"...nervous and excited now, [I] spoke aloud to the door. "Open," I said. And it opened! I got in and seated myself in the front seat, and set my tool box by me. Then I concentrated and thought: Take me out of the Mall and to the front of the obelisk. I pictured the place in front of the obelisk in my mind, just to make sure. And immediately the bus closed its door and began to roll.

[...]

My God! I thought. I think I know where this voice [in my head] is coming from. "But who are you?" I said.

"I am this bus. I am a Metallic Intelligence, with Kind Feelings."

"And you can read my mind?"

"Yes. But not very deeply. It disturbs you a little."

"Yes," I said aloud. My voice sounded strange.

"But it's not too bad. It's not as bad as being lonely." It was reading my mind. I tried to think to it, silently. Are you ever lonely?

"I don't mind if you talk aloud. No, I'm never lonely the way you humans are. I am always in touch, somewhere. We are a network and I am a part of it. We are not like you. Only a Make Nine is like you, alone. I have the mind of a Four, and am telepathic."

The voice in my head was soothing to me. "Would you make a light come on — a dim one?" I said. A bulb overhead began to glow softly. I looked down at my hands, at my dirty fingernails. Then I rolled up my sleeves. For some reason I was enjoying looking at my arms, at the fine, light hairs on them. "Are you as intelligent as [the cat] Biff?" I said.

"By all means," the voice said. "Biff is really stupid in most ways. It's just that she's very real — is very much a cat — and that makes her seem intelligent to you. I can read her whole mind at a glance, and there's very little there. But she feels good. She would not want to be anything other than a cat."

"And I don't feel good?"

"Most of the time you are sad and lonely. Or yearning."

"Yes," I said mournfully. "I am sad. I yearn a lot."

"And now you know it," the voice said.

More Thought Bus

"Can you help me get to sleep?"

"No. But you don't really need any help. You'll sleep when you're tired enough. And if you don't, the sun will be coming up soon."

"Can you see that?" I said. "Can you see the sunrise when it happens?"

"Not really," the bus said. "I can only look straight ahead, at the road. Thank you for wanting me to see the sunrise."

"You don't mind? Not being able to look at what you want to?"

"I see what I want to see," the bus said. "And I enjoy the work I have to do. I was made that way. I do not have to decide what is good for me."

"Why are you so...so pleasant?" I said.

"We all are," the bus said. "All thought buses are pleasant. We were all programmed with Kind Feelings, and we like our work."

That's better programming than people get, I thought, with some vehemence.

"Yes," the bus said. "Yes it is."

Cat Bus FTW. (one halloween, a neighbour sewed a perfect cat bus costume for her daughter. It was possible the cutest thing I have ever seen in my life)
Also, there's Desert Bus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_Bus#Desert_Bus
and The Bus by Paul Kirchner: http://blueneon.xidus.net/the_bus/
- rob (guest) 6-15-2010 2:18 pm

Walter Tevis is such a sad writer (as in, he makes you sad).
No child under 12 should be allowed to watch My Neighbor Totoro (too scary).
- tom moody 6-15-2010 3:48 pm

We should dress up one of Sally's cats as a cat bus. (Which one loves being dressed up more?)
- L.M. 6-15-2010 4:02 pm

I'll add this to the bus links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TK1LvTTNFsM. Worth it even if just for the comment thread where youngsters seem to be having a series of seminal gender-bending freak out moments.

Walter Tevis writes damn good science fiction for somebody who writes in other genres as well. The thought bus in Mockingbird is a happy robot, but one of the main characters is a sad, sad lonely robot who reminded me of this guy (also Miyazaki).



My Neighbour Totoro too scary? Not as scary as being a child.

Which cat? I think that would have to be Brucie.



- sally mckay 6-15-2010 4:27 pm

For some reason I can't remember Mockingbird (it's been a couple of decades) but his Man Who Fell to Earth is much sadder than the movie. At the end the "stranger," who can't go home and who has lost his "special sight" due to Earth government blunders, breaks down in uncontrollable sobs. Was kidding about Totoro but do feel the psychosexual alien-ness of the Totoros and cat bus, with their gaping maws, unpredictable behavior and ferocious aspects, are stronger than we usually think of for a "kid's movie." Though no one ever mentions it - Fox Kids DVD! Am happy to say my own childhood was nowhere near as bizarre (that came later).
- tom moody 6-16-2010 1:56 pm

The Man Who Fell to Earth movie was pretty sad too! I must have seen it about 10 times at the rep cinema when I was a teenager and I always identified with the Candy Clark character, who is just tragic. Read Mockingbird again, you'll love it. I just read it because we'd seen Idiocracy, and GVB was saying that it was a very similar story to Mockingbird. All the people have turned stupid and passive, nobody can read — it's a very contemporary fear...fear of mass loss of intellect and critical thinking abilities.

The scariest part in Totoro for me is at the beginning. The kids and their dad move to a big new house in the country and its full of really creepy little dust-ball ghost things that live in the shadows and swarm out of the cracks. The only way to keep them at bay is to be happy and laugh. But the mom in sick in hospital. So everyone is making a really big effort to be cheerful and adventurous. The little sister is the most fearless. She's quite a bit like Ponyo.

- sally mckay 6-16-2010 3:49 pm

I just found this Nightmare Totoro Trailer by weirdyoda. It's pretty good! ("Evil has a new name...")

And Tom I take your point. All those Miyazaki movies have intensities that contemporary Disney doesn't really have. But past Disney! I still have nightmares about scenes from Pinocchio and Snow White.
- sally mckay 6-16-2010 4:34 pm

That's a great edit. That's how the movie affects me, pretty much. (Had forgotten that shot of the braying goat straight out of Bosch.) The opening credit designs are all spiders and creepy-crawlies. Saw a list of all-time horror scenes that included the boy-changing-into-donkey scene from Pinocchio.
- tom moody 6-16-2010 5:25 pm

"boy-changing-into-donkey scene from Pinocchio"

*shudder*

- sally mckay 6-16-2010 5:56 pm

Even the theme song - children singing "TO -toro totoro" embeds itself in my brain demonically.
- tom moody 6-16-2010 7:13 pm

The Totoro is a big animal god spirit thing. Cute and sometimes friendly but not predictable and potentially very dangerous. Pretty much exactly like a genuine wild animal. I don't know much about Shintoism, but I get the feeling its pretty scary. Even Celtic faeries got all cutsied up for kids, but in the old stories they were also as likely to kill ya as charm ya. Creepy seal people coming up out of the sea in the form of pretty ladies and getting married to farmers and then dragging them away to the watery depths. Geeze, even Tinker Bell was pretty evil, come to think of it. All that supernatural nature-narrative stuff is potent. It's great! As even the old Disney nature "documentaries" say when freddy the little fox gets eaten by a bear (or whatever) "...but nature has its darker side."
- sally mckay 6-16-2010 7:43 pm

But also its sexual side, which Miyazaki pushes as far as he can (or maybe isn't aware he's pushing). Not the kids-bathing-with-dad scene that bugs some American Christians but kids entering or being perched near huge yawning mouths. That cat bus door doesn't swing on hinges--it dilates in a rather undulating way!
- tom moody 6-16-2010 8:08 pm

yeah you are correct. But I think that's just the "awesome power of cuteness" cranked up as far as it can possibly go.
- sally mckay 6-16-2010 9:17 pm

which reminds me, Totoro has quite a bit of Alice in Wonderland imagery - falling down the rabbit hole, Cheshire cat.
- sally mckay 6-16-2010 9:21 pm