"Big U, The" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stephenson Neal)

"You're not real presidential," said Hyacinth. "People like you
aren't supposed to take LSD."
"I don't take it anymore. See, back when I was about fourteen,
my older sister was really into it, and I did it a few times."
"Why'd you stop?"
Sarah squinted into the milk carton and said nothing. Outside,
the guards cursed to each other about students in general. Sarah
finally said, "I kept an eye on my sister, and when she got cut loose
completely—lost track of what was real and stopped caring—I saw it
wasn't a healthy thing."
"So now you're President. I don't get it."
"The important thing is to get your life anchored in something. I
think you have to make contact with the world in
some way, and one way is to get involved."
"Student government?"
"Well, it beats MTV."

A guard beat on their door, attracted by the stereo-noise.
"Screw off," said Hyacinth in a loud stage whisper, flipping the
bird toward the door. Sarah put her face in her hands and bent double
with suppressed laughter. When she recovered, the guard had left
and Hyacinth was smiling brightly.
"Jeezus!" said Sarah, "you're pretty blatant, aren't you?"
"If it's the quiet, polite type you want, go see the Air-heads."
"You've lived with people like this before. Why don't they kick
you off the wing?"
"Tokenism. They have to have tokens. Lucy is their token black,
I'm their token individual. They love having a loudmouth around to
disagree with them—makes them feel diverse."
"You don't think diplomacy would be more effective?"
"I'm not a diplomat. I'm me. Who are you?"
Instead of answering this difficult question, Sarah leaned back
comfortably against the wall and closed her eyes. They listened to
music for a long time as the Airheads breezed back onto the wing.
"I'd feel relaxed," said Sarah, "except I'm actually kind of
guilty about missing the Candle Passing."
"That's ridiculous."
"You're right. You can say that and be totally sure of yourself,
can't you? I admire you, Hyacinth."
"I like you, Sarah," said Hyacinth, and that summed it up.


In the Physics Library, Casimir Radon read about quantum
mechanics. The digital watch on the wrist of the sleeping post-doc
across the table read 8:00. That meant it was time to go upstairs and
visit Professor Emeritus Walter Abraham Sharon, who worked odd
hours. Casimir was not leaving just yet, though. He had found that
Sharon was not the swiftest man in the world, and though the
professor was by no means annoyed when Casimir showed up on
time, Casimir preferred to come ten minutes late. Anyway, in the