Diary of Dr Claudia Skimmerhorn, Head of
Anthropology at Queens College City University of New York
Thursday, Jan 5, 2017.
(for earlier chapters in this story, click the label link Anthropologists of Gor at the bottom of the post)
Antichthon
Oliver and I
are waiting in my office for the Zoom call for the final decision on our grant
to travel to Gor. I had never been in contact with the Remote Anthropology
Foundation before last year when I began research to find funding for a true
scientific expedition to Gor. I had heard of them for years of course, a
shadowy group that funded expeditions to remote areas, but I had never expected
to be needing their funding. Once Oliver and I found Dr John Norman’s language
tapes and his method of going to the Antichthon, the planet on the other side
of the sun first posited by Aristotle, things changed. Now our proposal, mine
really with Oliver tagging along and helping, to actually go to the mysterious
planet is before their board.
I don’t really trust this new
communications method of remote meeting, but technological advance on Earth is
relentless and unrestrained, and all of us must accept it or fall behind. How
different it was on that other planet when I made my solo exploratory ‘proof of
concept’ trip. There people of all ranks and castes would stop to gaze at a
sunset, watch some birds swoop and dip in the air, exclaim over a lovely bit of
carving. Now Oliver and I wait, anxiously, for the meeting to begin.
