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diff --git a/22895.txt b/22895.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..596d7df --- /dev/null +++ b/22895.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1120 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Point of View, by Stanley Grauman Weinbaum + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Point of View + +Author: Stanley Grauman Weinbaum + +Release Date: October 5, 2007 [EBook #22895] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE POINT OF VIEW *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +Transcriber's Note: + + This etext was produced from _A Martian Odyssey and Others_ + published in 1949. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence + that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor + spelling and typographical errors have been corrected without note. + + + + +THE POINT OF VIEW + + + + +"I am too modest!" snapped the great Haskel van Manderpootz, pacing +irritably about the limited area of his private laboratory, glaring at +me the while. "That is the trouble. I undervalue my own achievements, +and thereby permit petty imitators like Corveille to influence the +committee and win the Morell prize." + +"But," I said soothingly, "you've won the Morell physics award half a +dozen times, professor. They can't very well give it to you every year." + +"Why not, since it is plain that I deserve it?" bristled the professor. +"Understand, Dixon, that I do not regret my modesty, even though it +permits conceited fools like Corveille, who have infinitely less reason +than I for conceit, to win awards that mean nothing save prizes for +successful bragging. Bah! To grant an award for research along such +obvious lines that I neglected to mention them, thinking that even a +Morell judge would appreciate their obviousness! Research on the +psychon, eh! Who discovered the psychon? Who but van Manderpootz?" + +"Wasn't that what you got last year's award for?" I asked consolingly. +"And after all, isn't this modesty, this lack of jealousy on your part, +a symbol of greatness of character?" + +"True--true!" said the great van Manderpootz, mollified. "Had such an +affront been committed against a lesser man than myself, he would +doubtless have entered a bitter complaint against the judges. But not I. +Anyway, I know from experience that it wouldn't do any good. And +besides, despite his greatness, van Manderpootz is as modest and +shrinking as a violet." At this point he paused, and his broad red face +tried to look violet-like. + +I suppressed a smile. I knew the eccentric genius of old, from the days +when I had been Dixon Wells, undergraduate student of engineering, and +had taken a course in Newer Physics (that is, in Relativity) under the +famous professor. For some unguessable reason, he had taken a fancy to +me, and as a result, I had been involved in several of his experiments +since graduation. There was the affair of the subjunctivisor, for +instance, and also that of the idealizator; in the first of these +episodes I had suffered the indignity of falling in love with a girl two +weeks after she was apparently dead, and in the second, the equal or +greater indignity of falling in love with a girl who didn't exist, never +had existed, and never would exist--in other words, with an ideal. +Perhaps I'm a little susceptible to feminine charms, or rather, perhaps +I used to be, for since the disaster of the idealizator, I have grimly +relegated such follies to the past, much to the disgust of various +'vision entertainers, singers, dancers, and the like. + +So of late I had been spending my days very seriously, trying +wholeheartedly to get to the office on time just once, so that I could +refer to it next time my father accused me of never getting anywhere on +time. I hadn't succeeded yet, but fortunately the N. J. Wells +Corporation was wealthy enough to survive even without the full-time +services of Dixon Wells, or should I say even _with_ them? Anyway, I'm +sure my father preferred to have me late in the morning after an evening +with van Manderpootz than after one with Tips Alva or Whimsy White, or +one of the numerous others of the ladies of the 'vision screen. Even in +the twenty-first century, he retained a lot of old-fashioned ideas. + +Van Manderpootz had ceased to remember that he was as modest and +shrinking as a violet. "It has just occurred to me," he announced +impressively, "that years have character much as humans have. This year, +2015, will be remembered in history as a very stupid year, in which the +Morell prize was given to a nincompoop. Last year, on the other hand, +was a very intelligent year, a jewel in the crown of civilization. Not +only was the Morell prize given to van Manderpootz, but I announced my +discrete field theory in that year, and the University unveiled Gogli's +statue of me as well." He