condition. Boys went to school, girls stayed
home, to learn to be wives and mothers."
141 "The female children did not go to school?" asked the Wik droid.
142 "To carry out the functions of their lives," North continued, "it
was not considered necessary for girls to receive an education. If they
were lucky, their parents taught them to read and write. If they were
not, they were taught other things."
143 "But I understand you had viewer systems," Wik questioned, "and
entertainments."
144 "All entertainments," explained North, "were based on religious
principles, or historical events and designed to be educational as well
as entertaining.
Much of it was quite good, but the Writers were extremely sensored on
what they could produce. Humor was considered offensive wasted effort,
and rarely used except to be ridiculed."
145 "I THOUGHT your God was mad," Wik announced, "now I KNOW he is so!
Anyone with intelligence knows children need time to play, time to
develop their imagination, to learn to laugh and sing, to know what joy
is. No wonder your people are so somber and quiet! You have never
learned to laugh. You know only the serious side of life, which is not
good for any being. Your God is a very, very sick being."
146 "I think." replied North with a smile, "that is something we can
agree upon! Now! Will somebody explain to me what a cartoon is?"
147 "It is," explained I.S., "a series of drawings that are
photographed in such a way that the sum total
of the drawings create the illusion of movement, and give the drawings
a lifelike appearance. We have a whole collection of Wik's adventures
in our library. I can fetch some if you would like. If you play four a
day it would take you thirty years to go through them all!"