The Point of View | Page 4

despite the assurance of the great scientist, I was more
than a little reluctant to don the device. Yet I was curious, as well; it
seemed a fascinating prospect to be able to look at the world through
other eyes, as fascinating as visiting a new world--which it was,
according to the professor. So after a few moments of hesitation, I
picked up the instrument, slipped it over my head so that the eyeglasses
were in the proper position, and looked inquiringly at van
Manderpootz.
"You must turn it on," he said, reaching over and clicking a switch on
the frame. "Now flash the light to my face. That's the way; just center
the circle of light on my face. And now what do you see?"
I didn't answer; what I saw was, for the moment, quite indescribable. I
was completely dazed and bewildered, and it was only when some

involuntary movement of my head at last flashed the light from the
professor's face to the table top that a measure of sanity returned, which
proves at least that tables do not possess any point of view.
"O-o-o-h!" I gasped.
Van Manderpootz beamed. "Of course you are overwhelmed. One
could hardly expect to adopt the view of van Manderpootz without
some difficulties of adjustment. A second time will be easier."
I reached up and switched off the light. "A second time will not only be
easier, but also impossible," I said crossly. "I'm not going to experience
another dizzy spell like that for anybody."
"But of course you will, Dixon. I am certain that the dizziness will be
negligible on the second trial. Naturally the unexpected heights affected
you, much as if you were to come without warning to the brink of a
colossal precipice. But this time you will be prepared, and the effect
will be much less."
Well, it was. After a few moments I was able to give my full attention
to the phenomena of the attitudinizor, and queer phenomena they were,
too. I scarcely know how to describe the sensation of looking at the
world through the filter of another's mind. It is almost an indescribable
experience, but so, in the ultimate analysis, is any other experience.
What I saw first was a kaleidoscopic array of colors and shapes, but the
amazing, astounding, inconceivable thing about the scene was that
there was no single color I could recognize! The eyes of van
Manderpootz, or perhaps his brain, interpreted color in a fashion utterly
alien to the way in which my own functioned, and the resultant
spectrum was so bizarre that there is simply no way of describing any
single tint in words. To say, as I did to the professor, that his
conception of red looked to me like a shade between purple and green
conveys absolutely no meaning, and the only way a third person could
appreciate the meaning would be to examine my point of view through
an attitudinizor while I was examining that of van Manderpootz. Thus
he could apprehend my conception of van Manderpootz's reaction to

the color red.
And shapes! It took me several minutes to identify the weird, angular,
twisted, distorted appearance in the center of the room as the plain
laboratory table. The room itself, aside from its queer form, looked
smaller, perhaps because van Manderpootz is somewhat larger than I.
But by far the strangest part of his point of view had nothing to do with
the outlook upon the physical world, but with the more fundamental
elements--with his attitudes. Most of his thoughts, on that first occasion,
were beyond me, because I had not yet learned to interpret the personal
symbolism in which he thought. But I did understand his attitudes.
There was Carter, for instance, toiling away out in the large laboratory;
I saw at once what a plodding, unintelligent drudge he seemed to van
Manderpootz. And there was Miss Fitch; I confess that she had always
seemed unattractive to me, but my impression of her was Venus herself
beside that of the professor! She hardly seemed human to him and I am
sure that he never thought of her as a woman, but merely as a piece of
convenient but unimportant laboratory equipment.
At this point I caught a glimpse of myself through the eyes of van
Manderpootz. Ouch! Perhaps I'm not a genius, but I'm dead certain that
I'm not the grinning ape I appeared to be in his eyes. And perhaps I'm
not exactly the handsomest man in the world either, but if I thought I
looked like that--! And then, to cap the climax, I apprehended van
Manderpootz's conception of himself!
"That's enough!" I yelled. "I won't stay around here just to be insulted.
I'm through!"
I tore the attitudinizor from my head and