sighed. "Yes, a very intelligent year! What do +you think?" + +"It depends on how you look at it," I responded glumly. "I didn't enjoy +it so much, what with Joanna Caldwell and Denise d'Agrion, and your +infernal experiments. It's all in the point of view." + +The professor snorted. "Infernal experiments, eh! Point of view! Of +course it's all in the point of view. Even Einstein's simple little +synthesis was enough to prove that. If the whole world could adopt an +intelligent and admirable point of view--that of van Manderpootz, for +instance--all troubles would be over. If it were possible--" He paused, +and an expression of amazed wonder spread over his ruddy face. + +"What's the matter?" I asked. + +"Matter? I am astonished! The astounding depths of genius awe me. I am +overwhelmed with admiration at the incalculable mysteries of a great +mind." + +"I don't get the drift." + +"Dixon," he said impressively, "you have been privileged to look upon an +example of the workings of a genius. More than that, you have planted +the seed from which perhaps shall grow the towering tree of thought. +Incredible as it seems, you, Dixon Wells, have given van Manderpootz an +idea! It is thus that genius seizes upon the small, the unimportant, the +negligible, and turns it to its own grand purposes. I stand awe-struck!" + +"But what--?" + +"Wait," said van Manderpootz, still in rapt admiration of the majesty of +his own mind. "When the tree bears fruit, you shall see it. Until then, +be satisfied that you have played a part in its planting." + + * * * * * + +It was perhaps a month before I saw van Manderpootz again, but one +bright spring evening his broad, rubicund face looked out of the +phone-screen at me. + +"It's ready," he announced impressively. + +"What is?" + +The professor looked pained at the thought that I could have forgotten. +"The tree has borne fruit," he explained. "If you wish to drop over to +my quarters, we'll proceed to the laboratory and try it out. I do not +set a time, so that it will be utterly impossible for you to be late." + +I ignored that last dig, but had a time been set, I would doubtless +have been even later than usual, for it was with some misgivings that I +induced myself to go at all. I still remembered the unpleasantness of my +last two experiences with the inventions of van Manderpootz. However, at +last we were seated in the small laboratory, while out in the larger one +the professor's technical assistant, Carter, puttered over some device, +and in the far corner his secretary, the plain and unattractive Miss +Fitch, transcribed lecture notes, for van Manderpootz abhorred the +thought that his golden utterances might be lost to posterity. On the +table between the professor and myself lay a curious device, something +that looked like a cross between a pair of nose-glasses and a miner's +lamp. + +"There it is," said van Manderpootz proudly. "There lies my +attitudinizor, which may well become an epoch-making device." + +"How? What does it do?" + +"I will explain. The germ of the idea traces back to that remark of +yours about everything depending on the point of view. A very obvious +statement, of course, but genius seizes on the obvious and draws from it +the obscure. Thus the thoughts of even the simplest mind can suggest to +the man of genius his sublime conceptions, as is evident from the fact +that I got this idea from you." + +"What idea?" + +"Be patient. There is much you must understand first. You must realize +just how true is the statement that everything depends on the point of +view. Einstein proved that motion, space, and time depend on the +particular point of view of the observer, or as he expressed it, on the +scale of reference used. I go farther than that, infinitely farther. I +propound the theory that the observer _is_ the point of view. I go even +beyond that, I maintain that the world itself is merely the point of +view!" + +"Huh?" + +"Look here," proceeded van Manderpootz. "It is obvious that the world I +see is entirely different from the one in which you live. It is equally +obvious that a strictly religious man occupies a different world than +that of a materialist. The fortunate man lives in a happy world; the +unfortunate man sees a world of misery. One man is happy with little, +another is miserable with much. Each sees the world from his own point +of view, which is the same as saying that each lives in his own world. +Therefore there are as many worlds as there are points of view." + +"But," I objected, "that theory is to disregard reality. Out of all the +different points of view, there must be one that is right, and all the +rest are wrong." + +"One would think so," agreed the professor. "One would think that +between the point of view of you, for instance, as contrasted with that +of, say van Manderpootz, there would be small doubt as to which was +correct. However, early in the