A Space Oddessey 2061 Book 3 Chapter 7: Transit PART I : THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN

A Space Oddessey 2061 Book 3 Chapter 7: Transit PART I : THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN

'I too take leave of all 1 ever had...' From what depths of memory had that line come swimming up to the surface? Heywood Floyd closed his eyes, and tried to focus on the past. It was certainly from a poem - and he had hardly read a line of poetry since leaving college. And little enough then, except during a short English Appreciation Seminar. With no further clues, it might take the station computer quite a while - perhaps as much as ten minutes - to locate the line in the whole body of English literature. But that would be cheating (not to mention expensive) and Floyd preferred to accept the intellectual challenge. A war poem, of course - but which war? There had been so many in the twentieth century. He was still searching through the mental mists when his guests arrived, moving with the effortless, slow-motion grace of longtime one-sixth gravity residents. The society of Pasteur was strongly influenced by what had been christened 'centrifugal stratification'; some people n…