"Asimov Isaac - Gold, The Final Science Fiction Collection" - читать интересную книгу автора (Asimov Isaac)

I was very pleased with the story and I showed it to the master. I was sure he would be very pleased, too.
He was more than pleased, for as he read it, he smiled. He even laughed a few times. Then he looked up at me and said, ДDid you write this?У
ДYes, I did, master,У I said.
ДI mean, all by yourself. You didnТt copy anything?У
ДI made it up in my own head, master, Д I said. ДDo you like it?У He laughed again, quite loudly. ДItТs interesting,У he said.
I was a little anxious. ДIs it funny?У I asked. ДI donТt know how to make things funny.У
ДI know, Cal. ItТs not funny intentionally.У
I thought about that for a while. Then I asked, ДHow can something be funny unintentionally?У
ДItТs hard to explain, but donТt worry about it. In the first place, you canТt spell, and thatТs a surprise. You speak so well now that I automatically assumed you could spell words but, obviously, you canТt. You canТt be a writer unless you can spell words correctly, and use good grammar.У
ДHow do I manage to spell words correctly?У
ДYou donТt have to worry about that, Cal,У said my master. ДWe will outfit you with a dictionary. But tell me, Cal. In your story, Cal is you, isnТt he?У
ДYes.У I was pleased he had noticed that.
ДBad idea. You donТt want to put yourself into a story and say how great you are. It offends the reader.У
ДWhy, master?У
ДBecause it does. It looks like I will have to give you advice, but IТll make it as brief as possible. It is not customary to praise yourself. Besides you donТt want to say you are great, you must show you are great in what you do. And donТt use your own name.У
ДIs that a rule?У
ДA good writer can break any rule, but youТre just a beginner. Stick to the rules and what I have told you are just a couple of them. YouТre going to encounter many, many more if you keep on writing. Also, Cal, youТre going to have trouble with the Three Laws of Robotics. You canТt assume that wrongdoers will weep and be ashamed. Human beings arenТt like that. They must be punished sometimes.У
I felt my positronic brain-paths go rough. I said, ДThat is difficult. Д
ДI know. Also, thereТs no mystery in the story. There doesnТt have to be, but I think youТd be better off if there were. What if your hero, whom youТll have to call something other than Cal, doesnТt know whether someone is an intruder or not. How would he find out? You see, he has to use his head.У And my master pointed to his own.
I didnТt quite follow.
My master said, ДIТll tell you what. IТll give you some stories of my own to read, after youТve been outfitted with a spelling dictionary and a grammar and youТll see what I mean.У

The technician came to the house and said, ДThereТs no problem in installing a spelling dictionary and a grammar. ItТll cost you more money. I know you donТt care about money, but tell me why you are so interested in making a writer out of this hunk of steel and titanium.У
I didnТt think it was right for him to call me a hunk of steel and titanium, but of course a human master can say anything he wants to say. They always talk about us robots as though we werenТt there. IТve noticed that, too.
My master said, ДDid you ever hear of a robot who wanted to be a writer?У
ДNo,У said the technician, ДI canТt say I ever did, Mr. Northrop.У
ДNeither did I! Neither did anyone as far as I know. Cal is unique, and I want to study him.У
The technician smiled very wide-grinned, thatТs the word. ДDonТt tell me you have it in your head that heТll be able to write your stories for you, Mr. Northrop.У
My master stopped smiling. He lifted his head and looked down on the technician very angrily. ДDonТt be a fool. You just do what I pay you to do.У
I think the master made the technician sorry he had said that, but I donТt know why. If my master asked me to write his stories for him I would be pleased to do so.

Again, I donТt know how long it took the technician to do his job when he came back a couple of days later. I donТt remember a thing about it.
Then my master was suddenly talking to me. ДHow do you feel, Cal?У
I said, ДI feel very well. Thank you, sir.У
ДWhat about words. Can you spell?У
ДI know the letter-combinations, sir.У
ДVery good. Can you read this?У He handed me a book. It said, on the cover, The Best Mysteries of J. F. Northrop.
I said, ДAre these your stories, sir?У
ДAbsolutely. If you want to read them, you can.У
I had never been able to read easily before, but now as soon as I looked at the words, I could hear them in my ear. It was surprising. I couldnТt imagine how I had been unable to do it before.
ДThank you, sir,У I said. ДI shall read this and IТm sure it will help me in my writing.У
ДVery good. Continue to show me everything you write.У
The masterТs stories were quite interesting. He had a detective who could always understand matters that others found puzzling. I didnТt always understand how he could see the truth of a mystery and I had to read some of the stories over again and do so slowly.
Sometimes I couldnТt understand them even when I read them slowly. Sometimes I did, though, and it seemed to me I could write a story like Mr. NorthropТs.
This time I spent quite a long while working it out in my head. When I thought I had it worked out, I wrote the following:

The Shiny Quarter
by Euphrosyne Durando