The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Author: Michel Faber
- Language: English
- Genre: Action & Adventure Literary Fiction
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
FORTY MINUTES LATER HE WAS UP IN THE SKY.
“I was going to say something,” he said.
“So say it,” she said.
He was quiet, keeping his eyes on the road. In the darkness of the city’s
outskirts, there was nothing to see except the tail-lights of other cars in the
distance, the endless unfurling roll of tarmac, the giant utilitarian fixtures of
the motorway.“God may be disappointed in me for even thinking it,” he said.
“Well,” she sighed, “He knows already, so you may as well tell me.”
He glanced at her face, to judge what mood she was in as she said this, but
the top half of her head, including her eyes, was veiled in a shadow cast by
the edge of the windscreen. The bottom half of her face was lunar bright.
The sight of her cheek, lips and chin—so intimately familiar to him, so
much a part of life as he had known it—made him feel a sharp grief at the
thought of losing her.
“The world looks nicer with man-made lights,” he said.
They drove on in silence. Neither of them could abide the chatter of radio
or the intrusion of pre-recorded music. It was one of the many ways they
were compatible.
“Is that it?” she said.
“Yes,” he said. “What I mean is … Unspoiled nature is supposed to be the
ultimate in perfection, isn’t it, and all the man-made stuff is supposed to be a
shame, just cluttering it up. But we wouldn’t enjoy the world half as much if
we—man … that is, human beings …”
(She gave him one of her get-on-with-it grunts.)
“… if we hadn’t put electric lights all over it. Electric lights are actually
attractive. They make a night drive like this bearable. Beautiful, even. I
mean, just imagine if we had to do this drive in total darkness. Because that’s
what the natural state of the world is, at night, isn’t it? Total darkness. Just
imagine. You’d have the stress of not having a clue where you were going,
not being able to see more than a few meters in front of you. And if you
were heading for a city—well, in a non-technological world there wouldn’t
be cities, I suppose—but if you were heading for a place where other people
lived, living there naturally, maybe with a few campfires … You wouldn’t see
them until you actually arrived. There wouldn’t be that magical vista when
you’re a few miles away from a city, and all the lights are twinkling, like stars
on the hillside.”
“Uh-huh.”
“And even inside this car, assuming you could have a car, or some sort of
vehicle, in this natural world, pulled by horses I suppose … It would be
pitch black. And very cold, too, on a winter’s night. But instead, look what
we’ve got here.”
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