"GL2" - читать интересную книгу автора (vol09)

As the development of The Notion Club Papers progressed my
father divided it into two parts, the second of which was never
completed, and although he ultimately rejected this division (2) I have
found it in every way desirable to preserve it in this book. Part One
was 'The Ramblings of Michael Ramer: Out of the Talkative Planet', "
and this consists of a report in direct speech of the discussions at two
successive meetings (3) of 'the Notion Club' at Oxford far in the future
at the time of writing. On the first of these occasions the conversation
turned on the problem of the vehicle, the machine or device, by which
'space-travellers' are transported to their destination, especially in
respect of its literary credibility in itself and its effect on the story
contained within the journeys; on the second, of which the report is..
much longer, one of the members, Michael Ramer, expounded his
ideas concerning 'true dreams' and his experiences of 'space-travel' in
dream.
The earliest manuscript, here called 'A', is a complete text of Part
One. It is roughly written and hastily expressed, there is no title or
explanatory 'scene-setting', and there are no dates; but while the text
would undergo much expansion and improvement, the essential
structure and movement of the dialogue was already largely present.
The second manuscript, 'B', is also a complete text of Part One,
but is much fuller than A, and (with many changes and additions)
advances far towards the final form. Here also the two meetings, as the
text was first written, have no dates, and the numbers given to the
meetings imply a much longer history of the Club than is suggested for
it subsequently. For the elaborate title or prolegomenon to this version
see pp. 148 - 9.
The third manuscript, 'C', is written in a fine script, but is not quite
complete: it extends to Ramer's words 'So there does appear to be at
least one other star with attendant planets' (p. 207), and it is clear that
no more was written of this text (which, incidentally, it would have
taken days to write).
A typescript 'D', made by my father, is the final form of Part One. In
one section of the text, however, D seems to have preceded C, since it-
has some B readings which were then changed to those of C; but the
final form of the text is scarcely ever in doubt, and even where it is the
differences are entirely trivial. Where C ends, the typescript follows B,
the place of transition being marked on the B manuscript. (A second
typescript - not, I think, made by my father - was begun, but
abandoned after only a few pages; this has no independent value.)

Part Two, 'The Strange Case of Arundel Lowdham', records a
number of further meetings of the Notion Club, continuous with those
of Part One. This second Part is largely devoted to the intrusion of the
Matter of Numenor into the discussions of the Notion Club, but of
this there are only two texts, a manuscript ('E') and a typescript ('F').



. goth end at the same point, with the next meeting of the Club