（外文电子版资料）Norman Spinrad - Mouse.pdf

THE YEAR OF THE MOUSE by Norman Spinrad Mess not with the Mouse. Mess not with the Mouse? We fly you to California business class and install you in a luxurious hotel in Anaheim and when you are summoned to give an account of the situation, you spout degenerate Taoist crypticisms? Xian Bai managed to resist the impulse to tug at the tight collar of his dress shirt, so uncomfortable after two weeks in Southern California, where even high level executives felt free to attend meetings in casual attire. This is not a Taoist epigram, he explained. It is a precept common in high American corporate circles, where it is thought highly unwise to arouse the ire of the Disney Corporation. Had the Deputy Minister for Overseas Cultural Relations been a Long Nose, his pale white skin would no doubt have turned crimson with rage. Despite the handicap of the lack of this Caucasian ability, he managed to make his displeasure clear enough by banging his hand on the desk with sufficient force to rattle the tea service. And what is the Peoples Republic of China, some Banana Republic owned by the United Fruit Corporation? the Deputy Minister shouted. We are a billion and a quarter people! We are the largest and fastest growing market in the world! We have the worlds largest army! We have nuclear missiles! How dare the Mouse presume so outrageously to mess with us! He calmed himself with a sip of tea and regarded Xian Bai with a colder species of outrage. You did make this clear with sufficient force? Indeed I did! Xian Bai was constrained to reply firmly. But he was dissembling. Two weeks in Anaheim to obtain a meeting with a Vice President in charge of overseas marketing and the results of that conversation had been enough to convince him that such force did not exist. Get real, Xian, that individual had advised him. The idea th