Page 20 RAIN June 1978 Arrival and Garb City·, Books I & II of Daily Lives in 'NghsiAltai, Robert Nichols, $1.95, $3.95 respectively, from: New Directions Books • 333 Sixth Ave. New York, NY 10014 go naked walk with the leopard carry a transistor radio -Robert Nichols Patterns of Nghsi-Altai See the three biomes, its distinct landscapes of Rift, Great Plains, and Drune forest: a triad. And superimposed upon this another triad dividing it again, at right angles. Thus three autonomous regions are formed, each with the whple landscape. E'ach one having also the whole people, the Six Tribes. Thus the pattern of Altai: a double triad. One s_uperimposed over the other. A hexagram. The areas are linked together by a transportation grid. Running from wes! to east through the brown fields are the irrigation canals. A barge is being pulled by a water buffalo led by a ragged child. It is carrying a load of sugar cane. Forty feet overhead, and rushing away at right angles ~o it in the di_rection· of the Rift, the steel track of the monorail. D A County Machine Bank The machine banks (general-purpose machinery pools), a regular feature of the plains counties, are protected by windbreaks of cottonwood, in front of which are several windmills. Beyond are buildings surrounded by huge piles of manure, some of them up to thirty feet high, of alter11:ating dark and light bands, the tops sprouting weeds. . "Where does all this manure come from?" inquires Blake in astonishment. They are informed by the guide that it is collected each night in the city, by a brigade known as the honey bucket men, and transported here where it is stockpiled. The manure is contracted for by the Farmers' Co-operative, which buys it from the city brigades at the exchange rate of one cubic yard .manure to five sers of grain. The stockpiled material is analyzed by the laboratory, and chemical fertilizers an<i other nutrients added in accordance with local soil re_quirerryents. Beside the manure piles is a large pond. It is rectangular and appears to have been dug artificially. Alvarez inquires if it is for recreation. • There was some difficulty in the translation of this word. "But what is recreation?" When it was finally understood, our guides roared with laughter. "No. lt is a solar pond." "What do you mean, a solar pond?" , Incredulity that the discoverers do not know what these are. It is explained that the ponds are for the purpose of trapping solar radiation arid are dug shallow and sealed with a black polyethylene liner. From the s9il layer below this, heat is conducted thr.ough a series of exchangers to the bank's industrial plant, where it provides steam to the electric ~urbines. This is in the summer, the dry monsoon season. During the rest of the year, the energy comes from the wind mills. D A cross-cultural successor to Ecotopia, Daily Lives in NghsiAl tai is utopian fiction that will stretch your mind in a few new ·directions. The setting for its visionary society is distinctly nonWestern, where the use of highly advanced appropriate technologies exists within a traditional Asian culture that utilizes communal modes of decision-making. Its "discovery" by three realworld literary and cultural personalities borrowed by the author for the purpose of telling the story is his way of offering a Their Language This is how the official records are compiled in Nghsi-Altai. Writing is outlawed and has been for some centuries. However, computers are in general use for purposes of planning. All village panchayats, or common councils, have them, small consoles being_set up among the hookah, or smoking, groups. In computer programing only the "stiff" language is permitted, composed largely of archaicisms aI_Id algebraic symbols; the common or "fresh" language is reserved for speech. D . Naming of Produce There are three categories of grains and vegetables in NghsiAltai, depending on use. Thus with tomatoes: those consumed by the commune for food, and also used for ceremonial and festival purposes are called frooz-a fresh speech word signifying sacred. Tomatoes allocated to the State Buying Co-operatives are callecj kijh-meaning tax tomatoes. The third category is kumbaj, meaning market tomato. Only the market tomatoes may be priced and sold. The grading and sorting of produce is called naming. It is done by one of the village men's societies, the Squirrels. This operation is a privilege of the society, and appropriate regalia is worn. The Squirrels also serve as a special 'police force and give out fines to those caught selling sacred or tax vegetables. This is black marketeering and the crime is: mixing up names. □ Entry Into Garb City At the invitation of the Planning Ministry we have come to visit Garh. After a short trip across the plains., we arrived last night at the transportation node. Descending by skip (ele~tric cable car) into the Rift canyon, we were plunged at once mto the excitement and fervor of the big city. The glare. A barrage of noise. Buildings of unexpected structure and function crowding the narrow area between the cliffs, connected by raised passageways. Everything compact, enormously compressed, "miniaturized." Yet they say this is a city of three million. An expanse of water in a canal is illuminated under a neon sign, lights flash on and off, the metabolism of urban movement, traffic. As the skip glided over the submerged rooftops, a tower lqomed on our right. Within the steel frame was a cylinder of shifting, multicolored light, like a giant cathode tube. , ,. Our guide informed us it was a "synerg" or public art object. "It registers the energy state of the city at a give? moment-traffic flow, heat, number of telephone calls, air composition index, even demogr-aphic information. The data com.es in from the stations, is absorbed cybernetically, and emitted as light signals." D
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