“By the 15th day after “rescuing” Airl from the crash site, I was able to communicate fluidly and effortlessly with her in English. She had absorbed so much written material by this time that her academic education far exceeded my own. Although I graduated from high school in Los Angeles in 1940 and attended college for four years of premedical and nursing training, the variety of my own reading had been fairly limited.
I had not studied most of the subjects to which Airl had now been exposed, especially considering her acute understanding, very intense study habits and a nearly photographic memory! She was able to recall long passages from books she read. She was especially fond of sections of her favorite stories from classic literature like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn [i] (Footnote), tales from Gulliver’s Travels [ii] (Footnote) and Peter Pan [iii] (Footnote) and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow [iv] (Footnote).
By this time Airl had become the teacher, and I was the student. I was about to learn what men of Earth do not know and have no way of knowing!
The throng of scientists and agents who observed us through the one-way glass [v] (Footnote) of our interview room, whom Airl and I now referred to as “the gallery”, were growing increasingly impatient to ask her questions. But Airl continued to refuse to allow any questions to be asked of her by anyone other than myself, even vicariously through me as an interpreter, or in writing.
On the afternoon of the 16th day Airl and I sat next to each other as she read. She closed the last page of a book she was reading and placed it aside. I was about to hand her the next book from a large pile waiting to be read, when she turned and said or “thought” to me, “I am ready to speak now”. At first I was a little confused by the remark. I gestured for her to continue and she began to teach me my first lesson.”
— Excerpted from the notes provided by Nurse Matilda MacElroy published in the book ALIEN INTERVIEW, edited by Lawrence R. Spencer
FOOTNOTES:
[i] “… Adventures of Huckleberry Finn…”
“Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) (often shortened to Huck Finn) by Mark Twain. The book is noted for its innocent young protagonist, its colorful description of people and places along the Mississippi River, and its sober and often scathing look at entrenched attitudes, particularly racism. The drifting journey of Huckleberry Finn and his friend, runaway slave Jim, down the Mississippi River on their raft may be one of the most enduring images of escape and freedom in all of American literature.”
— Reference: Wikipedia.org
[ii] “… Gulliver’s Travels …”
“Gulliver’s Travels (1726, amended 1735), officially Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of several Ships, is a novel by Jonathan Swift that is both a satire on human nature and a parody of the “travellers’ tales” literary sub-genre. It is Swift’s best known full-length work, and a classic of English literature. The book became tremendously popular as soon as it was published (John Gay said in a 1726 letter to Swift that “it is universally read, from the cabinet council to the nursery”), and it is likely that it has never been out of print since then. The book presents itself as a simple traveller’s narrative with the disingenuous title Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, its authorship assigned only to “Lemuel Gulliver, first a surgeon, then a captain of several ships”.”
— Reference: Wikipedia.org
[iii] “…Peter Pan…”
Peter Pan is a character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie (1860–1937). A mischievous boy who flies and magically refuses to grow up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood adventuring on the small island of Neverland as the leader of his gang the Lost Boys, interacting with fairies and pirates, and from time to time meeting ordinary children from the world outside.
Barrie never described Peter’s appearance in detail, leaving much of it to the imagination of the reader and the interpretation of anyone adapting the character. He describes him as a beautiful boy with a beautiful smile, “clad in skeleton leaves and the juices that flow from trees”.
Peter is mainly an exaggerated stereotype of a boastful and careless boy. He is quick to point out how great he is. Peter has a nonchalant, devil-may-care attitude, and is fearlessly cocky when it comes to putting himself in danger. Barrie writes that when Peter thought he was going to die on Marooner’s Rock, he felt scared, yet he felt only one shudder run through him when any other person would’ve felt scared up until death. With his blissful unawareness of the tragedy of death, he says, “To die will be an awfully big adventure”.
Peter’s archetypal ability is his refusal to grow up. Barrie did not explain how he was able to do this, leaving the implication that it was by an act of will.
Peter is a skilled swordsman, with the skill to rival even Captain Hook, whose hand he cut off in a duel. He has remarkably keen vision and hearing. Peter Pan is said to be able to do almost anything. Peter has an effect on the whole of Neverland and its inhabitants when he is there. Barrie states that the island wakes up when he returns from his trip to London. Peter is the leader of the Lost Boys, a band of boys who were lost by their parents, and came to live in Neverland. He is friends with Tinker Bell, a common fairy who is often jealously protective of him.”
— Reference: Wikipedia.org
[iv] “…The Legend of Sleepy Hollow… ”
“A short story by Washington Irving contained in his collection The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., written while he was living in Birmingham, England, and first published in 1820. With Irving’s companion piece “Rip Van Winkle”, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is among the earliest American fiction still read today.
The story is set circa 1790 in the Dutch settlement of Tarry Town, New York, in a secluded glen called Sleepy Hollow. It tells the story of Ichabod Crane, a lanky schoolmaster from Connecticut, who competes with Abraham “Brom Bones” Van Brunt, the town rowdy, for the hand of 18-year-old Katrina Van Tassel, only daughter of a wealthy farmer. As Crane leaves a party at the Van Tassel home on an autumn night, he is pursued by the Headless Horseman, supposedly the ghost of a Hessian trooper who lost his head to a cannonball during “some nameless battle” of the American Revolutionary War and who “rides forth to the scene of battle in nightly quest of his head.” Crane disappears from town, leaving Katrina to marry Brom Bones, who was “to look exceedingly knowing whenever the story of Ichabod was related.”
— Reference: Wikipedia.org
[v] ...one-way glass…”
“A two-way mirror, also called a one-way mirror, is a mirror which is partially reflective and partially transparent. It is used with a darkened room on one side and a well-lit room on the other, allowing those in the darkened room to see into the lighted room but not vice versa.
The glass is coated with (or in some cases encases a layer of) a very thin almost transparent layer of metal (generally aluminum). The result is what appears to be a mirror from one side, and tinted glass from the other. A viewer in the brightly lit area has difficulty seeing into the darkened room, through what appears to be a mirror.
To take full advantage of the partially mirrored surface, the target side should be brightly lit, to obscure any hint of light coming through the glass from the viewer’s side. The darkened room is only completely obscured when it is in complete darkness. Sometimes a darkened curtain or a double door type vestibule is used to keep the viewer’s side darkened.
A flashlight held against the glass can be used to illuminate the darkened viewer’s side, allowing someone on the lit side to see through. Two-way mirrors are used for:
- providing security, through covert viewing of public spaces
- for the protection of covert cameras
- for some police interrogation rooms”
— Reference: Wikipedia.org
Originally posted 2011-05-13 13:41:13. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
“Some things have to be believed to be seen.” — (9 September 1871 – 3 November 1962) was an English poet. In 1954, he was awarded the King’s Gold Medal for Poetry.
