"Kim Stanley Robinson - Forty Signs of Rain" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robinson Kim Stanley)

тАЬThe butter has to be rancid?тАЭ Charlie said.

тАЬTraditional.тАЭ

тАЬThink fermentation,тАЭ Sucandra explained.

тАЬWell, letтАЩs have that for sure. Nick will love it.тАЭ

A scrunch-faced pretend-scowl from Nick: Yeah right Dad.

Rudra Cakrin sat again with Joe on the floor. He stacked blocks into elaborate towers. Whenever they
began to sway, Joe leaned in and chopped them to the floor. Tumblingclack of colored wood, instant
catastrophe: the two of them cast their heads back and laughed in exactly the same way. Kindred souls.

The others watched. From the couch Drepung observed the old man, smiling fondly, although Charlie
thought he also saw traces of the look that Anna had tried to describe to him when explaining why she
had invited them to lunch in the first place: a kind of concern that came perhaps from an intensity of love.
Charlie knew that feeling. It had been a good idea to invite them over. He had groaned when Anna told
him about it, life was simply Too Busy for more to be added. Or so it had seemed; though at the same
time he was somewhat starved for adult company. Now he was enjoying himself, watching Rudra Cakrin
and Joe play on the floor as if there were no tomorrow.

Anna was deep in conversation with Sucandra. Charlie heard Sucandra say to her, тАЬWe give patients
quantities, very small, keep records, of course, and judge results. There is a personal element to all
medicine, as you know. People talking about how they feel. You can average numbers, I know you do
that, but the subjective feeling remains.тАЭ

Anna nodded, but Charlie knew she thought this aspect of medicine was unscientific, and it annoyed her
as such. She kept to the quantitative as much as she could in her work, as far as he could tell, precisely to
avoid this kind of subjective residual in the facts.

Now she said, тАЬBut you do support attempts to make objective studies of such matters?тАЭ

тАЬOf course,тАЭ Sucandra replied. тАЬBuddhist science is much like Western science in that regard.тАЭ
 Anna nodded, brow furrowed like a hawk. Her definition of science was extremely narrow.
тАЬReproducible studies?тАЭ

тАЬYes, that is Buddhism precisely.тАЭ

Now AnnaтАЩs eyebrows met in a deep vertical furrow that split the horizontal ones higher on her brow. тАЬI
thought Buddhism was a kind of feeling, you knowтАФmeditation, compassion?тАЭ

тАЬThis is to speak of the goal. What the investigation is for. Same for you, yes? Why do you pursue the
sciences?тАЭ

тАЬWellтАФto understand things better, I guess.тАЭ

This was not the kind of thing Anna thought about. It was like asking her why she breathed.