"Ian Watson - Alien Embassy" - читать интересную книгу автора (Watson Ian)

Ian Watson - Alien Embassy




If all knowledge were within a man, and ignorance

were wholly absent, that man would be consumed

and cease to be. So ignorance is desirable, inasmuch

as by that means he continues to exist...

Jalaluddin Rumi Discourses



PROLOGUE
'Come in, Rajit,' the Teacher called; and the boy in the turban followed the echo
of his knuckles into the room.

(This must have been how it happened;)

On one of the white plaster walls an emerald lizard poised, - the membrane of its
throat trembling convulsively. The table bore crockery, school exercise books, a
bronze statuette of a Tibetan god copulating with a highly gymnastic partner, and
a large box. A louvre window intersected the rows of palms and the flowering
tree outside, producing a chequerboard effect One of the two cane chairs was
occupied by the African Teacher, the other by a Chinese whose olive green tunic
and customary holster (which may or may not have contained a pistol) showed
him to be a Dobdob, one of the police wing of the Space Communications
Administration, Bardo, which also handled all the world's internal affairs.


file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20kruisw...menten/spaar/Ian%20Watson%20-%20Alien%20Embassy.html (1 of 253)20-2-2006 21:30:11
Ian Watson - Alien Embassy



'I hear you'd like to be a lama when you're older, Rajit?'

The boy nodded firmly.

'More than anything!'

'Why's that?' A pucker of amusement creased the face of the Chinese.

To see India one day-' the boy blurted out.

The Chinese cut him off angrily.