The Rainbow Cadenza: A Novel in Vistata Form

by J. Neil Schulman

  MICROWAVE JOB: (I) Slang in the Federation for being executed.

  MICROWAVE OVENS: (N) No longer just the harmless kitchen appliance, but the Federation's high-powered execution chamber which destroys a victim's brain in the first instant, boils the victim's blood a split second later, then explodes all the victim's cells, leaving no genetic material intact which could be cloned. When the Federation kills you, it wants to make sure there isn't enough left of a brain for even part of the person to be saved. Like all forms of state execution, it is theoretically humane to the person being executed (though who can argue?) and gruesome to the maximum for everyone else. The exploded remnants are then cremated in a conventional oven.

  MIDSUMMER: (A) MIDSUMMER SOLSTICE. Used to distinguish from the YULE SOLSTICE, which is often called just "Solstice."

  MIDSUMMER SOLSTICE: (A) The summer solstice, a WICCEN holiday and a legal holiday in the Federation.

  MINIMUM-SEX LAW: (A) A law passed in the post-BRUSHFIRE WAR period--based on the precedent of minimum-wage laws--which required a minimum number of sexual encounters per week by every woman. It didn't work, resulting in a further complication: see EQUALIZATION-OF-SEX-OPPORTUNITY LAW. The idea was suggested once as a theoretical exercise in a post-class drinking session with libertarian economist Murray Rothbard, to see if there were any laws at all which the drunken male anarchists at the table would favor. I doubt any of us remember who said it first but I'm willing to bet it was either Rothbard or Samuel Edward Konkin III.

  MINISTRY OF PEACE: (N) The Ministry running the Federation Peace Corps, equivalent to the Department of Defense today. The SUPREME MATRIARCH is by custom the Minister.

  MINISTRY OF UNIVERSAL SERVICE: (I) The Federation's draft ministry, actually a sub-agency of the Peace Ministry.

  MINNEANOVA: (I) One of the twin cities in AD ASTRA's first two cylinders, named after the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. See NOVA PAULUS.

  MISTER DUMBJOHN: (A) DUMBJOHN.

  MISTRESS: (N) A rank in the Peace Corps, designated by the insigne of the silver ANKH, which commands a TROOP.

  MOCHA: (N) COCA MOCHA.

  MOCHA BREAK: (I) Equivalent to a coffee break.

  MOCHA HOUSE: (I) A club where COCA MOCHA is served, often in combination with live ROGA, initially hang-outs for BOHs during the early post-Colonial War period.

  "MOLLY MONOCHROME": (I) A one-color lasegraphic composition, similar to the song "Johnny One Note." In lasegraphic slang, a composer with only one good idea, endlessly repeated.

  MONICA, MONICA BOULEVARD: (I) New names for City of Santa Monica, California and Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles. See ALAMO CITY.

  MONITORS, THE: (N) The central police organization of the World Federation. Compare with FEDERATION SPACE CORPS.

  MOTHERFUCKER: (N) Not a vulgarity in the Federation Peace Corps, but an expression of rough endearment for a commanding officer, equivalent to "the Old Man" in the military. No longer a charge of incest, but "the Mother to the Fuckers." See FUCK, RAPE.

  MURDOCH PRIZE: (I) A journalistic award for news and literature in the Federation, equivalent to the Pulitzer Prize today. Named for Rupert Murdoch, the news magnate who's the direct descendant of Joseph Pulitzer's "give the people what they want" philosophy.

  M.U.S.: (I) MINISTRY OF UNIVERSAL SERVICE.

  MY GOD: (A) In the habitats, a mild exclamation. See MY GODDESS.

  MY GODDESS: (I) In the Federation, a mild exclamation. See MY GOD.

  NASCENT PERIOD: (I) The earliest period of proto-lasegraphy, wherein laser images were choreographed to music. The period we're in as of this writing. (And that's just as true now as in 1986 when this glossary was first written. -- JNS, 1996)

  N.D. CIRCLE OF PEACE: (N) The letters "N" and "D" in semaphor, overlaid into the Nuclear Disarmament "Peace Sign" of the nineteen sixties, and later enacted by the Federation. An insigne for a FULL MATRON in the Peace Corps.

