Nova

by Samuel R. Delany

The passions that come through the diversity of a complete world, or a whole man, he knew—but did not like. He dealt with this dislike two ways. For the inner manifestations, he was writing a novel. A jeweled recorder his parents had given him when he won his scholarship hung from a chain at his waist. To date it contained some hundred thousand words of notes. He had not begun the first chapter. For the outer manifestations, he had chosen this isolate life below his educational capacity, not even particularly in keeping with his temperament. He was slowly moving further and further away from the focus of human activity which for him was still a world called Earth. He had completed his course as a cyborg stud only a month ago. He had arrived on this moon of Neptune—the last moon of any size in the Solar System—that morning.

The very young, Lorq thought; the very rich; and wondered what limits of difference those conditions defined.

“The United States was a product of that whole communication explosion, movements of people, movements of information, the development of movies, radio, and television that standardized speech and the framework of thought—not thought itself, however—which meant that person A could understand not only person B, but person W, X, and Y as well. People, information, and ideas move over the galaxy much faster today then they moved across the United States in 1950. The potential of understanding is comparatively greater. You and I were born a third of a galaxy apart. Except for an occasional college weekend to Draco University at Centauri, this is the first time I’ve ever been outside the Solar System. Still, you and I are much closer in information structure than a Cornishman and Welshman a thousand years ago. Remember that, when you try to judge the Mouse—or Prince Red. Though the Great Snake coils his column on a hundred worlds, people in the Pleiades and the Outer Colonies recognize it. Vega Republic furniture implies the same things about its owners here as there. Ashton Clark has the same significance for you as for me. Morgan assassinated Underwood and it became part of both our experiences—” He stopped—because Lorq had frowned.