"Ellison, Harlan - Pulling Hard Time" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ellison Harlan)

one . . . he just twitched, did you see that?"

"No, I'm afraid I missed it. What is he in for?"

"Ran a child pornography ring in Utah. Specialized in snuff films. Quite the
monster."

"I see he's in there with an art deco credenza."

"Yes, Maples of London. Very nice piece, I'd say about 1934. Once the Department
allocates the funds for a proper estate here on the grounds, I'll be moving most
of these pieces to proper sites."

"Um. Yes, of course. Well, that pretty much depends on how my report tums out,
whether or not the Speaker will recognize the bill."

"Well, I'm certainly hoping you'll think I've done a good job here. It's not
easy, you know. No staff, just me and the machines, and a technician or two."

"And you say every one of these men and women is suffering a worse sentence than
the old style . . . where they sat in cells or worked on chain gangs or made
license plates?"

"Absolutely, Senator. And may I say, apropos of nothing but my admiration, I
think your new hairdo is infinitely more appealing than the way you wore it last
time you visited. Makes you look taller."

"If you don't mind, Warden . . ."

"Oh, yes, sorry. Well, they just float there till they die, but it's in no way
'cruel and unusual punishment' because we do absolutely nothing to them. No
corporal punishment, no denial of the basics to sustain life. We just leave them
locked in their own heads, cortically tapped to relive one scene from their
past, over and over."

"And how is it, again, that you do that . . .?"

"The technicians call it a moebius memory. Loop thalamic patterning. When they
first come in we send them through cerebral indexing, drain out everything they
remember, and most of what they don't; and then we codify, integrate, select the
one moment from their past that most frightens or horrifies or saddens them.
Then, boom, into a null-g suite, with a proleptic copula imbedded in their
gliomas. It's all like a dream. A very very bad dream that goes on forever.
Punishment to fit the crime."

"We are a nation in balance."

"Kindlier. Gentler. More humane. But still, in need of that large, new house,
here on the grounds."