"R. A. Lafferty - Stories 5" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lafferty R A)

fringe benefits? I told him I'd run him off, and he said that this was the
free state of New Jersey and that no one would run him off. I won't have him
around."
"Oh, Aurie, there isn't any Greek Wop kid. That was me playing that role
too. Am I not talented to play so many roles? And you will not fire me from
this role. I will continue to play it, and I will be paid for it. It isn't the
principle of the thing either: it's the two dollars."
"Yes, I understand that much about you. But you say that was you playing
the part of that smart-mouth Apollo Dago Greek? That couldn't be. I've seen
you both at the same time. I've seen you two together too many times. I've
seen you smooching each other."
"Ah, Aurie, that was quite an advanced technique and illusion, not to
mention double exposure, that I used there. What other actress could play both
roles at once and get away with it?"
"Your techniques and illusions are becoming a little bit too advanced,
Clarie. And do not be so sure that you are getting away with it."
All through Crimean Days, there was some tampering with history going on
for dramatic effect. The Light Brigade, for instance, was successful in its
famous charge and it won a great victory. But the final outcome of the war was
left in doubt. Aurelian Bentley had somehow become a strong partisan of the
Russians and he refused to show them being finally defeated by the allies.
6. Ruddy Limbs and Flaming Hair is the sixth of the Bentley television
dramas. In this piece, the dramatic Clarinda Calliope plays the part of
Muothu, the Maid of Mars, for the Ruddy Limbs and Flaming Hair are on the
planet itself. There are some fantastic elements in this piece, as well as
amazing scientific accuracy. There is, in fact, a technical precocity that is
really stunning. Aurelian Bentley has foreseen circumstances that even the
scientific community did not then see, and he has dealt with those
circumstances.
He posits, for instance, an atmosphere composed mostly of an
enomagnetized, digammated, attenuated form of oxygen. Being eno-magnetized,
that atmosphere would naturally cling to its planet even though the gravity
would not be strong enough to retain it otherwise. Being digammated, it would
produce no line in the Martian spectrum, would have no corona or optical
distortion effect, and could in no way be detected from Earth. And yet a human
Earthly would be able to breathe it freely.
This was a good-natured utopian drama of total realization and
happiness. The Ruddy Limbs and Flaming Hair apply both allegorically to the
planet Mars and literally to the highly dramatic Clarinda Calliope as Muothu.
Muothu displayed rather more of the ruddy limbs than were ordinarily shown on
Earth, but it was explained that customs on Mars were different.
Ruddy Limbs and Flaming Hair was the last of the dramas in which the
apparently tormented and disturbed Aurelian Bentley still showed the strong
hand of the master as scenarist, dramaturgist, director, and producer
generally. After this we come to the four "Trough of the Wave" dramas, and
then the three bewildering and hectic displays on the end of the series.
7. The Trenton Train Robbery is the seventh of the Bentley television
dramas, and the first of the four "Trough" plays where Aurelian Bentley and
his effects are sunken in the slough of despond and have lost their brightness
and liveliness and hope. We will pass through them quickly.