Trafford Publishing: Passage of Topal

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Passage of Topal

by D. Louis Richter

141 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #02-0796; ISBN 1-55395-082-8; US$17.00, C$19.45, EUR14.00, £10.00

Discover the Passage Of Topal with the spirited young boy from Chicago as he explores worlds of time. Experience the fears, joy, terror, and the peace found in the knowing.

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about the book      about the author      sample excerpts or Table of Contents      catalogue info

About the Book

Passage of Topal is the story of David's, whose spirit travels between worlds of similarities, carried by his attendant clown beyond time to places where life's experiences have different expressions.
The following excerpts are taken from various chapters of Passage of Topal.

About the Author

D. Louis Richter's professional educaton started at the Chicago Art Institute. He received his B.A. from the Institute of Design in Chicago, with postgraduate work at Black Mountain College, North Carolina. Inspired by his mentor, R. Buckminster Fuller, he then studied manufacturing design and structural engineering.

In 1952, the author met Irene, the love of his life, and after a nine-week courtship they were married.

His professional work started as an Aircraft Structures Engineer with Convair, followed by Product Design Engineer, Manager of Building Products Research and Development, and finally, co-founder of Temcor to design, manufacture and erect aluminum Geodesic Domes and related Space Structures. He now has seventeen United States and International patents to his credit including some for very large aluminum structures. Many of his papers have been published throughout the United States, Europe and Asia with several of his articles being reprinted in books about R. Buckminster Fuller.

D. Louis Richter was interationally recognized for his creativity and his contributions to the art of Space Sturcutures, when he received the University of Surrey's Special Pioneer Award.

He has retired from Temcor as Executive V.P. and lives with his wife of fity years in southern California, close to his two daughters and grandchildren.

And now, he has picked up pen and palette and returned to his first passion, expressing thoughts and ideas about the wonders of life with stories, poetry and acrylic paints on canvas. The publication of his book, Passage of Topal, will be followed by others including a collection of paintings expressing the poetry of life, love and time.

Sample Excerpts or Table of Contents

     David shook his head no, and then asked, "Who is Topal, anyway?"
     "That is a mindless question." Andy responded in feigned disgust, "You might ask what Topal is."
     "OK, what is Topal?"
     Andy looked up with an impish grin and said, "I can't answer that question. It would take much too long. Don't you know anything about the kind of question you just asked? Why there isn't enough negative time left in the last eight universes to answer that kind of question. Which reminds me, the last pair of universes have a time problem that must be studied, and it's all your fault you know."
     "No it ain't!"
     "Why don't you turn it around?"
     "What do you mean?"
     "Your question boy, turn it around."
     "Do you mean, what is a Topal not?"
     "Yeah." Andy smiled, "you got it."
     "OK then, what is a Topal not!"
     "That's easy," the clock-man responded. Then he giggled the word, "Nothing."
     "But nothing don't mean nothing!" the boy complained.
     The mini-man mumbled, "You are absolutely right kid,* as he sat back down in the center of his pinwheel of glitter. In a tired voice he continued, "Nothing is the essence of everything don't you see." With those final words he sat down, closed his eyes and pretended to sleep.

*    *    *

     "Look Jack, you have glasses for reading, don't you. Do you feel it is sinful to put them on to read? No, of course you don't. Didn't you say that your great-grandmother is now over one hundred and twenty years old?"
     "Yes sir."
     "Did you feel it was morally wrong to give her an artificial heart and new lungs to extend her life and to provide a thought controlled carriage so she could visit her friends and make her life more meaningful? No, of course you didn't. Those were practical things to do that have nothing to do with religion, God or free will."
     "Be reasonable." Jack responded in a stressed voice, "You can't compare picking up a wrench to tighten a nut with the wiring of a girl's brain into one of your damned manikin. That is the most detestable kind of slavery and imprisonment I can think of."
     Erwyn replied, "How can you possibly equate this experiment with slavery when she will still have her free will."
     "Yeah sure, the brain may have a free will, but so did the slaves in the past have free wills, but they could not use it. In fact it probably would have been more humane if those forced into slavery did not have free wills. Do you think for a moment that a draft horse harnessed to a freight wagon is free when it can only travel where the roads lead and the driver requires? And the treatment of the draft horse is far better than what you plan for this unfortunate girl. At least the horse is released from its confining harness every night.
     "To attach the electrical harness from that dumb contraption of yours to her brain is nothing less than cruel slavery. Even if your horrendous experiment does work, do you think she will be pleased with that life extension?"
     "I wish you would stop calling it, her", Erwyn responded, "The girl died in that auto accident and her body was buried last week. All we have here is the disembodied brain, and the Court*s permission to obtain it for these tests. Tell me Jack, if your eyes completely failed and you had Court-approved eyes grafted into your eye sockets, would you still refer to the cadaver*s eyes as him? No, of course you wouldn't. They would become part of you the moment you could see with them."
     "OK. I know in my heart that this is very wrong, but I will do it. I just wish we were using a computer instead of her brain."
     Erwyn grinned, "I'm glad you see it our way, otherwise I might have to find a more open-minded technician at a point where our work is ready for its first trial. All we need to do now is wire up the electric harness and balance the chemicals, temperature and power levels and secure the brain in place."

