioning but the point is nobodyconnected with the production of a feelie ever gets to feel it in allits original depth as the feeliegoer does. Rushes are run at the lowestintensity so that the producers and directors can comment and planchanges as the strips are run. Even with projector intensity set high wecan't totally submerge in the character's identity because thatspecially conditioned part of our minds won't submit."
"Well, you're still lucky," Robina said. "Ah'm a Sensitive and Ah'm notallowed to go to anythin' but silly old musicals an' some comedies. Ahcan't even go to mah brother's feelies what with all the shootin' an'everythin'."
* * * * *
"EVERYBODY TO THEIR PLACES. RECORDING STARTS IN FIVE MINUTES." Theannouncement boomed throughout the vast set and a population of extrasbegan to animate the streets with purposeful activity.
"Robee, honey, you'll have to go."
"Oh, Jay, can't Ah watch. Ah won't fuss around."
"'Tain't that. Nobody who ain't in the feelie can be in sight of any ofthe actors they're recordin'. Why if Ah was to walk down that street asJed Carter and suddenly see you standin' over here in them men'spants--"
"These ain't men's pants!" Robina said indignantly. "These are ladiesslacks."
"Ah know that but Jed Carter don't. All he knows is even a hussywouldn't strut around like that. Tell you what. You go over there towhere it says, Mrs. Hepple's Quality Boarding Home an' you can peek outthe parlor window at the doin's. Ah guess they had noseybodies then too.Now get!"
Jason turned and hurried down the street, not bothering to glance afterRobina. She had crossed the street and was passing a saloon when theomnipresent voice commanded her, "GIRL IN THE GREEN SLACKS GET OUT OFSIGHT." She became so flustered she dashed into the saloon doorway.
Jed Carter escorted the lady from Nashville down the plank sidewalk toher carriage. He was furious at her casual gay chatter mocking hischurning desire for her. His glance caught a movement across the streetand suddenly he went rigid with surprise and soft shock. A girl hadcome out of the saloon and the hussy was wearing men's trousers. Hisshock increased when he heard the delicate lady from Nashville say, "Oh,damn, who the hell is that?" and he was further startled to see an oddlydressed man wearing some sort of metal apparatus on his head follow thegirl out of the saloon, gesticulating angrily at her.
"CUT!" the omnipresent voice commanded and now Jed Carter was utterlyconfused. The man wearing the metal apparatus crossed over to him andspoke. "Jason, please. You know the rules about visitors on the set. Noone allowed during recording. Zack says we'll have to ask your sister toleave."
Jed Carter saw the townspeople just standing around staring in hisdirection. "What's goin' on?" he said to the odd man. "What are youtalkin' about? Who are you?"
"Oh, oh,
" the man with the headset exclaimed, "here we go again."
The Premiere Page 3