"James E. Gunn - Kampus" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gunn James E)

Right: "Just like us."

Left: "If you ain't saved by the blood of Jesus, man, forget it!"

Right: "You're damned to the pits of hell!"

Gavin's head cleared for a moment and his eyes confirmed what his ears had learned; he was in the grasp
of two Jesuspeople determined to save him.

Left: "Burning forever."

Right: "Forever."
Left: "And ever."

Right: "Amen."

"Amen," Gavin said, and broke away before he was dragged farther into the den of iquity. As he
dopedrifted on, he saw that the Jesuspeople had soulgrabbed another student, a scaredeyed girl in
nunhabitтАж

Gavin's feet were not as light as his head. He stumbled through heavy curtains into another booth where
men and women sat crosslegged in midair, his bedazzled eyes told him, their eyes focused on a distant,
invisible reality, their faces and bodies forgotten and relaxed as though empty, and, Gavin thought,
perhaps growing transparent.

A low, omnipresent voice said, "Ooom." And then again, "Ooom."

Between "Oooms," which seemed to resonate like prolonged chords, a voice said, "Come in. Meditate.
Discover the true nature of reality. Liberate yourself from temporal passions. Release the true power of
the self. Become all that you can be. Unite yourself with the universal. Meditate. Control your body.
Release the self. Unfetter the soul. Ooom."

But Gavin thought he had tried that path once, and as he remembered it, or recalled his dream of it, the
self was fascinating and the powers that seemed to be released were strange and exhilarating, but the
process and even the results were personally unsatisfying.

He staggered back through the heavy curtains into the equally hypnotic and compelling ambience of the
Savages. Before he could recover control over his own destiny, he was swept into another booth where
quietly efficient young men and women were persuading students to place their identity cards against one
of three translucent reading plates under labels spelling out Radicals, Revolutionaries, and Nihilists. Under
the first label was the simplified drawing of a student carrying a placard; under the second, a student
mounting a barricade and waving for others to follow; and under the third, a bomb and a torch.

"Join the political party of your choice," one of the young women called to Gavin. "You aren't truly
serious unless you're prepared to put your body on the line for what you believe. Join up and discover
what politics is all about. Learn the truth about government. Get three credit hours for fieldwork in
political science."

"But which one?" Gavin asked.