"Utley, Steven - The Real World" - читать интересную книгу автора (Utley Steven)

"Maybe it's what links science and art."

"Even if it's a lot of wanking?"

"Even wanking has its place in the scheme of things. What about this boyfriend?"

"Interesting segue."

"Is this a serious thing? Serious like marriage?"

She shrugged, then shook her head. "I want to do something with my life before I get into that."

"What?"

"I wish I knew. I feel I have so much to live up to. Your side of the family's all overachievers. My father's a hot Hollywood screenwriter. My uncle, the scientist, has done just the most amazing things. My grandparents were big wheels in Texas politics. It's almost as bad as having movie-star parents. The pressure on me to achieve is awful."

"It was probably worse for the Huxleys."

"Mom's always felt outclassed. Her family'd always just muddled along. She felt utterly inadequate the whole time she and Dad were married."

"With a little help from him, she made a beautiful daughter."

She looked pleased by the compliment but also a little uncomfortable. "Thank you for saying that."

"It's true."

"You used to call me Squirrel Monkey."

Don came outside looking exasperated. "Ever reach a point in a conversation," he said, "where, you know, you can't go on pretending to take people seriously who don't know what they're talking about?"

"Are we talking rhetorically?"

Don laughed a soft, unhappy sort of laugh. He indicated the unopened bottle of beer. "Is that for me?"

"Just that one, Daddy."

"I need it." He said to Ivan, "Tell me the stupidest thing you've ever heard. I'm trying to put something into perspective here."

Ivan thought for a moment. "Well, there was the low point, or maybe it was the high point, of my blessedly short stint as a purveyor of scientific knowledge to college freshman. I had a student tell me in all earnestness that an organism that lives off dead organisms is a sacrilege."

Don laughed again, less unhappily than before. "Been on the phone with someone who makes deals and gives off movies as waste. He's got the hottest idea of his life. He's doing a full-blown remake of The Three Musketeers in Taiwan."

Ivan felt his eyebrows go up. He made them come back down.

Don nodded. "That was my reaction. I said to him, I gather you've taken a few liberties with the novel. And he said, Novel? By Alexandre Dumas, I said. You mean it? he said. Excuse me for a moment, and he gets on his AnswerMan and says, To legal, do we have exclusive rights to alleged novel by Doo-dah-duh. Dumas, I scream, Dumas, you dumbass!" He shook his head as though to clear it of an irritating buzz. "Well. I go on and tell him the novel's in the public domain, Dumas has been dead for a little while now. He drums his fingers on his desktop. He screws his face into a mask of thoughtfulness. He says, Well, it's always best to be sure, because if what you say is true, we'll have to see about getting it pulled out of circulation. I beg his pardon. He says, We don't want people confusing it with our book based on the movie."

Ivan said, "He's going to novelize a movie based on a novel?"

"Sure. The novel based on Pride and Prejudice was on the best-seller list."