"Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" - читать интересную книгу автора (Adams Douglas)

The problem with the valley was this. The Monk currently
believed that the valley and everything in the valley and
around it, including the Monk itself and the Monk's horse, was
a uniform shade of pale pink. This made for a certain
difficulty in distinguishing any one thing from any other
thing, and therefore made doing anything or going anywhere
impossible, or at least difficult and dangerous. Hence the
immobility of the Monk and the boredom of the horse, which had
had to put up with a lot of silly things in its time but was
secretly of the opinion that this was one of the silliest.
How long did the Monk believe these things?
Well, as far as the Monk was concerned, forever. The faith
which moves mountains, or at least believes them against all
the available evidence to be pink, was a solid and abiding
faith, a great rock against which the world could hurl whatever
it would, yet it would not be shaken. In practice, the horse
knew, twenty-four hours was usually about its lot.
So what of this horse, then, that actually held opinions,
and was sceptical about things? Unusual behaviour for a horse,
wasn't it? An unusual horse perhaps?
No. Although it was certainly a handsome and well-built
example of its species, it was none the less a perfectly
ordinary horse, such as convergent evolution has produced in
many of the places that life is to be found. They have always
understood a great deal more than they let on. It is difficult
to be sat on all day, every day, by some other creature,
without forming an opinion about them.
On the other hand, it is perfectly possible to sit all
day, every day, on top of another creature and not have the
slightest thought about them whatsoever.
When the early models of these Monks were built, it was
felt to be important that they be instantly recognisable as
artificial objects. There must be no danger of their looking at
all like real people. You wouldn't want your video recorder
lounging around on the sofa all day while it was watching TV.
You wouldn't want it picking its nose, drinking beer and
sending out for pizzas.
So the Monks were built with an eye for origiality of
design and also for practical horse-riding ability. This was
important. People, and indeed things, looked more sincere on a
horse. So two legs were held to be both more suitable and
cheaper than the more normal primes of seventeen, nineteen or
twenty-three; the skin the Monks were given was pinkish-looking
instead of purple, soft and smooth instead of crenellated. They
were also restricted to just the one mouth and nose, but were
given instead an additional eye, making for a grand total of
two. A strange-looking creature indeed. But truly excellent at
believing the most preposterous things.
This Monk had first gone wrong when it was simply given
too much to believe in one day. It was, by mistake,