The Mountains of Instead

  Robert Louis Stevenson and the Dilemma of an Uncritical Readership   It was the intention of the organizers of this centenary festival to invite both Stevenson scholars and non-specialists whose work has led them to be interested in Stevenson.   I am not a scholar, of Stevenson or any other topic; but certainly it is my work that has led me to be interested in Stevenson. My interest is not nostalgic or bound up with the private pleasures of youthful reading, because I didn’t read Stevenson when I was young. I knew verses from A Child’s Garden . I saw and was deeply affected by the Disney version of Treasure Island with Robert Newton. But what I read was Gods, Graves and Scholars , and Kon-Tiki , and Sons of Sinbad , and Lowell Thomas in Tibet. In adventure stories, I preferred fact to fiction. I still do.             I began to read Stevenson as a grown-up, for professional reasons. I needed to learn how to write a story. It amazed me, beginning seriously to write long fiction

  HIT                 “Okay, come on in, sit down.”             After-action report requested by supervisor.   Time set for report assembly.   Assembled report produced to supervisor in interview location.   No record is made.             “So what happened?”             Voice-report capability is initiated. “I went to the guy’s house.”             “Okay.   Details.”             Car taken to object’s location.   Car parked four doors from location.   Car door opened and exit made.   Approach to object’s location taken, while surveillance of area is conducted.   Determination made that area is neutral.   Door approached and presence made known through pressure on doorbell.   Wait-time not occupied with activity.   Door opened and subject revealed.               “So you went to his house and he came the door.”             “Yes sir, that’s right.   I went to the door and pressed the bell and he came out.”             “Okay go on.”             Conversation initiated by