Odnośniki
- Indeks
- William Shatner Quest for Tomorrow 03 Step into Chaos
- Frederik Pohl & Jack Williamson Starchild Trilogy
- William Mark Simmons Undead 3 Habeas Corpses
- William K. Hartmann Mars Underground
- Jack Williamson The Ultimate Earth
- Beth Williamson The Perfect Score 2 W
- WilliamShakespeare RomeoiJulia,Makbet,Otello
- Carol McKenzie Ladylegger [Venus] (pdf)
- Burroughs, Edgar Rice Venus 1 Lost on Venus
- Bog krzyz . sztylet
- zanotowane.pl
- doc.pisz.pl
- pdf.pisz.pl
- slowacja.opx.pl
the proud possessors of what the first ship's biologists had called a
"dissolved nervous system."
"How can you get intriguing close-ups," Shlestertrap wailed, "when you don't
know what part of the animal you want in them? You'd think these characters
would get together and decide what they want to look like, instead of
shortening my life with complications!"
"These are the most thoroughly differentiated Plookhh," I reminded him
proudly. "The beauty contest winners."
"Yeah. I'll bet the homely ones are a real old-fashioned treat."
Thus, gently and generously, did he toil on the process of civilizing us. May
his name be revered by any Plookhh that survive!
My only real difficulty was in gaining more knowledge. The robots were rather
uncommunicative (we have not yet resolved their exact place in human affairs)
and Hogan Shlestertrap explained that a genius like himself could not be
bothered with the minutiae of stereographical mechanics. That was left
entirely to his metallic assistants.
Nevertheless, I persisted. My hunted race, I felt, expected me to gather all
knowl-edge to which I was exposed for the building of our own technology. I
asked Shles-tertrap detailed questions about the operations of the sound robot
who deftly ma-neuvered the writhing, almost-live microphone booms above the
actors and scen-ery; I pestered him for facts on the great smell-camera with
its peculiar, shimmering olfactory lens and its dials calibrated pungently
from rose-constants to hydrogen-sulphide-constants.
Once, after a particularly long session, I came upon him in a compartment
com-posing the score for our stereo. I had always found this music vaguely
stimulating if obscure of use, and I was very curious as to how it was made.
This, let me say to his glory, he explained very patiently. "See, here's a
sound-track of a Beethoven symphony and there's one of a Gershwin medley. I
run off bits of each alternately into the orchestrator and flip the switch
like so. The box joggles and bangs it around for a while it can make more
combinations than there are inches be-tween here and Earth! Finally, out comes
the consolidated sound-track, and we have a brand-new score for our stereo.
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ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Remember the formula: a little Beethoven, a little Gershwin, and lots and lots
of orchestration."
I told him I would never forget it. "But what kind of machine makes the
original Gershwin and Beethoven strips? And can either of them be used in any
way under water against the brinosaur? And exactly what is involved in the
process of the or-chestrator joggling and banging? And how would we go about
making "
"Here!" He plucked a book from a table behind him. "I meant to give you this
yesterday when you asked me how we connect tactions to the manipulating
antenna. You want to know all about culture and how humans operate with it,
huh? You want to know how our culture fits in with nonhumans, don't you? Well,
read this and don't bother me until you do. Just keep busy going over it until
you have it cold. About the most basic book in the place. Now, maybe I can get
some quiet drinking out of the way."
My thanks poured at his retreating back. I retired to a corner with my
treasure. The title, how inspiring it looked! Abridged Regulations of the
Interplanetary Cultural Mission, Annotated, with an Appendix of Standard
Office Pro-cedures for Solarian Missions.
Most unhappily, my intellectual powers were not yet sufficiently developed to
extract much that was useful from this great human repository of knowledge. I
was still groping slowly through Paragraph 5, Correction Circular 16, of the
introduction (Pseudo-Mammalian Carnivores, Permissible Approaches to and
Placating of for the Purpose of Administering the Binet-plex) when a robot
summoned me to Shlestertrap's presence.
"It's finished," he told me, waving aside a question I began to ask regarding
a par-ticularly elusive footnote. "Here, let me put that book back in the
storeroom. I just gave it to you to keep you out of my hair. It's done, boy!"
"The stereo?"
He nodded. "All wrapped up and ready to preview. I have your friends waiting
in the projection room."
There was a pause while he rose and walked slowly around the compartment. I
waited for his next words, hardly daring to savor the impact of the moment.
Our culture had been started!
"Look, Plookh, I've given you guys a stereo that, in my opinion, positively
smashes the gong. I've locked the budget out of sight, and I've worked from
deep down in the middle of my mind. Now, do you think you might do a little
favor for old Shlestertrap in return?"
"Anything," I throbbed. "We would do anything for the unselfish genius who "
"Okey-dandy. A couple of busybodies on Earth are prancing around and making a
fuss about my being assigned to this mission, on the grounds that I never even
had a course in alien psych. They're making me into a regular curse of labor, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]