"Colin Wilson - Spiderworld 05 - The Magician" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wilson Colin)

masters; they regarded the spiders with a loyalty that had been instilled into them since
childhood. As far as they were concerned, Niall was merely an overseer who had been
appointed by the spiders. They had no desire for "freedom."
Yet humans differed from spiders in one basic respect: their craving for novelty.
Niall had soon recognized that this could be used to increase their capacity for freedom.
The beetle servants were now manufacturing all kinds of novelties: pressure lamps,
clocks, kitchen appliances, mechanical toys, electric torches, children's picture books,
even bicycles. When the first examples of these things were seen in the spider city, they
created a sensation. Mechanical toys were in such demand that grown men would barter
their food and clothing for them. But the men of the spider city possessed few goods that
could be used for barter -- one man had been known to offer a hundred hours of manual
labor in exchange for a pressure lamp. Recognizing their frustration, Niall decided to
offer them the most startling novelty so far: money. In exchange for their daily work,
men were paid in brass coins, cast in the newly built mint. They could use these coins to
purchase food, clothing, and "novelties."
The results surpassed all Niall's expectations. Within weeks, all the men were
working longer hours to accumulate more money to buy the novelties. After dark, the
windows of the city glowed with the lights of pressure lamps. Manufacturers of clothing
and footwear began to produce "luxury" goods that could command higher prices. Bakers
began to create cakes and tarts and sweetmeats, and the coarse gray bread that had been
the staple diet of human beings for as long as they could remember gave way to a fine
white bread that was baked daily. The use of dyes spread from the city of the bombardier
beetles; soon all the women of the spider city were wearing brightly colored garments
and necklaces of glass beads. As men and women were once again allowed to live
together -- the spiders had kept them segregated -- they ceased to live communally in
basements, and began taking over empty buildings. Nearly all the windows in the spider
city had been broken; now the beetle servants taught the art of glass manufacture, and
men and women spent their free time repairing and decorating their new homes. After
nightfall, the spider city had once been dark and silent; now its streets were more
crowded in the evening than during the day. And the men and women who walked the
streets had a new sense of confidence and responsibility; Niall could see it in their eyes,
and it filled him with satisfaction. He had no illusions; he knew that most of them were
little better than innocent and greedy children. Nevertheless, it was a beginning. In a few
generations -- perhaps after Niall's death -- they would be capable of shaping their own
destiny.
This is why Niall was so excited at the thought of the Council meeting. Every
meeting was a landmark. Four of the twenty members were from the city of the
bombardier beetles, and during the early meetings, they had dominated the proceedings
with their suggestions and advice; now it would take a very perceptive observer to guess
which of the members were beetle servants. At the last meeting, one man had suggested
that the darker streets should be lighted by large pressure lamps, which should be paid for
jointly by all the inhabitants of the street; only Niall realized that the streets of ancient
cities had been illuminated by municipal lighting. Another man, a cook who had once
prepared a nightly meal for a hundred men, and who now lived with his wife and child,
had asked permission to convert an empty room into a dining hall, where men and
women could come and buy the meals that he and his wife would cook; only Niall knew
that restaurants were almost as old as civilization. And the charioteers, who had once
worked exclusively for the commanders, and spent most of their days waiting for their
masters, were now suggesting banding together to create a public transport system. It was
exciting to realize that all these people -- Niall thought of them as his people -- were