"Oh, all right! I'll read it if you'll only keep quiet!" He turned the
letter right-side up.
_Johannesburg_
_Dear Senbot Drosmig:_
_I represent the Dzoglian Publishing Company, Inc., of which I know
you have heard, since your paper has seen fit to give our books
some of the most unjust reviews on record. However, be that as it
may, I have opened an office on Earth with the laudable purpose of
effecting an interchange of respective literatures, to see which
Terrestrial books might most profitably be translated into Fizbian,
and which of the authors on our own list might have potential
appeal for the Earth reader._
_Dealing with authors is, of course, a nerve-racking business and I
soon found myself in dire need of mental treatment. What was my
horror to find that this primitive, although charming, planet had
no neurotones, no psychoscopes, not even any cerebrophones--in
fact, no psychiatric machines at all! The very knowledge of this
brought me several degrees closer to a breakdown._
_Perhaps I should have consulted you at this juncture, but I admit
I was a bit of a snob. "What sort of advice can a mere journalist
give me," I thought, "that I could not give myself?" So, more for
amusement than anything else, I determined to consult a native
practitioner. "After all," I said to myself, "a good laugh is a
step forward on the road to recovery."_
_Accordingly, I went to see this native fellow. They work entirely
without machines, I understand, using something like witchcraft. At
the same time, I thought I might pick up some material for a jolly
little book on primitive customs which I could get some unknown
writer to throw together inexpensively. Strong human interest items
like that always have great reader-appeal._
_The native chap--doctor, he calls himself--was most cordial,
which he should have been at the price I was paying him. One thing
I must say about these natives--backward they may be, but they have
a very shrewd commercial sense. You can't even imagine the trouble
I had getting those authors to sign even remotely reasonable
contracts ... which in part accounts for my mental disturbance,
I suppose._
_Well, anyway, I handed the native a privacy waiver carefully
filled out in Terran. He took it, smiled and said, "We'll discuss
this afterward. My contact lenses have disappeared; I suppose one
of my patients has stolen them again. Can't see a thing without
them."_
_So we sat down and had a bit of a chat. He seemed remarkably
intelligent for a native; never interrupted me once._
_"You are definitely in great trouble," he told me when I'd
finished. "You need to be psycho-analyzed."_
_"Good, good," I said. "I see I've come to the right shop."_
_"Now just lie down and make yourself comfortable."_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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