"Jack Vance - Assault on a City" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vance Jack)

sleeve, and a splendid cravat of silk, which shimmered with the colors of
an oil-film on water. "What an interesting costume!" Alice exclaimed. "I
suppose each detail has its own symbological value."
"If so, I'm not aware of it," said Waldo. "Good evening, Commander."
"Good evening, Waldo. And where are you bound tonight?"
"It depends upon Alice. There's a concert at the Contemporanea: the
music of Vaakstras, highly interesting."
"Vaakstras?" Alice reflected. "I've never heard of him. Of course that
means nothing."
Waldo laughed indulgently. "A cult of dissident musicians emigrated to
the coast of Greenland. They raised their children without music of any
sort, without so much as knowledge of the word 'music.' At adolescence
they gave the children a set of instruments and required that they express
themselves, and in effect create a musical fabric based upon their innate
emotive patterns. The music which resulted is indeed challenging. Listen."
From his pocket he brought a small black case. A window glowed to reveal
an index; Waldo set dials. "Here's a sample of Vaakstras; it's not obvious
music."
Alice listened to the sounds from the music-player. "I've heard better
cat fights."
Waldo laughed. "It's demanding music, and certainly requires empathy
from the participant. He must search his own file of patterns, rummaging
and discarding until he finds the set at the very bottom of the pile, and
these should synthesize within his mind the wild emotions of the
Vaakstras children."
"Let's not bother tonight," said Alice. "I'd never be sure that I'd
uncovered the proper patterns and I might feel all the wrong emotions,
and anyway I'm not all that interested in feeling someone else's emotions;
I've got enough of my own."
"We'll find something you'll like, no fear of that." Waldo bowed politely
to Merwyn and Jade, and conducted Alice into the cab. They slanted down
toward the city.
Waldo looked sidewise at Alice. He declared, "Tonight you're an
enchanted princess from a fairy tale. How do you do it?"
"I don't know," said Alice. "I didn't try anything special. Where are we
going?"
"Well, there's an exhibition of Latushenko's spirit crystals, which he
grows in new graves; or we could go to the Arnaud Intrinsicalia, where
there's a very clever performance, which I've already seen three times; I
know you'd enjoy it. Operators are prosthetically coupled to puppets, who
perform the most adventurous and outrageous acts. There's a
performance of Salammbo on tonight, with The Secret Powder-puff,
which is rather naughty, if you like such things."
Alice smiled and shook her head. "I happened upon the mammoth
atrachids of Didion Swamp in a state of oestrus, and since then I've lost all
interest in voyeurism."
Waldo was taken aback. He blinked and adjusted his cravat.
"WellтАФthere's always the PerceptoryтАФbut you're not wired and you'd miss
a great deal. There's an exhibit at the Hypersense: John Shibe's
Posturings. Or we might luck into a couple seats at the Conservatory;