The Brooke-Rose Omnibus (18 page)

– Oh, he’s unemployed? I see. It really is an insoluble problem, isn’t it? And I assure you that it isn’t prejudice, Denton’s gone into it very carefully, the figures show that prejudice is definitely not part of the overall picture, though of course it may occur in individual cases here and there. You see, you can’t get away from the fact that the Colourless are more unreliable, oh, not that they mean to be of course – except in individual cases, throw-backs, so to speak, who can’t adapt to new environments– but simply because they’re weaker, they go sick more often, and they’re more susceptible to the – well, of course I don’t know why I’m talking in the third person like this, I’m as Colourless as you are, but
somehow
I’ve been caught up, as it were, in a manner of
speaking
, but I’m with you all the way, naturally. But I thought you told me he had a job up at Denise Mgulu’s? Temporary, oh I see. It is difficult isn’t it? I should have thought that with the BAUDA there’d be plenty of extra work. Oh, it stands for Ball in Aid of Under Developed Areas. Lilly, you should know that, it’s an annual event. Oh, I see, well maybe she’s right, it does make it sound a bit grim, I suppose. But I always think it’s best to face facts. You know Denise strikes me as awfully out of touch sometimes. All this lady of the manor business. Of course I approve of her food-growing experiments, I think she and Severin have done wonders round here, but you know Severin is always up at that farm of theirs, he’s hardly ever seen in the House of Reps and for heaven’s sake one must be seen. I mean one is elected for something I suppose and what is it if it isn’t representation? And they wouldn’t’ve been able even to start the farm if it hadn’t been for the Government reclaiming schemes. Denton had a big hand in that you know. Still, I always support Severin when Denton runs him down, and I positively
persuaded
him that this year we must come down and support their ball. So here we are, and of course I just had to look you up. I do think you have a charming kitchen. And this meal was delicious, Lilly, but then you always were a marvellous cook, even at school you always came out top in domestic science, didn’t you. D’you remember when Miss er, what was her name, Miss Mgoa, that’s it, she asked me, how will you find and feed a husband, Joan, if you don’t learn how to cook, and I said I shall have servants, it’s strange, isn’t it, how I knew even then, and she said coldly, I doubt that very much. She did, you know, I remember it as if it were today. Oh yes, I’ve had my share of prejudice, and of course it was much worse in those days as you know, the first reaction being a complex of relief and revenge, and then the fear of the malady, but I believe all these things like health and luck and success are a matter of attitude, they’re a state of mind. They’re not things outside us that come to us. We project them. Now you never did project that, Lilly, and I imagine your husband projects even less. I mean fancy getting a foothold of employment in that big house, just at the time of the big ball as she calls it, and then losing it.

– Oh, I see. I didn’t know. What did they say? It isn’t …? No. Not that they’d tell you of course, until it was too obvious. Psychoscopy? But that’s marvellous. What did I tell you, I knew he didn’t project, one only has to look at him. How clever of Denise. And how very kind. He’s tremendously lucky, you know, very few Colourless get it. Oh, in theory of course, but in practice they’re given up as hopeless, and there is a tremendous demand and a shortage of qualified psychoscopists, not to mention the machines and operators. It’s highly skilled and takes years to train them. It breaks one’s heart when the unemployment is so acute, but there it is, it’s always the same old story. There are jobs for the specialists or rather for some specialists like astro-computors and isofertilisers and demographers and geoprognologists
regardless
of race or creed, but not for the unskilled or even the semi-skilled and the unskilled literally cannot even be trained for such jobs, their standard of brain-function is too low, well, it’s a chemical fact, and the semi-skilled and specialists in other things are too set in their ways to adapt. Adaptation, that’s the thing, you see. But what with one thing and another, and the priority on cosmoindustry, bathyagriculture, psychostellar communications and all that, and of course, medicine, I mean all other medical ways and means of dealing with the malady, psychoscopy’s somehow become a luxury. So you see he’s very lucky. I hope it will have done some good. I’m sorry to talk about you in the third person like that, my dear, it’s very rude I know, but then, you don’t say much, and besides, it’s a sort of habit Lilly and I got into, a sort of game we used to play at school, talking about people as if they weren’t there. Very unnerving. That was the idea, of course, to show we weren’t put out by the others’ treatment. Oh, they were very nice to us, but there was a sort of undercurrent, if you know what I mean, and it was much worse then than now, which was
understandable
really. I mean, what with history and the
displacement
and all that, and of course the malady, I mean things have improved considerably, thanks largely to their
extraordinary
energy and efficiency and generosity. Because they really are superbly generous, you know, very warm-hearted people, that’s one thing one can say, they are warm-hearted, in fact I’ll tell you one thing, now that I feel so much one of them, you remember how at school they used to call us cold fish, cold-blooded, cold-hearted? Well they still do, you know, that’s entirely between you and me, and you of course, but there’s a tradition, going way back, no doubt into tribal history, that this is the fundamental difference between the Melanian races and the Colourless. Even I feel it sometimes, this basic attitude I mean. That’s why I have psychoscopy every month. It’s absolutely invaluable to me. I mean, I have to meet so many people all the time, I’d be lost without it.

