Guillermo Stitch - Literature™

Literature

Guillermo Stitch

Nineveh Editions

www.guillermostitch.com

Copyright 2018 Guillermo Stitch

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

@GuillermoStitch

***WINNER, 2019 IPPY GOLD***

(2019 INDEPENDENT PUBLISHER AWARD FOR SCIENCE FICTION, FANTASY AND HORROR)

"A tour de force."

INTERZONE

"A cat-and-mouse game of literary havoc...fans of dystopian stories with noir flair should take notice."

AMAZING STORIES

"Will keep readers turning pages."

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

"The best new work of speculative fiction I have read since the 20th Century...laced with enough scalpel-sharp wit and dark humour that you'll never notice the satire sliding into your awareness until it's too late to feel any real discomfort."

SFF CHRONICLES

"One of the cleverest stories I've read this year. Whip-smart, well-paced, deeply satirical and dappled with just enough dark and light to keep the reader riveted."

ANNE CUNNINGHAM,

(IRISH INDEPENDENT, INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY, UK SUNDAY TIMES)

"Brave New World meets 1984 in this Big Brother masterpiece."

KRISTI ELIZABETH,

SAN FRANCISCO BOOK REVIEW

Beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror.

Rainer Maria Rilke.

We must be stealthy as rats in the wainscoting of their society.

Harry Harrison, The Stainless Steel Rat

W hat a lot of people dont appreciate these days is that as recently as the first half of the last century, what they called literature was a very, very different thing to the thing we have now. Almost no resemblance at all. Quite apart from questions of legality, health and safety and so on, there wouldnt be any point in revisiting the vast majority of those First Era textsbelieve me, weve been through them with a fine tooth comb and the functionality just isnt there.

Their guide, whod introduced himself as Murphy, spoke as he walked and without looking back.

We dont have that much source material left, obviously, but its evident from what we do have that neither the risks nor the potential benefits were understood. We know that literature was readily available in a multiplicity of media. Mass produced, widely consumed. That consumption, however, seems to have been left entirely to the vagaries of entertainment markets.

He shook his head.

Very much an Arts thing, for them. Of the numerous commentaries that survived the Disaster, none make any reference to specific applications. Remember that Spirituality at that time lingered on in the public sector . And there does seem to have been a connection; we know that consumers habitually sought some sort of emotional uplift from literature. Solace if you will. It isnt easy for us to imagine now that Solace would have been difficult to access elsewhere. But there you go. Markets evolve. Back then it was, as I said, very much one of the old Arts.

He stopped and turned and the little group of journalists formed a semi-circle around him.

Which is why, in the run-up to the Second Enlightenment, we see signs of disillusion. Im not saying that anyone had had the eureka momentalmost certainly notbut there were embryonic attempts to embed literature, and the Arts in general, into the wider human project. To put them to use. It can seem surprising to us now that once established, those early strategies, from product placement to search optimization, influencer content and so on, didnt light the way sooner. Any questions?

No questions. He went on.

In fact, the mood at the time was anything but optimistic. It was as if they believed they were winding up, actuallybringing a defunct and ultimately fruitless human endeavor to an end. There was this increased focus on game play, social networking and other reality driven behaviors.

Pfft. They hadnt even started. Pinpoint Role Assignment changed everything. It is now universally recognized as the single most significant factor in the development of modern literature. Without it the Second Enlightenment couldnt have happened. Wed still be pawing through books like our forebears did, looking for some inherent value in there as opposed to identifying the countless opportunities weve since been able to exploita completely untapped resource, right under our noses. Very little of what weve accomplished economically, socially and politically would have been conceivable. Or scientificallyremember that Pinpoint can only be fully understood in the context of the discovery of Cog power.

There was a large touch screen on the wall behind Murphy. He swiped it till the day diary showed up and he blocked out the entry for their tour. 4am: Billy didnt suppose many of the journalists had been up this early on a Tuesday morning before. It felt a lot like a Monday night.

Of course, its a work in progress, said Murphy. You try this, you try that. Necessarily, theres an ad lib element in the early stages of any new field. Weve been quite transparent about that. But believe me: every single false start has provided critical information. Know-how. Thats whats so exciting about tomorrow.

Someone stifled a yawn.

Were no strangers to controversy, Murphy scowled. There will always be resistance to change, of course. Pockets of extremism. The recent emergence of Gilgamesh is very worrying, and you all know about the problems weve had at the book burningspeople dont like them.

The digital purge continues. He shrugged. Well get there. We deeply regret every fatality, we really do, but it was incumbent upon us to ramp things up in preparation for the launch. We have a responsibility to our users. Those are some pretty fancy shoes mister. Murphys gaze had dropped to Billys feet. We are probably going to mess those up for you today.

He walked on. They fell into line behind him.

It would be premature to guarantee that weve found the definitive application. But early signs are very, very encouraging. Youll have to forgive us for being a little pleased with ourselves here at Gripping Tails . No previous incarnation of Applied Lit has been rolled out on this scale. Maybe we have some slips. Tony, do we have any of those plastic slips for this guys shoes?

They were at the end of a long, brightly lit corridor. Murphy stood outside a metal double door, low but wide. He looked like someone who had more to say. A tall man in a white coat pressed a pair of plastic shoe covers into Billys hand.

Its amazing, said Murphy, if you stop to think about it. It is to me, anyway. Before Pinpoint theres no way anyone could have seen it pan out like this. That something wed all learned to think of as a historical fallacya heresy, evencould be resurrected in this way. That it would take up so useful a role in our lives. With hindsight though, from the moment the Cog drive was introduced, it was just a matter of time. Who knows what other old Arts we might resurrectunder carefully controlled conditions, of courseand put to work?

He planted his feet wide and clasped his hands.

Weve struggled with this thing for centuries but at long last, folks, literature finds itself fully optimized as Gripping Tails , now the fourth largest auto sector brand in the country and set to revolutionize road safety legislation both domestically and around the world. We even have our eyes on the colonies. I know, I knowearly days, but we dont do small thinking here. Mind your heads.

Murphy opened the door and one by one, they bowed their heads to pass beneath a cluster of cable runs, stepping out into a vast, low-ceilinged hangar. To either side of them, the outer walls were punctuated by what might have been loading docksfloor to ceiling openings that framed the blank night. The place stretched away into a distance that couldnt quite be made out through the machinery and personnel that occupied the floor space. Instrumentation arrays were aligned with each of the docks and operatives in orange and green overalls stood in huddles, nodding and tapping data onto tabs.