"Robert A. Heinlein - Job, A Comedy of Justice" - читать интересную книгу автора (Heinlein Robert A)

it is distinctly yours. I had known at once that this one was not mine. But I did
not want to say so to a ship’s petty officer who insisted on, ‚recognizing’ me
as ‚Mr Graham’.
I took out Graham’s wallet and opened it.
Several hundred francs - count it later.
Eighty-five dollars in paper - legal tender of ‚The United States of North
America’.
A driver’s license issued to A. L. Graham.
There were more items but I came across a window occupied by a typed
notice, one that stopped me cold:
Anyone finding this wallet may keep any money in it as a reward if he will be
so kind as to return the wallet to A. L. Graham, cabin C109, S.S. KONGE
KNUT, Danish American Line, or to any purser or agent of the line. Thank
you. A.L.G.
So now I knew what had happened to the Konge Knut; she had undergone a
sea change.
Or had I? Was there truly a changed world and therefore a changed ship? Or
were there two worlds and had I somehow walked through fire into the
second one? Were there indeed two men and had they swapped destinies?
Or had Alex Hergensheimer metamorphized into Alec Graham while M. V.
Konge Knut changed into S. S. Konge Knut? (While the North American
Union melted into the United States of North America?)

Good questions. I’m glad you brought them up. Now, class, are
there any more questions
When I was in middle school there was a spate of magazines publishing
fantastic, stories, not alone ghost stories but weird yarns of every sort. Magic
ships plying the ether to, other stars. Strange inventions. Trips to the centre
of the earth. Other ‚dimensions’. Flying machines. Power from burning atoms.
Monsters created in secret laboratories.
I used to buy them and hide them inside copies of Youth’s Companion and of
Young Crusaders knowing instinctively that my parents would disapprove
and confiscate. I loved them and so did my outlaw chum Bert.
It couldn’t last. First there was an editorial in Youth’s Companion: ‚Poison to
the Soul - Stamp it Out!’ Then our pastor, Brother Draper, preached a
sermon against such mind-corrupting trash, with comparisons to the evil
effects of cigarettes and booze. Then our state outlawed such publications
under the ‚standards of the community’ doctrine even before passage of the
national law and the parallel executive order.
And a cache I had hidden ‚perfectly’ in our attic disappeared. Worse, the
works of Mr H. G. Wells and M. Jules Verne and some others were taken out
of our public library.
You have to admire the motives of our spiritual leaders and elected officials
in seeking to protect the minds of the young. As Brother Draper pointed out,
there are enough exciting and adventurous stories in the Good Book to
satisfy the needs of every boy and girl in the world; there was simply no need
for profane literature. He was not urging censorship of books for adults, just
for the impressionable young. If persons of mature years wanted to read
such fantastic trash, suffer them to do so - although he, for one, could not
see why any grown man would want to.