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"Tokyo homeless people reiterate the whole nature of living in Tokyo in cardboard boxes, they're only slightly smaller than Tokyo apartments, and they have almost as many consumer goods. It's a nightmare of boxes within boxes."
- William Gibson
 |
| The Krang | ||
| An enormous musical instrument (or weapon). |
| "...Who would have suspected it? The Krang is both a weapon and a musical instrument."
"It tells us a lot about the Tar-Aiym... not to mention going a long way toward explaining their interest in two such seemingly divergent fields as war and art. I can't say that I care for their tastes in music, though..." "Apparently," continued the thranx... "the machine generates some form of vibration... I confess myself hesitant to label it 'sound waves.' Probably something partaking of those characteristics as well as those of wave forms we could not identify - although their effects were noted." |
| Technovelgy from The Tar-Aiym Krang,
by Alan Dean Foster. Published by Ballantine in 1972 Additional resources -
|
As to the appearance of the Krang:
From above the dull metal plating of the machine an uncountable profusion of chromatically colored tubes ran toward the distant roof. Azure, peach, shocking pink, ivory, Tyrolean purple... Some were the size of a child's ty, small enough to fit over [the] little finger. Others looked big enough to swallow the shuttle with ease...
"Looks like the ultimate product of a mad organ-builder's worst nightmares..."
And what did it sound like when used?
A thousand million jackboots drummed alien marches on the side of his head while a conspiracy of laughing electrons tried to pull his scalp off. He smelled burnt orange.
The "machine" itself towered a hundred meters above them and ran the length of the auditorium, melting into the curved corners... Much of the machine was closed off, but Flinx could see dials and switches catching the light from behind half-open plates...
The gigantic pipes of the machine pulsed with anvillike ringings, circlets of lambent electricity crawling up their sides like parasitic haloes. They crackled viciously, much as ripping plastic foil...
Thanks to Eric Nodacker for contributing this item.
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Additional
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More Ideas
and Technology from The Tar-Aiym Krang
More Ideas
and Technology by Alan Dean Foster
Tech news articles related to The Tar-Aiym Krang
Tech news articles related to works by Alan Dean Foster
The Krang-related
news articles:
- Twin Solid State Musical Tesla Coils In Concert
- Get Inside The 100 Foot Piano
- Steam Infrastructure-Powered Music
| Switzerland May Cap Population At Ten Million |
| California Governor Candidate Calls For Voting By Phone |
| Chinese Hospital Tries Vonnegut's 'Harrison Bergeron' Cosplay |
| A Remarkable Coincidence |
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'It was a pushpot, which could not possibly be called a jet plane because it could not possibly fly. Only it did.'
'She wouldn't stop until Antar had told her everything he knew about whatever it was that she was playing with on her screen.'
'Does thinking you're the last sane man on the face of the Earth make you crazy?'
'It hurtled on down with inconceivable speed until it was visible as thousands of tiny robot planes...'
'Then she looked up with a smile and moved closer to the camera.'
'... folios and tapes and playable discs of platinum alloy.'
'... another corner of his mind began to think about the shields.'
