（外文电子版资料）Joan D. Vinge - View From A Height.pdf

VIEW FROM A HEIGHT The race is not always to the swift, nor even to the persistent-it is sometimes won by the reluctant. JOAN D. VINGE SATURDAY, THE 7TH I want to know why those pages were missing. How am I supposed to keep up with my research if they leave out pages—? (Long sighing noise.) Listen to yourself, Emmylou: Youre listening to the sound of fear. It was an oversight, you know that. Nobody did it to you on purpose. Relax, youre getting Fortnight Fever. Tomorrow youll get the pages, and an apology too, if Harvey Weems knows whats good for him. But still, five whole pages; and the table of contents. How could you missfive pages? And the table of contents. How do I know there hasnt been a coup? The Northwests finally taken over completely, and theyre censoring the media—And like the Man without a Country, everything they send me from now on is going to have holes cut in it. In Science? Or maybe Weems has decided to drive me insane—? Oh, my God ... it would be a short trip. Look at me. I dont have any fingernails left. (Arrwk. Hello, beautiful. Hello? Hello?) (Ozymandias! Get out out of my hair, you devil. Laughter. Polly want a cracker? Here . . . gently! Thats a boy.) Its beautiful when he flies. I never get tired of watching him, or looking at him, even after twenty years. Twenty years. . . . What did the psittacidae do, to win the right to wear a rainbow as their plumage? Although the way weve hunted them for it, you could say it was a mixed blessing. Like some other things. Twenty years. How strange it sounds to hear those words, and know theyre true. There are gray hairs when I look in the mirror. Wrinkles starting. And Weems is bald! Bald as an egg, and all squinty behind his spectacles. How did we get that way, without noticing it? Time is both longer and shorter than you think, and usually all at once. Twelve days is a long time to wait for somebody to return your call. Twenty years is a long time gone. But 1 feel s