[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Battleship Potemkin and settled down to watch it and to listen to it. All the
boring speeches about the glorious Soviet Revolution, all the propaganda about
the wicked Russian landowners and capitalists . . . Everything seemed
different to him now that he knew Eduardo.
He wasn't the only one yawning. People had a lot of practice tuning out
propaganda. But being bored didn't seem enough. What would happen if he
yelled, We'd be better off if the Revolution failed!?
That was a dumb question. He knew what would happen. They'd grab him and haul
him off to a camp. His father would get in trouble, too, for raising a
subversive son. However much he wanted to come out and tell the truth, the
price would be too high to pay.
Can we ever change things, then? he wondered. If they were ever going to,
somebody would have to stand up and tell the government it was wrong.
Somebody, yes, but who? Who would be that brave? Gianfranco wished he knew.
Eight
"'Did you have a good time at the movie?" Eduardo asked after Annarita came
back to her apartment.
"Well, the remake wasn't anything much, but we had fun anyway." She told him
about the foul-up with the newsreel.
"That's pretty good," he said, smiling. "Or pretty bad, depending on how you
look at things. They make movies over again in the home timeline, too, and
most of the time you wish they didn't."
"Why do they, then?" Annarita said. "If you're so free, why don't you make new
things all the time?"
"Because doing old, familiar ones over again makes the studios money," Eduardo
answered.
Annarita's mouth twisted. "Profit doesn't sound so wonderful, then."
"It's not perfect. Nothing's perfect, far as I can see," Eduardo said. "But it
works better than this most of the time, anyhow."
"Have they remade Battleship Potemkin in the, uh, home timeline?" Annarita
asked. Then another question occurred to her: "Do you even have Battleship
Potemkin there?"
"We've got the original, si," Eduardo replied. "It dates from before the
breakpoint. Up till then, everything's the same in both alternates. But here,
the Soviet Union won the Cold War. There, the United States did. The United
States is still the strongest country in the home timeline. It throws its
weight around sometimes, but it doesn't sit on everybody else all the time the
way the USSR does here."
Annarita tried to imagine a world that had branched off from hers somewhere in
the middle of the twentieth century. Why did the two alternates separate?
Somebody decided something one way here, a different way over there. And this
alternate turned out ordinary, and in that one. ... In that one, they had
computers that fit in your pocket. They had a way to travel between
alternates.
They had freedom, too. Annarita had hardly known she missed it till Eduardo's
arrival made her think about it. She didn't want to run up barricades and
start an uprising the way Gianfranco seemed to, but she could tell what wasn't
there and should have been.
"And yes, they did make Potemkin again in the home timeline," Eduardo said.
"This was before I was born, you understand. The remake sank like a rock. When
people watch now, they watch the original."
"In theaters, you mean," Annarita said.
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ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"Well, there, too," Eduardo said. "But we can get recorded disks with movies
on them and watch on our TVs. Or we can pay a little and download the films
from the Net and watch them on our computers."
"You showed me that before," Annarita said. "I still don't see how you can put
a whole movie, let alone lots of movies, on a little thing like the one in
your pocket."
He grinned at her. "Easy as pie. You could do it here, too not as well, but
you could. You know enough. Your governments won't let you, though. Anything
that spreads information around so easily is dangerous to them."
Annarita found herself nodding. In a country that registered typewriters like
guns and kept computers under lock and key for the trusted elite, the idea
that everybody could own a computer and use it all kinds of ways had to seem
like anarchy loosed upon the world. But that wasn't the main thing on her
mind. "You've just let me see little bits of the movies from your home
timeline, to show that they weren't from here," she said. "Could I watch a
whole one?"
"I'm supposed to tell you no," he answered. "You're not supposed to know what
things are like there. But sometimes you've got to bend the rules. And so . .
." He pulled the little box from his pocket and told it to display its screen.
Annarita had to lean forward to see well. It wasn't like watching a movie in
the theater, or even on TV.
