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VARIOt r i a n n u l a r m a g a z i n eNo.4September 2007Fr. 6.75ISSN 1420340-5 * Printed in WondianaVarioArt GallerySelections1420034 000002 1 4PORTRAITStanislaw LemASTRONOMYA Real Shooting Star: Mira CetiSpring Skies of WondianaEndangered SpeciesAre we taking them to hell with us?BENEFITS OF BIODIVERSITY THERE ARE WAYS YOU CAN HELP THEM SURVIVE!

MONTHS OF COMPOSERSeditorialeditorialSEPTEMBER 2007rALPH VAUGHAN-WILLIAMSRalph Vaughan-Williams(1872-1958)VARIOMETERHello again!Vario finally comes out with its fourth issue! It’s been a very long time since ourprevious issue which was in January 2005!!! I am not hoping to meet again in 2009. Wewill try better to live upto our schedule for the next issue in January 2008... :)In this issue...One benefit that we had with VARIO’s long period of absence was the long sustenanceof our previous cover based on Global Warming at the home page and we believe thatit has been strongly emphasized. However, we can’t say that it’s been adequate... Eventwo years after, we can deeply feel the preliminary effects of global warming in ourenvironment. In this issue, we have covered the Endangered Species. Animals andplants are also affected from the results of global warming and other human activities.In our total struggle of survival, as the entire planet, we, the human, are making greatmistakes and jeopardizing their lives as well as ourselves. Protecting other speciesensures us the biodiversity that we need to survive. Protecting other species means toprotect our own lives...¯Stanislaw Lem has silently passed away on March 27, 2006, 84 years old. He was oneof the leading figures and pioneers of science-fiction. With a strong touch of witty humour,his elaborate stories told us about ourselves; showed us how a nonsensical plot is thatwhat we call life... He was the one who found out the true meaning of life and was tryingto tell us with an original means: science-fiction...We have quoted one of the most beautiful reviews about him by Nathan M. Powers whichwas written in 1999, seven years before his death and an interview made by Lem’scompatriot Wojciech Orlinski in 1996.¯Astronomy is Vario’s newly discovered area... As with the start of activities of WARESA(Wondian Astronomical Research Association) in www.waresa.org. We will have a plentyof interesting materials to publish. As a prelude, we have covered the Cetus Star: Mira,a.k.a Omicron Ceti. Astronomers recently have discovered a tail-like substance trailedby the star that is 13 light years long which can only be viewed at ultraviolet band oflight. You can find its detailed story within our pages.Also, starting with this issue, Vario will have a new continuous Astronomy sectiondisplaying sky maps for Wondiana for the current season.¯VarioArt Gallery is a concept that has been initiated at our website a while ago. Nowwe are publishing a selection from the works thereof. These works include any kind ofvisual creation such as photograph, drawing, painting, etc. If you want to contribute tothe VarioArt Gallery, please contact: info@variomagazine.comI hope you enjoy our new Vario; see you next issue...— THE EDITORVARIO /043

VARIOt r i a n n u a l m a g a z i n eSeptember 2007 / No.4Vario Magazine Publication, Inc.27 Rue Deschamps, Rt. BrittanyVT 94446 - SYDLANCH/WONDIANAPhone: +71 777 345 1200 (pbx)Fax: +71 777 345 1255 - info@variomagazine.comVISIT OUR ONLINE VERSION ATwww.variomagazine.comFeaturesPORTRAIT: Stanislaw LemCOVER: Endangered SpeciesCONTENTSECOLOGY: There Are Ways You CanHelp!ASTRONOMY: A Real Shooting Star122431343404 Inside314VARIO /04SEP 2007www.variomagazine.comContinuous PagesVARIOMETER/EditorialPoet Laureate - Yusuf EradamShort Story - Shirley JacksonSKY: Spring Skies in WondianaVarioArt GalleryFANTASY: Drawing Tolkien’s MindDictionary of Word OriginsReview/VideoReview/AudioReview/BookHumour - MordilloAdvertisement IndexWondian National Philharmonic Orch.Network WondiénneAir WondianaWondian Dept. of Energy/EPIAPacific Telecommunications Gp.VarioMediaRespect the Earth Mvt.iosys Information TechnologiesWondian Dept. of TourismBlue Bayou InternationalKport37838404546464747482611192123293341434412Stanislaw LemA RealShooting Star!24EndangeredSpecies38Spring Skiesin WondianaCOVER PHOTOGRAPHS.Taheri, Wikimedia, 2006There areWays!45DrawingTolkien’s MindVARIO /045

Yusuf EradamPOETRYPOETRYwww.wondiana.netPoet Laureate of WondianaOh God, if Iamgoingtodie,whydoesthisorangesmellsobeautifully,why?Could Be an Apple Too...where trues come dream...www.yusuferadam.comVARIO /047

SHORTSTORYSHORT STORYShirley JacksonThe LotteryTMr. Graves opened the slip of paper and there was a general sighthrough the crowd as he held it up and everyone could see that it wasblank. Nancy and Bill, Jr., opened theirs at the same time, and bothbeamed and laughed, turning around to the crowd and holding theirslips of paper above their heads.he morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmthof a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely andthe grass was richly green. The people of the village began to gather inthe square, between the post office and the bank, around ten o’clock;in some towns there were so many people that the lottery took two daysand had to be started on June 20th, but in this village, where there wereonly about three hundred people, the whole lottery took less than twohours, so it could begin at ten o’clock in the morning and still be throughin time to allow the villagers to get home for noon dinner.The children assembled first, of course. School was recently over for thesummer, and the feeling of liberty sat uneasily on most of them; theytended to gather together quietly for a while before they broke intoboisterous play, and their talk was still of the classroom and the teacher,of books and reprimands. Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pocketsfull of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example, selectingthe smoothest and roundest stones; Bobby and Harry Jones and DickieDelacroix—the villagers pronounced this name “Dellacroy”—eventuallymade a great pile of stones in one corner of the square and guarded itagainst the raids of the other boys. The girls stood aside, talking amongthemselves, looking over their shoulders at the boys, and the very smallchildren rolled in the dust or clung to the hands of their older brothersor sisters.The original paraphernalia for the lottery had been lost long ago, and theblack box now resting on the stool had been put into use even before OldMan Warner, the oldest man in town, was born. Mr. Summers spokefrequently to the villagers about making a new box, but no one liked toupset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box. Therewas a story that the present box had been made with some pieces of thebox that had preceded it, the one that had been constructed when the firstpeople settled down to make a village here. Every year, after the lottery, Mr.Summers began talking again about a new box, but every year the subjectwas allowed to fade off without anything’s being done. The black box grewshabbier each year: by now it was no longer completely black but splinteredbadly along one side to show the original wood color, and in some placesfaded or stained.Mr. Martin and his oldest son, Baxter, held the black box securely on thestool until Mr. Summers had stirred the papers thoroughly with his hand.Because so much of the ritual had been forgotten or discarded, Mr. Summershad been successful in having slips of paper substituted for the chips ofwood that had been used for generations. Chips of wood, Mr. Summershad argued, had been all very well when the village was tiny, but now thatthe population was more than three hundred and likely to keep on growing,it was necessary to use something that would fit more easily into he blackbox. The night before the lottery, Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves made upthe slips of paper and put them in the box, and it was then taken to the safeof Mr. Summers’ coal company and locked up until Mr. Summers was readyto take it to the square next morning. The rest of the year, the box was putway, sometimes one place, sometimes another; it had spent one year in Mr.Graves’s barn and another year underfoot in the post office. and sometimesit was set on a shelf in the Martin grocery and left there.and Mrs. Delacroix said, “You’re in time, though.They’re still talking away up there.”Mrs. Hutchinson craned her neck to see throughthe crowd and found her husband and childrenstanding near the front. She tapped Mrs. Delacroixon the arm as a farewell and began to make herway through the crowd. The people separatedgood-humoredly to let her through: two or threepeople said, in voices just loud enough to beheard across the crowd, “Here comes your, Missus,Hutchinson,” and “Bill, she made it after all.”Mrs. Hutchinson reached her husband, and Mr.Summers, who had been waiting, said cheerfully.“Thought we were going to have to get onwithout you, Tessie.” Mrs. Hutchinson said,grinning, “Wouldn’t have me leave m’dishes inthe sink, now, would you, Joe?” and soft laughterran through the crowd as the people stirred backinto position after Mrs. Hutchinson’s arrival.“Well, now.” Mr. Summers said soberly, “guesswe better get started, get this over with, so’s wecan go back to work. Anybody ain’t here?”“Dunbar.” several people said. “Dunbar. Dunbar.”Mr. Summers consulted his list. “Clyde Dunbar.”he said. “That’s right. He’s broke his leg, hasn’t he?Who’s drawing for him?”“Me. I guess,” a woman said, and Mr. Summersturned to look at her. “Wife draws for her husband.”Mr. Summers said. “Don’t you have a grown boyto do it for you, Janey?” Although Mr. Summersand everyone else in the village knew the answerperfectly well, it was the business of the official ofthe lottery to ask such questions formally. Mr.Summers waited with an expression of polite interestwhile Mrs. Dunbar answered.“Horace’s not but sixteen yet.” Mrs. Dunbar saidregretfully. “Guess I gotta fill in for the old man thisyear.”“Right.” Sr. Summers said. He made a note on thelist he was holding. Then he asked, “Watson boydrawing this year?”SHORTSTORYSHORT STORY8Soon the men began to gather, surveying their own children, speakingof planting and rain, tractors and taxes. They stood together, away fromthe pile of stones in the corner, and their jokes were quiet and they smiledrather than laughed. The women, wearing faded house dresses andsweaters, came shortly after their menfolk. They greeted one anotherand exchanged bits of gossip as they went to join their husbands. Soonthe women, standing by their husbands, began to call to their children,and the children came reluctantly, having to be called four or five times.Bobby Martin ducked under his mother’s grasping hand and ran, laughing,back to the pile of stones. His father spoke up sharply, and Bobby camequickly and took his place between his father and his oldest brother.The lottery was conducted—as were the square dances, the teen club,the Halloween program—by Mr. Summers, who had time and energyto devote to civic activities. He was a round-faced, jovial man and heran the coal business, and people were sorry for him because he had nochildren and his wife was a scold. When he arrived in the square, carryingthe black wooden box, there was a murmur of conversation among thevillagers, and he waved and called. “Little late today, folks.” The postmaster,Mr. Graves, followed him, carrying a three-legged stool, and the stoolwas put in the center of the square and Mr. Summers set the black boxdown on it. The villagers kept their distance, leaving a space betweenthemselves and the stool, and when Mr. Summers said, “Some of youfellows want to give me a hand?” there was a hesitation before two men.Mr. Martin and his oldest son, Baxter, came forward to hold the boxsteady on the stool while Mr. Summers stirred up the papers inside it.VARIO /04There was a great deal of fussing to be done before Mr. Summers declaredthe lottery open. There were the lists to make up--of heads of families, headsof households in each family, members of each household in each family.There was the proper swearing-in of Mr. Summers by the postmaster, asthe official of the lottery; at one time, some people remembered, there hadbeen a recital of some sort, performed by the official of the lottery, aperfunctory, tuneless chant that had been rattled off duly each year; somepeople believed that the official of the lottery used to stand just so whenhe said or sang it, others believed that he was supposed to walk among thepeople, but years and years ago this part of the ritual had been allowed tolapse. There had been, also, a ritual salute, which the official of the lotteryhad had to use in addressing each person who came up to draw from thebox, but this also had changed with time, until now it was felt necessaryonly for the official to speak to each person approaching. Mr. Summers wasvery good at all this; in his clean white shirt and blue jeans, with one handresting carelessly on the black box, he seemed very proper and importantas he talked interminably to Mr. Graves and the Martins.Just as Mr. Summers finally left off talking and turned to the assembledvillagers, Mrs. Hutchinson came hurriedly along the path to the square, hersweater thrown over her shoulders, and slid into place in the back of thecrowd. “Clean forgot what day it was,” she said to Mrs. Delacroix, whostood next to her, and they both laughed softly. “Thought my old man wasout back stacking wood,” Mrs. Hutchinson went on, “and then I lookedout the window and the kids was gone, and then I remembered it was thetwenty-seventh and came a-running.” She dried her hands on her apron,A tall boy in the crowd raised his hand. “Here,” hesaid. “I m drawing for my mother and me.” Heblinked his eyes nervously and ducked his head asseveral voices in the crowd said things like “Goodfellow, lack.” and “Glad to see your mother’s got aman to do it.”“Well,” Mr. Summers said, “guess that’s everyone.Old Man Warner make it?”“Here,” a voice said, and Mr. Summers nodded.A sudden hush fell on the crowd as Mr. Summerscleared his throat and looked at the list. “All ready?”he called. “Now, I’ll read the names--heads of familiesfirst--and the men come up and take a paper out ofthe box. Keep the paper folded in your hand withoutlooking at it until everyone has had a turn. Everythingclear?”The people had done it so many times that theyonly half listened to the directions: most of themwere quiet, wetting their lips, not looking around.Then Mr. Summers raised one hand high and said,“Adams.” A man disengaged himself from the crowdand came forward. “Hi. Steve.” Mr. Summers said,and Mr. Adams said. “Hi. Joe.” They grinned atone another humorlessly and nervously. Then Mr.Adams reached into the black box and took out afolded paper. He held it firmly by one corner as heturned and went hastily back to his place in thecrowd, where he stood a little apart from his family,not looking down at his hand.“Allen.” Mr. Summers said. “Anderson... Bentham.”“Seems like there’s no time at all between lotteriesany more.” Mrs. Delacroix said to Mrs. Graves inthe back row.“Seems like we got through with the last one onlylast week.”“Time sure goes fast” Mrs. Graves said.“Clark... Delacroix.”“There goes my old man.” Mrs. Delacroix said. Sheheld her breath while her husband went forward.“Dunbar,” Mr. Summers said, and Mrs. Dunbarwent steadily to the box while one of the womensaid. “Go on, Janey,” and another said, “There shegoes.”“We’re next.” Mrs. Graves said. She watched whileMr. Graves came around from the side of the box,greeted Mr. Summers gravely and selected a slipof paper from the box. By now, all through thecrowd there were men holding the small foldedpapers in their large hand, turning them over andover nervously Mrs. Dunbar and her two sonsstood together, Mrs. Dunbar holding the slip ofpaper.“Harburt... Hutchinson.”“Get up there, Bill,” Mrs. Hutchinson said, andthe people near her laughed.“Jones.”“They do say,” Mr. Adams said to Old Man Warner,who stood next to him, “that over in the northvillage they’re talking of giving up the lottery.”Old Man Warner snorted. “Pack of crazy fools,”he said. “Listening to the young folks, nothing’sgood enough for them. Next thing you know,they’ll be wanting to go back to living in caves,nobody work any more, live hat way for a while.VARIO /049