twentieth century, Heisenberg enunciated +his Principle of Uncertainty, which proved beyond argument that a +completely accurate scientific picture of the world is quite impossible, +that the law of cause and effect is merely a phase of the law of chance, +that no infallible predictions can ever be made, and that what science +used to call natural laws are really only descriptions of the way in +which the human mind perceives nature. In other words, the character of +the world depends entirely on the mind observing it, or, to return to my +earlier statement, the point of view." + +"But no one can ever really understand another person's point of view," +I said. "It isn't fair to undermine the whole basis of science because +you can't be sure that the color we both call red wouldn't look green to +you if you could see it through my eyes." + +"Ah!" said van Manderpootz triumphantly. "So we come now to my +attitudinizor. Suppose that it were possible for me to see through your +eyes, or you through mine. Do you see what a boon such an ability would +be to humanity? Not only from the standpoint of science, but also +because it would obviate all troubles due to misunderstandings. And even +more." Shaking his finger, the professor recited oracularly, "'Oh, wad +some pow'r the giftie gie us to see oursel's as ithers see us.' Van +Manderpootz is that power, Dixon. Through my attitudinizor, one may at +last adopt the viewpoint of another. The poet's plaint of more than two +centuries ago is answered at last." + +"How the devil do you see through somebody else's eyes?" + +"Very simply. You will recall the idealizator. Now it is obvious that +when I peered over your shoulder and perceived in the mirror your +conception of the ideal woman, I was, to a certain extent, adopting your +point of view. In that case the psychons given off by your mind were +converted into quanta of visible light, which could be seen. In the +case of my attitudinizor, the process is exactly reversed. One flashes +the beam of this light on the subject whose point of view is desired; +the visible light is reflected back with a certain accompaniment of +psychons, which are here intensified to a degree which will permit them +to be, so to speak, appreciated?" + +"Psychons?" + +"Have you already forgotten my discovery of the unit particle of +thought? Must I explain again how the cosmons, chronons, spations, +psychons, and all other particles are interchangeable? And that," he +continued abstractedly, "leads to certain interesting speculations. +Suppose I were to convert, say, a ton of material protons and electrons +into spations--that is, convert matter into space. I calculate that a +ton of matter will produce approximately a cubic mile of space. Now the +question is, where would we put it, since all the space we have is +already occupied by space? Or if I manufactured an hour or two of time? +It is obvious that we have no time to fit in an extra couple of hours, +since all our time is already accounted for. Doubtless it will take a +certain amount of thought for even van Manderpootz to solve these +problems, but at the moment I am curious to watch the workings of the +attitudinizor. Suppose you put it on, Dixon." + +"I? Haven't _you_ tried it out yet?" + +"Of course not. In the first place, what has van Manderpootz to gain by +studying the viewpoints of other people? The object of the device is to +permit people to study nobler viewpoints than their own. And in the +second place, I have asked myself whether it is fair to the world for +van Manderpootz to be the first to try out a new and possibly +untrustworthy device, and I reply, 'No!'" + +"But _I_ should try it out, eh? Well, everytime I try out any of your +inventions I find myself in some kind of trouble. I'd be a fool to go +around looking for more difficulty, wouldn't I?" + +"I assure you that _my_ viewpoint will be much less apt to get you into +trouble than your own," said van Manderpootz with dignity. "There will +be no question of your becoming involved in some impossible love affair +as long as you stick to that." + +Nevertheless, despite the assurance of the great scientist, I was more +than a little reluctant to don the device. Yet I was curious, as well; +it seemed a fascinating prospect to be able to look at the world through +other eyes, as fascinating as visiting a new world--which it was, +according to the professor. So after a few moments of hesitation, I +picked up the instrument, slipped it over my head so that the eyeglasses +were in the proper position, and looked inquiringly at van Manderpootz. + +"You must turn it on," he said, reaching over and clicking a switch on +the frame. "Now flash the light to my face. That's the way; just center +the circle of light on my face. And now what do you see?" + +I didn't answer; what I saw was, for the moment, quite indescribable. I +was completely dazed and bewildered, and