“Let's explain a little?” Is the satirical story of the famous science fiction writer Robert Sheckley . It was written in 1965 . It was first published in October 1965 in the journal Galaxy Science Fiction . At the same time he was nominated for the Nebula Prize. Included in the author's collection " Trap for people ."
| We will explain a little? (Maybe we should talk?) | |
|---|---|
| Shall we Have a Little Talk? | |
| Genre | story |
| Author | Robert Sheckley |
| Original language | English |
| Date of writing | 1965 |
| Date of first publication | 1965 |
The work raises the issue of masked aggression by states (a single Earth in the story), appropriating under the legitimate pretext what they need (alien planets).
Story
Jackson lands on a new inhabited planet (the natives call it On ). He is a phenomenal polyglot, able to quickly learn any language, but his main goal is to buy any real estate, so that the Earth has a legitimate reason to take over the planet under the pretext of protecting its citizen.
The earth was an extremely civilized place, where they used to respect laws. And not a single civilized nation that adheres to laws likes to get their hands dirty in blood. “...” Of course, the messengers must be protected, and murder must be punished - everyone knows that. But it’s still unpleasant to read about the genocide while drinking your morning coffee. Such news can ruin the mood for the whole day. Three or four genocides, and a person can be so angry that he will cast his vote to another candidate.
But the evolution of the local Hong language was incredibly fast - during the week it changed unrecognizably.
The language of planet Na was an exact, incredible likeness of the Heraclitus River. "You can’t enter the same river twice," said Heraclitus, "because other waters always flow in it."
As a result, Jackson (and Earth) was defeated for the first time, and, showering everything and everything with curses, flew away. It all ends with a conversation with Nyan on a new version of a hone (which cannot be translated outside the story universe), discussing some “terrible truth” related to Jackson, “which we better not know.”