boucher book oct28.pdf - Index of

380 Anthony Boucher
For instance, we have learned why this man lives alone, far from his fellows.
His speciality is the making of pictures with what he calls a camera, a contrivance
which records the effect of differing intensities of light upon a salt of
silver—a far more complex method than our means of making pictures with
photosensitized elduron, but one producing much the same results. He has
taken pictures of us, though he seems doubtful that any other man will ever
believe the record of his camera.
At present he is engaged in a series of pictures of aspects of the desert, an
undertaking that he seems to regard not as a useful function but as an art of
some strange sort. Trubz is working on the psychology of it and says that a reproductive
and imitative art is conceivable, but Lilil is scornful of the notion.
Today he showed us many pictures of other mans and of their cities and
structures. Man is a thin-skinned and almost hairless animal. This man of ours
goes almost naked, but that is apparently because of the desert heat. Normally
a man makes up for his absence of hair by wearing a sort of artificial fur of
varying shapes known as clothes. To judge from the pictures shown us by the
man, this is true only of the male of the species. The female never covers her
bare skin in any way.
Examination of these pictures of females shown us by our man fully confirms
our theory that the animal man is a mammal.
The display of pictures ended with an episode still not quite clear to us. Ever
since our arrival, the man has been worrying and talking about something apparently
lost—something called a kitten. The thought pattern was not familiar
enough to permit us to gather its nature, until he showed us a picture of the
small white beast which we had first met, and we recognized in his mind this
kitten-pattern. He seemed proud of the picture, which showed the beast in
its ritual with the ball, but still worried, and asked us, according to Trubz, if we
knew anything of its whereabouts. Transcription:
YOU WOULDN’T ANY OF YOU BIG BUGS KNOW WHAT THE DEVIL’S BECOME
OF THAT KITTEN, WOULD YOU?
Thereupon Lilil arose in his full creative pride and led the man to the place
where we had met the kitten. The corpse was by now withered in the desert
sun, and I admit that it was difficult to gather from such a spectacle the greatness
of Lilil’s art, but we were not prepared for the man’s reaction.
His face grew exceedingly red, and a fluid formed in his eyes. He clenched
his digits and made curious gestures with them. His words were uttered brokenly
and exceedingly difficult to transcribe. Trubz has not yet conjectured
their meaning but the transcription reads:
YOU DID THAT? TO A POOR, HARMLESS LITTLE KITTEN? WHY, YOU— ∗
His attitude has not been the same toward us since. Trubz is working on
the psychology of it.
Murvin to Falzik:
∗ The remainder of this transcription has been suppressed for this audience.—