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The magic
- The University of Alabama Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
he magic of Imagination may at times be very lovely, when one imagines beautiful melodies, lovely thoughts, or kindly deeds. But, when the magic of Imagination is forced upon one who is not strong enough to escape, the experience is likely not to be a pleasing or beautiful adventure. Raggedy Andy looked thoughtfully at Raggedy Ann and said, You speak like a very wise person, Raggedy Ann. Book white tape fingers shut. Raggedy Ann my hand takes. Book my fingers open. Pages my fingers turn. Pages dry. Pages smell dusty. Bright red Raggedy Ann yarn hair my fingers pet. White sailor cap Raggedy Andy wears. My eyes Colours hurt. Broke window sighs. Raggedy Anns been a wonderful addition to the collection, chickpea. You appear to be enjoying her more yourself. Least, youre sleeping. Like you, I wonder why cant the world be more like Raggedy Ann. Tumbled floor books Pale hands pick. Red lips say, Here are some other treasures from the canon wot inform our mission. My guide to bird identification. Always good to know what youre rescuing. The index medicus, cos we get hurt out there. My map of the city showing all the best rooftop pathways in red ink. Its how we round round get around. We can cross entire districts without touching the ground. Heres Fox in Sox, to practice talk. Books brown sofa catches. Red tom Tortoiseshell jump. My foot books touch. And the most important piece of my library. Construction of Biologically Functional Bacterial Plasmids in Vitro, by Stanley Cohen and Herbert Boyer. T Wrinkly yellow papers white taped hands rattle. This describes how to isolate and amplify genes and insert them into other cells with precision. Recombinant dna technique. Our bible, the book of genesis, you see. It explains how you and I came to be. says wrinkly yellow papers. Yellow papers turn. My eyes hide. Candles flicker. Birds fweet fweet fweet. Caged Henry coos, Sweet, sweet. Maybe nows the good time I should give you the highlights. red lips says. Black collar tag Pale fingers black crosses poke. Clink clink. Pale candlelight Tag shines. Pale throat shines. Freda. My eyes Blue eyes watch. Pale throat says, One day when the real for sure folks had gone away from home and Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy had been left out in the little playhouse in the orchard, Raggedy Ann said to Raggedy Andy, Raggedy Andy, do you know what. Tell me, Raggedy Ann. Raggedy Andy, you and I were constructed in a cell free environment. A test tube. In vitro. Its true. We are factories, not breeds, not species, not dollies nor even earthlings. Our original a to z was to make the anthro stronger and healthier. Vaccinate against bigger, badder, wolfier diseases. Protect it from untimely, inconvenient dying, or even just the sniffles. Andy, did you know you and I were pure. Raggedy Ann said. Purified and homogenized, anyway. And we wouldve gone on forever, our bits begot from immortalized cell lines, spun free of birth and death, simply enzymes, proteins, bare [3.235.130.73] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 16:40 GMT) naked segments of genes. Anonymous, sure. Patented and trademarked, okay. But nonetheless authentic, without fear or desire, without need or neurosis or pain. Simply free. Free not to be a you and a me. Eternally. What Im saying, Raggedy Andy, is we never were supposed to live. Now dont cry. The real sob story begins with an experimental allergy fix for Feldee one, the cat glycoprotein wot triggers rashes and wheezing and red eyes and sneezing. Some pharmaceutical companies tried to nix the protein the old fashioned, barnyard way, testing untold thousands of kitties, searching for that one in every 50000 wot lacked the allergen. Those lucky few were then greenlighted to fuck their brains out. Tee hee. Pardon my french, Andy. This method was, quote, natural, but took too much time, and supply couldnt keep up with demand. Other companies tried genetic engineering to knock out the protein. Not only didnt gene therapy save on time any better than artificial selection, it didnt save on bees n honey either. Who but some rich ponce is going to pay four grand for a feline. No one knew feldee ones purpose in cat metabolism in the first place, so removing it couldve had unforseen side effects, like o, say, death. Raggedy Ann said, And whether you use selective breeding or gene therapy, any dandling between allergenfree cats and regular...