Quintus Teal built a house, the design of which was based on a three dimensional representation of a tesseract. When he and the couple for whom he built this house visit it for the first time they find that the house has folded into itself through a fourth dimensional shift appearing to be a simple single story cube instead of the three story building they had expected. Upon entering through the front door and lowering the stairway they find that they are able to ascend to the upper floors which on the inside still exist. The house had continued to exist unbroken with everything in its proper place. The visitors run into trouble when they try to leave finding that every door and window leads to anywhere but where they are supposed to. The windows look out on various landscapes from strange perspectives including an alien world with distorted trees that they had never seen the like of. At that moment an earthquake strikes and in a panicked state they jump out the window and find that the house has disappeared. Having no other recourse they set out towards the sun until finally they are picked up by a farmer who tells them that they are in Joshua Tree National forest.
This one is easy; it means absolutely nothing to me. This story was enjoyable reading but it had no deeper message to ferret out. What it has however is an interesting viewpoint. To me a story with some science fictional premise is more appealing than one without. I would never claim that this makes it better than other types of literature, only more interesting to me personally. But sometimes science fiction allows for observations that would otherwise be more difficult in other genres. This story is just such a one. Our own world is a fascinating place filled with wonders to satisfy appetites both subtle and gross and many times more alien than anything thought of by the wildest imaginations. These people, facing the dilemma of being trapped inside the folded tesseract made their escape by climbing out a window into an alien world. Some years ago I lived in southern California briefly and had occasion to see Joshua tree national park. Talk about alien landscapes, I had never seen anything quite like it in reality, although I’m quite certain I saw something very much like it in a Dr Seuss book. What I think Heinlein was pointing out here is how unfamiliar our own world can be.
As mentioned in a previous post I spent time as a scuba diver. Great fun it was. It also gave me a new perspective on this underwater world with me living as a stranger in a strange land. Science fiction writers often speculate on whether or not physical laws are a constant everywhere in the universe. Whereas I imagine that they are, while diving they certainly seem to be different. Under water is an alien world with its own creatures and its own rules and even its own quicksilver sky, absolutely beautiful. If you have done any diving you’re already familiar with this sight, if not I highly recommend trying this wonderful experience. Whereas we are all familiar with creatures that fly, every thing underwater is capable of flight for there is no gravity as we know it. I worked as an sea urchin harvester (urchins are a small green spiny animal that the Japanese eat the reproductive organs of). The marketable quality of urchins varies widely due to many factors so the diver will break open about every tenth one to check the RO quality. One of the first things I noticed when I started diving was that everything in the ocean is trying to eat everything else in the ocean. The urchins are normally protected from this by their spines but, when broken open become an easy food. On a day when I was having trouble finding quality urchins I had been breaking open many in my search while working progressively deeper. When I reached about fifty feet down I had decided that my search had been in vain and had turned to go back only to be presented with what to this day remain one of the most beautiful and awe inspiring sight in my life. As I had been traveling only forward I had failed to notice the school of Pollock forming behind me. Turning I was presented with the sight of thousands of liquid mirrors suspended in the water as far as I could see, catching the sunlight in a dazzling display such as only nature can provide. The underwater world is only one of the many places on this planet that is so unusual as to give the appearance of being an alien environment.
Sincerely yours
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