"Alfred Bester - Galatea Galante" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bester Alfred)

M 114 ! 11-8-2
N 11-5 1 8-4 (eau)
0 1lfi $ 11-8-3
P 11-7 % 0-84 (MSG)
Q 11-8 г 12-8-2
R 11-9 & 12
S 0-2 Х 11-8-4 (only a dash)
T 0-3 + 0-8-3
U 0-4 12-8-3
Und so wgiiter for 147 pages. Und good luck to the computer software for creative biogenesis, which couldn't possibly interest anyone.
"Anyway, there's no point in reading the program, Charles. Numbers can't paint the picture. I'll just describe the sources I've used for the generation of our Popsy. You may not recognize some of the names, but I assure you that most of them were very real and famous celebrities in their time."


"What was your lecture to Igor the other day, Reg? `A chef is no better than his materials.' "
"Right on. And I'm using the best. Beauty -Botticelli's Venus of course, but with Egyptian breasts. I thought of using Pauline Borghese, but there's a queen in a limestone relief from the Ptolemaic period who's the ideal model. Callipygian rear elevation. Maidenhair frontispiece, delicate and fritillary. Did you say something, Charles?"
"Not I, Reg."
"I've decided not to use Aspasia for the virtues."
"But you said that was what Valera wanted."
"So I did, but I was wrong. The real Aspasia was a damned premature Women's Rights activist. Too strong for the chairman's taste."
"And yours?"
"Any man's. So I'm using Egeria instead."
"Egeria? I haven't had an education in the classics, Reg."
"Egeria, the legendary fountain nymph who was the devoted adviser to King Numa of ancient Rome. She also possessed the gift of prophecy; which might come in handy for Valera. Let's see. Fashion and chic-a famous couturiere named Coco Chanel. Subtle perceptions-the one and only Jane Austen. Voice and theater sense-Sarah Bernhardt. And she'll add a soup4;on of lovely Jew."
"What on earth for?"
"It's obvious you haven't met many on the outer planets or you wouldn't ask. Remarkable race, Jews; freethinking, original, creative, obstinate, impossible to live with or without."
"That's how you described the ideal mistress, wasn't it?"
"I did."
"But if your Popsy is obstinate, how can she respond to Valera's desires?"
"Oh, I'm using Lola Montez for that. Apparently, she was
a tigress in the sex department. Hmmm. Next? Victoria Woodhull for business acumen. La Pasionaria for courage. Hester Bateman -she was the first woman silversmith-for skills. Dorothy Parker for wit. Florence Nightingale for sacrifice. Mata Hari for mystery. What else?"
"Conversation."
"Quite right. Oscar Wilde."
"Oscar Wilde!"
"Why not? He was a brilliant talker; held dinner parties spellbound. I'm giving her dancer's hands, neck and legs, Dolley Madison hostessing, and-I've omitted something . . . ."
"Your deliberate mistake."
"Of course. The mystery kink which will catch us all by surprise." Manwright flipped through the software. "It's programmed somewhere around here. No, that's Valera's Persona Profile. Charles, you won't believe the damned intransigent, stubborn, know-it-all conceited egomania concealed beneath that polished veneer. It's going to be hell imprinting our girl with an attraction engram for such an impossible man. Oh, here's the unexpected in black and white."
Manwright pointed to: R=LxVN
"Wait a minute," Corque said slowly. "That equation looks familiar."
"Aha."
"I think I remember it from one of my boyhood texts."
"Oh-ho."
"The . . . the most probable distance . . ." Corque was dredging up the words ". . . from the lamppost after a certain number of . . . of irregular turns is equal to the average length of each track that is-"
"Straight track, Charles."


"Right. Each straight track that is walked, times the square root of their number." Corque looked at Manwright with a mixture of wonder and amusement. "Confound you, Reg! That's the solution to the famous 'Drunkard's Walk' problem from The Law of Disorder. And this is the deliberate uncertainty that you're programming? You're either a madman or a genius."
"A little of both, Charles. A little of both. Our Popsy will walk straight lines within my parameters, but we'll never know when or how she'll hang a right or a left."
"Surely she'll be aiming for Valera?"
"Of course. He's the lamppost. But she'll do some unexpected staggering on the way." Manwright chuckled and sang in an odd, husky voice, "There's a lamp on a post, There's a lamp on a post, And it sets the night aglowin'. Boy girl boy girl, Boy boy girl girl, But best when flakes is snowin'."
Regis Manwright's laboratory notes provide a less-thandramatic description (to put it politely) of the genesis and embryological development of Galatea Galante, the Perfect Popsy.