  NET, NETS (N), NETMAN: (I) See SQUATBALL.

  NEVER AGAIN: (N) Alternate name, used in the habitats, for Jewish Holiday Yom Hashoah, "Day of the Fire," commemorating the Holocaust.

  NEWER YORK: (I) The reconstructed city of New York, after the devastation of the RAIN OF TERROR.

  NIGHTSTALK: (N) A TOUCHABLE hunt.

  NINTH AMENDMENT: (N) One of the Bill of Rights in the ARTICLES OF FEDERATION, providing that BRAINPRINT registrations may not be used for personal identification.

  NO GLOW: (I) ROGA slang meaning easy. Equivalent to "No sweat," it's a pun on "sweat" and "glow" in a dome.

  NOM-DE-LASEGRAPHIE: (I) In French, literally "lasegraphic name." Usage equivalent to nom-de-plume: pen name. A name taken professionally by a lasegraphic performer.

  NONPERSON: (N) A person not transponding a BRAINPRINT in the Federation. Such a person has no legal rights whatsoever, and it is legal to do anything to them including enslave or kill them. This category exists to prevent TOUCHABLEs from surgically removing their transponders. See SCANNING.

  NONSMOKING SECTION: (N) A section designated for either smoking or refraining from smoking, but where it is not compulsory to smoke. See SMOKING SECTION.

  NORTH AMERICAN CONCORD: (A) A State comprising the territories of the United States, Mexico, Canada, and Cuba, later a PROVINCE in the World Federation. The idea was proposed in earnest--sans Cuba--by Ronald Reagan. The demarcations into parishes are loosely based on a proposal by Gore Vidal to restructure the United States into several larger provinces.

  NOVA CANCY HOTEL: (I) A hotel chain in the Federation where "there's always room for one more." This contradicts the name of the hotel chain, which promises "No Vacancy."

  NOVA PAULUS: (I) Literally, "New Paul." One of the twin cities in AD ASTRA's first two cylinders, named after the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. See MINNEANOVA.

  O'NEILL: (N) A FREE-SPACE HABITAT named for Princeton physicist Gerard K(itchen) O'Neill, Ph.D. (1927 - 1992), advocate of habitats situated in the LaGrange Points. O'Neill's proposal was later adopted by the L-5 Society, which promised to disband as soon as they could meet in a habitat at the LaGrange-5 orbit site for which their organization was named. This they did, but the habitat was later destroyed in the WAR OF COLONIAL SECESSION, at a cost of five million lives.

  ONTARIO: (N) PARISH of the NORTH AMERICAN CONCORD, now includes Michigan.

  OVAFIED: (I) Past tense of ovafy: to give ovamony--to swear out evidence. Feminine for "testify," under the theory that the term "testify" originated in ancient times when men would swear by their testicles and women, having no testicles, could not swear out evidence. The etymological case is tempting but by no means conclusive.

  OVENS, THE: (N) The execution facility in Detroit, Ontario, combining execution in a MICROWAVE OVEN and followed by cremation of the remnants in a conventional oven.

  OVER THE RAINBOW!: (N) From the song made famous by Judy Garland. In lasegraphic usage, a wish for a good performance, equivalent to the theatrical "Break a leg!" Also, by extension, a performance well done.

  PACIFICA: (N) A PARISH in the NORTH AMERICAN CONCORD including territories bordered by the Rockies on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other.

  PALLET: (N) A couch to which one is strapped in zero-gee.

  PARAGRAPH 23: (I) In the Peace Corps, equivalent to the U.S. military's famous Section 8: a psychiatric discharge.

  PARISH: (N) A political division of a PROVINCE, with territories equivalent to one of the larger United States or Canadian Provinces. The COMMEN of each Parish elect one Member to the HOUSE OF COMMEN.