*    *    *

     "Yeah, tell us about it." David repeated.
     "OK. To make a long story short, the people on this other Earth managed to avoid ADVR, and they went on to develop powerful computers that were so small and cheap that they were put into everything made in their automated factories. Their built-in computers were so small that they were practically invisible. In fact, most people didn't even know they were there."
     "What do you mean by built-in computers?" David asked.
     "For example, let's pretend that you lived on that Earth and you are having your breakfast, OK?
     "Yeah."
     "You may not be aware of it, but the knife you are using to cut your fried eggs and bacon has built-in sensors that automatically adjust the knife's cutting edge for the different foods you are eating."
     "Wow."
     "Every item in your breakfast room, which by the way was your bedroom two minutes earlier, is being continually adjusted to the computer's idea of what you like. Your chair, the light bulb, your toys, every item in your room is aware of what you are doing, every second of the day and night and sends that data back to one of the central computers. The wall you are facing, which is really a 'smart surface', knows that you like Outer Space movies so it makes up new stories with computer simulated actors to entertain you while you eat. Cameras and sensors watch your reactions and modify the story to fit your changing moods as it progresses."
     "That sounds real neat."
     "Most everyone thought so in the beginning because everything was being done for them without any effort on their part. But you see, that left nothing for them to do. Computers ran the factories that designed and made everything you needed including your bacon and eggs. In fact the bacon and eggs you are eating were manufactured in automated factories, and contained built-in computers, smaller than grains of salt that transmitted data back to central computers about how well you are digesting your food."
     "How can they do that?"
     "I don't know but by separating people from each other, the computers could supply and meet the needs of each individual. Consequently, all of the factory workers, sales people, farmers, engineers, artists, attorneys, doctors, mothers, fathers, everybody's purpose for living and their interactions with others were completely replaced by computers."
     "You mean nobody had to go to work?"
     "That's right. In your case, your Mom and Dad are not even raising you. In fact they aren't even having breakfast with you."
     "I don't like that. Where are they? I miss my Mom and Dad."
     "Your Dad is in his own smart-room eating his breakfast while the computer reads the news paper to him. Actually the central computer also makes-up the news to satisfy your father's interests. Your Mom is sleeping in her own perfumed temperature controlled bed while her pillow recites dreams to her. You don't need to go to school either. Most people don't bother to learn how to add numbers or even learn how to read and write. They are quite helpless and useless, and the computers know it."
     "Where are my brother and sister?"
     "In all probability you wouldn't have any if you lived on that Earth."
     "Why not? I love my brother Allen and sister Madge and I think maybe I would like to have a baby sister too."
     "Well you see, on that Earth a computer could analyze the genes in your Mother's and Father's hair and decide if their baby would be healthy and perfect. In all likelihood it would conclude that the chances of that happening are too small, so it would decide that your mother should not have more than one baby. And besides, its goal is to reduce the human population."
     "How could a computer stop my mother from having more kids?"
     "You must remember that computers control the plants that manufacture her food and it could easily add chemicals to her diet to prevent her having more babies."
     "I don't want to live there 'cause I would miss my Mom and Dad and friends and I want to be a scientist or maybe a song writer.

*    *    *

     "It must be an Angel," the clown repeated. "She looks so real and beautiful. Look at those outstretched wings. They are so thin we can almost see right through them." The clown pedaled still closer to look at her from every side as well as from above and below.
     Although she did not move, David felt that every glowing particle of her being had eyes that were aware of their presence. Those feeling glints continued to watch every movement the clown and his passenger made with a kind of loving curiosity. The Angel's skin and robe contained the very essence of living beauty, endowed with vibrant opalescent colors. Her figure was well defined, with the reality of glowing nothingness. Only the crimson colored rose she held between her fingertips, poised in peace, proclaimed "reality". Her young face of warm tints, radiated a subtle hint of a smile that portrayed the full value of hallowed love. When David looked into her eyes it was as though he was floating off into a whole new universe full of depth and meaning.
     The clown whispered to David, "Do you think she is a real angel? She does not seem to be moving, but every winking glint of her being appears to be in constant circulation."
     David whispered in the same reverent tones, "I wonder if she can hear us."
     As if in response to their questions, the angel turned her head a little to the left to face them, causing the clown to instinctively pedal a few strokes backward in surprise. She tilted her head with such graceful flowing motions that it was like seeing a statue carved in liquid light. It made the equivalent human motion look like twitchy indecision.
     She said, "Yes David, at this moment I am as real as reality." Her words passed her lips as warm and kindly wisps that fully complimented her subtle motions. David did not understand her meaning but those little speckles of light that defined her beauty fascinated him. As he watched one point of light wondered off into space, another one just flowed back into her being to maintain the living image.
     "How do you know my name?" David asked.
     She replied with the love of the wise, "Your name is not you. You are not your name. Who you are is forever. What you are is transition." Her message was so softly spoken with such promise that it was immediately accepted as unquestionable truth in the same way a child accepts blue as the color of a clear sky at noon or that cool water feels wet.

Catalogue Information