"Тед Чан. Seventy-Two Letters (72 буквы, Рассказ) (англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

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Stratton was given accomodations in the guest wing of Darrington Hall,
as were the other nomenclators working under Lord FieldhurstТs direction.
They were indeed some of the leading members of the profession, including
Holcombe, Milburn, and Parker; Stratton felt honored to be working with
them, although he could contribute little while he was still learning
AshbourneТs techniques for biological nomenclature.
Names for the organic domain employed many of the same epithets as
names for automata, but Ashbourne had developed an entirely different
system of integration and factorization, which entailed many novel methods
of permutation. For Stratton it was almost like returning to university
and learning nomenclature all over again.
However, it was apparent how these techniques allowed names for species
to be developed rapidly; by exploiting similarities suggested by the
Linnaean system of classification, one could work from one species to
another.
Stratton also learned more about the sexual epithet, traditionally used
to confer either male or female qualities to an automaton. He knew of only
one such epithet, and was surprised to learn it was the simplest of many
extant versions. The topic went undiscussed by nomenclatoral societies,
but this epithet was one of the most fully researched in existence; in
fact its earliest use was claimed to have occurred in biblical times, when
JosephТs brothers created a female golem they could share sexually without
violating the prohibition against such behavior with a woman. Development
of the epithet had continued for centuries in secrecy, primarily in
Constantinople, and now the current versions of automatous courtesans were
offered by specialized brothels right here in London. Carved from
soapstone and polished to a high gloss, heated to blood temperature and
sprinkled with scented oils, the automata commanded prices exceeded only
by those for incubi and succubi.
It was from such ignoble soil that their research grew. The names
animating the courtesans incorporated powerful epithets for human
sexuality in its male and female forms. By factoring out the carnality
common to both versions, the nomenclators had isolated epithets for
generic human masculinity and femininity, ones far more refined than those
used when generating animals. Such epithets were the nuclei around which
they formed, by accretion, the names they sought.
Gradually Stratton absorbed sufficient information to begin
participating in the tests of prospective human names. He worked in
collaboration with the other nomenclators in the group, and between them
they divided up the vast tree of nominal possibilities, assigning branches
for investigation, pruning away those that proved unfruitful, cultivating
those that seemed most productive.
The nomenclators paid women--typically young housemaids in good
health--for their menses as a source of human ova, which they then
impressed with their experimental names and scrutinized under microscopes,
looking for forms that resembled human foetuses.
Stratton inquired about the possibility of harvesting ova from female