  PARTHENOGENESIS, PARTHENOGENIC: (A) Literally, "virgin birth." If Jesus was God's son, born by virgin birth to Mary, then a) either God chose Mary's genetic code because it was clean of sin and changed her female XX-chromosome to a male XY; or b) God impregnated Mary with a genetic code of his own choosing-- possibly a HOLOGRAPHIC version of his own code or "logos"; or c) Mary had an XXY chromosome to begin with, so her parthenogenic child could be of either gender--or both? In the Federation, usage ref
ers to Gynogenesis, a process by which an unfertilized ovum is made to reproduce, keeping the genetic information normally expelled with the polar body, thus producing a female child who is an identical TWIN to the mother. The child would theoretically be genetically indistinguishable from a CLONE, but in the Federation this issue is debated on the empirical evidence, since cloning is mostly used by ANDROMEN while women who wish to twin use their own ova for parthenogenesis.

  PATRON: (N) A male matron.

  PEACE CORPS, THE: (N) The WORLD FEDERATION PEACE CORPS.

  PENIS: (N) As well as the male genital organ, in the Federation Peace Corps, a derogatory term for a male, equivalent to calling a man a "prick."

  PEOTOMY: (A) Surgical removal of the penis, a punishment--in addition to being declared Touchable--for a first offense of rape in the Federation. A second offense of rape--punishable by execution--would not seem likely, but it is not unheard of, considering the possibility that a penis can be illegally cloned and reattached (see CLONING, TO CLONE), or the offense may be sexual activity with a nonconsenting person that does not require a penis. See RAPE, LEGAL DEFINITION OF IN THE FEDERATION.

  PHAETHON SPORTSTER: (N) A sporty skymobile in the tradition of the early Phaeton automobile.

  PHOBIA DISCHARGE: (I) PARAGRAPH 23.

  PIAGETIC: (I) Relating to the work of Jean Piaget (1896 - 1980), psychologist who mapped children's development of fundamental human perceptive and learning abilities according to age. Piaget theorized that if certain perceptions are not developed at a biologically-predetermined time, they never can be.

  PIAGET TESTS: (I) Tests used by LASEMEISTERs to map the abilities of a child to perceive motion, time, and speed, prerequesite to beginning lasegraphic training. See above.

  PICKPOCKET TRANSPONDER: (I) An IDENTITY TRANSPONDER that can record a BRAINPRINT by mere proximity, and later transpond the recorded signal.

  PICTUREGRAM: (I) A visual telegram.

  PINK: (N) Official designation, in Federation color-code, signifying WOMEN: the color of the working uniform of CORPORALs in the DICTERIA. Unlike BLUE and LAVENDER, pink is not required in a woman's clothing, since no one in the Federation confuses them with commen or andromen. Pink is also the color of a seat held by a LADY in the HOUSE OF GENTRY.

  PINK-AND-POLISH: (I) Peace Corps slang: spit-and-polish. Well-mannered corporals do not spit; but they do wear PINK and polish their nails.

  PINK PANTHER, THE: (N) Named for the Blake Edwards movie. A ROGA club affording a showcase to new roga performers, and a separate CANNABISTRO to unescorted women who wish to keep it that way.

  PLASTICE: (I) A sprayable plastic poultice.

  POLICE SIREN: (N) A woman used as a secret agent or sexual decoy by the MONITORS or previous police agencies. This usage derives from post- BRUSHFIRE WAR period, when police sirens were used to entrap rapists.

  POLYANDRY: (A) Polygamous marriage where a woman has more than one husband, it could provide a non-coercive solution to the Federation's sex-ratio problems, if the ARTICLES OF FEDERATION did not prohibit it.

  POLYURBAN: (I) Incorporating a mixture of lifestyles into a residential area.

  POSTBELLUM: (N) In the Federation this means one thing: after the WAR OF COLONIAL SECESSION.

