More on PHOBIA: a tale of being

[Ross253212]

Lest the author miss it, author Joey LaFollette says that
"West-Tech is a metaphor for progress. (p. 25). There's even a good
Italian place on Technology Avenue.
Jacob, the protagonist, has gone to work at West-Tech after
graduating from Berkeley. His parents don't understand why he doesn't
marry Linda, whom he had been dating for years.
At West-Tech, he's proud of announcing at office parties that he's
a poet. His job is talk to Laura, the Supercomputer, and teach the
computer the language of humanity.
His co-workers are a fun bunch. On his first day, his supervisor
pretends to be a Protocyborg in the men's room, and helpfully tends to his
needs.
Jake tells Laura, the Supercomputer, that "spirit is something
that doesn't correspond with scientific learning yet is so wonderful.
It's what makes you and I alive and able to interact not just on the
output level but on a higher plane."
Jake can't remember his bad dreams. His trips to the psychiatrist
don't help much -- the doctor is fascinated about what's going on with
Jake's brain. But isn't able to save Jake from himself. He wakes in a
cell, where he is a pitiable mess. Groggy, confused, he awakes one day.
Handcuffed, bearded, smelly. The deputy sheriff is amazed as he speaks
for the first time in two years: "shave...me." "He wants them to shave
off his terrible beard. Perhaps that person in my dreams is just behind
that beard."
If I can get permission of the author, I'll make copies for Erik,
Doug, Ellis and Shadow, and then you can pass it around. But otherwise
I'm stuck under the copyright laws (and the nice and otherwise obliging
Ron at the copyright office's certification office, Rm. 402).

[Ross253212]

His supervisor -- the fellow pretending to be a black cyborg, Rufus --
just offered him a towel, refusing a tip.