"Ian Watson & Roberto Quaglia - The Mass Extinction of My Beloved" - читать интересную книгу автора (Watson Ian)

"I shall persuade you!" she promised.
Soon, upstairs, she proceeded to do so, but being a gentleman of honour I shall only say that her
techniques were very persuasive.



After I had been persuaded, she looked sad.

"What do I do now, Giuseppe?"

"Maybe we could try that second position again?" Though truly I was a bit exhausted.

"No, I mean what can I do about endangered species here in a country of only sixty square kilometers?
I've saved the Titanic Spotted Toad and arranged about stamps. What next? My clone-sisters in
enormous Brazil are so lucky!"

I panicked that Brigitte might never return to my bed, unless of course I ceased commissioning stamps of
obscure moths and monkeys — but that would be ungentlemanly. I needed to hook Brigitte and keep her
hooked. So I called upon the spirit of my illustrious ancestor, Nicolló Machiavelli, who knew how to
manipulate men (and how to feminipulate women), and I experienced an epiphany, a sudden revelation.

"I have an idea," I said. "But it needs clarifying. Will you come back the day after tomorrow?"

"I can hardly wait!" she said.

"You must wait," I told her, and felt pleased by my self-control even in the midst of sexual obsession.



Two days later I said to the gorgeous Brigitte, "Animal rights are being violated in many virtual reality
computer games, such as Safari and AlligatorSlaughter and the Spanish game ¡Toro Toro Toro! — to
name but three."

"But we had to allow virtual bullfighting in exchange for the closing of the bull rings."

"Nevertheless, virtual bullfighting is a violation of bestial rights. In fact bestial rights are violated in many
games. Dogs get run over in Grand Chase Auto Armageddon. The WWF needs virtual Brigittes to
detect infringements of animal rights in games. Alternatively, the WWF could licence software creators
to include animal deaths in games. A werewolf killing game could be WWF-approved. The WWF
needs all the money it can get, doesn't it?"

"Of course. We need to catalogue unknown species that are going extinct. That's costly because we
don't know where they are. So we have to send out expeditions all the time, while being careful not to
violate any remaining wildernesses. The biological protection suits our explorers wear are very expensive.
You're a genius, Giuseppe. I'm so glad I met you."

At that moment another epiphany came to came, courtesy of the spirit of my ancestor Niccoló, I truly
believe. But I did not come prematurely as regards this next idea.