"Samuel R. Delany - Babel - 17" - читать интересную книгу автора (Delaney Samuel R)

The General looked front the silhouetted loading
towers that jutted behind the rickety monorail to the
grimy buildings. The streets were smaller here, clut-
tered with transport workers, loaders, a few stellarmen
in green uniforms, and the hoard of pale, proper men
and women who managed the intricate sprawl of cus-
toms operations. They are quiet now, intent on home or
work, the General thought. Yet all of these people have
lived for two decades under the Invasion. They've
starved during the embargoes, broken windows,
looted, run screaming before fire-hoses, torn flesh from
a corpse's arm with decalcified teeth.



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Who is this animal man? He asked himself the
abstract question to blur the lines of memory. It was
easier, being a general, to ask about the 'animal man'

BABEL-17

than about the woman who had sat in the middle of the
sidewalk during the last embargo holding l^er skeletal
baby by one leg, or the three scrawny teen-age girls
who had attacked him on the street with razors (тАФshe
had hissed through brown teeth, the bar of metal glis-
tening toward his chest, "Come here. Beefsteak! Come
getme.Lunchmeat- . ."He had used karateтАФ)orthe
blind man who had walked up the avenue screaming. \

Pale and proper men and women now, who spoke
softly, who always hesitated before they let an expres-
sion fix their faces, with pale, proper patriotic ideas:

work for victory over the Invaders; Alona Star and Kip
Rhyak were great in "Stellar Holiday" but Ronald
Quar was the best serious actor around. They listened to
Hi Lite's music (or did they listen, wondered the Gen-
eral, during those slow dances where no one touched).
A position inCustoms was a good secure jobтАФworking
directly in Transport was probably more exciting and
fun to watch in the movies; but really, such strange

peopleтАФ

Those with more intelligence and sophistication dis-