  POWER DAMPERS: (N) The power transformer on a CHROMATIC LASER instrument.

  PRESIDENT: (N) Chief Executive Officer of the WORLD FEDERATION, a GAYLORD elected by vote of the Gaylords in the HOUSE OF GENTRY. Compare with FIRST LADY and PRIME MINISTER.

  PRIMARY NEURAL MODULATION: (I) That which is encoded in a BRAINPRINT recording: a mapping of a particular neural pattern which is known to be unchanged from birth to death, and is individually discrete for all brains, even those produced from identical genetic codes.

  PRIME MINISTER: (N) Head of Government in the World Federation, a COMMAN elected by vote of the Members in the HOUSE OF COMMEN. Compare with PRESIDENT and FIRST LADY.

  PRINCESS: (N) ROGA slang originating in ST. CLIVE: a term of honor or endearment, equivalent to "SISTER."

  PROSECUTRIX: (N) In a rape trial today, the woman who testifies against her rapist. In Federation usage, a female prosecuting attorney.

  PROSTITUTION: (A) Not what takes place in the Federation Peace Corps, since prostitution is consenting sexual favors granted for remuneration, and the corporals are draftees. Prostitution is illegal in the Federation--fornication is a nationalized monopoly--but completely legal in AD ASTRA and other of the habitats (not including ST. CLIVE). Prostitution should also not be confused with a currently existing system whereby women are kept as slaves--by threats and intimidation against which they feel powerless--by pimps or madams, and rented out for sexual favors to gain their masters money.

  PROVINCE: (N) One of the States originally independent but now a division of the WORLD FEDERATION, among them the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the People's Republic of China, the United States of Europe, the South American Union, and the North American Concord. States, republics, or provinces in these once- independent superstates are now PARISHes in the Federation.

  PYRADOME: (A) Laser Images, Inc.'s, design for a MEDIA TEMPLE combining the forms of a pyramid and a dome, scaled up in Newer York to the size of a Pharoah's tomb, and built on the former site of Saint Patrick's Cathedral, destroyed in the RAIN OF TERROR.

  QUADRIVIUM: (N) In medieval education, the upper division of the seven liberal arts, comprising the study of arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy, following the lower division called the trivium, comprising grammer, rhetoric, and logic. The University of Ad Astra at Nova Paulus (UAANP) makes a trivium of Language Arts (combining grammer and expression fundamental to all human and machine symbol systems), Logics (non-contradictory design of both deductive and inductive symbol systems), and Observations (the actual things you had better know if you're going to get along in the real world) prerequisite to admission, and teaches a Quadrivium consisting of Motivational Arts (getting your act together), Practical Arts (disciplines for manipulating the physical universe), Praxeology (the value-free study of human action), and Intangibles (everything we're not sure about yet).

  QUEEN LUCY: (N) The reigning Queen, along with KING ELWIN, of ST. CLIVE. Name is taken from Lucy Pevensie, heroine in C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia.

  QUICHE: (A) A custard pastry that real men don't eat today but which--in a society in which andromen are socially prestigious-- has been reduced to universal junk food equivalent to pizza.

  RADICAL LOBOTOMY: (I) The severing of the cerebral lobe of a human brain from the body, resulting in a brain without a body and a body without a brain. See CEREBRAL ABORTION.

  RAINBOROUGH: (N) A borough in the City of NEWER YORK, and the new name for the Borough of Brooklyn, New York, so named because the RAINBOW COMPACT was signed there in Borough Park, one of the few neighborhoods undamaged in the RAIN OF TERROR.

  RAINBOROUGH BRIDGE: (I) A bridge linking pedestrians and ground-traffic between the NEWER YORK boroughs of RAINBOROUGH and Manhattan, replacing both the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge, destroyed in the RAIN OF TERROR.

  RAINBOROUGH PARK: (I) New name for Borough Park, Brooklyn, so named because the RAINBOW COMPACT was signed there.