it was only when some +involuntary movement of my head at last flashed the light from the +professor's face to the table top that a measure of sanity returned, +which proves at least that tables do not possess any point of view. + +"O-o-o-h!" I gasped. + +Van Manderpootz beamed. "Of course you are overwhelmed. One could hardly +expect to adopt the view of van Manderpootz without some difficulties of +adjustment. A second time will be easier." + +I reached up and switched off the light. "A second time will not only be +easier, but also impossible," I said crossly. "I'm not going to +experience another dizzy spell like that for anybody." + +"But of course you will, Dixon. I am certain that the dizziness will be +negligible on the second trial. Naturally the unexpected heights +affected you, much as if you were to come without warning to the brink +of a colossal precipice. But this time you will be prepared, and the +effect will be much less." + +Well, it was. After a few moments I was able to give my full attention +to the phenomena of the attitudinizor, and queer phenomena they were, +too. I scarcely know how to describe the sensation of looking at the +world through the filter of another's mind. It is almost an +indescribable experience, but so, in the ultimate analysis, is any other +experience. + +What I saw first was a kaleidoscopic array of colors and shapes, but the +amazing, astounding, inconceivable thing about the scene was that there +was no single color I could recognize! The eyes of van Manderpootz, or +perhaps his brain, interpreted color in a fashion utterly alien to the +way in which my own functioned, and the resultant spectrum was so +bizarre that there is simply no way of describing any single tint in +words. To say, as I did to the professor, that his conception of red +looked to me like a shade between purple and green conveys absolutely no +meaning, and the only way a third person could appreciate the meaning +would be to examine my point of view through an attitudinizor _while_ I +was examining that of van Manderpootz. Thus he could apprehend my +conception of van Manderpootz's reaction to the color red. + +And shapes! It took me several minutes to identify the weird, angular, +twisted, distorted appearance in the center of the room as the plain +laboratory table. The room itself, aside from its queer form, looked +smaller, perhaps because van Manderpootz is somewhat larger than I. + +But by far the strangest part of his point of view had nothing to do +with the outlook upon the physical world, but with the more fundamental +elements--with his _attitudes_. Most of his thoughts, on that first +occasion, were beyond me, because I had not yet learned to interpret the +personal symbolism in which he thought. But I did understand his +attitudes. There was Carter, for instance, toiling away out in the large +laboratory; I saw at once what a plodding, unintelligent drudge he +seemed to van Manderpootz. And there was Miss Fitch; I confess that she +had always seemed unattractive to me, but my impression of her was Venus +herself beside that of the professor! She hardly seemed human to him and +I am sure that he never thought of her as a woman, but merely as a piece +of convenient but unimportant laboratory equipment. + +At this point I caught a glimpse of myself through the eyes of van +Manderpootz. Ouch! Perhaps I'm not a genius, but I'm dead certain that +I'm not the grinning ape I appeared to be in his eyes. And perhaps I'm +not exactly the handsomest man in the world either, but if I thought I +looked like that--! And then, to cap the climax, I apprehended van +Manderpootz's conception of himself! + +"That's enough!" I yelled. "I won't stay around here just to be +insulted. I'm through!" + +I tore the attitudinizor from my head and tossed it to the table, +feeling suddenly a little foolish at the sight of the grin on the face +of the professor. + +"That is hardly the spirit which has led science to its great +achievements, Dixon," he observed amiably. "Suppose you describe the +nature of the insults, and if possible, something about the workings of +the attitudinizor as well. After all, that is what you were supposed to +be observing." + +I flushed, grumbled a little, and complied. Van Manderpootz listened +with great interest to my description of the difference in our physical +worlds, especially the variations in our perceptions of form and color. + +"What a field for an artist!" he ejaculated at last. "Unfortunately, it +is a field that must remain forever untapped, because even though an +artist examined a thousand viewpoints and learned innumerable new +colors, his pigments would continue to impress his audience with the +same old colors each of them had always known." He sighed thoughtfully, +and then proceeded. "However, the device is apparently quite safe to +use. I shall therefore try it briefly, bringing to the