SHORTSTORYSHORT STORYUsed to be a saying about ‘Lottery in June, corn beheavy soon.’ First thing you know, we’d all be eatingstewed chickweed and acorns. There’s always beena lottery,” he added petulantly. “Bad enough to seeyoung Joe Summers up there joking with everybody.”“Some places have already quit lotteries,” Mrs.Adams said.“Nothing but trouble in that,” Old Man Warnersaid stoutly. “Pack of young fools.”“Martin.” And Bobby Martin watched his father goforward. “Overdyke... Percy.”“I wish they’d hurry,” Mrs. Dunbar said to her olderson. “I wish they’d hurry.”“They’re almost through,” her son said.“You get ready to run tell Dad,” Mrs. Dunbar said.“Daughters draw with their husbands’ families,Tessie,” Mr. Summers said gently. “You know thatas well as anyone else.”“It wasn’t fair,” Tessie said.“I guess not, Joe,” Bill Hutchinson said regretfully.“My daughter draws with her husband’s family;that’s only fair. And I’ve got no other family exceptthe kids.”“Then, as far as drawing for families is concerned,it’s you,” Mr. Summers said in explanation, “and asfar as drawing for households is concerned, that’syou, too. Right?”“Right,” Bill Hutchinson said.“How many kids, Bill?” Mr. Summers asked formally.“Three,” Bill Hutchinson said.“Bill,” Mr. Summers said, and Bill Hutchinsonreached into the box and felt around, bringing hishand out at last with the slip of paper in it.The crowd was quiet. A girl whispered, “I hope it’snot Nancy,” and the sound of the whisper reachedthe edges of the crowd.“It’s not the way it used to be,” Old Man Warnersaid clearly. “People ain’t the way they used to be.”“All right,” Mr. Summers said. “Open the papers.Harry, you open little Dave’s.”Mr. Graves opened the slip of paper and there wasa general sigh through the crowd as he held it upand everyone could see that it was blank. Nancyand Bill, Jr., opened theirs at the same time, andboth beamed and laughed, turning around to thecrowd and holding their slips of paper above theirheads.Mr. Summers called his own name and then steppedforward precisely and selected a slip from the box.Then he called, “Warner.”“Seventy-seventh year I been in the lottery,” OldMan Warner said as he went through the crowd.“Seventy-seventh time.”“Watson.” The tall boy came awkwardly throughthe crowd. Someone said, “Don’t be nervous, Jack,”and Mr. Summers said, “Take your time, son.”“Zanini.”After that, there was a long pause, a breathless pause,until Mr. Summers, holding his slip of paper in theair, said, “All right, fellows.” For a minute, no onemoved, and then all the slips of paper were opened.Suddenly, all the women began to speak at once,saving. “Who is it?,” “Who’s got it?,” “Is it theDunbars?,” “Is it the Watsons?” Then the voicesbegan to say, “It’s Hutchinson. It’s Bill,” “BillHutchinson’s got it.”“Go tell your father,” Mrs. Dunbar said to her olderson.People began to look around to see the Hutchinsons.Bill Hutchinson was standing quiet, staring downat the paper in his hand. Suddenly, Tessie Hutchinsonshouted to Mr. Summers. “You didn’t give him timeenough to take any paper he wanted. I saw you. Itwasn’t fair!”“Be a good sport, Tessie,” Mrs. Delacroix called,and Mrs. Graves said, “All of us took the samechance.”“Shut up, Tessie,” Bill Hutchinson said.“Well, everyone,” Mr. Summers said, “that was donepretty fast, and now we’ve got to be hurrying a littlemore to get done in time.” He consulted his nextlist. “Bill,” he said, “you draw for the Hutchinsonfamily. You got any other households in theHutchinsons?”“There’s Don and Eva,” Mrs. Hutchinson yelled.“Make them take their chance!”“There’s Bill, Jr., and Nancy, and little Dave. AndTessie and me.”“All right, then,” Mr. Summers said. “Harry, yougot their tickets back?”Mr. Graves nodded and held up the slips of paper.“Put them in the box, then,” Mr. Summers directed.“Take Bill’s and put it in.”“I think we ought to start over,” Mrs. Hutchinsonsaid, as quietly as she could. “I tell you it wasn’t fair.You didn’t give him time enough to choose.Everybody saw that.”Mr. Graves had selected the five slips and put themin the box, and he dropped all the papers but thoseonto the ground, where the breeze caught them andlifted them off.“Listen, everybody,” Mrs. Hutchinson was sayingto the people around her.“Ready, Bill?” Mr. Summers asked, and BillHutchinson, with one quick glance around at hiswife and children, nodded.“Remember,” Mr. Summers said, “take the slips andkeep them folded until each person has taken one.Harry, you help little Dave.” Mr. Graves took thehand of the little boy, who came willingly with himup to the box. “Take a paper out of the box, Davy,”Mr. Summers said. Davy put his hand into the boxand laughed. “Take just one paper.” Mr. Summerssaid. “Harry, you hold it for him.” Mr. Graves tookthe child’s hand and removed the folded paper fromthe tight fist and held it while little Dave stood nextto him and looked up at him wonderingly.“Nancy next,” Mr. Summers said. Nancy was twelve,and her school friends breathed heavily as she wentforward switching her skirt, and took a slip daintilyfrom the box “Bill, Jr.,” Mr. Summers said, andBilly, his face red and his feet overlarge, near knockedthe box over as he got a paper out. “Tessie,” Mr.Summers said. She hesitated for a minute, lookingaround defiantly, and then set her lips and went upto the box. She snatched a paper out and held itbehind her.“Tessie,” Mr. Summers said. There was a pause, andthen Mr. Summers looked at Bill Hutchinson, andBill unfolded his paper and showed it. It was blank.“It’s Tessie,” Mr. Summers said, and his voice washushed. “Show us her paper, Bill.”Bill Hutchinson went over to his wife and forcedthe slip of paper out of her hand. It had a black spoton it, the black spot Mr. Summers had made thenight before with the heavy pencil in the coalcompany office. Bill Hutchinson held it up, andthere was a stir in the crowd.“All right, folks.” Mr. Summers said. “Let’s finishquickly.”Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual andlost the original black box, they still rememberedto use stones. The pile of stones the boys had madeearlier was ready; there were stones on the groundwith the blowing scraps of paper that had come outof the box Delacroix selected a stone so large shehad to pick it up with both hands and turned toMrs. Dunbar. “Come on,” she said. “Hurry up.”Mrs. Dunbar had small stones in both hands, andshe said, gasping for breath. “I can’t run at all. You’llhave to go ahead and I’ll catch up with you.”The children had stones already. And someone gavelittle Davy Hutchinson a few pebbles.Tessie Hutchinson was in the center of a clearedspace by now, and she held her hands out desperatelyas the villagers moved in on her. “It isn’t fair,” shesaid. A stone hit her on the side of the head. OldMan Warner was saying, “Come on, come on,everyone.” Steve Adams was in the front of thecrowd of villagers, with Mrs. Graves beside him.“It isn’t fair, it isn’t right,” Mrs. Hutchinson screamed,and then they were upon her.Natural flyer...www.airwondiana.com10VARIO /04