  RAINBOW CADENZA: (I) Any of many cadenzas written by students of Wolfgang Jaeger to be performed in Jaeger's Rainbow Vistata.

  RAINBOW COMPACT: (I) The formal peace treaty of the WAR OF COLONIAL SECESSION signed decades after the actual end of hostilities, ending mutual embargoes between the new World Federation and the habitats (excluding ST. CLIVE, not yet built). It was negotiated by Federation Ambassador Burke Filcher, signed by him on behalf of the Federation at a formal ceremony in Borough Park, Brooklyn with representatives from each of the habitats. The name derives from the rainbow which God used as a sign of his promise never to destroy the world again.

  RAINBOW PAPER: (I) Paper that changes colors when heat is applied to it. A child's toy. Used with THERMOCRAYONS.

  RAIN OF TERROR: (I) The devastating retalia
tion against the NORTH AMERICAN CONCORD (before it was a Federation PROVINCE), for its responsibility in launching the nuclear missile which destroyed the FREE-SPACE HABITAT, O'NEILL, at the cost of five million colonial lives. The retaliation consisted of meteors launched by mass-drivers from Ad Astra against three specifically-targeted cities in the Concord: New York, Montreal, and Mexico City. The devastation in those cities was close to total, with a cost to the Concord of thirteen million lives. The badly wounded Concord--and its allies terrified of further attacks against their own cities--immediately recognized the sovereignty of the habitats, and instituted the trade embargo which characterized the remainder of the Colonial War. The name was a natural homonym for the Reign of Terror in the French Revolution of 1793. See also WAR OF COLONIAL SECESSION.

  RAMON RAQUELLO ORCHESTRA: (N) A ROGA band which took its name from the dance band in Orson Welles's 1938 radio adaptation of H.G. Wells's The War of the Worlds.

  RAND, AYN: (A) (1905-1982) born Alissa Rosenbaum in Russia, American-immigrant novelist, playwright, screenwriter, and philosopher who perfected a rationalist school of metaphysics, epistemology, and esthetics which she called Objectivism. There is testimony by a former intimate that she was familiar with C.S. Lewis--enough to have marked up her copy of Lewis's Mere Christianity with exclamations against a logic leading to conclusions she hated--though she never mentioned Lewis in print. There is no corresponding evidence that Lewis was familiar with Rand.

  RAPE: (N) A vulgar exclamation--equivalent in power to FUCK today--unless used in legal proceedings or in official ceremony. This double-standard of vulgarity is not unheard of, considering that "bloody" is vulgar usage as a common intensifier by the English, yet no one could fault the British Prime Minister from saying in a speech, "those brave men who have died in this long, bloody war."

  RAPE, LEGAL DEFINITION OF IN THE FEDERATION: (N) In the Federation, rape is defined as "non-consenting sexual activity or sexual activity otherwise prohibited by law." Since the sexual activity in the DICTERIA is considered voluntary--the CORPORALs have sworn an oath upon joining--and since sexual violence against TOUCHABLEs is mandated by law, these are not legally rape in the Federation. Only sexual violence against a non-consenting person (not Touchable or on duty the Peace Corps) is rape in the Federation. Any other sexual intercourse with a consenting partner not authorized by Federation law is statutory rape, and this includes sexual activity with minors and sexual activity with a corporal in the Peace Corps who is AWOL or a deserter, since she is government property and can't give her own consent; however a corporal in good standing may under the Universal Code of Dicterial Justice grant consent while off duty. It is the official position of the Federation that the Peace Corps prevents rape, rather than enacts it. If you find this whole set-up unlikely, then consider that property taken from a person without that person's consent is theft--unless is is taken by a government tax collector to hire police to protect us from robbery--and consider that taking another person's life is murder--unless it is taken by a government executioner to prevent us from being murdered--and consider that forcing servitude on another person is slavery--unless it is done by a government draft board to save us from those foreign enemies who would, if they conquered us, reduce us to involuntary servitude. Government never outlaws these crimes: it merely claims a monopoly on them--so why should rape be any different?