First Contact is a multidimensional narrative connecting centuries, continents and sub/cultures, unravelling coincidences and conspiracies, computer viruses, and viruses which infect your mind. It details a kaleidoscope of revolutions and counter re...
WHEN CHINA ANNOUNCED IT WAS TURNING USER-PAYS IN EARLY 1994, JEREMY REALIZED IT WAS TIME FOR A NEO-MARXIST REVIVAL. All the indicators were there. Class conflict had been out of style for more than a decade, the most liberal universities were teaching the Market Management historical perspective. For once even Trax agreed.
<<Silikon's getting too mainstream for its own good>> he said. They were at Flux one night, and the mood was ultramanisch. <<If it doesn't redefine itself in a month, I'm giving it up to the pre-pubescents.>>
The redefinition came, and just in time - from the rusty factory towns and unemployment queues of eastern Europe came the new, back-to-basic prequal to Silikon. For the first moment in living memory, it seemed anything grotty, grey and low-tech was back in vogue. And, for the first time, Jeremy could feel proud his Dad was a mechanic.
He was so excited the morning the news came out in Sub he accidentally interrupted Trax interfacing some Flux swing-on named Rochelle. The Second Industrial Revolution would sweep Australia that Sunday, he told them hurriedly, breaking out of Silikon vokab, and it would be sparked at the Blast Furnace Insurrection Ball, Port Kembla, only $45 admission!
Perhaps unnerved by the user-unfriendly syntax, and mainly because he couldn't stand Jeremy rambling so early in the morning, Trax was unimpressed. <<Sorry man>> not caring to cover Rochelle's torso with the sheet <<Port Kembla's just too far away.>>
After that day, Trax didn't expect to hear from Rochelle and the Furnace ever again.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
TUESDAY WAS CAPACITOR NIGHT AT Flux and all the usual crew were there (unfortunately.) As soon as Trax walked in, he was confronted by the spectacle of Rochelle pounding the floor with her cluster of now instant untouchables. What a freaking nightmare!
There was only one honorable option for a swinger like him: bail. Slinking out the door he was startled to note, hanging on a noticeboard, a poster advertising dance holidays to the great manufacturing belts of the world. He was even more surprised to recognize, dangling alongside, a small leaflet designed in an early 20th Century agitprop style, splattered with random and inappropriate Crylic letters, boldly proclaiming:
RAVERS OF THE WORLD UNITE!
BLAST FURNACE INSURRECTION BALL
PORT KEMBLA
*Seize the means of production! *All power to the proletariat! * Featuring Lenin and Polycentric DJs!
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Trax panicked. Industrialism could be mainstream within months.
Anyone can keep up with fashions; to get over these days you have to keep at least one movement ahead.