– Only one. Oh, well, it’s better than nothing, you know, and as I say you were lucky to get it. And presumably they gave you your biogram. They didn’t? But why on earth didn’t you ask for it? Yes I’d love some coffee thank you Lilly. Oh, the biogram is indispensable. It’s the extracted absolute of your unconscious patterns throughout your life, well, the average, if you like, telescoped in time into one line that shows your harmonious rhythm, your up and down tendencies, you know, when the sub is most or least at one with the super. Then all you have to do is to choose your safe periods for social intercourse. It’s possible of course to work it out for yourself, very roughly I mean, and only for the time under survey, and it’s even possible to work out other people’s biograms, the people you constantly deal with I mean, and so choose their safe periods to coincide with yours. But the observation does take time and tends to be subjective and therefore unscientific. Still, it all comes to the same thing in the end, a technique for living. You should try it, it really does work. The psychoscope is better of course, it telescopes a whole life-time after all, and quite, quite objectively. As a matter of fact I’ll let you into a secret. Denton and I know our psychoscopist so well by now, he has given us the biograms of most people we come into constant contact with, and I must say it has made the world of difference. I wonder whether the psychoscopist here is anyone I know, he might give me the Mgulus’ biograms. After all we are staying at the house several days. Thanks awfully, that does smell good. Denton has things to discuss with Severin. What was your chap’s name? Dr. Lukulwe. Hmm. No, I don’t know him.

– Oh but they have. Well of course. All politicians are psychoscoped regularly. And their wives. Well, they have to be. I mean the situation would be too dangerous otherwise. Look what happened last time. I’d go so far as to say it’s thanks to psychoscopy that everything’s been running as smoothly as it has, quite under control in fact, as far as that is concerned. Because you know, it’s quite incredible but people do forget, oh yes, new generations, despite history and everything. I suppose that’s the trouble, really, we started with too many that had the highest possible informative content, or, which is the same thing, the lowest possible probability, then we seized every opportunity to test them with the utmost severity, eliminating and eliminating, well, there you are, those that survive enjoy the prestige that traditionally attaches to survivors.

– How do you mean, who said that? I do think your
husband
is peculiar, Lilly. It’s not part of an epic poem if that’s what you want to know. Though I suppose it might well be. Come to that, perhaps it is. It did sound sort of gnomic didn’t it? Yes well you’re quite right, Denton said it, in one of his speeches in the House, and I remembered it, as I’d helped him a bit, oh yes, I do now and again you know, though he has a secretary of course and a ghost, still he trusts my judgment absolutely, well, my inspiration, he calls it, my Colourless collective unconscious. These things are important, you know, in an interracial society. It’s nice to feel we’re still useful in more ways than one, and ancient wisdom isn’t to be despised, even if it did make mistakes.

– Of course the past exists. Whatever next? We must face facts you know. Lilly, is he all right? Would you like me to use my influence and get him another psychoscopy? I’m sure I could, certainly when I get back to the capital, all I have to do is to ask my own psychoscopist. What did you say this one’s name was? Lukulwe. I must jot that down. Lu-kul-we.