The movie was called The Incredible^. It wasn't like anything Annarita had
ever seen before, or even imagined. It wasn't live action, but it wasn't [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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Battleship Potemkin and settled down to watch it and to listen to it. All the
boring speeches about the glorious Soviet Revolution, all the propaganda about
the wicked Russian landowners and capitalists . . . Everything seemed
different to him now that he knew Eduardo.
He wasn't the only one yawning. People had a lot of practice tuning out
propaganda. But being bored didn't seem enough. What would happen if he
yelled, We'd be better off if the Revolution failed!?
That was a dumb question. He knew what would happen. They'd grab him and haul
him off to a camp. His father would get in trouble, too, for raising a
subversive son. However much he wanted to come out and tell the truth, the
price would be too high to pay.
Can we ever change things, then? he wondered. If they were ever going to,
somebody would have to stand up and tell the government it was wrong.
Somebody, yes, but who? Who would be that brave? Gianfranco wished he knew.
Eight
"'Did you have a good time at the movie?" Eduardo asked after Annarita came
back to her apartment.
"Well, the remake wasn't anything much, but we had fun anyway." She told him
about the foul-up with the newsreel.
"That's pretty good," he said, smiling. "Or pretty bad, depending on how you
look at things. They make movies over again in the home timeline, too, and
most of the time you wish they didn't."
"Why do they, then?" Annarita said. "If you're so free, why don't you make new
things all the time?"
"Because doing old, familiar ones over again makes the studios money," Eduardo
answered.
Annarita's mouth twisted. "Profit doesn't sound so wonderful, then."
"It's not perfect. Nothing's perfect, far as I can see," Eduardo said. "But it
works better than this most of the time, anyhow."
"Have they remade Battleship Potemkin in the, uh, home timeline?" Annarita
asked. Then another question occurred to her: "Do you even have Battleship
Potemkin there?"
"We've got the original, si," Eduardo replied. "It dates from before the
breakpoint. Up till then, everything's the same in both alternates. But here,
the Soviet Union won the Cold War. There, the United States did. The United
States is still the strongest country in the home timeline. It throws its
weight around sometimes, but it doesn't sit on everybody else all the time the
way the USSR does here."
Annarita tried to imagine a world that had branched off from hers somewhere in
the middle of the twentieth century. Why did the two alternates separate?
Somebody decided something one way here, a different way over there. And this
alternate turned out ordinary, and in that one. ... In that one, they had
computers that fit in your pocket. They had a way to travel between
alternates.
They had freedom, too. Annarita had hardly known she missed it till Eduardo's
arrival made her think about it. She didn't want to run up barricades and
start an uprising the way Gianfranco seemed to, but she could tell what wasn't
there and should have been.
"And yes, they did make Potemkin again in the home timeline," Eduardo said.
"This was before I was born, you understand. The remake sank like a rock. When
people watch now, they watch the original."
"In theaters, you mean," Annarita said.
Page 63
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"Well, there, too," Eduardo said. "But we can get recorded disks with movies
on them and watch on our TVs. Or we can pay a little and download the films
from the Net and watch them on our computers."
"You showed me that before," Annarita said. "I still don't see how you can put
a whole movie, let alone lots of movies, on a little thing like the one in
your pocket."
He grinned at her. "Easy as pie. You could do it here, too not as well, but
you could. You know enough. Your governments won't let you, though. Anything
that spreads information around so easily is dangerous to them."
Annarita found herself nodding. In a country that registered typewriters like
guns and kept computers under lock and key for the trusted elite, the idea
that everybody could own a computer and use it all kinds of ways had to seem
like anarchy loosed upon the world. But that wasn't the main thing on her
mind. "You've just let me see little bits of the movies from your home
timeline, to show that they weren't from here," she said. "Could I watch a
whole one?"
"I'm supposed to tell you no," he answered. "You're not supposed to know what
things are like there. But sometimes you've got to bend the rules. And so . .
." He pulled the little box from his pocket and told it to display its screen.
Annarita had to lean forward to see well. It wasn't like watching a movie in
the theater, or even on TV.
The movie was called The Incredible^. It wasn't like anything Annarita had
ever seen before, or even imagined. It wasn't live action, but it wasn't [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]