NOTE: If you haven’t been following this from the beginning, and if you want to know the full sequence of events, start with the introduction. Click on Archives on the right.
Diddlie and Serge are up on the Zoom screen.
She appears to be sitting outside with asters
reaching for sunlight, in a blue smear behind her.
“LIVID SLUGS!”
“Are you talking about the mollusk?”
“It’s the name of a band, Fred.”
“I am pretty much in the dark.”
“Just bear with me, okay?”
“Sorry I am late logging on.”
“Fred, we are talking about a very big deal with serious implications.”
“Oh?”
“Okay, have you heard any of their songs?”
“No, don’t even know their name.”
“You can stream free on Halloween.”
The Red Queen interrupts.
“Off-to-bed, Off-to-bed, Off-to-bed”
“Quiet, Queenie!”
Diddlie mutes her connection. Her head moves out of her virtual floral background as if she were pulling a tee shirt off over her head. It fills the space she once occupied as seamlessly as a fluid.
Serge is on screen.
“Did you know Liberty Trip is working with them?”
“Is she? The last I heard she was out West looking for a job.”
“She is back in the business.”
“How did she do it?”
“Through Nubile State College.”
“You mean she went back to school?”
“Right, studying communications, and stuff.”
Serge’s image has gone. Replaced by that of Liberty Trip.
“Hi, Liberty.”
She does not respond. She is in conversation with someone
who is represented by a phone number in place of their picture.
“You can find the SLUGS on You Tube.”
“Are they appearing in person? Like, live on stage somewhere?”
“Not yet.”
“So, who are they?”
“Granular Evidence has attested to their true existence in a Shrinkrap article.”
“Granular who?”
“You know, the new music critic on Shrinkrap.”
“I haven’t been following Shrinkrap. They are messed up!”
“Anyway, just check out her post on Shrinkrap. It went viral and boosted
the band’s name recognition enormously.”
“Testimony huh?”
“Right Gran. confronts the deniers.”
“Yeah, okay.”
“They play translucent plastic string instruments; like
a green cello, purple bass, red electronic harpsichord, and yellow violin.”
“That’s different.”
“You can see the LEDs illuminating them from inside.”
“Must show up well in the dark!”
“Yeah, it is an important part of the act.”
“Come to think of it, I have seen those people in identical masks.”
“Okay, so that might have been the SLUGS!”
“The vocals sound synthesized, to me.”
“They have been accused of using celebrity voices.”
The screen fills with a portion of an interview. Looks as if it was downloaded from TV. The unnamed announcer asks:
“Here is Laticia Lantern.”
Laticia puts the question.
“Are LIVID SLUGS real people or electronically generated?”
“Yes, they are real and claim non-binary status.”
“How do you know?”
The screen goes blank with a few bars of distorted string music before showing two people arguing in a hallway. They are silhouetted against sunlight coming in through glass doors a few yards away.
“Yeah, okay.”
”I have seen them. The Slugs, I mean on You Tube wearing shapeless smocks that
make them all look identical.”
Ah, Did. Is this a recording?”
She does not respond, and the argument goes on.
“How does that make them real?”
“Depends on what you mean by real.”
“I mean living breathing organisms, homosapiens.”
“You sound like some kind of Zoologist!”
“No, I am interested in the difference between actual people and the products of computer code.”
“You are so twentieth century!”
“NO, I am right here in the twenty-first.”
“There is no difference now!”
“It seems important to me.”
“Wait a minute. This argument could go on forever.”
Diddlie is back on screen. Looks like a teenager standing on a rock with mountains behind her.
“What are you doing Did?”
She still doesn’t answer. She seems to be screening a recorded conversation with no video. I go on listening, not knowing if I am hearing Diddlie’s voice with her youthful panoramic Alpine shot on screen.
“Did you hear LIVID SLUG’S first song?”
“It was something about running for President.”
“Right, the song asks for vice presidential hopefuls to come forward
at their next concert, to be announced in 2022.”
“That is absurd, only an individual can run.”
“Where is that in the Constitution?”
“The President and Vice President are offices held by one person in each.”
“According to Article II of the U.S. Constitution, the president must be a natural-born citizen of the United States, be at least 35 years old, and have been a resident of the United States for 14 years.”
“Well, you have a point there, but it is just a technicality.”
“A bit more than that. I think.”
Diddlie is holding a picture in front of her computer camera.
“This is a photo of Granular Evidence herself. She gave a news conference in Miami
at the same time the song was released.”
The voice-over says:
“Here is that spectacular new celebrity, Granular, Evidence!”
I see someone dressed up as an English schoolboy with
a deep purple blazer, shorts, white shirt, and running shoes, plus orange tie, long purple socks, and orange cap. After a few flickers on screen, there is another video where two students wearing green Nubile State hoodies argue in an empty classroom.
“Why does she have such a masculine voice?”
“Because Gran. is nonbinary.”
“Is it her real voice?”
“It is as real as you hear it!”
“Well, okay but is that her true voice?”
“We all have our own truth.”
“We do?”
“Sure! What’s true to me may not be true to you.”
“That’s opinion.”
“No, it is not my opinion.”
“Yes it is, truth itself is not a matter of opinion.”
“Listen, when I believe something, it is true to me.”
“Belief and truth are two different things.”
“In my experience my belief is true!”
“Yes, we all have our own experience.”
“Well, isn’t experience a kind of truth?”
“You can say that, sure, but that is a poetical use of the word.”
“What’s political about it?”
“I said poetical.”
“Okay, so we all have our own experience, right?”
“We do!”
“My experience listening to LIVID SLUGS is just as real
as yours.”
“Our experiences may be real but that doesn’t make the
LIVID SLUGS real or not real.”
Diddlie is back in front of a new virtual background, goldenrod with bumblebees loading their pollen sacks with gold.
“So, Fred what do you think?”
“Think of what?”
“I am now, TECH WOMAN!”
“Oh, so that’s what is going on!”
“How did you like my little ‘guided Zoom’?”
“Well, I found it very confusing!”
“Why?”
“Who are all those people?”
“It doesn’t matter. I wanted to present the current state of discussion of the LIVID SLUGS phenomenon as it is right now in the cybersphere.”
“Did you do all that for me?”
“Well, I was thinking of you, but it was also a learning experience because Serge was showing me how to put that stuff together.”
“It was a learning experience for me too. I mean, I am just out of it!
“Not as long as you can log on!”
“Maybe so!”
“It is getting dark here.”
“Here too, I just heard some thunder”
“Wait a minute, I am going to turn on the light.”
There is a simultaneous flash of lightning and thunder. The light goes out and the screen is as dark as it is outside.