– What did he say? I can’t hear him. An answer. What do you mean, an answer? Don’t be so metaphysical. Do you mean an explanation of the origin? Or do you mean a cure? Surely you know that diagnosis only prognosticates aetiology. Well. I should have thought everyone understood that by now. It’s a short way of saying that they don’t claim to find either the ultimate cause or the ultimate cure, but they do know exactly how it functions, and can prescribe accordingly. I mean every neurosis has its mechanics, which are absolutely predictable, they can tell exactly what anyone will do next, it’s marvellous. And it’s true of everything, medicine, for instance, well, look at the malady, and of course social science, and demography, and politics, the lot. That’s why the principle is so important. I can’t stand not knowing how a thing functions. I mean one must know the rules. That’s why psychoscopy’s been so invaluable to me, it really does provide one with a technique for living, especially the biograms, and they really are amazingly accurate, I’ve found. I can’t stand not knowing where I stand, if you know what I mean. That’s why I never liked artists much. Or diplomats. But they’re a thing of the past, which proves of course there must have been a past. Oh, they’re still recognised, they have a vestigial function that is useful in its way. But you only have to meet them a few minutes, or read an old document or an old book, or see an old film at the film museum, and you get that sort of crushed feeling, at least I do, and I know Denton does, and all the friends I’ve ever talked to about it do, and their reactions are very similar, and they boil down to this, what view are we being urged to take? Well, it’s impossible to tell, I mean, it’s unnerving, isn’t it. No. I like to know where I stand. I’ve chosen my life and I wouldn’t have it any other way. My children are healthy and have a fairer chance of survival than if – than otherwise. I love being in the swim of things, I take an interest in world affairs and local
government
and everything that Denton does in fact. I travel with him a good deal. I see all sorts and conditions of people and their circumstances, their activities, their projects and their hopes, and I love having a hand in helping, however indirectly, the Government and world schemes for their furtherment and betterment. I love people you see.

– Lilly it was simply splendid seeing you. I’m so glad I was able to come, and thank you for a perfectly delicious lunch. I’m sorry to see you’re on a diet, I hope it’s nothing serious? Oh, good. I go on a temporary diet too sometimes, it’s a wise thing to do now and again. Well we must keep in touch. And if there’s anything I can do please don’t hesitate. I mean none of this false shame business between us. We’re old friends you know and I’ll always stand by you. A friend in need. And of course that goes for you too. I hope you find work soon, it’s very demoralising, I know. You are taking the pills, aren’t you? Would you like me to have a word with Denise? Why not? It was your health, after all, and she sent you there. She’s very odd at times, is Denise. Still, come to think of it, perhaps you’re right. At least for the moment. She may have her reasons. I mean I haven’t seen your biogram or anything. Never meddle is my motto. Well, be patient, renew your prescription, and don’t you neglect the dole-pills, they’re better than people think, you know, I’ve seen them being manufactured and the director of the biochemical industry’s a personal friend of mine. I hope you’ll feel better soon. Lilly, my dear, goodbye, it was lovely to see you. Oh of course I may catch a glimpse of you up at the house, but we won’t be able to have a nice long chat like now. I did so enjoy it. Goodbye.

Behind the trellis the gesture is one of helplessness, palms flat and briefly facing upwards, paler, almost pink, and heavily lined, with unacknowledged pasts perhaps, and present prospects. The gesture would be the same if the
helplessness
were faked. The back of the man to whom the gesture is made slouches. His neck creases into his shoulders and he has thin pale hair.

– How do you expect us to help you if you don’t take your dole-pills? Don’t you understand that you are unemployable in your present state? Even if there were jobs available.

The man with the slouching shoulders and the thin pale hair shifts to the right and leans sideways on the counter, as if to make the conversation less private. Nevertheless it is not possible to measure or even roughly to estimate the degree of sincerity in the sympathetic eyes behind the trellis, for the metal grid splinters the bland Bahuko face, which also shines with curved oblongs and blobs of white light from the heat of the day, and the voice too seems encased by the barrier.