Part of the post-Syd Pink Floyd lore revolves around the absence of Syd Barrett from the band, leading many songs to be interpreted retrospectively as references to their lost friend and visionary. I wish to ask a different question: What would Syd Barrett write about in this hypothetical, non-existent band we're imagining here?

As far as I can discern, his central theme has always been what can be term "The Unreality of Life." He lived and wrote not in the dark side of the moon but in a world where the moon is blue, immense, looming, and perpetually tempting to draw you away from the sun.

Post-Syd, Pink Floyd became my idea of a polished band. They are, after all, the pioneers if not the masters of the concept album. Syd's Pink Floyd would likely have been much less refined, as evidenced by the two solo studio albums he released after leaving the band.

The seven years between Syd's departure from Pink Floyd and The Dark Side of the Moon were undoubtedly a period of experimentation for the band, but one aimed at creating order rather than chaos. The goal was beautifully structured music. In contrast, Syd Barrett's music resembled a scene from one of Bosch’s paintings—overflowing and ecstatic.

https://malulchen.substack.com/p/foolishly-trying-to-image-pink-floyd

Keep watching through to the end, it gets scarier and scarier...

https://youtu.be/9GhGp-4NM2Q

And...

https://youtu.be/PlFSOiovpgc

this one being especially creepy because of the fella seated next to the bar...

July 14, 1947 Hollywood

We see the white faces of five men as they watch a movie in a small screening room. As the images flicker on their faces, we hear screams and haunting music from the sound track. (We learn that the men are Kurt Siodmak, A. E. Van Vogt, Forrest J Ackerman, S I Hayakawa, and Alfred Korzyski.) (And, yes, there are connections. I won't include those with this scene, but if interested, just ask...)

The point of view changes: We see what they are watching: A film with quick cuts from movies: images from Metropolis, I Walked With A Zombie, The Wolf Man... until the film breaks, startling white taking over the screen. We hear the muttered curse of Forrest Ackerman as he flips a switch, the lights in the screening room coming up.

"That's the best I could do, on short notice, gentlemen..." Ackerman says. "Does that come close to what you had in mind?"

Hayakawa launches into a condemnation of the reason they are there. "I do not doubt that this will temporarily shake one up and cause one to "transcend" habitual ways of experiencing. But transcending of itself is not enough. What happens afterward? In what ways are perceptions of the self or the environment altered or restructured for the better? What conditions produce what changes?"

Korzyski clears his throat. All, including Hayakawa, defer to him. "Thank you, Forrest. As we've discussed, the wedding of film, music, and the tenets of semantics holds promise... but I fear it may be years before we have a medium that is understandable by more than a few..." as Korzyski's words trail off, he slips out his pocket watch, the watch fob flashing unnaturally: a medallion, a triangle, but before we can see it clearly, he slips it back into his vest.

"Thank you, Kurt, A E, very much, for sharing your film collections with Forrest. If we could only find the proper... (thinking) mood inducing music to go with these images, we may just be able to duplicate... " Korzyski again loses the train of thought.

As the conversation has continued, Ackerman has been rewinding the film and placing it in a container. He hands it to Korzyski and announces: "If you will join me, please, we have an appointment with some people who you will enjoy meeting."

General questions, quizzical, yet interested looks are shared between the other four. All walk from the screening room to the hallway. The doors to the lift open, all step inside.

Ackerman reaches over and presses 13.

================ Notes: Roky was born July 15, 1947. This scene occurs the evening prior...

Forrest J Ackerman was (among many other talents) an agent for various writers, including Van Vogt and Siodmak. His site mentions 1948 as the year he started, so some artistic license taken here. http://4forry.best.vwh.net/bio.htm

Siodmak "In order to get a story on the filming of Fritz Lang's pioneering Metropolis (1926), he appeared as an extra in the film." http://www.space.com/sciencefiction/books/siodmak_000911.html

Van Vogt http://www.mmedia.is/vanvogt/ His novel Slan, which was orginally serialized in Astounding Science Fiction in 1940, and published as a book in 1946, starts: "His mother's hand felt cold, clutching his." http://www.space.com/sciencefiction/books/van_vogt_tribute_000128.html http://www.sundial.net/~rogerr/nulla.htm http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/archives/200004/0222.html

His first science fiction story was inspired by John W. Campbell's Who Goes There? [August 1938 Astounding Science Fiction]. It later was adapted for film as The Thing From Outer Space. Campbell returned his first story, Vault of the Beast, for rewriting. His second story, Black Destroyer, made the cover of the July 1939 issue of Astounding Science Fiction and won first place in the reader voting for July. It was also patterned after Who Goes There?

Los Angeles was the hub of all kinds of religions, cults and sciences. He was very impressed after reading Science and Sanity, an introduction to non-Aristotelian systems and General Semantics by Alfred Korzybsky. Van Vogt used these theories to create The World of Null-A, starting in August, 1945 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. It was a tremendous success, and also very controversial. Some readers didn't understand what the story was all about and began to explore general semantics and Korzybski for answers. The Institute of General Semantics (IGS) was founded by Korzybski and incorporated in 1938. It is very active today. The International Society for General Semantics (ISGS) was founded in 1943 by S. I. Hayakawa and is also very active today.

Van Vogt found that he could not consciously plot stories that would sell. However, he could sometimes dream his ideas or, more often, aspects of them. For him, that worked. Perhaps each writer has his own way. His was a conscious not knowing what's next, dreaming about it, and then incorporating it into the story.