"Boris and Arkady Strugatsky. The snail on the slope" - читать интересную книгу автора

neither in the village nor in the New Village was there calm or
amalgamation, that all this was a consequence of people forgetting the word
"shouldn't" and thinking everything was permitted. Dummy, for instance, was
set on going to the City, though nobody had summoned him. The village bore
no responsibility for that, seeing as he was foreign, but if it turned out
by chance that he was a deadling after all, and such an opinion existed in
the village, then nobody knew what would happen, especially as Nava, though
of course she was an alien too, had had no children by Dummy, and this was
not to be tolerated, yet the elder tolerated it. ...
Toward the middle of the oration, the elder dozed off as well, but
hearing his own name, started and immediately gave a threatening bark: "Hey!
No sleeping! You can sleep at home," he said, "that's what houses are for,
sleeping in, nobody sleeps on the square, meetings are held on the square.
Nobody has ever been allowed to sleep on the square, nobody is allowed and
nobody will be." He glanced toward the old man.
The old man gave a satisfied nod. "And so we have our general 'not
permitted.' " He smoothed his hair and announced: "A bride has been
announced at New Village. And we have a groom, Loudmouth, whom you all know.
Stand up. Loudmouth, and show yourself, no better not, you just sit there,
everybody knows you anyway. Now we have the question: shall Loudmouth go to
New Village or alternatively shall we bring the bride here to the village. .
. . No, no. Loudmouth, sit you down, we'll decide this without you . . .
those sitting next to him keep a good hold on him till the meeting is over.
Who has any opinion, let him speak."
There turned out to be two opinions. One (Loud-mouth's neighbors for
the most part) demanded Loudmouth's dismissal to New Village, let the rest
live here. Others, calm and serious men, living well away from Loudmouth
proposed the opposite, women were getting short, some had been stolen,
therefore the bride should come to the village. Loudmouth was that all
right, but suppose there would be children, let there be no doubt, that was
for sure. The argument was long, and at first to the point. Then Hopalong
unfortunately shouted out that it was wartime and everybody was forgetting
that. Loudmouth was instantly forgotten. Ears started to explain that there
was no war and never had been, there was and would be the Great Harrowing.
Not Harrowing, objected someone in the crowd, it was Essential Swamping. The
Harrowing was over long ago, the Swamping had been going on for years, Ears
didn't know a thing, how could he, he was Ears wasn't he? The old man got up
and rolling his eyes, croaked out hoarsely that there was no war, no
Harrowing; there was no Swamping either, there had been, was, and would be
the Personal Struggle in North and South. How was there no war, wool on yer
nose, came from the crowd, when there was a whole lake full of drowned
bodies past Funny Village? The meeting exploded. What about the drowned
bodies? Where there was water you found bodies, past Funny Village wasn't
like here, you couldn't go by Funny Village, they ate out of clay there,
lived under clay, gave their wives to the robbers, now people talked about
drowned bodies. It wasn't drowned bodies, no struggle and no war, it was
Calm and Amalgamation in the interests of the Accession! Why then was Dummy
going to the City? Dummy was going to the City, therefore the City existed,
and if it existed where was your war? It must be Amalgamation! Anyway did it
matter where Dummy went? Somebody went as well once, they gave it him right