To Read or not to read - Science Fiction
Read the opening paragraphs of this novel to decide whether to read or not to read the rest of the book!
A merry little surge of electricity piped by automatic alarm from the mood organ beside his bed awakened Rick Deckard. Surprised-it always surprised to find himself awake without prior notice-he rose from the bed, stood up in his multicoloured pajamas, and stretched. Now, in her bed, his wife Iran opened her gray, unmerry eyes, blinked, then groaned and shut her eyes again.
"You set your Penfield too weak", he said to her. "I'll reset it and you'll be awake and-"
"Keep your hand off settings." Her voice held bitter sharpness. "I don't want to be awake."
He seated himself beside her, bent over her, and explained softly. "If you set the surge high enough, you'll be glad to be awake; that's the whole point. At setting C it overcomes the threshold barring consciousness, as it does for me."
Friendlily, because he felt well-disposed towards the world-his setting had been at D- he patted her bare, pale shoulder.
"Get your crude cop's hand away," Iran said.
"I'm not a cop". He felt irritable now, although he hadn't dialed for it.
"You're worse," his wife said, her eyes still shut. "You're a murderer hired by the cops."
"I've never killed a human being in my life." His irritability had risen now; had become outright hostility.
Iran said, "Just those poor andys."
"I notice you've never had any hesitation as to spending the bounty money I bring home on whatever momentarily attracts your attention." He rose, strode aver to the console of his mood organ. "Instead of saving," he said, "so we could buy a real sheep, to replace that electric one upstairs. A mere electric animal, and me earning all that I've worked my way up to through the years." At his console he hesitated between dialling for a thalamic supressant (which would abolish his mood of rage) or a thalamic stimulant (which would make him irked enough to win the argument).
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