ORTRAITPORTRAITPORTRAITPORTRAITStanislaw Lem(1921-2006)THE MAN WHO TOLD US TRUE HUMANSTORIES ACROSS THE STARS...Nathan M. Powers“ If Stanislaw Lem isn't considered for a Nobel Prize bythe end of the century, it will be because someone toldthe judges that he writes science fiction," predicted aPhiladelphia Inquirer critic in 1983. Lem is arguably thegreatest living 1 science fiction writer, and even one of themost important European authors of his generation; yet hecommands little critical attention, and has failed to reachdiscerning American science fiction readers who ought, onewould think, to be most interested in him. The reasons forthis may be sought, paradoxically, in the high demands hemakes of his own work: Lem is a true original, but at theprice of being marginal.The Time of Cruel MiraclesStanislaw Lem was born in 1921 in Lvov, Poland, to a familyof the professional class; both his father and uncle weredoctors. As a young man Lem planned to become a doctorhimself, enrolling at the Lvov Medical Institute. When theInstitute closed due to the war in 1941, he became a mechanicand welder for a German corporation. During the lean waryears Lem, who was himself of Jewish ancestry, escaped anumber of close calls as Jewish acquaintances disappearedaround him. On at least one occasion, he was nearly arrestedsneaking out supplies from his workplace for the PolishResistance.After the war Lem's life changed greatly. He moved withhis family to Cracow in 1946, and completed his medicalstudies there in 1948. He did not, however, take a diploma,because persons with medical degrees were at the timeautomatically conscripted into the army. Instead in 1947 he1 Stanislaw Lem passed away on March 27th, 2006, aged 84, after suffering from a long illness. Thisreview was written in late 1999, long before his death.accepted a position as a research assistant at JagellonianUniversity in Cracow, reading articles in a wide range ofscientific fields for review in the journal Zycie Nauki (Life ofScience). Almost thirty years old now, Lem was receiving asecond education that grounded him firmly in contemporaryscientific trends.At the same time, he began to publish fiction. His first severalnovels conformed (with the help of extensive state censorship)to the officially promoted standards of Social Realism; theypaint optimistic pictures of a future in which social progressis supported by technology. None of these early works hasbeen translated, and, although they did establish his status asone of Poland's most talented writers, Lem later disownedthem altogether. The tone of Lem's fiction underwent a seachange in 1956, when a wave of popular uprisings againstSoviet rule swept Eastern Europe; one of the immediate resultsin Poland was a relaxation of government controls on thepress. Lem's own thinking seems to have changed as well,although he has always proven reticent about his politicalviews. At any rate, 1956 began what critics have called Lem's"golden period", a dozen years of remarkably fertile literaryoutput. In this period Lem imagined a number of differentuniverses and populated them with stories.One such is the world of Ijon Tichy, a highly decoratedcosmonaut of the far future whose strange wanderings throughspace and time are chronicled in the Star Diaries and Memoirsof a Space Traveller. Tichy lives in a universe teeming with life,where humanity jostles shoulders with creatures bizarre andgrotesque, yet somehow always familiar; for this is a worldwhere humanity's virtues and flaws are writ large across theKrzysztof GieraltowskiLem did not settle for the ordinary sci-fi resolutions to humanmachineconflict. He dealt with problems of artificial intelligencein a sophisticated manner, aided by his hero's own scepticism.12VARIO /04VARIO /0413

ORTRAITPORTRAITPORTRAPORTRAITstars. These stories may be read as sharp social satire, depictingthe bizarre customs of other places to drive home surprisingpoints about our own; they have been aptly compared to thephilosophical fictions of Swift and Voltaire.Another of Lem's story-cycles is set in the 21st century, whenthe moon has been colonized, and Earth's space forces struggleto establish a presence on Mars. This is the world of Pirx thePilot, an endearingly ordinary fellow who manages to bluff andblunder his way through harrowing dangers — a sort ofEveryman of the Space Age. In Pirx's world there are no aliens,no faster-than-light drives, and no space wormholes. On thecontrary, the Pirx tales are models of scientific realism, describingin hauntingly convincing detail what it is like to voyage throughthe vast, empty reaches of the solar system, and to pass time inlonely outposts on harsh and alien soil. The antagonists of thesetales tend to be of humanity's own devising: they are the computersand robots intended to help people live and work in space..Lem does not settle for the ordinary sci-fi resolutions to humanmachineconflict. He deals with problems of artificial intelligencein a sophisticated manner, aided by his hero's own scepticism.The machines Pirx learned to fly with were clearly just powerfulcalculators following their programs, the descendants of today'scomputers. But as electronic brains are designed to operateindependently and to interact more with their environment, asthey are fitted out with redundant memory and processingcapacity and "raised" in complex training environments, theysometimes behave oddly ... Some of the Pirx tales would makeexcellent reading for an introductory course in philosophy orcognitive science.A third world of Lem's is revealed in the Cyberiad. This is afantastical creation, where light whims and dark urges canmaterialize in the blink of an eye, where myths are made andbroken every day. It is a world peopled by machines andcomputers. Humanoids, or "palefaces", live here too, but theyare generally avoided because of their disgusting gooeyness andsquishiness — besides, some of the best researchers in the fieldof Non-Artificial Intelligence maintain that organic tissues areincapable of exhibiting real mental states!Our chief guides to this marvelous place are a pair of robotsnamed Trurl and Klapaucius, who travel throughout the universeworking as freelance inventors. For a fee, they will construct amachine to any specifications, with results ranging from thehilarious to the tragic. An evil robot king searches the universefor automated prey that can withstand his hunting prowess; anelectronic Bard threatens to destroy civilization by spellbindingall who hear it with perfect song. The dread Pirate Pugg, ravenousfor information, scours the space lanes, absorbing all the datahe can get his hands on; Trurl and Klapaucius catch him withan ingenious trap, a machine that produces an endless stream ofirrelevant and unconnected facts! Another volume, Mortal Engines,contains the legends of this cybernetic world, fables told to youngrobots. These hypnotic stories, full of brilliant and rambunctiouswordplay, have been rendered beautifully into English by MichaelKandel.Finally, in addition to these story-cycles Lem composed a stringof challenging novels, each posing a question about the conditionsand limits of human knowledge. Solaris is probably Lem's bestknownwork, because it was adapted by Soviet director AndreiTarkovsky into a critically acclaimed film. The novel tells the storyof an encounter between a group of planetary explorers and abizarre entity on the planet Solaris, which is a sort of living oceanthat covers most of its world and is capable of chemicaltransformations of astounding mathematical complexity. For overa century before the encounter, Solaris had been the subject ofintense scientific scrutiny, yet all attempts to establish contact withits vast inhabitant had failed. What experiences or concepts couldhumans possibly share with such a creature, in order to have a basisfor communication?But this expedition is different. This time Solaris creates for eachof the humans present a solid, living replica of whatever it discoversto be the deepest, most stable structure in their mental patterns— in other words, it dredges up secret longings and represseddesires, and clothes them in flesh. In the case of the novel's narrator,Kelvin, a replica of his young wife Rheya appears. She had committedsuicide years ago after threats that he didn't take seriously, and hehas been racked with guilt over her ever since. He must watch herchoose to take her life again, as she slowly comes to realize she isnot really Rheya. At the end of the book, nothing is resolved; itis impossible to tell whether the psychic replicates are an attemptby the planet to communicate, an experiment it is carrying out, agame, or an inadvertent byproduct of some other process -- yet thenovel comes to an astonishing close as Kelvin concludes that auniverse containing both humanity and Solaris can be neither theproduct of rational planning nor of chance, and that "the time ofcruel miracles" is not yet past.His Master's Voice treats a similar theme in a very different way. Alengthy neutrino transmission, originating at the distant edge ofthe galaxy, has been picked up accidentally by an Earth observatory.The U.S. government immediately creates a top-secret project(called "His Master's Voice") to decipher this "letter from the stars".The novel is cast as the memoir of one of the chief mathematiciansengaged on the project, Dr. Peter Hogarth. Hogarth is one ofLem's most fascinating characters, and one of literature's rare realisticportraits of a scientific genius. At the outset of his account, Hogarthtells us that he feels the need to speak up because he has readthrough a whole shelf of books about himself and his role in theHMV project, and finds that none of them get to the heart of thematter. The problem is not, however, that none of these studiestell the real story, but that all of them expect there to be a "realstory":With sufficient imagination a man could write a whole series of versionsof his life; it would form a union of sets in which the facts would be theonly elements in common. People, even intelligent people, who areyoung, and therefore inexperienced and naïve, see only cynicism in sucha possibility. They are mistaken, because the problem is not moral butcognitive. (p. 5)This passage introduces the note of profound epistemologicalpessimism that returns, again and again, to haunt Hogarth as hestruggles to make sense of the informational artifact from outerspace. For example, many of his colleagues hope that the "Senders"of the transmission will use basic mathematical formulae to establisha protocol for deciphering their message; but Hogarth fears thatthe elements of mathematics are ultimately linguistic, and so donot necessarily have any purchase outside of human culture. Thisis not to say that math is true only in a relative way, or that it doesnot "map" the universe accurately, but only that other accurate"maps" may exist as well. Besides, he reasons, even if the Sendershappen to possess a math just like our own, what good would itdo? All communication requires an act of reference, of pointing toa "this"; and mathematics cannot, by its very nature, refer. As thebook progresses, little happens in the way of plot, but Hogarth'slines of enquiry broaden to encompass evolution, ethics, the properrole of government in science, and the meaning of death; a drama14VARIO /04VARIO /0415

