La Belle Epoque- Part 2 Extract- Copyright Robert Fullarton 2013

La Belle Epoque- Part 2 Extract
Copyright Robert Fullarton 2013

2.

Atticus Zero sat in the Coffee exchange with his match Divaton,
sipping on a cup of Brewers Finest coffee in the Memex square beside
the central spa, right in the heart of the Cradle itself. They were
both discussing the coming elections or decisions surrounding the
nomination of a leader/governing president for the three sectors. In
the whole history of the Aerodome, there had been no single governing
leader, the authority was unanimously decreed and passed down by a
body of twelve council members off the scientific elite who had helped
to construct and intellectually develop the Aerodome in its entirety.
The nominations were to be announced later that day in Memex square,
by fliers and news-bearers –these were the modern envoys, emissaries
and messengers that carried the news with them wherever they went- and
a certain element of excitement ran through the air, though the
expression on each face was contained to a mere procedure of cordial
formality and restraint.

Atticus Zero sat at a table in the Coffee Exchange being passively
attentive to the words of his match, while he casually glanced around
at the coffee porters that weighed each bag of coffee that had been
recently processed and then they sequentially examined the ration
cards of every citizen. Nearly all ration cards were electronically
tagged, for their proper validation –even though they didn’t really
need to budget and track these cards because there rarely were any
problems with ration cards and certainly no problems of theft and
general squander.

“So the announcement, will be made this afternoon at two”, said
Divaton with a warm expression of excitement.
“Good, that is appropriate and systematic”, said Zero affirming with
delight. Such expressions were popularly used by the citizenry for
slang, for official use and for the highest forms of expression, one
could call such terms as, “it is logically and statistically feasible”
as an expression of pure poetry in the neo-modern language.
“Good! Have you got me something for my birthday next week.”
“Of course I have.”
As soon as he said this she began to laugh and he gazed into her eyes
and laughed in mimicry. He was still very much deeply in love with
her, as if it had been that very first day of their annunciation when
they first met five years ago.

“I heard a song the other night in my dream, it was a strange dream,
it sounded and looked like nothing I had ever seen before”, said
Divaton reminiscing.
“What did the song sound like?”
“Well it didn’t sound like the organs of our own sound system. It was
like something I conjured up on my own.”
“You mean something you remember from the past? Perhaps some piece of
music that was played on the organs had you feeling so relaxed that
you have a special affinity for it.”
“Who knows?”
“Well what happened in the dream?”
“I opened up a large box, or a steel grate from the sides, stepped out
onto a surface that appeared on the outside to be like that of another
planet, but once I had entered onto this surface, I found it to be
very stimulating and very agreeable to me. There were plants that grew
over twenty feet tall, nothing like the plants I’ve ever seen before.
I walked over beside a wide, grand tree that stood in a central area
of trees.”
“I believe that they were called forests.”
“Oh, that is systematically correct I believe.”
“Of course it is, you can believe something and know something,
something is or otherwise it isn’t!”
“Yes your right! Anyway, I walked to a certain point, surrounded by
everything green and bright, in fact there were many colours and
beautiful objects in my dream. The tree in my dream, had a mighty
bough and its bark was filled with little creatures that grew out of
the side, some were small animals that ran up and down the tree
trunk.”
“That is a very vivid dream. I don’t get it! What were you thinking
went you went to sleep last night?”
“Wait, I’m not finished yet. I basically watched the sun rise over the
field and it felt like the most beautiful experience I had envisioned
in a long time. I fell asleep by the bough of the tree and then I
awoke.”

Before Zero could comment, a tall expressionless porter came and
examined their family ration card on the table, before finally filling
up their small ceramic cups with more black coffee- milk was scarce.
“Well, it sounds like you visited the outside world in your dream and
you didn’t suffocate and die whatsoever!”
“No!”
“Well that is weird, it’s not possible in the real world, but I think
man has always dreamed of a better reality, it is one of our chief
deficiencies and weaknesses, that is why all the poets were depressed,
because they could never match reality with their words, they
constructed these distant visions or portraits of a life that rarely
matched their reality. Poetry really should be all statistics and
fact, no warped pseudo-idealism for me or for anyone! The poets
worshipped the natural world that eventually destroyed the old
species!”
“Yes your right about that!”
“Tell me more of the music?”
“Well it sounded similar to something of the past, the sounds of a
symphony, something harmonious and yet original to me. Hypnotic.”
“Deception, if you ask me”, said Zero rather cynically.
“No. I wouldn’t say that, I would say insightful. The music made me
think strange thoughts that I had never thought before.”
“Like what?”
“Well, I stepped out into a world of beauty and vision, it seemed as
if the outside were so fundamentally different to what we had
originally thought about the inside, I felt free and it felt as if the
dome was a mere box.”
“Well what are you trying to say?”
“I had doubts.”
“Doubts about what?”
“Doubts about everything! The legitimacy of our world, the dormant
world of discovery, that was available to our ancestors, only told of
in the annals of history in the public works.”
“Remember that these people destroyed themselves, and it is only by
the superior minds that we were rescued.”
“Unfeeling hearts you mean. Desensitised men to the flaws of human
nature and the intimacy and supremacy of feeling and believing in
something outside of yourself. Perhaps there is no shame in dreaming
and fantasising, perhaps it is human to do so, perhaps its natural,
logical, healthy and wholesome to do so.”
“I don’t really know”, said Zero as he brooded to himself for a few
moments, dwelling on what Divaton had said to him. He denied and
objected to her dream and her doubts but in his own mind, the seeds of
thought, the doubts and the schism were already there, but he just
believed that he was simply “confused”.

The bell opposite the Coffee exchange struck two and there was a call
for attention by a group of public messengers. Every man and woman in
the Coffee Exchange stood up, giving their full attention to the
announcement and the sight of several prominent figures of the elite
in the central gaze of the Memex Square. The candidates had been
unveiled, they stood like trophies of the prized regime on offer and
on show. The crowds formed, the people gazed up at the spectacle and
the show.
The first candidate stood onto the platform and a roar of enthusiasm
and jubilation went into the air, the other candidates simply watched
and applauded with a mere salutation, the crowd was carried to a
religious fever and an ecstasy over hype that lasted the entire
afternoon. Each candidate had to speak for twenty minutes and argue
their case, not with a live microphone but with words and gestures to
the enticed audience that hung and devoured every word that was
spouted out upon them.
Zero spent only fifteen minutes in the milieu before he became
increasingly bored and irritable by the whole nature of the spectacle.