Of all Kittredge's jargon, only one term has ever
found it's way into conversation. The term is
un-neurotic courage. It was that sort of courage, of course, that carried
Winston Niles Rumfoord out into space. It was pure
courage–not only pure of lusts for fame and money, but
pure of any drives that smack of the misfit or screwball.
There are, incidentally, two strong, common words
that would have served handsomely, one or the other, in
place of all of Kittredge's jargon. The words are
style and
gallantry. When Rumfoord became the first person to own a
private space ship, paying fifty-eight million dollars out of
his own pocket for it–that was style.
When the governments of the earth suspended all
space exploration because of the chrono-synclastic infun-
dibula, and Rumfoord announced that he was going to
Mars–that was style.
When Rumfoord announced that he was taking a
perfectly tremendous dog along, as though a space ship
were nothing more than a sophisticated sports car, as
though a trip to Mars were little more than a spin down
the Connecticut Turnpike–that was style.
When it was unknown what would happen if a
space ship went into a chrono-synclastic infundibulum,
and Rumfoord steered a course straight for the middle of
one–that was gallantry indeed.
Reply