ORTRAITPORTRAITPORTRAPORTRAITunfolds from his ideas themselves. All this may make His Master'sVoice sound a bit dry, but it isn't -- as Peter Beagle wrote in the NewYork Times Book Review, "By the last chapters one is racing like aromance novel addict." HMV is an astonishing little novel, andperhaps Lem's masterpiece.Return From the Stars tells the story of Hal Bregg, a member of oneof the first astronautical expeditions to make use of the near-lightspeeddrive to explore nearby stellar systems, who is therefore oneof the first persons to experience the time-dilation effect predictedby Einstein's theory of relativity. He returns just ten years older, butto an Earth which has aged over a century, and to a society that hedoes not recognize. The reader joins Bregg on his first attempt totravel by himself on this strange new Earth, but Bregg finds himselfbewildered, because he is unable even to guess at the motivesunderlying most peoples' actions. Why (he wonders) does so muchseem incomprehensible, inexplicable? Could simple technologicalchanges account for the apparent difference in mores?It turns out that human nature has itself been altered by a universallyadministered genetic treatment that removes some of humankind'sless desirable traits (in particular, violent aggression). Bregg mustdecide whether he can come to grips with this new human species,now alien to him, or whether he should accept the chance, offeredto him in sympathy, to build a new ship and return to the stars fromwhence he came.Solaris, His Master's Voice, and Return From the Stars are all "sciencefiction" in a pure sense — that is, fiction about science and itsrelationship to (or contribution to) moral problems. Each dependson masterful storytelling and compelling characters to framephilosophical questions; and these questions in turn illuminate thestories from their depths, challenging the reader to see as far intothem as possible. As Lem once remarked, "Knowing is the hero ofmy books."Although Lem earned most of his fame among the Soviets andAmericans for his fiction, part of his reputation in Poland rests ona study in futurology, the massive two-volume Summa Technologiae,Lem is a true original, but at the price of being marginal.In the library. Solaris production design for a film byA.Tarkovsky. Artist: Michail Romadin.published in 1964. This work, based on Lem's extensive readings incontemporary scientific literature, summed up the state of (then)current technology and extrapolated how various instrumental modeswere likely to develop in the future, and suggested the possibleconsequences these developments would have on society.Come, every frustum longs to be a cone,And every vector dreams of matricesIn the 70's, Lem's writing took a decided turn from conventionalscience fiction to experimental narrative forms. The change was heraldedby the publication of The Futurological Congress in 1971, which beginsas an ordinary Ijon Tichy tale but gradually becomes something else.The atmosphere of Earth has been contaminated by one (or more?)well-meaning governments with one (or more?) psychoactive drugsdesigned to improve the quality of life for the world's poor, overcrowdedmasses. The result is an intricate tangle of mass hallucinations; Tichyattempts to investigate, but finds himself unable to discover which ofthe worlds he uncovers through chemical stimuli is real. The novelplays with states of subjectivity in a manner reminiscent of the bestof Philip K. Dick.In Memoirs Found in a Bathtub, Tichy wakes up, disoriented, in thePentagon of the far future, a vast bureaucratic compound that seemsto have disconnected itself from the world around it. The astronautis assigned a mysterious mission to accomplish, but receives no particularinstructions; as he wanders around various offices and departmentsin search of more details, he finds himself getting caught up in theobscure intrigues of the Pentagon's denizens, though no closer to hisgoal. Memoirs borrows heavily from Kafka (in substance, if not instyle), and so has elicited widely different responses from Lem fans.Lem's experimental tendencies were fully realized in a series of worksthat gestured outside of themselves to a whole corpus of imaginaryliterature. Imaginary Magnitudes is a collection of prefaces to booksthat haven't been written; A Perfect Vacuum collects reviews of booksthat will be written in the future; and One Human Minute containsessays on some "old" books that were (weren't?) written in the late-20th and 21st centuries. These works, with their self-referentialplayfulness and sparkling invention, are tributes to the fiction ofBorges — indeed, the first item in A Perfect Vacuum is a reviewof A Perfect Vacuum, lambasting the author for copying Borges'trick of conjuring unreal writings. But where Borges tendsto use the device of an imaginary book to sketch out ametaphysical premise in concrete form, Lem uses it moreto poke fun at modern fashions in art, literature, andacademia. In A Perfect Vacuum, for instance, a blank bookentitled Rien du tout, ou la conséquence is praised as "thefirst novel to reach the limit of what writing can do," whileImaginary Magnitude offers an introduction to an albumof 139 x-ray photographs of sex, called "pornograms".on a handful of threadbare themes that had been developed by H.G.Wells and Olaf Stapledon. Lem, by contrast, has been tainted by hisown originality within a genre that accomodates far too much mediocrityand repetition. Science fiction writers do not win Nobel Prizes.In the wake of the harsh Communist crackdown on Solidarity in 1983,Lem, without making any public political statement, quietly movedwith his family to Vienna, where his close friend and literary agentFranz Rottensteiner lived. (They have since moved back to the suburbsof Cracow). Lem returned to writing novels of conventional form, buthis work from this period is difficult to assess, since most of it has notbeen translated into English. In Peace On Earth, Ijon Tichy returns tosave an Earth threatened by its own past. In the 21st century, the world'snations had entrusted their security to autonomous, self-evolvingbatteries of microweaponry; as part of the global disarmament thatfollowed, these tiny insect-like nanoweapons were deposited on themoon. But now it seems these discarded arsenals are planning aninvasion, and Tichy is dispatched to defuse the situation. There is afascinating twist to the narration: in the course of his mission to theMoon, Tichy encounters a weapon which separates the left hemisphereof his cerebellum from the right half, so that both halves of his brainstruggle to tell the story in their own words.Fiasco, Lem's last novel, is a dark parable about exploration. A band ofhuman explorers travel to the planet Quinta, and find there an aliencivilization they do not even begin to comprehend. They resort tograsping for symbols and analogies, and in the end pattern their ownbehavior on primitive human archetypes; humankind, Lem seems tobe suggesting, cannot bear very much of the unknown.This brief review cannot really do justice to Lem's considerable andvaried literary achievements. In addition to other works of sciencefiction not mentioned here, Lem has published two excellent mysterynovels, screenplays, a systematic theory of literature, and numerousessays in literary criticism (some of which have been collected in Englishunder the title Microworlds), as well as books on philosophy, cybernetics,and the theory of probability. Indeed, Lem's very breadth may be hisIn the early 70's, Lem's books began to appear in English,and it was hoped they would find an avid, ready-madereadership; but at the same time, the foundations werebeing laid for distrust and misunderstanding between Lemand his English-speaking colleagues. In 1973, the ScienceFiction Writers of America, moved by the spirit of Nixonerainternational goodwill, awarded an honorary membershipto Lem, as the most prominent representative of EasternBloc sci-fi. Four years later, however, this membership wassummarily revoked. The immediate cause of "the Lem Affair"was an article Lem had published in criticism of sciencefiction in the English-speaking world. He called it derivative,and asserted that it consisted largely of sterile elaborations16VARIO /04VARIO /0417

ORTRAITPORTRAITmost distinguishing characteristic; as one of his most astutereviewers, J. Madison Davis, has written, "One cannot dislikeLem; one can only dislike parts of him."There are many reasons to read Lem. His stories, charged withinvention and wit, never fail to entertain. At the same time, noliving writer has used fiction to engage scientific problems asseriously as Lem, who views prognosis as one of literature's mostimportant functions. Ours is the age of cybernetics and genetics.We stand, precarious, on the verge of making not just new choices— for that is simply the human condition — but the new sortsof choices that technology makes possible; and there is littleother than imagination available to guide our next steps. StanislawLem shows that science fiction, now more than ever, is good tothink with, and he has revealed rich new possibilities for thegenre.SOLAR ENERGY IS FREE:WE ONLY NEED TO INVEST TO COLLECSELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF STANISLAW LEMThe Astronauts (Astronauci, Warszawa, 1951, Czytelnik)The Chain of Chance (Katar, Krakow, 1976, WL)The Cyberiad (Cyberiada, Krakow, 1965, WL)Dialogs (Dialogi, Krakow, 1957, WL)Eden (Eden, Warszawa 1959, Iskry)Fiasco (Fiasko, Krakow, 1987, WL)The Futurological Congress (Kongres futurologiczny, Krakow,1983, WL)Golem XIV (Golem XIV, Krakow, 1981, WL)Highcastle a Remembrance (Wysoki Zamek, Warszawa,1966, MON)His Master's Voice (Glos Pana, Warszawa, 1968, Czytelnik)Hospital of the Transfiguration (Szpital Przemienienia,Krakow, 1955)Eyewitness Account (Wizja lokalna, Krakow, 1982, WL)Imaginary Magnitude (Wielkosc urojona, Warszawa, 1973,Iskry)The Invincible (Niezwyciezony, Warszawa, 1964, MON)The Investigation (Sledztwo, Warszawa, 1959, MON)The Magellan Nebula (Oblok Magellana, Warszawa, 1955,Iskry)Memoir Found in a Bathtub (Pamietnik znaleziony w wannie,Krakow, 1961, WL)Mortal Engines (Bajki robotow, Krakow, 1964, WL)Peace on Earth (Pokoj na Ziemi, Krakow, 1987, WL)A Perfect Vacuum (Doskonala proznia, Warszawa, 1971,Czytelnik)The Philosophy of Chance (Filozofia przypadku, Krakow,1968, WL)Return from the Stars (Powrot z gwiazd, Warszawa, 1961,Czytelnik)Science Fiction and Futurology (Fantastyka I futurologia,Krakow, 1970, WL)A Secret of the Chinese Room (Tajemnica chinskiegopokoju, Krakow, 1996, Universitas)Solaris (Solaris, Warszawa, 1961, MON)The Star Diaries (Dzienniki gwiazdowe, Warszawa, 1957,Iskry)Summa Technologiae (Summa Technologiae, Krakow, 1964,WL)Tales of Pirx the Pilot (Opowiesci o pilocie Pirxie, Krakow,1968, WL)The Man from Mars (Czlowiek z Marsa, Katowice, 1946,"Nowy Swiat Przygod")DEPARTMENT OFENERGY18VARIO /04European Photovoltaic Industry AssociationW O N DI A N A

