"Michael Swanwick - Urdumheim" - читать интересную книгу автора (Swanwick Michael)

Ninsun had gathered four bushels, it lasted for hours, but there was no way
out of it. So as I labored, I asked her questions about the way things used
to be and why things were as they are now. Of all the First, she was the
least closemouthed. Which is not to say she was at all talkative.

тАЬWhy is there work?тАЭ I asked.

тАЬBecause we are lucky.тАЭ

It didnтАЩt seem lucky to me to have to work, and I said so.

тАЬWork makes sense. You labor, you grow tired. You make something,
youтАЩre better off than you were before. Imagine the world if it werenтАЩt that
way.тАЭ

тАЬWhat was the world like before the People came here?тАЭ

тАЬThere are no words to describe it.тАЭ

тАЬWhy not?тАЭ

тАЬBecause there was no language. Nimrod invented language as a way
for us to escape from Urdumheim.тАЭ

тАЬWhat was Urdumheim like?тАЭ

тАЬKing Nimrod gave it that name afterward so we could talk about it.
When we lived there, it wasnтАЩt called anything.тАЭ

тАЬBut what was it like?тАЭ

She looked at me without answering. Then abruptly she opened her
mouth in a great O. The interior of her mouth was blacker than soot, blacker
than midnight, black beyond imagining. That horrible hole in reality opened
wider and wider, growing until it was larger than her face, larger than the
room, until it threatened to swallow me up and along with me the entire
village and King NimrodтАЩs mountain and all the universe beyond. There
were flames within the darkness, though they shed no light, and cold mud
underfoot. My stomach lurched and I was overcome by a pervasive sense
of wrongness. It seemed to me that I had no name and that it was thus
impossible to distinguish between myself and everything else, and that
therefore I could by definition never, ever escape from this dreadful and
malodorous place.

Ninsun closed her mouth. тАЬIt was like that.тАЭ The clay pot where we
dumped the discarded pits was full, so she tossed them out the window.
тАЬThis is almost done. When weтАЩre finished here, you can run along and
play.тАЭ

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