"David Gerrold - Chtorr 3 - A Rage for Revenge" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gerrold David)

The War Against the Chtorr: Book Three
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A Rage for Revenge

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David Gerrold
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for Frank Robinson, with love

Author's Introduction
I am going to break Rule Two.
Rule One is: Never bore the audience.
Rule Two: Never explain your work. Especially don't explain it, before.
I am now going to break Rule Two. Flagrantly.
This particular episode of The War Against The Chtorr includes a number of chapters of heavily didactic
material. I am concerned that some of this material may need to be annotated. I would hope that I am
wrong, but for reasons that should become abundantly clear long before you get to the end of the book, I
choose to err on the side of caution.
This book is didactic. It needs to be didactic.
There is nothing inherently right or wrong in a book being didactic-although some critics and reviewers
have taken the position that didacticism in a work of fiction is only slightly more offensive than spitting on
the Madonna. The truth is that didacticism is only a description, not a judgment; it is not a quality that can
be assigned rightness or wrongness. The use of the didactic technique, however, can be judged either
clumsy or exquisite, and that is a judgment that is always appropriate for people who need to have
opinions about other people's opinions. My dictionary defines "didactic" this way:
1. intended for instruction.
2. preaching or moralizing.
Both definitions of the word are appropriate to this work. This is your warning. This book preaches and
moralizes. It is also intended for instruction.
And therein lies the danger.
(Bear with me. This is going to take some explaining.)
In books one and two of this series, A Matter For Men and A Day For Damnation, the hero of the
narrative, Jim McCarthy, has encountered several graduates of a course called The Mode Training. In
the context of the stories, it is apparent that The Mode Training is a well-known and somewhat respected
course, though not without its skeptical observers and detractors.
In book three of this series, the book you are holding now, McCarthy participates in the six-week course
called The Mode Training.
I want this to be absolutely clear:
There is no such thing as The Mode Training. It is a fictitious course.
It does not exist.
It is not based on any specific course of instruction that I know of that is available anywhere on Earth.
The Mode Training, the name as well as the idea behind it, is copyright to me, David Gerrold, 1988. It is
not for sale. It is not for rent. It is not for lease. The course is not available under any circumstances. I
have no intention of authorizing such a course. It is a fiction and I intend that it remain so. This is the most
responsible position that I can take in regard to a totally fictitious seminar series.
I say that because I do not want anyone-especially unqualified charlatans-setting up any kind of course
based on this work. I have extrapolated this "technology of consciousness" as a place for the reader to
visit only so that he or she may consider its nature. By no means should anyone consider The Mode