Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book (32 page)

Question:
Where would you rather be when the message is received—

(1) Tennessee?

(2) New Ionia?

The Message:

Message to Star:
G2V, r = 9.844 kpc, 0 = 00°05'24'', 0 = 206°28'49'' (our sun)

Planets:
a = 1.5 × 10
¹³
cm, M = 6 × 10
²⁷
g, R = 6.4 × 10
⁸
cm, p = 8.6 × 10
⁴
, p = 3.2 x 10
⁷
s (the inner planets of the solar system)
Repeat. Do you read? Do you read? Are you in trouble? How did you get in trouble? If you are in trouble, have you sought help? If you did, did help come? If it did, did you accept it? Are you out of trouble? What is the character of your consciousness? Are you conscious? Do you have a self? Do you know who you are? Do you know what you are doing? Do you love? Do you know how to love? Are you loved? Do you hate? Do you read me? Come back. Repeat. Come back. Come back. Come back.

(
CHECK ONE
)

^*
The adventures recounted here owe something to Walter M. Miller’s extraordinary novel,
A Canticle for Leibowitz,
from which I have borrowed Leibowitz and the state of Utah.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook onscreen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

copyright © 1983 by Walker Percy

cover design by Jason Gabbert

ISBN: 978-1-4532-1636-1

This edition published in 2011 by Open Road Integrated Media
180 Varick Street
New York, NY 10014
www.openroadmedia.com