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

conservatism? Fine in theory! Tough, though! You have to be tough
and humane together, you see, the two opposites must unite in one
great leader! Can't be a damn dictator like S. S. Krupp!"
This brought cheers and laughter from the upperclassmen, who
had just decided the drunk was a cool guy. Septimius Severus
Krupp, the President of American Megaversity, was not popular.
"Jesus Christ!" he continued through the laughter, "What the hell are
they teaching you savages these days? You need a spanking! No
more circuses. Maybe a dictator is just what you need! Alcibiades!
Pompilius Numa! They'd straighten things out good and fast."
Sarah knew the man. He liked to break into classes at the Big U
and lecture the professors, who usually were at a loss as to how to


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deal with him. His name was Bert Nix. He had taken quite a shine to
Sarah: for her part, she did not know whether or not to be scared of
him. During the preceding spring's student government compaign,
Bert Nix had posed with Sarah for a campaign photo which had then
appeared on posters all over the Plex. This was just the kind of thing
that Megaversity students regarded as a sign of greatness, so she had
won, despite progressive political ideas which, as it turned out,
nobody was even aware of. This was all hard for Sarah to believe.
She felt that Bert Nix had been elected President, not the woman he
had appeared with on the campaign poster, and she felt obliged to
listen to him even when he simply jabbered for hours on end. He was
a ntce lunatic, but he was adrift in the Bert Nix universe, and that
stirred deep fears in Sarah's soul.
Casimir paid little attention to the drunk and a great deal to
Sarah. He could not help it, because she was the first nice-seeming
person, concept or thing he had found in his six hours at the Big U.
During the ten years he had spent saving up money to attend this
school, Casimir had kept himself sane by imagining it.
Unfortunately, he had imagined quiet talks over brunch with old
professors, profound discussions in the bathrooms, and dazzling,
sensitive people everywhere just waiting to make new friends. What
he had found, of course, was American Megaversity. There was only
one explanation for this atmosphere that he was willing to believe:
that these people were civilized, and that for amusement they
were acting out a parody of the squalor of high school life, which
parody Casimir had been too slow to get so far. The obvious
explanation—that it was really this way—was so horrible that it had
not even entered his mind.
When he saw the photo of her on the back page of the back-to-
school edition of the Monoplex Monitor, and read the caption
identifying her as Sarah Jane Johnson, Student Government
President, he made the most loutish double take between her and the
photograph. He knew that she knew that he now knew who she was,