investigation a +calm, scientific mind which refuses to be troubled by the trifles that +seem to bother you." + +He donned the attitudinizor, and I must confess that he stood the shock +of the first trial somewhat better than I did. After a surprised "Oof!" +he settled down to a complacent analysis of my point of view, while I +sat somewhat self-consciously under his calm appraisal. Calm, that is, +for about three minutes. + +Suddenly he leaped to his feet, tearing the device from a face whose +normal ruddiness had deepened to a choleric angry color. "Get out!" he +roared. "So _that's_ the way van Manderpootz looks to you! Moron! Idiot! +Imbecile! Get out!" + + * * * * * + +It was a week or ten days later that I happened to be passing the +University on my way from somewhere to somewhere else, and I fell to +wondering whether the professor had yet forgiven me. There was a light +in the window of his laboratory over in the Physics Building, so I +dropped in, making my way past the desk where Carter labored, and the +corner where Miss Fitch sat in dull primness at her endless task of +transcribing lecture notes. + +Van Manderpootz greeted me cordially enough, but with a curious +assumption of melancholy in his manner. "Ah, Dixon," he began, "I am +glad to see you. Since our last meeting, I have learned much of the +stupidity of the world, and it appears to me now that you are actually +one of the more intelligent contemporary minds." + +This from van Manderpootz! "Why--thank you," I said. + +"It is true. For some days I have sat at the window overlooking the +street there, and have observed the viewpoints of the passers-by. Would +you believe"--his voice lowered--"would you believe that only seven and +four-tenths percent are even aware of the _existence_ of van +Manderpootz? And doubtless many of the few that are, come from among the +students in the neighborhood. I knew that the average level of +intelligence was low, but it had not occurred to me that it was as low +as that." + +"After all," I said consolingly, "you must remember that the +achievements of van Manderpootz are such as to attract the attention of +the intelligent few rather than of the many." + +"A very silly paradox!" he snapped. "On the basis of that theory, since +the higher one goes in the scale of intelligence, the fewer individuals +one finds, the greatest achievement of all is one that _nobody_ has +heard of. By that test you would be greater than van Manderpootz, an +obvious _reductio ad absurdum_." + +He glared his reproof that I should even have thought of the point, then +something in the outer laboratory caught his ever-observant eye. + +"Carter!" he roared. "Is that a synobasical interphasometer in the +positronic flow? Fool! What sort of measurements do you expect to make +when your measuring instrument itself is part of the experiment? Take it +out and start over!" + +He rushed away toward the unfortunate technician. I settled idly back in +my chair and stared about the small laboratory, whose walls had seen so +many marvels. The latest, the attitudinizor, lay carelessly on the +table, dropped there by the professor after his analysis of the mass +viewpoint of the pedestrians in the street below. + +I picked up the device and fell to examining its construction. Of course +this was utterly beyond me, for no ordinary engineer can hope to grasp +the intricacies of a van Manderpootz concept. So, after a puzzled but +admiring survey of its infinitely delicate wires and grids and lenses, I +made the obvious move. I put it on. + +My first thought was the street, but since the evening was well along, +the walk below the window was deserted. Back in my chair again, I sat +musing idly when a faint sound that was not the rumbling of the +professor's voice attracted my attention. I identified it shortly as the +buzzing of a heavy fly, butting its head stupidly against the pane of +glass that separated the small laboratory from the large room beyond. I +wondered casually what the viewpoint of a fly was like, and ended by +flashing the light on the creature. + +For some moments I saw nothing other than I had been seeing right along +from my own personal point of view, because, as van Manderpootz +explained later, the psychons from the miserable brain of a fly are too +few to produce any but the vaguest of impressions. But gradually I +became aware of a picture, a queer and indescribable scene. + +Flies are color-blind. That was my first impression, for the world was a +dull panorama of greys and whites and blacks. Flies are extremely +nearsighted; when I had finally identified the scene as the interior of +the familiar room, I discovered that it seemed enormous to the insect, +whose vision did not extend more than six feet, though it did take in +almost a complete sphere, so that the creature could see practically in +all directions at once. But perhaps the most astonishing thing, though