"Kurt Vonnegut - Player Piano" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vonnegut Kurt)

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Printed in England by
C. Nicholls & Company Ltd.,
The Philips Park Press, Manchester,
And published by Panther Books,
3 Upper James Street, London W.I.
For Jane - God Bless Her




CONSIDER THE LILLIES OF THE FIELD, HOW THEY GROW:
THEY TOIL NOT, NEITHER DO THEY SPIN;
AND YET I SAY UNTO YOU,
THAT EVEN SOLOMON IN ALL HIS GLORY
WAS NOT ARRAYED LIKE ONE OF THESE . . .

MATTHEW 6:28
Foreword

This book is not a book about what is, but a book about
what could be. The characters are modeled after persons
as yet unborn, or, perhaps, at this writing, infants.
It is mostly about managers and engineers. At this point in
history, 1952 A.D., our lives and freedom depend largely
upon the skill and imagination and courage of our managers
and engineers, and I hope that God will help them to help us
all stay alive and free.
But this book is about another point in history, when there
is no more war, and . . .
CHAPTER ONE


ILIUM, New York, is divided into three parts.
In the northwest are the managers and engineers and civil servants and a few professional
people; in the northeast are the machines; and in the south, across the Iroquois River, is the area
known locally as Homestead, where almost all of the people live.
If the bridge across the Iroquois were dynamited, few daily routines would be disturbed. Not
many people on either side have reasons other than curiosity for crossing.
During the war, in hundreds of Iliums over America, managers and engineers learned to get