Tuesday 11 January 2011

January 11-Glass

Scientists will tell you that our world conforms to a small number of universal laws- that everything works in specific ways and that there are some things which, though they may sound easy, can never be done by any man. One such law dictates that there is a small chance that a person may wake up one day to find they now live in a place identical to the one they left, only with every man and woman inside replaced with glass statues of themselves. Scientists are not likely to tell you about this law, because it's not very often that this happens to them.

But if it happens to you, listen up: it is not as great as it seems. At first, of course, it will seem fantastic, as you will be surrounded by creatures that look just like you and (because they are made of a very special kind of glass) think and speak like you. This, if you are vain, will be a form of heaven, and if not you will be able to smash the statues, which will be a form of therapy. Yet as the days wear on you will discover that a world run by glass people does not function especially well; the hospitals will fill up with yous whose limbs are shattered beyond all repair. You might have expected this and it might not bother you, but you will be bothered when you find out the statues chief impairment is not that they are made of glass. For these are creatures identical to you, who share your insecurities and failings and, above all, your complete lack of most skills that are required in a functioning world. Soon you will find that things you had always thought you could master would have in fact always been beyond you, and you will find out in a mess of falling planes and shattered souls.

Take relief in the fact there is another law of the universe: when the glass world has completely fallen and the last statue lies shattered on the ground, you will be returned to the place we live. Here, you might talk about what happened to you -there is, at least, no law against that- but you will find that most who have been to these worlds decide not to. Instead you will recognise your fellows only by an aversion to glass- although whether they are afraid of the material or their reflection, you will never be able to tell.

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