"Orson Scott Card - Ender's Saga 03 - Xenocide" - читать интересную книгу автора (Card Orson Scott)




Chapter 2 -- A Meeting
Constantly at war with each other, never content to leave each other alone. They
never seem to grasp the idea that males and females are separate species with
completely different needs and desires, forced to come together only to
reproduce.>
extensions of yourself, without their own identity.>
and put that mask over the face of the body in their bed.>
through symbolic representations are forced to imagine each other. And because
their imagination is imperfect, they are often wrong.>

evolutionary reasons, mate with vastly unequal partners. Our mates are always,
hopelessly, our intellectual inferiors. Humans mate with beings who challenge
their supremacy. They have conflict between mates, not because their
communication is inferior to ours, but because they commune with each other at
all.>


Valentine Wiggin read over her essay, making a few corrections here and there.
When she was done, the words stood in the air over her computer terminal. She
was feeling pleased with herself for having written such a deft ironic
dismemberment of the personal character of Rymus Ojman, the chairman of the
cabinet of Starways Congress.
"Have we finished another attack on the masters of the Hundred Worlds?"
Valentine did not turn to face her husband; she knew from his voice exactly what
expression would be on his face, and so she smiled back at him without turning
around. After twenty-five years of marriage, they could see each other clearly
without having to look. "We have made Rymus Ojman look ridiculous."
Jakt leaned into her tiny office, his face so close to hers that she could hear
his soft breathing as he read the opening paragraphs. He wasn't young anymore;
the exertion of leaning into her office, bracing his hands on the doorframe, was
making him breathe more rapidly than she liked to hear.
Then he spoke, but with his face so close to hers that she felt his lips brush
her cheek, tickling her with every word. "From now on even his mother will laugh
behind her hand whenever she sees the poor bastard."
"It was hard to make it funny," said Valentine. "I caught myself denouncing him
again and again."
"This is better."
"Oh, I know. If I had let my outrage show, if I had accused him of all his
crimes, it would have made him seem more formidable and frightening and the
Rule-of-law Faction would have loved him all the more, while the cowards on
every world would have bowed to him even lower."
"If they bow any lower they'll have to buy thinner carpets," said Jakt.