"Thomas M. Disch M. - Come to Venus Melancholy" - читать интересную книгу автора (Disch Thomas M)

He enjoyed mysteries now and then. Or heтАЩd study an electronics
text under the scanner. But poetry bored him. It was worse than
that: he seemed to hate poetry.
But maybe youтАЩre not like that. How can I tell? Do you mind
if I just read it aloud for my own sake? PoetryтАЩs meant to be read
aloud.
Il Penseroso. Do you know it? It gives me goosebumps every
time. Figuratively.
Are you listening, caterpillars?
 How did you like that?


These pleasures, Melancholy, give,
And I with thee will choose to live.


Well, itтАЩs all a lot of gas. ThatтАЩs what dear John called it. He
called it other things too, and in each case IтАЩve come at last to
agree. But such lovely gas. John couldnтАЩt see that. He was a very
simple sort, was John, and blind to the beauty of almost anything
except a rip-snorting sunset. And nude women. He was
uncomplicated. Without a sense of dialectics. He probably didnтАЩt
understand half the things I said to him. If ever there was a
mismatched couple, it was us.
Spacemen and pioneers, you know, are supposed to be
brighter than average. And maybe JohnтАЩs IQ was a bit over one
hundred but not by much, not by half a sigma distance. After all,
what did he need intelligence for? He was only a glorified
fur-trader. HeтАЩd go out into the swamp and hunt around for the
slugs the caterpillars laid there. HeтАЩd find one, maybe two, a day
and keep them undernourished so theyтАЩd grow slower. Every three
weeks the ship would come along, pick up the slugs, and leave
supplies.
I donтАЩt know what the slugs were for. They secreted
something hallucinogenic, but whether they were using it to cure
psychoses or produce them, I never found out. There was a war
going on then, and my theory was that it all had something to do
with bacteriological warfare.
Maybe the war is still going on. But my theoryтАФmy other
theory, I have lots of themтАФis that the war is over and both sides
have killed each other off. Otherwise, wouldnтАЩt someone have
come here for me by now?
 But maybe they haveтАФmaybe thatтАЩs why youтАЩre here! Is it?
Or maybe they donтАЩt care. Maybe IтАЩm considered expendable.
Maybe, maybe, maybe! Oh God I could scream!


There now, IтАЩm better again. These things pass.
Let me introduce myself. IтАЩve lost my good manners living
out here alone like this. My name is Selma Meret Hoffer. HofferтАЩs