20.4.07

Kurt Vonnegut «Unready to Wear»


Kurt Vonneguti jutt «Unready to Wear» ilmus esmakordselt ajakirja «Galaxy Science Fiction» 1953. aasta aprillinumbris ning oli ühtlasi ka esimene Vonneguti jutt, mis ulmeajakirjas ilmus. See on ka peamine põhjus, miks antud juttu meenutada. Kõrvalolev Art Sussmani illustratsioon pärineb samuti sealtsamast ajakirjast.

Ei viitsi jutust pikemalt kirjutada, sest olen seda täna juba teinud ning võimalik huviline võib lihtsalt klõpsata pealkirjale eelmises lõigus.

Olen seda juttu ka ligi paarkümmend aastat tagasi vene keeles lugenud. Tõlke pealkirjaks oli «Люди без тел» ja loetud sai seda antoloogias «Невероятный мир: Сборник зарубежной фантастики» (1991). Nüüd inglise keeles üle lugedes avastasin, et nõukogude lugejate jaoks juttu miskipärast tsenseeriti... eriti lõppu.

WHEN we got home, the Pioneer Day Parade was just breaking up at the local storage center, and the Parade Marshal got out of his body and apologized to me for acting the way he had.
"Heck, Herb," I said, "you don't need to apologize. You weren't yourself. You were parading around in a body."


Vene keeles lõppes jutt siin ära... originaalis läks aga pisut veel edasi...

That's the best part of being amphibious, next to not being afraid — people forgive you for whatever fool thing you might have done in a body.
Oh, there are drawbacks, I guess, the way there are drawbacks to everything. We still have to work off and on, maintaining the storage centers and getting food to keep the community bodies going. But that's a small drawback, and all the big drawbacks I ever heard of aren't real ones, just old-fashioned thinking by people who can't stop worrying about things they used to worry about before they turned amphibious.
As I say, the oldsters will probably never get really used to it. Every so often, I catch myself getting gloomy over what happened to the pay-toilet business at took me thirty years to build.
But the youngsters don't have any hangovers like that from the past. They don't even worry much about something happening to the storage centers, the way us oldsters do.
So I guess maybe that'll be the next step in evolution — to break clean like those first amphibians who crawled out of the mud into the sunshine, and who never did go back to the sea.


Taustaks: Phillip Boa & The Voodooclub «Get Terminated (Live)»

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