Re: Waking up displaced

In article <sehix-D93BAA.15435227012008@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>, Steve Hix
<sehix@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> writes
>In article <fnj0ib$gdv$1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
> Kevin <ktn3654@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
>> Wildepad <noreplies> wrote:
>> 
>> > So, using you as fresh blood:
>> 
(trimmed)
>> 
>> > 1) What are your first thoughts about what happened?
>> 
>>      My first thought would be that either some previously unknown
disease 
>>      had 
>> struck, or some chemical agent was responsible.  If the latter, I'd be
afraid 
>> that there had been some sort of deliberate attack.
>
>The Llaralan's have invaded!! Wake up!

This is the most extreme of several responses that remind me that there
are two different questions lying around here, staring with

1) You read the following in a SF novel..
2) You wake up in a hospital...

I submit that in a real-life situation (2) most people - even SF fans -
would spend a lot of time exhausting commonplace explanations (including
practical jokes, mental problems, brain damage, misunderstandings) then
probably moving on to local conspiracies (e.g. a real life example of a
Police force who reported a UFO sighting over the air to trap people
listening in on Police Radios) before reluctantly accepting any
extraterrestrial influences. In fact, I'm pretty sure that most non-SF
fans would spend some time in pure denial before accepting most of the
typical answers to (1).
-- 
A.G.McDowell