"Robert Charles Wilson - Julian- A Christmas Story" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wilson Robert Charles)

But I have to confess that some of Julian's apostasy had infected me. I was troubled by unhappy
thoughts even as the torchieres were extinguished and Ben Kreel (our Dominion representative, standing
in front of the movie screen) delivered a brief lecture on Nation, Piety, and Duty. War, Julian had said,
implying not just the everlasting War in Labrador but a new phase of it, one that might reach its skeletal
hand right into Williams FordтАФand then what of me, and what of my family?

"We are here to cast our ballots," Ben Kreel said in summation, "a sacred duty at once to our country
and our faith, a country so successfully and benevolently stewarded by its leader, President Deklan
Comstock, whose Campaigners, I see by the motions of their hands, are anxious to get on with the
events of the night; and so, without further adieu, etc., please direct your attention to the presentation of
their moving picture, First Under Heaven, which they have prepared for our enjoymentтАФ"

The necessary gear had been hauled into Williams Ford under a canvas-top wagon: a projection
apparatus and a portable Swiss dynamo (probably captured from the Dutch forces in Labrador),
powered by distilled spirits, installed in a sort of trench or redoubt freshly dug behind the church to muffle
its sound, which nevertheless penetrated through the plank floors like the growl of a huge dog. This
vibration only added to the sense of moment, as the last illuminating flame was extinguished and the
electric bulb within the huge black mechanical projector flared up.

The movie began. As it was the first I had ever seen, my astonishment was complete. I was so
entranced by the illusion of photographs "come to life" that the substance of the scenes almost escaped
me . . . but I remember an ornate title, and scenes of the Second Battle of Quebec, recreated by actors
but utterly real to me, accompanied by drum-banging and shrill penny whistling to represent the reports of
shot and shell. Those at the front of the auditorium flinched instinctively; several of the village's prominent
women came near to fainting, and clasped the hands or arms of their male companions, who might be as
bruised, come morning, as if they had participated in the battle itself.
Soon enough, however, the Dutchmen under their cross-and-laurel flag began to retreat from the
American forces, and an actor representing the young Deklan Comstock came to the fore, reciting his
Vows of Inauguration (a bit prematurely, but history was here truncated for the purposes of art)тАФthat's
the one in which he mentions both the Continental Imperative and the Debt to the Past. He was voiced,
of course, by one of the players, a basso profundo whose tones emerged from his speaking-bell with
ponderous gravity. (Which was also a slight revision of the truth, for the genuine Deklan Comstock
possessed a high-pitched voice, and was prone to petulance.)

The movie then proceeded to more decorous episodes and scenic views representing the glories of
the reign of Deklan Conqueror, as he was known to the Army of the Laurentians, which had marched
him to his ascendancy in New York City. Here was the reconstruction of Washington, DC (a project
never completed, always in progress, hindered by a swampy climate and insect-borne diseases); here
was the Illumination of Manhattan, whereby electric streetlights were powered by a hydroelectric
dynamo, four hours every day between 6 and 10 p.m.; here was the military shipyard at Boston Harbor,
the coal mines and foundries and weapons factories of Pennsylvania, the newest and shiniest steam
engines to pull the newest and shiniest trains, etc., etc.

I had to wonder at Julian's reaction to all this. This entire show, after all, was concocted to extoll the
virtues of the man who had contrived the death by hanging of his father. I could not forgetтАФand Julian
must be constantly awareтАФthat the current President was a fratricidal tyrant. But Julian's eyes were
riveted on the screen. This reflected (I later learned) not his opinion of contemporary politics but his
fascination with what he preferred to call "cinema." This making of illusions in two dimensions was never
far from his mindтАФit was, perhaps, his "true calling," and would culminate in the creation of Julian's