I +did not think of it until later, was that the compound eye of the +insect, did not convey to it the impression of a vast number of separate +pictures, such as the eye produces when a microphotograph is taken +through it. The fly sees one picture just as we do; in the same way as +our brain rights the upside-down image cast on our retina, the fly's +brain reduces the compound image to one. And beyond these impressions +were a wild hodge-podge of smell-sensations, and a strange desire to +burst through the invisible glass barrier into the brighter light +beyond. But I had no time to analyze these sensations, for suddenly +there was a flash of something infinitely clearer than the dim +cerebrations of a fly. + +For half a minute or longer I was unable to guess what that momentary +flash had been. I knew that I had seen something incredibly lovely, that +I had tapped a viewpoint that looked upon something whose very presence +caused ecstasy, but whose viewpoint it was, or what that flicker of +beauty had been, were questions beyond my ability to answer. + +I slipped off the attitudinizor and sat staring perplexedly at the +buzzing fly on the pane of glass. Out in the other room van Manderpootz +continued his harangue to the repentant Carter, and off in a corner +invisible from my position I could hear the rustle of papers as Miss +Fitch transcribed endless notes. I puzzled vainly over the problem of +what had happened, and then the solution dawned on me. + +The fly must have buzzed between me and one of the occupants of the +outer laboratory. I had been following its flight with the faintly +visible beam of the attitudinizor's light, and that beam must have +flickered momentarily on the head of one of the three beyond the glass. +But which? Van Manderpootz himself? It must have been either the +professor or Carter, since the secretary was quite beyond range of the +light. + +It seemed improbable that the cold and brilliant mind of van Manderpootz +could be the agency of the sort of emotional ecstasy I had sensed. It +must therefore, have been the head of the mild and inoffensive little +Carter that the beam had tapped. With a feeling of curiosity I slipped +the device back on my own head and sent the beam sweeping dimly into the +larger room. + +It did not at the time occur to me that such a procedure was quite as +discreditable as eavesdropping, or even more dishonorable, if you come +right down to it, because it meant the theft of far more personal +information than one could ever convey by the spoken word. But all I +considered at the moment was my own curiosity; I wanted to learn what +sort of viewpoint could produce that strange, instantaneous flash of +beauty. If the proceeding was unethical--well, Heaven knows I was +punished for it. + +So I turned the attitudinizor on Carter. At the moment, he was listening +respectfully to van Manderpootz, and I sensed clearly his respect for +the great man, a respect that had in it a distinct element of fear. I +could hear Carter's impression of the booming voice of the professor, +sounding somewhat like the modulated thunder of a god, which was not far +from the little man's actual opinion of his master. I perceived Carter's +opinion of himself, and his self-picture was an even more mouselike +portrayal than my own impression of him. When, for an instant, he +glanced my way, I sensed his impression of me, and while I'm sure that +Dixon Wells is not the imbecile he appears to van Manderpootz, I'm +equally sure that he's not the debonair man of the world he seemed to +Carter. All in all, Carter's point of view seemed that of a timid, +inoffensive, retiring, servile little man, and I wondered all the more +what could have caused that vanished flash of beauty in a mind like his. + +There was no trace of it now. His attention was completely taken up by +the voice of van Manderpootz, who had passed from a personal appraisal +of Carter's stupidity to a general lecture on the fallacies of the +unified field theory as presented by his rivals Corveille and Shrimski. +Carter was listening with an almost worshipful regard, and I could feel +his surges of indignation against the villains who dared to disagree +with the authority of van Manderpootz. + +I sat there intent on the strange double vision of the attitudinizor, +which was in some respects like a Horsten psychomat--that is, one is +able to see both through his own eyes and through the eyes of his +subject. Thus I could see van Manderpootz and Carter quite clearly, but +at the same time I could see or sense what Carter saw and sensed. Thus I +perceived suddenly through my own eyes that the professor had ceased +talking to Carter, and had turned at the approach of somebody as yet +invisible to me, while at the same time, through Carter's eyes, I saw +that vision of ecstasy which had flashed for a moment in his mind. I +saw--description is utterly