ORTRAITPORTRAITAn Interview with Stanislaw LemWojciech OrlinskiQ: Your books display not only your outstanding knowledge and imagination, but also a great sense of humour. It's amazing, howrarely they are analyzed from this point of view...Lem: I was using humour for various reasons. First, some topics were unsuitable for serious treatment, such as questions of genetics. Allthose sketches of weird skeletons I drew in the "Star Diaries" were intended to make this subject less horrible. When I was writing that,there were no punks, nobody had a Mohawk haircut, young men did not paint their faces. Nevertheless I had such a feeling, that whenmankind will attain control over human genetics, wild things of that kind will happen. Human irresponsibility will lead us to crazy situations.In order to present those crazy situations, I had to create a pattern of levity.On the other hand, most of my works were written under communism and I had to acknowledge the existence of censorship. For example,when I wrote a story of the first frozen person in "Edukacja Cyfrania" - about an orchestra, whose members are being eaten alive one byone by a cruel Goryllium, but everybody pretends not to notice anything - I had to cover it in a disguise of inseriousness, and add a storyof the second frozen person, which had no political hidden meanings. That made it easier to publish the story. I had to use such tricksmany times.If you would try to analyze my books according to the appropriate political period - the Stalin's frost or the Krustschev's softening thaw -you would most certainly find some corelations. On the other hand, I always tried to be as independent, as possible. Naturally, I neverloved totalitarianism and all the ideas of making mankind happy always seemed crazy to me. I tried to expose their absurdity. That is thesource of numerous failures of my heroes on the path of improvement of the world, what always ended very bad. Some things are hiddenunder nicknames. Malapucyus Pandemonius is Karl Marx. Gengenx from "Wizja lokalna" is Friedrich Engels. It's interesting that this wasrarely recognized. In "His Master's Voice", which is not at all a humorous story, there is a CIA agent, Wilhelm Eeney, who supervisesAmerican scientists. That was simply Janusz Wilhelmi, then in charge of Polish culture. Nobody recognized him. Those are the pleasuresof a writer - he can encrypt such messages in his books.There are thus two kinds of my humour: the first is a camouflage painting, the second are some microrevenges, that the author can takeon the surrounding reality. I have to add something which I cannot understand. Here you can see a bookshelf with my Japanese translations.The Japanese could never understand my humour. Nothing is funny in my books for them. The "Star Diaries" were published in Japan,but without such a success, as the books written absolutely seriously. This is a culture completely alien to us.On the other hand, during the stalinist years I went with my wife to Prague. We did not understand, that in this system you cannot justtravel where you like and go to a hotel. All hotels were "busy". But in Vinohrady a receptionist, after having informed us that there wereno rooms free, he noticed my name on my passport and suddenly asked: "You wrote Eden? I understand! I understand!". Then he gaveus the key. There were situations, when foreign readers understood the story perfectly, only if they came from the same side of the IronCurtain.Q: It may be a subject for another interview: to what extent your prose is translatable at all?Lem: Well, more depends here on similarity between cultural environment, than on the translator's skills. I don't speak Japanese, and I don'tknow what Japanese readers find in my books. I receive some letters from Japan, this proves that they understand at least something. Thepeak of popularity of my prose is moving. Some time ago I was very popular in the DDR (GDR). They understood perfectly all hiddenpolitical messages, because they had the same system. I can proudly say anyway, that my books did not die with the collapse of communism.I was always concerned about the world-wide promotion of Polish prose. I managed to help two Polish writers to appear on Germanmarket, but now they write in German. I wrote only few small texts in German. One of them was a polemic with Leszek Kolakowski. Ithad to be published in German newspaper to allow him to reply.Not everyone has enough energy, as Thomas Mann, who dictated to his translator English version of "The Enchanted Mountain". Sometime ago I had an excellent translator in Austria, Mrs. Zimmermann. Sometimes weird misunderstandings arise. In USA some educatedwomen, acting in spirit of Jacques Derrida and postmodernism, discovered some freudists meanings in my prose, actually created only bythe different idiomatics of English language.This is our office.Local specifics are sometimes funny. German encyclopedia call me "a philosopher". I am more popular there, than in Poland. In Russiamy "Collected Works" are now in print, I am popular there mostly among scientists. And in Poland I am commonly known as a writerfor children: "Pirx" and "The Book of Robots" are now in primary school readings. There is only one positive role of the Nobel prize - itcreates some common way to understand a writer. I cannot say, that I like this situation, but that's the way it goes. The books are beingborn and then walk around the world, just as children do. Since 1987 I write no more, sometimes some short-story, just because they askso much. I am now writing essays for "Tygodnik Powszechny" and "PC Magazine"...20VARIO /04Pacifonewww.pacifone.compacific telecommunications groupGSM 1800

ORTRAITPORTRAITAn Interview with Stanislaw Lem (Continued)Q: A propos PC: I don't see a computer in your room...Lem: That is due to very trivial reasons. In my neighbourhood there are frequent blackouts of electricity, and computerisation would bevery bad for me. Now I have my own generator in my garden and I will be able to install a computer and facsimile. Anyway, when I was12 my father bought me my first "Underwood" typewriter and I got used to it. I was using it until the fonts completely wore out. EverythingI wrote was typed on mechanical typewriters. My friend, Slawomir Mrozek has a computer, but he still writes also manually, only with apen. It has no meaning, what do you use to write, the only thing that is important is: what do you write. A machine to write a book insteadof a writer is not invented yet, and probably will never be.Q: But isn't it a little this way because you just don't like the technological progress?Lem: I do not like the way people use the more and more magnificent fruits of technology to their filthy deeds. See for example thepornography on the Internet. I am not an enemy of pornography, I have some experiences in obstetrics and gynecology, and I am notshocked by a view of a naked woman. But the Net was supposed to connect universities and allow a quick exchange of scientific data. Inreality it is used most often to exchange erotic pictures. And the other technologies? Take semtex: how easy it is today to blow up anairplane! I don't resist progress, but I have a growing feeling that the mankind uses it mostly for disgraceful purposes. Take a look at suchbloodstained area, as Africa. All the weaponry there was bought in highly civilised countries. I've read today in "Herald Tribune" that theRussians wanted to sell to Americans dozen of tons of enriched uranium, used only to produce nuclear warheads. Commons sense andraison d'etat would suggest Americans to buy it and prevent it from getting into hands of some potential enemies. But Americans say thatthey can buy it cheaper elsewhere. Whenever a contradiction arises between free market interests and raison d'etat of the United States,the market wins.I think, that the holy law of private property, that is a foundation of capitalism, is now the main threat for it. Let's take the copyrights. Ialways thought, that I have sold already all rights to "Cyberiada", but my American agent suddenly calls me telling, that he discovered agap. When the contract was signed, there were no computers, and now we can sell rights to publish "Cyberiada" on a CD-ROM. But that'snot much important. America was exporting Stinger missiles to Afghanistan, where they were used to shoot Soviet helicopters. Now theStingers spread all over the world and Americans are scared, that they will shoot their civilian airplanes. The law of free market ruleseverywhere. Beate Uhse, queen of German sex-industry, sells yearly six millions of various sexual gadgets. That is technology, too. Theysay, that the copulation dolls will be soon equipped in artificial intelligence. I don't believe that, because it takes no intelligence to copulate,but among artificial men and women there is now even an artificial hand to perform artificial masturbation. There are no artificial childrenyet.VARIOMEDIAInternet nor World Wide Web do not amuse me. I don't think, in general, that one should be too well informed. When you have a satelliteTV-dish on your roof, you can soon conclude, that nothing happens world wide, except rape and murder. It's some kind of escalation. Sometime ago crime was modest - take Al Capone and his mere two dozens of victims. Now we have the "Independence Day" movie, wherealien spaceships murder almost the entire mankind. Some American producer claims now, that his next picture will be even stronger. Butwhat can be stronger? To murder an entire biosphere? This is so disgusting for me, that I decided to leave the street-car of science fictionon a stop of essay writing. Now one of satellite channels plays the incredible stupid series of "Star Trek Enterprise". I can't understand it -isn't there enough real problems in this world, do we have to imagine unreal?Q: Fifteen years ago you wrote the "Wizja lokalna" - a novel about a planet ruled by two opposed superpowers, dictatorship ofKurdlandia and permissive Luzania, based on completely different ideologies. How do you like our planet, where Luzania hasattained a complete victory?Lem: It was not exactly like that. I wanted to picture a Popperian opposition of a closed society and an open society. It seems, that the opensociety is not so much open, because money rules everything there. It is not good, when there are no other values. Today economics decideeven on judgement of art - you can see sometimes on a book such banner as "over million of copies sold". What kind of advertisement isthat? Do I have to run to a bookstore only because million of people bought something? I just don't like it.Speaking of Kurdlandia: I enjoyed the idea of creatures living inside giant animals. In some dictatorships even those, who are oppressed,are somehow proud of being oppressed. Let's take the Soviet Union and the World War II: most heroes and generals were taken to thefront straight from the GuLag concetration camps, as for example marshall Rokossovski. The best example is Sergey Korolov, the famousrocket engineer, the man who launched Gagarin into space, who created his rockets in a Soviet labor camp. The famous physicist Landauwas saved only because the Nobel prize winner Kapica backed him. That's the way it goes - someone is unhappy when he has no ChairmanMao over him, someone else demands absolute freedom.Behind every glorious facade there is always hidden something ugly. When you read, that those wonderful, democratic Germans are sellingentire factiories of sarin gas to Khaddafi, you no longer wish to write romantic stories in the mood of William Wharton. I always used tohope, that the world goes advances in the right direction. Now I've lost that hope. People make filthy things with the freedom they regained.Krakow, summer 1996Nationwide broadcasting.22VARIO /04

