>>52711118I finally remember who Larry reminds me of. Barney in The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K Dick. This salaryman's response to the evil demiurge offering him anything he wants is wanting to become a plaque on the office wall.
"Make me into a stone."
"Why?"
Barney Mayerson said, "So I can't feel. There's nothing for me anywhere."
"You don't even like being translated into one homogeneous organism with me?"
No answer.
"You can share my ambitions. I've got plenty of them, big ones—they make Leo's look like dirt." Of course, he thought, Leo will kill me not long from now. At least as time is reckoned outside of translation. "I'll acquaint you with one. A minor one. Maybe it'll fire you up."
"I doubt it," Barney said.
"I'm going to become a planet."
Barney laughed.
"You think that's funny?" He felt furious.
"I think you're nuts. Whether you're a man or a thing from intersystem space; you're still out of your mind."
"I haven't explained," he said with dignity, "precisely what I meant when I said that. What I mean is, I'm going to be everyone on the planet. You know what planet I'm talking about."
"Terra."
"Hell no. Mars."
"Why Mars?"
"It's—" He groped for the words. "New. Undeveloped. Full of potential. I'm going to be all the colonists as they arrive and begin to live there. I'll guide their civilization; I'll be their civilization!"
No answer.
"Come on. Say something."
Barney said, "How come, if you can be so much, including a whole planet, I can't be even that plaque on the wall of my office at P.P. Layouts?"