impossible, but I saw a woman who, except +possibly for the woman of the idealizator screen, was the most beautiful +creature I had ever seen! + +I say description is impossible. That is the literal truth, for her +coloring, her expression, her figure, as seen through Carter's eyes, +were completely unlike anything expressible by words. I was fascinated, +I could do nothing but watch, and I felt a wild surge of jealousy as I +caught the adoration in the attitude of the humble Carter. She was +glorious, magnificent, indescribable. It was with an effort that I +untangled myself from the web of fascination enough to catch Carter's +thought of her name. "Lisa," he was thinking. "Lisa." + +What she said to van Manderpootz was in tones too low for me to hear, +and apparently too low for Carter's ears as well, else I should have +heard her words through the attitudinizor. But both of us heard van +Manderpootz's bellow in answer. + +"I don't care how the dictionary pronounces the word!" he roared. "The +way van Manderpootz pronounces a word is right!" + +The glorious Lisa turned silently and vanished. For a few moments I +watched her through Carter's eyes, but as she neared the laboratory +door, he turned his attention again to van Manderpootz, and she was lost +to my view. + +And as I saw the professor close his dissertation and approach me, I +slipped the attitudinizor from my head and forced myself to a measure of +calm. + +"Who is she?" I demanded. "I've got to meet her!" + +He looked blankly at me. "Who's who?" + +"Lisa! Who's Lisa?" + +There was not a flicker in the cool blue eyes of van Manderpootz. "I +don't know any Lisa," he said indifferently. + +"But you were just talking to her! Right out there!" + +Van Manderpootz stared curiously at me; then little by little a shrewd +suspicion seemed to dawn in his broad, intelligent features. "Hah!" he +said. "Have you, by any chance, been using the attitudinizor?" + +I nodded, chill apprehension gripping me. + +"And is it also true that you chose to investigate the viewpoint of +Carter out there?" At my nod, he stepped to the door that joined the two +rooms, and closed it. When he faced me again, it was with features +working into lines of amusement that suddenly found utterance in booming +laughter. "Haw!" he roared. "Do you know who beautiful Lisa is? She's +Fitch!" + +"Fitch? You're mad! She's glorious, and Fitch is plain and scrawny and +ugly. Do you think I'm a fool?" + +"You ask an embarrassing question," chuckled the professor. "Listen to +me, Dixon. The woman you saw was my secretary, Miss Fitch, seen through +the eyes of Carter. Don't you understand? The idiot Carter's in love +with her!" + + * * * * * + +I suppose I walked the upper levels half the night, oblivious alike of +the narrow strip of stars that showed between the towering walls of +twenty-first century New York, and the intermittent roar of traffic +from the freight levels. Certainly this was the worst predicament of all +those into which the fiendish contraptions of the great van Manderpootz +had thrust me. + +In love with a point of view! In love with a woman who had no existence +apart from the beglamoured eyes of Carter. It wasn't Lisa Fitch I loved; +indeed, I rather hated her angular ugliness. What I had fallen in love +with was the way she looked to Carter, for there is nothing in the world +quite as beautiful as a lover's conception of his sweetheart. + +This predicament was far worse than my former ones. When I had fallen in +love with a girl already dead, I could console myself with the thought +of what might have been. When I had fallen in love with my own +ideal--well, at least she was _mine_, even if I couldn't have her. But +to fall in love with another man's conception! The only way that +conception could even continue to exist was for Carter to remain in love +with Lisa Fitch, which rather effectually left me outside the picture +altogether. She was absolutely unattainable to me, for Heaven knows I +didn't want the real Lisa Fitch--"real" meaning, of course, the one who +was real to me. I suppose in the end Carter's Lisa Fitch was as real as +the skinny scarecrow my eyes saw. + +She was unattainable--or was she? Suddenly an echo of a long-forgotten +psychology course recurred to me. Attitudes are habits. Viewpoints are +attitudes. Therefore viewpoints are habits. And habits can be learned! + +There was the solution! All I had to do was to learn, or to acquire by +practice, the viewpoint of Carter. What I had to do was literally to put +myself in his place, to look at things in his way, to see his viewpoint. +For once I learned to do that, I could see in Lisa Fitch the very things +he saw, and the vision would become reality to me as well as to him. + +I planned carefully. I did not care to face the sarcasm of the great van +Manderpootz; therefore I would work in secret. I would visit his +laboratory at such times as he