In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

have this code: 14,578A/B. And another one that will have the following code number: 14,578A-B-C. This will keep the accountants and lawyers busy and, at the same time, will solve the problem of having too many of them in the country. The fact that the guard waved the sign that said to keep off the grass didn’t bother us at all. On the contrary, we stayed on it, serene, mute, as if a spell had come over us. It didn’t disturb us either that the poor guard, used to going after children and doves that dirty everything, especially the daisy, pansy, and geranium beds, blew his whistle noisily and with full force, as if it were a ship’s siren summoning help or signalling the afternoon ’s retreat. He blew it so loud that a palace soldier, thinking he’d heard the sentinel’s signal, lowered the flag. When the whistle was blown by the first guard, some others who were in the area, though not many, drew near. One must keep in mind that they’re all close to a hundred years old and they are interested only in providing information about the bears (which would assure them a proper funeral), or in chasing away children from their neighbourhood squares. The police couldn’t come: they were too busy chasing four or so bears that had entered the jungle. It’s not that they were very important bears, not even very dangerous ones, but one of the richest feudal lords on the continent had offered a great reward in dollars for one of their skins, a job to which all the active armed forces of the country were directing their efforts. To give this event a certain official prestige, government backing, and security of the law, the palace feudal lords (especially those holding the portfolio of Education and Culture, of Order and Progress, and of Advertising and Public Relations), had circulated many slogans on radio and television. It was common, for example, to see a close-up view of a beautiful announcer making a face and murmuring: “Make sure your children ’s lives are safe. The bears are ambushing your home. Collaborate by giving clues.” Or they showed frightening drawings of a catastrophe involving children, with the following caption: “This is the work of bears. Would you allow them to devastate your country, your home?” They also exhibited a large number of pictures of bears dressed up on this or that occasion and they gave them each physical characteristics by which they could be identified, and they also indicated the most sensitive parts of their bodies where it was possible to shoot and kill them for sure. The second transgression consisted of sitting in the street, peacefully, interrupting traffic. It’s not that we were tired of the grass, but it just happened , spontaneously. When the municipal guards, upset by our resolve, by the persistence of our feet on the grass, disappeared from the public square and gave up on us, we peacefully came down off the flower beds and went in orderly fashion towards the middle of the street, amongst the buses, where —— 64 —— ...

Share