overcovercovercovercritically endangered and vulnerable. Also critically endangered speciesmay also be counted as endangered species and fill all the criteriaThe more general term used by the IUCN for species at risk of extinctionis threatened species, which also includes the less-at-risk category ofvulnerable species together with endangered and critically endangered.IUCN categories include:Extinct: the last remaining member of the species had died, or ispresumed beyond reasonable doubt to have died. Examples: Thylacine,Dodo, Passenger PigeonExtinct in the wild: captive individuals survive, but there is no freeliving,natural population. Examples: Alagoas CurassowCritically endangered: faces an extremely high risk of extinction in theimmediate future. Examples: Ivory-billed Woodpecker, Arakan ForestTurtle, Javan RhinoEndangered: faces a very high risk of extinction in the near future.Examples: Cheetah, Blue Whale, Snow Leopard, African Wild DogVulnerable: faces a high risk of extinction in the medium-term. Examples:Gaur, LionLeast Concern: no immediate threat to the survival of the species.Examples: Norway Rat, Nootka CypressEXETExtinctEndangeredThreatenedDelistedGRAY WOLF Credit: Gary CramerBALD EAGLE Credit: Matt HewssueSiberian tiger, one of the species in trouble...Endangered SpeciesAre we taking them to hell with us?Manatee and calf. Credit: Gaylen RathburnAn endangered species is a population of an organism which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is eitherfew in number, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters. An endangered species is usuallya taxonomic species, but may be another evolutionary significant unit such as a subspecies.Facts About Endangered SpeciesThe World Conservation Union (IUCN) has calculated the percentageof endangered species as 40 percent of all organisms based on thesample of species that have been evaluated through 2006. (Note: theIUCN groups all threatened species for their summary purposes.) Manynations including Wondiana have laws offering protection to these species:for example, forbidding hunting, restricting land development or creatingpreserves. Only a few of the many species at risk of extinction actuallymake it to the lists and obtain legal protection. Many more species becomeextinct, or potentially will become extinct, without gaining public notice.Conservation statusThe conservation status of a species is an indicator of the likelihood ofthat endangered species continuing to survive. Many factors are taken intoaccount when assessing the conservation status of a species; not simplythe number remaining, but the overall increase or decrease in the populationover time, breeding success rates, known threats, and so on. The IUCNRed List is the best known conservation status listing.Internationally, 190 countries have signed an accord agreeing to createBiodiversity Action Plans to protect endangered and other threatenedspecies.Red List Endangered speciesThe IUCN Red List of Threatened Species uses the term endangeredspecies as a specific category of imperilment, rather than as a general term.Under the IUCN Categories and Criteria, endangered species is betweenAccording to scientists, more than one and one-half million species exist on the earth today. However, recentestimates state that at least 20 times that many species inhabit the planet.There are more than 1,000 animal species endangered worldwide.There are more than 3,500 protected areas in existence worldwide. These areas include parks, wildlife refugesand other reserves. They cover a total of nearly 2 million square miles (5 million square km), or 3% of ourtotal land area.Aquatic species, which are often overlooked, are facing serious trouble. One third of the fish species, twothirdsof its crayfish species, and almost three-quarters of its mussel species are in trouble.Sources of Information: National Wildlife Agency24VARIO /04VARIO /0425

overcovercovercoverControversySome endangered species laws are controversial. Typical areas ofcontroversy include: criteria for placing a species on the endangeredspecies list, and criteria for removing a species from the list once itspopulation has recovered; whether restrictions on land developmentconstitute a "taking" of land by the government; the related question ofwhether private landowners should be compensated for the loss of useof their land; and obtaining reasonable exceptions to protection laws.Being listed as an endangered species can have negative effect since itcould make a species more desirable for collectors and poachers.Thiseffect is potentially reduceable, such as in China where commerciallyfarmed turtles may be reducing some of the pressure to poach endangeredspecies.Another problem with listing species is its effect of inciting the use ofthe "shoot, shovel, and shut up" method of clearing endangered speciesfrom an area of land. Some landowners currently may perceive a diminutionin value for their land after finding an endangered animal on it. Theyhave allegedly opted to silently kill and bury the animals or destroyhabitat, thus removing the problem from their land, but at the same timefurther reducing the population of an endangered species. The effectivenessof the Endangered Species Act, which coined the term "endangeredspecies", has been questioned by business advocacy groups and theirpublications, but is nevertheless widely recognized as an effective recoverytool by wildlife scientists who work with the species. Nineteen specieshave been delisted and recovered and 93% of listed species have arecovering or stable populationUrocyon littoral (island fox) Credit:Asian arowana. Credit: Marcel BurkhardCaptive breeding programsWhen implemented, captive breeding programs have been quite successful. Aninteresting way to look at this can be seen by comparing two different species ofanole lizards. Because of captive breeding programs carried out by the pet industry,the north American green anole population is very abundant and listed as leastconcern. However, it is illegal to breed the south American blue anole in captivity,and so the species is critically endangered, and may end up becoming extinct.Sea Turtle26VARIO /04VARIO /0427

overcoverBenefits of biodiversityThere are a multitude of benefits of biodiversity in the senseof one diverse group aiding another such as:Resistance to CatastropheMonoculture, the lack of biodiversity, was a contributing factorto several agricultural disasters in history, including the IrishPotato Famine, the European wine industry collapse in the late1800s, and the US Southern Corn Leaf Blight epidemic of 1970.Higher biodiversity also controls the spread of certain diseasesas e.g. viruses will need adapt itself with every new species.presently be synthesized in a laboratory setting. Moreover, onlya small proportion of the total diversity of plants has beenthoroughly investigated for potential sources of new drugs. Manymedicines and antibiotics are also derived from microorganisms.Industrial materialsA wide range of industrial materials are derived directly frombiological resources. These include building materials, fibers,dyes, resins, gums, adhesives, rubber and oil. There is enormouspotential for further research into sustainably utilizing materialsfrom a wider diversity of organisms.Food and drinkBiodiversity provides food for humans. About 80 percent of ourfood supply comes from just 20 kinds of plants. Although manykinds of animals are utilized as food, again most consumptionis focused on a few species.There is vast untapped potential for increasing the range of foodproducts suitable for human consumption, provided that thehigh present extinction rate can be halted.MedicinesA significant proportion of drugs are derived, directly or indirectly,from biological sources; in most cases these medicines can notIntellectual valueThrough the field of bionics, a lot of technological advancementhas been done which may not have been the case without a richbiodiversity.Better crop-varietiesFor certain economical crops (e.g. foodcrops, ...), wild varietiesof the domesticated species can be reintroduced to form a bettervariety than the previous (domesticated) species. The economicimpact is gigantic, for even crops as common as the potato(which was bred through only one variety, brought back fromthe Inca), a lot more can come from these species. Wild varietiesof the potato will all suffer enormously through the effects ofPolar BearVARIOm o n t h l y m a g a z i n e28VARIO /04

overcoverBiodiversityecologecologyclimate change. A report by the Consultative Group on InternationalAgricultural Research (CGIAR) describes the huge economicloss. Rice, which has been improved for thousands ofyears by man, can through the same process regain some of itsnutritional value that has been lost since (a project is alreadybeing carried out to do just this).Other ecological servicesBiodiversity provides many ecosystem services that are often notreadily visible. It plays a part in regulating the chemistry of ouratmosphere and water supply. Biodiversity is directly involvedin recycling nutrients and providing fertile soils. Experimentswith controlled environments have shown that humans cannoteasily build ecosystems to support human needs; for exampleinsect pollination cannot be mimicked by man-made construction,and that activity alone represents tens of billions of francs inecosystem services per annum to mankind.Leisure, cultural and aesthetic valueMany people derive value from biodiversity through leisureactivities such as enjoying a walk in the countryside, birdwatchingor natural history programs on television.Biodiversity has inspired musicians, painters, sculptors, writersand other artists. Many cultural groups view themselves as anintegral part of the natural world and show respect for otherliving organisms.Black footed ferrets30VARIO /04There Are Ways You Can Help!Conserve HabitatsOne of the most important ways to help threatened plants and animals survive is to protect their habitats permanently innational parks, nature reserves or wilderness areas. There they can live without too much interference from humans. It isalso important to protect habitats outside reserves such as on farms and along roadsides.You can visit a nearby national park or nature reserve. When you visit a national park, make sure you obey the wildlifecode: follow fire regulations; leave your pets at home; leave flowers, birds’ eggs, logs and bush rocks where you findthem; put your rubbish in a bin or, better still, take it home.If you have friends who live on farms, encourage them to keep patches of bush as wildlife habitats and to leave old treesstanding, especially those with hollows suitable for nesting animals.Some areas have groups which look after local lands and nature reserves. They do this by removing weeds and plantinglocal native species in their place. You could join one of these groups, or even start a new one with your parents andfriends. Ask your local parks authority or council for information.By removing rubbish and weeds and replanting with natives you will allow the native bush to gradually regenerate. Thiswill also encourage native animals to return.VARIO /0431