had classes or lectures, and I would use +the attitudinizor to study the viewpoint of Carter, and to, as it were, +practice that viewpoint. Thus I would have the means at hand of testing +my progress, for all I had to do was glance at Miss Fitch without the +attitudinizor. As soon as I began to perceive in her what Carter saw, I +would know that success was imminent. + +Those next two weeks were a strange interval of time. I haunted the +laboratory of van Manderpootz at odd hours, having learned from the +University office what periods he devoted to his courses. When one day I +found the attitudinizor missing, I prevailed on Carter to show me where +it was kept, and he, influenced doubtless by my friendship for the man +he practically worshipped, indicated the place without question. But +later I suspect that he began to doubt his wisdom in this, for I know he +thought it very strange for me to sit for long periods staring at him; I +caught all sorts of puzzled questions in his mind, though as I have +said, these were hard for me to decipher until I began to learn Carter's +personal system of symbolism by which he thought. But at least one man +was pleased--my father, who took my absences from the office and neglect +of business as signs of good health and spirits, and congratulated me +warmly on the improvement. + +But the experiment was beginning to work, I found myself sympathizing +with Carter's viewpoint, and little by little the mad world in which he +lived was becoming as logical as my own. I learned to recognize colors +through his eyes; I learned to understand form and shape; most +fundamental of all, I learned his values, his attitudes, his tastes. And +these last were a little inconvenient at times, for on the several +occasions when I supplemented my daily calls with visits to van +Manderpootz in the evening, I found some difficulty in separating my own +respectful regard for the great man from Carter's unreasoning worship, +with the result that I was on the verge of blurting out the whole thing +to him several times. And perhaps it was a guilty conscience, but I kept +thinking that the shrewd blue eyes of the professor rested on me with a +curiously suspicious expression all evening. + +The thing was approaching its culmination. Now and then, when I looked +at the angular ugliness of Miss Fitch, I began to catch glimpses of the +same miraculous beauty that Carter found in her--glimpses only, but +harbingers of success. Each day I arrived at the laboratory with +increasing eagerness, for each day brought me nearer to the achievement +I sought. That is, my eagerness increased until one day I arrived to +find neither Carter nor Miss Fitch present, but van Manderpootz, who +should have been delivering a lecture on indeterminism, very much in +evidence. + +"Uh--hello," I said weakly. + +"Umph!" he responded, glaring at me. "So Carter was right, I see. Dixon, +the abysmal stupidity of the human race continually astounds me with new +evidence of its astronomical depths, but I believe this escapade of +yours plumbs the uttermost regions of imbecility." + +"M-my escapade?" + +"Do you think you can escape the piercing eye of van Manderpootz? As +soon as Carter told me you had been here in my absence, my mind leaped +nimbly to the truth. But Carter's information was not even necessary, +for half an eye was enough to detect the change in your attitude on +these last few evening visits. So you've been trying to adopt Carter's +viewpoint, eh? No doubt with the idea of ultimately depriving him of the +charming Miss Fitch!" + +"W-why--" + +"Listen to me, Dixon. We will disregard the ethics of the thing and look +at it from a purely rational viewpoint, if a rational viewpoint is +possible to anybody but van Manderpootz. Don't you realize that in order +to attain Carter's attitude toward Fitch, you would have to adopt his +_entire_ viewpoint? Not," he added tersely, "that I think his point of +view is greatly inferior to yours, but I happen to prefer the viewpoint +of a donkey to that of a mouse. Your particular brand of stupidity is +more agreeable to me than Carter's timid, weak, and subservient nature, +and some day you will thank me for this. Was his impression of Fitch +worth the sacrifice of your own personality?" + +"I--I don't know." + +"Well, whether it was or not, van Manderpootz has decided the matter in +the wisest way. For it's too late now, Dixon. I have given them both a +month's leave and sent them away--on a honeymoon. They left this +morning." + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Point of View, by Stanley Grauman Weinbaum + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE POINT OF VIEW *** + +***** This file should be named 22895.txt or 22895.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/8/9/22895/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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