"Jack Vance - Meet Miss Universe" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vance Jack)

Jack Vance . . . Meet Miss Universe - Fantastic Universe March 1955
The Oxford English Dictionary would scarcely hold all of the words that have been written about
feminine beauty by Shakespeare alone. Lesser bards have swelled the total hugely. Is feminine
beauty only skin-deep? Or can it be more justly compared to a sunset, staining the sky with depths
beyond depths of radiance? Science-fiction maestro Jack Vance has an answer that will give you
pause, in a frame of reference startlingly, excitingly new.

Miss universe was quite the most glamorous creature in all the
universe of stars. How could earthmen be so tragically blind?

Hardeman Clydell turned to-ward his smart young assistant Tony LeGrand.
"Your idea has a certain mad charm," he said. "ButтАФcan it add to what we've
already got?"
"That's a good question," Le-Grand said. He looked down across what they
already had: the Calif-nia Tri-Centennial Exposition, a concrete disk two
miles wide, crusted with white towers, rust-red terraces, emerald gardens,
sapphire pools, segmented by four great: boulevards: North, East, South,
WestтАФ3.1416 square miles of grandeur and expense in the middle of the Mojave
Desert.
A five-thousand-foot pylon, rear-ing from the Conclave of the Universe,
held a tremendous mag-nesium parasol against the sting of the desert sun.
Half-way up the pylon, a platform supported the administrative offices and an
ob-servation deck where Hardeman Clydell, the Exposition's General Director,
and Tony LeGrand now stood.
"I believe," said LeGrand, frowning at the cigar Clydell had given him,
"that anything can stand improvement, including the Cali-fornia Tri-Centennial
Exposition."
Hardeman Clydell smiled indul-gently. "Assuming all these beau-tiful women
existтАФ"
"I'm sure they do."
"тАФhow do you propose to lure them here across all that space, all those
light years?"
LeGrand, glib, insouciant, hand-some, considered himself an au-thority on
female psychology. "In the first place, all beautiful' women are vain."
"As well as all the rest of them."
LeGrand nodded. "Exactly. So we offer free passage on a deluxe packet and a
grand prize for the winner. We won't have any trou-ble collecting
contestants."
Clydell puffed on his cigar. He had enjoyed a good lunch; the construction,
furbishing, decoration of the Exposition was proceeding on schedule; he was in
the mood for easy conversation.
"It's a clever thought," said Clydell. "ButтАФ" He shrugged. "There are
considerations past and beyond the mere existence of beautiful women."
"Oh, I agree one hundred per cent."
"Lots of the out-world folk don't like to travel. I believe the word is
'parochial.' And what do we use for prizes? There's a problem!"
LeGrand nodded thoughtfully. "It's got to be something spectacu-lar." He
was usually able to shift the ground under Clydell, maneuvering so that
Clydell's objections con insensibly became arguments pro .
"'Spectacular' isn't enough," said Clydell. "We've also got to be