Neal Stephenson's 'Quicksilver'. Extract from chapter 1
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EnglishVoice Age
Middle Aged (35-54)Accents
British (General)Transcript
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Neal Stephenson's Volume one of the Baroque cycle Knock in England 16 55. For between true science on erroneous doctrines, ignorance is in the middle, Hobbs from Leviathan. I'd best be going in, Oak said. Not sure why our brethren in Cambridge must know by now that I've been in Oxford. Doubly frantic with steely politeness, he turned aside Clark's amiable delaying tactics, declining the offer of porridge, postponing the suggestion that they pray together, insisting that he really needed no rest. Until he reached Cambridge. His horse had had only a few hours to feed and does he knock? Had borrowed it from Wilkins with the implicit promise to treat it kindly. And so, rather than mounting it into the saddle, he lead it by the reins down Grantham's high Street and in the direction of the school. Chatting to it, he caught sight of the borders. Soon enough, they had found stones that needed kicking dogs that needed fellowship On a few late apples still dangling from the tree. Branches, you know, lingered in the long shadow of a stone wall on what's the Apple project? Some planning had gone into it. A whispered conference between bunks last night, one of the boys had clambered up into the tree on was shinning out onto the limb in question. It was too slender to bear his weight, but he fancied. He could bend it low enough to bring it within the tallest boys jumping range. The little fair haired boy door to the tour boys fruitless jumping. But he was working on his own project. The same one in Ark had glimpsed through the window stone on the end of a string. Not an easy thing to make. He world the stone around and flung it upwards. It whipped around the end of the tree branch. By pulling it down, he was able to bring the apple within easy reach. The tall boys stood aside grudgingly, but the fair boy kept both hands on that string on insisted that the tall one have it as a present. You look almost groaned, allowed when he saw the infatuation on the little boy's face. The tall boys face was less pleasant to look at. He hungered for the apple but suspected a trick. Finally, he lashed out and snatched it, finding the prize in his hand. He looked searching the at the fair Boy, trying to understand his motives on became unsettled and sullen. He took a bite of the apple as the other watch with almost physical satisfaction. The boy who shimmied out onto the tree limb had come down on now, managed to tease the string off the branch. He examined the way it was tied to this stone on decided that suspicion was the safest course. A pretty lace maker, you are, he piped. But the fair boy had eyes only for his beloved. The tallboy spat on the ground and tossed the rest of the apple over a fence into a yard where a couple of pigs fought over it. Now it became unbearable for a while and made enough wish he had never followed wth, Um, the two stupid boys dogged the other one down the road, wide eyes travelling up and down his body. Seeing him now for the first time, seeing a little of what E. Knox Or, you know, I heard snatches off their tunes. What's on your hands? Would you say paint for what? Pretty pictures? What do you say for furniture? I haven't seen any furniture. Oh, doll furniture being a city in Perik. What was important to Inoke was not the tedious details ofthe specifically how the boy's heart got broken. He went to the apple tree tow. Have a look at the boy's handiwork. The boy had imprisoned the stone in a toy net, two sets of he Lucy's one climbing clockwise, the other anti clockwise intersecting each other in a pattern of diamonds just like the lead net. That **** Clark's windows together enough didn't suppose that this was a coincidence. The work was a regular at the start, but by the time he'd completed the first row of knots, the boy had learned to take into account the length of the time spent in making the knots themselves on. By the time he reached the end, it was as regular as the procession of the Zodiac E Knock, then walked briskly to the school on arrived in time to watch the inevitable fight. The fair boy was red eyed and had porridge vomit on his chin. It was safe to assume he'd been punched in the stomach. Another schoolboy on there's one in every school seemed to have appointed himself. Master of ceremonies on was goading them into action, paying most attention to the smaller boy, the injured party and presumed loser to be off the fight. To the surprise and delight of the community of young scholars, the smaller boy stepped forward and raised his fists.