 Which term best describes Latham's tone in the interview?
DISTURBING SUN By PHILIP LATHAM Illustrated by Freas [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Astounding Science Fiction May 1959. This, be it understood, is fiction—nothing but fiction—and not, under any circumstances, to be considered as having any truth whatever to it. Owing to its unassuming title the startling implications contained in the paper were completely overlooked by the press. These implications are discussed here in an exclusive interview with Dr. Niemand by Philip Latham. I suppose you might say my main job today is to find out all I can between activity on the Sun and various forms of activity on the Earth. What do you mean by activity on the Sun? NIEMAND. I'm afraid I can't say just what a sunspot is. It means you can only approximately predict the future course of sunspot activity. There is unquestionably a correlation between sunspots and disturbances of the Earth's magnetic field ... radio fade-outs ... auroras ... I think our biggest advance was the discovery that sunspots themselves are not the direct cause of the disturbances we have been studying on the Earth. In the solar case it turned out to be these S-Regions. Why S-Regions? You say an S-Region is invisible? Yet strangely enough it's hard to describe them in exact terms. Let's see ... remember that speech from "Julius Caesar" where Cassius is bewailing the evil times that beset ancient Rome? Philosophers have wrestled with it ever since the days of Job. And like Job they have usually given up in despair, convinced that the origin of evil is too deep for the human mind to solve. Generally they have concluded that man is inherently wicked and sinful and that is the end of it. Well, disputes over boundaries ... economic rivalry ... border incidents.... NIEMAND. The truth of the matter is that men go to war because they want to go to war. Such a syndrome is characteristic of menopausal women and some men during the climacteric, but these people failed to fit into this picture. In my opinion one of the most valuable contributions anthropologists have made in recent years is the discovery that primitive man is afflicted with essentially the same neurotic conditions as those of us who live a so-called civilized life. They have found savages displaying every symptom of a nervous breakdown among the mountain tribes of the Elgonyi and the Aruntas of Australia. No, Mr. Latham, it's time the stress-and-strain theory was relegated to the junk pile along with demoniac possession and blood letting.
 Pressing
 Neutral  Skeptical  Pressing  Perplexed