cologecologyThere Are Ways You Can Help! (Continued)Make Space For Our WildlifeBuild a birdfeeder and establish a birdbath for the neighborhood birds.Plant a tree and build a birdhouse in your backyard.Start composting in your backyard garden or on your balcony. It eliminates the need for chemical fertilizers whichare harmful to animals and humans, and it benefits your plants!Avoid using harmful chemicals in your garden or home.So much rely on us...Recycle, Reduce, And ReuseEncourage your family to take public transportation. Walk or ride bicycles rather than using the car.Save energy by turning off lights, radios and the TV when you are not using them.Turn off the tap while you brush your teeth and use water-saving devices on your toilet, taps and showerhead.Try to buy products and food without packaging whenever possible. Take your own bag to the store. It will reducethe amount of garbage and waste your family produces.Recycle your books, games, etc. by donating them to a hospital, daycare, nursery school or children's charity.Encourage your family to shop for organic fruits and vegetables.Plant Native Plants That Are Local To The AreaIf you can, plant native plants instead of non-native or introduced ones in your garden. You don’t want seeds fromintroduced plants escaping into the bush. Native grasses, flowers, shrubs and trees are more likely to attract nativebirds, butterflies and other insects, and maybe even some threatened species.Control Introduced Plants And AnimalsNon-native plants and animals are ones that come from outside your local area.Some parks and reserves, beaches, bush-land and rivers are now infested with invasive plants, and native speciesoften cannot compete with these plants.Many environmental weeds come from people’s gardens.Sometimes, the seeds are taken into the bush by the wind or by birds.Controlling these foreign species is an important step in protecting wildlifeJoin An OrganizationThere are many community groups working on conservation activities. Join an organization in your area and starthelping today!Make Your Voice HeardState and territory government conservation agencies are responsible for the management of national parks andthe protection of wildlife. They are sometimes supported by public foundations.Tell your family, friends and work mates about threatened species and how they can help them.Start a group dedicated to protecting a threatened plant or animal in your area or perhaps to help care for a nationalpark.Write articles or letters about threatened species to newspapers.Ring up talk-back radio programs to air your concerns, or arrange to talk on your community radio station....and we simply do IT.Sources of Information: Greenpeace Canada, WWF Canada, Geocites, and Environment Australia32VARIO /04Information TechnologiesDIAL FREE 800 430 4010(Wondiana only)www.iosys.com.fw

stronoastronomyastronoastronomyA Real Shooting StarMira: A Star with a comet’s tail.Billions of years ago, Mira was similar to our sun. Over time, it began toswell into what's called a variable red giant - a pulsating, puffed-up star thatperiodically grows bright enough to see with the naked eye. Mira willeventually eject all of its remaining gas into space, forming a colorful shellcalled a planetary nebula. The nebula will fade with time, leaving only theburnt-out core of the original star, which will then be called a white dwarf.AAstronomers say Mira's tail offers a unique opportunity to study how stars like our sun die and ultimately seednew solar systems. "This is an utterly new phenomenon to us, and we are still in the process of understandingthe physics involved. We hope to be able to read Mira's tail like a ticker tape to learn about the star's life."stronomers using a NASA space telescope, the Galaxy EvolutionExplorer, have spotted an amazingly long comet-like tail behind astar streaking through space. The star, named Mira after the Latin wordfor "wonderful," has been a favorite of astronomers for about 400 years,yet this is the first time the tail has been seen.Galaxy Evolution Explorer--"GALEX" for short--scanned the popular starduring its ongoing survey of the entire sky in ultraviolet light. Astronomersthen noticed what looked like a comet with a gargantuan tail. In fact,material blowing off Mira is forming a wake 13 light-years long, or about20,000 times the average distance of Pluto from the sun. Nothing likethis has ever been seen before around a star."I was shocked when I first saw this completely unexpected, humongoustail trailing behind a well-known star," says Christopher Martin of theCalifornia Institute of Technology. "It was amazing how Mira's tail echoedon vast, interstellar scales the familiar phenomena of a jet's contrail or aDr. Tony Phillipsspeedboat's turbulent wake." Martin is the principal investigator for theGalaxy Evolution Explorer, and lead author of a Nature paper appearingtoday to announce the discovery.Astronomers say Mira's tail offers a unique opportunity to study howstars like our sun die and ultimately seed new solar systems. Mira is anolder star called a red giant that is losing massive amounts of surfacematerial. As Mira hurtles along, its tail sheds carbon, oxygen and otherimportant elements needed for new stars, planets and possibly even lifeto form. This tail material, visible now for the first time, has been releasedover the past 30,000 years."This is an utterly new phenomenon to us, and we are still in the processof understanding the physics involved," says co-author Mark Seibert ofthe Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington in Pasadena."We hope to be able to read Mira's tail like a ticker tape to learn about thestar's life."Compared to other red giants, Mira is traveling unusually fast, possibly dueto gravitational boosts from other passing stars over time. It now plowsalong at 130 kilometers per second, or 291,000 miles per hour. Racing alongwith Mira is a small, distant companion thought to be a white dwarf. Thepair, also known as Mira A (the red giant) and Mira B (the white dwarf),orbit slowly around each other as they travel together through the constellationCetus 350 light-years from Earth.In addition to Mira's tail, GALEX also discovered a bow shock, a type ofbuildup of hot gas, in front of the star, and two sinuous streams of materialcoming out of the star's front and back. Astronomers think hot gas in thebow shock is heating up the gas blowing off the star, causing it to fluorescewith ultraviolet light. This glowing material then swirls around behind thestar, creating a turbulent, tail-like wake. The process is similar to a speedingboat leaving a choppy wake, or a steam train producing a trail of smoke.The fact that Mira's tail only glows with ultraviolet light might explain whyother telescopes have missed it. GALEX is very sensitive to ultraviolet lightand also has an extremely wide field of view, allowing it to scan the sky forunusual ultraviolet activity."It's amazing to discover such a startlingly large and important feature ofan object that has been known and studied for over 400 years," says JamesD. Neill of Caltech. "This is exactly the kind of surprise that comes from asurvey mission like the Galaxy Evolution Explorer."This artist's illustration above shows a star flying through our galaxy atsupersonic speeds, leaving a 13-light-year-long trail of glowing material inits wake. The star, named Mira (pronounced my-rah) after the Latin wordfor "wonderful," sheds material that will be recycled into new stars, planetsand possibly even life. NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer discovered thelong trail of material behind Mira during its survey of the entire sky inultraviolet light.Mira is located 350 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cetus,otherwise known as the whale. Coincidentally, Mira and its "whale of atail" can be found in the tail of the whale constellation.34VARIO /04VARIO /0435

astronoastronomyastronoastronomyOBSERVATION DATAMIRA, Omicron Ceti, 68 CetiEpoch: J2000.0 Constellation: CetusRight ascension: 02h 19m 20.79sDeclination: -02° 58' 39.5¨Apparent magnitude: (V) 2.0 to 10.1CharacteristicsSpectral type: M7IIIeU-B color index: 1.09B-V color index: 1.42Variable type: Mira variableAstrometryRadial velocity: (Rv) +63.8 km/sProper motion: (µ) RA: 10.33 mas/yrDec.: -239.48 mas/yrParallax: (?) 7.79 ± 1.07 masDistance: approx. 420 ly (approx. 130 pc)Absolute magnitude: (MV) 0.93DetailsMass: 1.2 M?Radius: 400 R?Luminosity: 8,400 L?Temperature: 2,200 KMetallicity: ?Rotation: ?Age: ? yearsMiraMira, Omicron CetiMira was the second variable and the first pulsating one to be discovered,on August 13, 1596 by David Fabricius (1564-1617), a disciple of TychoBrahe and amateur astronomer, and then regarded as a nova because itappeared and faded from view later. Before its discovery, prediscoverysightings have been recorded, first by Hipparchus (134 B.C.), then in1070 by Chinese observers, and possibly in 1592 and/or 1594 by Koreanobservers. In 1603, it was seen, measured and cataloged by Johann Bayerin his Uranometria as star of 4th magnitude, and labelled Omicron Cetiby him. R.H. Allen (1899) reports that its discoverer, Fabricius, observedit again on February 15, 1609. Its periodic variability was only discoveredby Jan Fokkens (Johann Phocylides) Holwarda (1618-1651) ofFriesland/Holland, who discovered it again in 1638 and observed itsubsequently in the years following; he derived a period of about 11months (first derived 1639). Johann Hevelius observed it from 1659 to1682, inserted it in his monumental work, Prodomus Astronomiae, andchristened it "Mira", "the Wonderful", in his Historiola Mirae Stellae of1662. The period of Mira was first determined more acurately by IsmailBouillaud of Paris to be 333 days, only about 1 day deviating from themodern value, no wonder because this period is subject to small irregularvariations.William Herschel found its brightness "almost equal to Aldebaran" (0.85mag) on November 6, 1779, and its color being a deep garnet like MuCephei in 1783. According to Allen, S.C. Chandler gave its maxima inthe 1890s as varying between 1.7 and 5.0 mag (1897: 3.0 mag), and theminima between 8,0 and 9.5.Mira is the brightest and most famous long-period pulsating variable inthe sky, and gave the name to this whole class of stars. It changes itsbrightness normally between maxima of about 3rd magnitude and minimaof about mag 10, but occasionally brighter maxima up to mag 2.0 areobserved (e.g. by William Herschel), or fainter when Mira stays at aboutmagnitude 5. At a distance of about 400 light years, this corresponds toabsolute magnitudes of about -2.5 near the maxima and +4.7 near itsminima, so giant cool Mira is only about as, or even less luminous thanour sun near its minima, but brightens up to about 700 and occasionallyeven over 1500 solar luminosities near the maximum of its cycle.36VARIO /04VARIO /0437

stronoastronomyastronoastronomyZENITHSOUTHSpring Skies in the Southern HemisphereEASTNORTHWEST38VARIO /04VARIO /0439

HOTOGRPHOTOGRAPHYVarioArt GallerySelectionsN.Emin GüvenWhen autumn arrivesin the Northern Hemisphere,we unpack our summer clothes!N.Emin GüvenMake your reservation now for aHoliday in Wondiana.40VARIO /04For more: www.variomagazine.comWondian Department of Tourismwww.tourism.gov.fw

