"Geoff Ryman - The Child Garden" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ryman Geoff)

The Child Garden
or
A Low Comedy
by
GEOFF RYMAN

Version 1.0

┬й Geoff Ryman, 1989


That the future is a faded song, a Royal Rose or a lavender spray Of wistful
regret for those who are not yet here to regret...
T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets


Introduction

Advances in Medicine (A Culture of Viruses)

Milena boiled things. She was frightened of disease. She would boil other
people's knives and forks before using them. Other people sometimes found this
insulting. The cutlery would be made of solidified resin, and it often melted
from the heat, curling into unusable shapes. The prongs of the forks would be
splayed like scarecrow's fingers, stiffened like dried old gloves.
Milena wore gloves whenever she went out, and when she got back, she boiled
those too. She never used her fingers to clean her ears or pick her nose. In
the smelly, crowded omnibuses, Milena sometimes held her breath until she was
giddy. Whenever someone coughed or sneezed, Milena would cover her face.
People continually sneezed, summer or winter. They were always ill, with
virus.
Belief was a disease. Because of advances in medicine, acceptable patterns of
behaviour could be caught or administered.
Viruses made people cheerful and helpful and honest. Their manners were
impeccable, their conversation well-informed, their work speedy and accurate.
They believed the same things.
Some of the viruses had been derived from herpes and implanted DNA directly
into nerve cells. Others were retroviruses and took over the DNA of the brain,
importing information and imagery. Candy, they were called, because the
nucleic acids of their genes were coated in sugar and phosphates. They were
protected against genetic damage, mutation. People said that Candy was
perfectly safe.
Milena did not believe them. Candy had nearly killed her. All through her
childhood, she had been resistant to the viruses. There was something in her
which fought them. Then, at ten years old, she had been given one final
massive dose, and was so seared by fever that she had nearly died. She emerged
with encyclopaedic knowledge and several useful calculating facilities. What
other damage had the viruses done?
Milena tested herself. Once, she tried to steal an apple from a market stall.
It was run, as so many things were in those days, by a child. When Milena's