Plot Synopsis
--for Dana and Mary
Here's a sci-fi idea for you: Suppose
all the rich people already believe,
like Gore, that Spaceship Earth is wrecked
beyond repair. We're lost in space,
all return tickets have been cancelled,
and for the next decade or two
all we can do is go through
the motions, orbiting our proverbial
dying sun. What would such rich folk do
to pass the time? The younger would party hard;
their elders (a few) might come down with
a bad case of religion, but most
will find some user-friendly Shangri-La
far from the maddened crows and dig in
for the short haul, there to conduct
poignant, brief romances and admire
selected western skies as the sun ever more
spectacularly sets. They will stock
their pantries with the same dried goods,
tin cans, and bottled water as the rest of us
and expect a certain deference from their own
doomed and clueless jeuness dore,
but on the whole they will know better
than to suppose themselves superior
to the hoi polloi. Even so,
they wiil be merciless towards
any hand that clutches at the oars
of the lifeboat. Well, there it is,
just an idea, free for the taking.
--Tom Disch