（外文电子版资料）Paul Di Filippo - Karuna, Inc.pdf

Karuna, Inc a novella byPaul Di Filippo He learned about pain and death from an ugly dying dog. It had been run over and lay by the side of the road, its chest crushed, bloody foam bubbling from its mouth. When he bent over it the dog gazed at him with glasslike eyes that already saw into the next world. To understand what the dog was saying he put his hand on its stumpy tail. Who mandated this death for you? he asked the dog. What have you done? --Philip K. Dick, The Divine Invasion 1. Memories of the 37th Maybe he should get himself a dog. A dog--a pet, a constant companion, something to fuss over--might help. But then again, maybe not. It was so hard to know, to make up his mind. Considering his unique situation. His special troubles. His extra share of suffering. Adding any unknown factor to the sad equation of his life might disguise its solution, remove any answer forever beyond his powers of philosophical computation. (Assuming his life--anyones life--was solvable at all.) But how could he know for sure without trying? Yet did he dare try? Foolish as the dilemma seemed, it was a real quandary, seemingly his alone. Others seemed not to have such problems. For instance. Everyone in Thurman Swans life had a dog, it seemed. All the people he hung with daily at the Karuna Koffeehouse. (He felt odd calling them friends, upon such short acquaintance, even though they were starting to feel a little like that.) Shenda, Buddy, Chugem, SinSin, Verity, Odd Vibe They were all dog owners, every manjack and womanjill of them. Big dogs or little dogs, mutts or purebreds, quiet or yippy, reserved or exuberant, shaggy or groomed, their dogs came in all varieties. But one thing all the animals had in common, Thurman had noticed: they were inseparable from their ma