FOURTEEN WAYS NOT TO SEE THE AIRPORT
By Norman M. Klein


When the blackbird flew out of sight,   
It marked the edge 
Of one of many circles.
                            
-Wallace Stevens
from Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird
                          	                           
                                      i


In the world of the airport, perhaps more than any other stop in our 
globalized civilization, we never leave, only arrive.  

Let me explain with a simple test case, then take us through 
thirteen other ways to not see the airport:Tomorrow morning, I fly 
out from Burbank. Like an adventure in good medication, I plan to 
not notice many things. First my departure gate will have no 
distinguishing scars. It will be a dead ringer for a hundred other 
gates at the airport. Next, the flight pod (my seat) may be taking 
me to Singapore, for all I know.
  
After takeoff, I enter hibernation. For three hours, I ignore the 
velocity, turbulence, even the distance itself (as stewardesses 
have been told for generations: For travelers, the less said, the 
better. Act like they’re on a boat in the middle of a bath tub). 

At last, having never quite physically—or even mentally-- left 
Los Angeles, I finally arrive in Colorado. I leave the pod, to creep 
along on my endless pupa stage. The arrival terminal surprises 
me for thirty seconds. My gate at Burbank has been teleported 
to Colorado. Everything still basically looks the same. Perhaps 
I never really left.

Then a nuance emerges. The food concessions, and the 
newspapers are different. That restores my sea legs. Refreshed, 
I look for the van to the hotel, to a chain I already know.

For decades, the Howard Johnson chain, on post stops 
throughout America, had the following embossed on its paper 
napkins: “The best surprise is no surprise.” Similarly, Orson Welles 
is reputed to have said that in Los Angeles, all roads lead to airport. 
This world where we never leave has been promised for a century at least. 
				
                                     ii


This month, I am researching the Imaginary Twentieth Century, for 
another DVD-ROM novel. With my co-researcher and partner Margo 
Bistis, I am finding hundreds of ways that floaty air travel was promised 
since 1850; and stifling TV news since 1878; and unstable teleportable 
cities since 1890...