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.Jantiff grimaced.The globes of paper and wire caught his eye; he went to examine them.Their function was not at all clear.The paper was green flimsy, the wire had been salvaged from anotheroper-ation.Perhaps Skorlet intended to decorate the apartment with gay green bubbles.If so, thoughtJantiff, her achieve-ment was remarkably slipshod.[15] Well, so long as they pleased Skorlet, it was noneof his affair.He looked into the bed-room, to appraise the two cots and the not-too-adequate cur-tain.Jantiff wondered what his mother would say.Certainly nothing congratulatory.Well, this was why he hadcome trav-eling, to explore other ways and other customs.Though for a fact, since matters were socasual he would definitely have preferred the young woman what was her name? Kedi-dah? whomhe had noticed in the refectory.He decided to unpack his satchel and went to the wardrobe where he had left it.He looked down inconsternation.The lock was broken; the lid was askew.Opening the case, Jantiff examined the contents.His few clothes apparently had not been molested, except for his spare shoes, of fine gray lantile.Thesewere missing, as well as his pigments and pad, his camera and recorder, a dozen other small implements.Jantiff went slowly into the sitting room and sank into a chair.A brief few minutes later Skorlet entered the apartment.Jantiff thought that she looked in a very badmood, with her black eyes, glittering, and her mouth set in a hard line.Her voice crackled as she spoke: How long have you been here? Five or ten minutes. Kindergoff Lateral was down to the contractors, she said bitterly. I had to walk an entire mile. While we were gone someone broke into my case and stole most of my things.The news seemed to drive Skorlet close to the limits of self-control. And what do you expect? shesnapped in an unpleasantly harsh voice. This is an egalistic country; why should you have more thananyone else? I have been over-egalized, said Jantiff dryly."To the ef-fect that I now have less than anyone else." Those are problems you must learn to cope with, said Skorlet and marched into the bedroom.A few days later Jantiff wrote a letter to his family: My dearest mother, father and sisters:I am now established in what must be the most re-markable nation of Alastor Cluster: Arrabus ofWyst.I inhabit a two-room apartment in close contiguity to a handsome woman with strong views onegalism.She doesn t approve of me particularly.However, she is civil and on occasion helpful.Hername, is Skorlet.You may wonder at this unconventional arrangement; it is really quite simple.Egalism refuses to recognize sexual differ-ences.One person is considered equal to every other, inall respects.To emphasize sexual differences is called  sexivation. For a girl to primp or show herfigure to best advantage is  sexivation and it is considered a seri-ous offense.The apartments were originally intended to house male or female couples, or mated couples, butthe phi-losophy was denounced as  sexivationist, and apartment assignments are now made atrandom, though often per-sons will trade about.Anyone corning to Arrabus must leave his prejudicesbehind! Already I have learned that, no matter what the apparent similarities of a new place to one shome, the stranger must not be misled! Things are never what they seem! Think of this! And thinkof all the Cluster worlds and all the Gaean Reach, and the Erdic Realms, and the Primarchic! Thinkof these tril-lions of folk, each with his singular face! A frightening thought, really.Still I am muchimpressed by Arrabus.The system works; there is no desire for change.The Ar-rabins seem happyand content, or at the very least, pas-sive.They place their highest value upon leisure, at the expenseof personal possessions, good food, and a cer-tain degree of freedom.They are far from welledu-cated, and no one has expertise in any specific field.Maintenance and repairs are done bywhomever is as-signed the job, or in serious cases, to contracting firms from the Weirdlands.(Theseare the provinces to north and south.They are not nations; I doubt if they have any formalgovernment whatever, but I don t know much about them.)I have not been able to do any serious work because my apparatus has been stolen.Skorletconsiders this quite normal and cannot understand my distress.She jeers at my  anti-egalism. Well,so be it.As I say, the Arrabins are, a strange folk, who become excited only by food not their usual wump but good natural food; in fact an acquaintance by the name of Esteban has men-tioned one:or two vices so odd and repellent as to be un-speakable, and I will say no more.The block where I live is known as  Old Pink be-cause of its eczematous color.Each block,ostensibly identical to all others, is vividly distinctive, at least in the minds of the folk who live there,and they will charac-terize the blocks as  dreary,  frivolous,  teeming with sly merges,  servesgood wump,  serves bad wump,  too many pranksters,  sexivationist. Each block has it s ownlegends, songs and special jargon. Old Fink is considered easy-going and faintly raffish, which ofcourse describes me very well, too.You ask, What is a  snerge ? A thief.I have already suffered the attentions of a merge, and mycamera is missing so I can t send photographs.Luckily I was carry-ing my ozols with me.Pleasesend me by return mail new pigments, vehicle, applicators and a big pad of ma-trix.Ferfan will tellyou what I need.Send them in-sured; if they came by ordinary delivery, they might be egalized.Later: I have done my first stint of drudge, at an ex-port factory, for which I receive what iscalled  drivet : ten tokens for each hour worked [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]