HOTOGRPHOTOGRAPHYVarioArt GallerySelectionspeace of mind,body and soul.N.Emin GüvenHAMLIN ISLAND RESORT- HERISAUN.Emin GüvenBlue BayouINTERNATIONAL HOTELS42VARIO /04For more: www.variomagazine.comwww.bluebayou.com.fw

Drawing Tolkien’s Mind...FANTASYFANTASYGandalf & Balrog: At the Bridge of Khazad-dumThe Final MomentThe Final HitThe Final GearBy John HoweVARIO /0445

EVIEWREVIEW46A Very Long EngagementA Very Long Engagement[2004 France/USA, 133 min.]Cast:Audrey TautouGaspard UllielJean-Pierre BeckerDominique BettenfeldClovis CornillacMarion CotillardJean-Pierre DarroussinJodie FosterJean-Claude DreyfusAlbert DupontelJean-Pierre Jeunet - Director / ScreenwriterFrancis Boespflug - ProducerSébastien Japrisot - Book AuthorGuillaume Laurant - Screenwriter / Dialogue WriterBruno Delbonnel - CinematographerAngelo Badalamenti - Composer (Music Score)Herve Schneid - EditorAline Bonetto - Production DesignerJean-Lou Monthieux - Executive ProducerMadeline Fontaine - Costume DesignerLaurent Kossayan - Sound/Sound DesignerNathalie Tissier - MakeupArnaud Esterez - First Assistant DirectorThierry Mauvoisin - First Assistant DirectorPascal Roy - First Assistant DirectorVincent Arnardi - Sound MixerPierre-Jacques Benichou - CastingAlain Carsoux - Digital EffectsREVIEWDictionary of Word OriginsVARIO /04PLOT SYNOPSISMark DemingJean-Pierre Jeunet's most sophisticated achievement to date, if not actually hisbest film, A Very Long Engagement marks the first instance of the director'strademark techniques applied to a story of historical consequence. In additionto possessing Jeunet's usual busy narration and array of interconnected characters,it's also a visual tour de force, having earned Oscar nominations for both itsart direction and cinematography. Jeunet brings equal loving attention to thegrimy battlefields as to the pretty French countryside and fantastic cityscapesthat have always fascinated him. But it's the film's opening minutes that reallyannounce Jeunet's somber departure from Amélie, back toward his dystopianearlier work. He begins with a medley of five integral characters and thedisparate ways they mutilate themselves to escape combat, in the darkest cornersof the foxholes they imagine will be their tombs. It's a real attention-grabber,VIDEOAudrey Tautou, who rose tointernational stardom with the titlerole in Jean-Pierre Jeunet'sworldwide smash Amélie, reuniteswith the director for this drama,set during the darkest days of WorldWar I and its immediate aftermath.Mathilde (Tautou) is a pretty butfrail young women who was leftwith a bad leg after a childhoodbout with polio. Mathilde lives ina small French village with her AuntBénédicte (Chantal Neuwirth) andUncle Sylvain (Dominique Pinon),and is engaged to marry Manech(Gaspard Ulliel), the son of alighthouse keeper who is fightingwith the army near the Germanfront. Manech is one of five soldierswho have been accused of injuringthemselves in order to be senthome; in order to discouragesimilar behavior among theircomrades, Manech and the othersoldiers are sentenced to death, andthe condemned men are marchedinto the no man's land between theFrench and German lines, wherethey are certain to be killed. Mathilde receives word of Manech's death, but in her heart she believes thatif the man she loved had been killed, she would know it and feel it. Convinced he's still alive somewhere,Mathilde hires a private detective (Ticky Holgado) shortly after the end of the war, and together they setout to find the missing Manech. Jodie Foster appears in a supporting role as a Polish expatriate living inFrance.Derek Armstrongand it sets in motion a complex plot with numerous subordinate characters, featuredin their own offshoot episodes from the main story. Perhaps not even its Frenchspeakingaudiences can fully follow A Very Long Engagement, with so manycharacters whose tenuous ties to each other must be constantly remembered, sanshelp from Jeunet. The task is further complicated for those who need to readsubtitles in addition to gazing in rapture at the production design. Still, an abilityto recount every plot detail is not essential to the enjoyment of A Very LongEngagement, which has so many optic pleasures that the need for clarity orcontinuity becomes de-emphasized. It's well worth that second viewing to appreciateall the subtleties. Notable among the performances are Audrey Tautou playing,well, Audrey Tautou, and Jodie Foster moonlighting in a French film with a finessethat's surprising, even if her unconventional choice of roles is not.by John AytoPanoramaThe word panorama was coined in the late 1780s by an Irish artist called Robert Barker for a method he had invented for painting a scene on the insideof a cylinder in such a way that its perspective would seem correct to someone viewing it from inside the cylinder. He put his invention into practicein 1793 when he opened his “Panorama,” a large building in Leicester Square, London where the public could come and gaze at such all-encompassingscenes. By the early years of the 19th century the word (formed from the prefix pan- ‘all’ and Greek hórãma ‘view,’ a derivative of horãn ‘see’) hadacquired its modern extended meanings.AUDIOThe PlanetsGUSTAV HOLSTThe Wondian National Philharmonic Orchestra and Women’s ChoirConducted by Hénry Viennemanfirst four movements match the form of a symphony. One alternative explanationmay be the ruling of astrological signs of the zodiac by the planets. If the zodiacsigns are listed along with their ruling planets in the traditional order starting withAries, ignoring duplication, Pluto (then undiscovered), and the luminaries (the Sunand the Moon), then the order of the movements matches. Another possibility, thistime from an astronomical perspective, is that the first three movements, representingthe inner terrestrial planets, are ordered according to their decreasing distance fromthe Sun. The remaining movements, representing the gas giants that lie beyond theasteroid belt, are ordered by increasing distance from the Sun. Critic David Hurwitzoffers an alternative explanation for the piece's structure: that "Jupiter" is the centrepointof the suite and that the movements on either side are in mirror images. Thus "Mars"involves motion and "Neptune" is static; "Venus" is sublime while "Uranus" is vulgar,and "Mercury" is light and scherzando while "Saturn" is heavy and plodding. (This,The Children of HurinJ.R.R. TOLKIENEdited by Christopher TolkienPainstakingly restored from Tolkien's manuscripts andpresented for the first time as a fully continuous andstandalone story, the epic tale of The Children of Hurinwill reunite fans of The Hobbit and The Lord of theRings with Elves and Men, dragons and Dwarves,eagles and Orcs, and the rich landscape and charactersunique to Tolkien. There are tales of Middle-earth fromtimes long before The Lord of the Rings, and the storytold in this book is set in the great country that laybeyond the Grey Havens in the West: lands whereTreebeard once walked, but which were drowned inthe great cataclysm that ended the First Age of theWorld. In that remote time Morgoth, the first DarkLord, dwelt in the vast fortress of Angband, the Hellsof Iron, in the North; and the tragedy of Turin and hissister Nienor unfolded within the shadow of the fearof Angband and the war waged by Morgoth againstthe lands and secret cities of the Elves. Their brief andpassionate lives were dominated by the elemental hatredthat Morgoth bore them as the children of Hurin, theman who had dared to defy and to scorn him to hisJim KnowlesThe PlanetsGustav HolstlighthouseSYDLANCH - WINDSOR - CIRANO - FRONTENACREVIEWVARIO /04REVIEWThe Wondian National Philharmonic Orchestra and Women’s ChoirConducted by Hénry ViennemanThe suite has seven movements, each of them named after a planet(and its corresponding Roman deity):Mars, the Bringer of WarVenus, the Bringer of PeaceMercury, the Winged MessengerJupiter, the Bringer of JollitySaturn, the Bringer of Old AgeUranus, the MagicianNeptune, the MysticWith the exception of the first two movements, the order of the movements corresponds toincreasing distance of their eponymous planets from the Earth. Some commentators have suggestedthat this is intentional, with the anomaly of Mars preceding Venus being a device to make thehypothesis is lent credence by the fact that the two outer movements, "Mars" and"Neptune," are both written in the rather unusual meter of five.)"Neptune" was the first piece of music to have a fade-out ending. Holst stipulatesthat the women's choruses are "to be placed in an adjoining room, the door of whichis to be left open until the last bar of the piece, when it is to be slowly and silentlyclosed", and that the final bar (scored for choruses alone) is "to be repeated until thesound is lost in the distance"[10]. Although commonplace today, the effect bewitchedaudiences in the era before widespread recorded sound - after the initial 1918 runthrough,Holst's daughter Imogen (in addition to watching the charwomen dancingin the aisles during "Jupiter") remarked that the ending was "unforgettable, with itshidden chorus of women's voices growing fainter and fainter... until the imaginationknew no difference between sound and silence"face. Against them he sent his most formidable servant,Glaurung, a powerful spirit in the form of a hugewingless dragon of fire. Into this story of brutal conquestand flight, of forest hiding-places and pursuit, ofresistance with lessening hope, the Dark Lord and theDragon enter in direly articulate form. Sardonic andmocking, Glaurung manipulated the fates of Turin andNienor by lies of diabolic cunning and guile, and thecurse of Morgoth was fulfilled. The earliest versions ofthis story by J.R.R. Tolkien go back to the end of theFirst World War and the years that followed; but longafterwards, when The Lord of the Rings was finished,he wrote it anew and greatly enlarged it in complexitiesof motive and character: it became the dominant storyin his later work on Middle-earth. But he could notbring it to a final and finished form. In this bookChristopher Tolkien has constructed, after long studyof the manuscripts, a coherent narrative without anyeditorial invention.47

VARIOt r i a n n u a l m a g a z i n eSeptember 2007 / No.4Vario Magazine Publication, Inc.27 Rue Deschamps, Rt. BrittanyVT 94446 - SYDLANCH/WONDIANAPhone: +71 777 345 1200 (pbx)Fax: +71 777 345 1255 - info@variomagazine.comVISIT OUR ONLINE VERSION ATwww.variomagazine.com1420034 000002 1 4ISSN 1420340-5Printed in Wondiana