It was always the smaller one...

It was always the smaller ones that offered you a lift, or the old rusty ones, or the ones that were already crammed full of children and the driver would say, ‘I think we can squeeze in one more.’ - P33

He was a small ratty-faced man with grey teeth. His eyes were dark and quick and clever, like a rat’s eyes, and his ears were slightly pointed at the top. He had a cloth cap on his head and he was wearing a greyish-coloured jacket with enormous pockets. The grey jacket, together with the quick eyes and the pointed ears, made him look more than anything like some sort of a huge human rat. - P34

‘I’m sorry,’ I said. ‘It’s none of my business what you do. The trouble is, I’m a writer, and most writers are terrible nosey parkers.’ - P35

‘The secret of life,’ he said, ‘is to become very very good at somethin’ that’s very very ’ard to do.’ - P35

Like an executioner approaching his victim, the policeman came strolling slowly towards us. He was a big meaty man with a belly, and his blue breeches were skintight around his enormous thighs. His goggles were pulled up on the helmet, showing a smouldering red face with wide cheeks. - P38

‘’Ave I done somethin’ wrong?’ my passenger asked. His voice was as soft and oily as haircream. - P38

‘Michael Fish,’ my passenger said. ‘Address?’ ‘Fourteen, Windsor Lane, Luton.’ ‘Show me something to prove this is your real name and address,’ the policeman said. My passenger fished in his pockets and came out with a driving-licence of his own. - P39

up in those forests lived who...

up in those forests lived whole communities of diabolical people who still practised voodoo and witch-doctory and other magic rites. - P7

‘There’s things happening up there that’d make your hair turn white in a minute!’ - P7

But the feeling was there and I couldn’t shake it off. There was something weird and sinister about the place. Despite all the loveliness and the luxury, there was a whiff of danger that hung and drifted in the air like poisonous gas. - P7

There was something malignant crouching underneath the surface of this island. I could sense it in my bones. - P8

On the evening of my second day, I was sitting on my little balcony with a book on my lap and a tall glass of rum punch in my hand. I wasn’t reading the book. I was watching a small green lizard stalking another small green lizard on the balcony floor about six feet away. - P9

A haul of fish is something that has always fascinated me. - P10

The men were wearing those frightful Bermuda shorts that came down to the knees, and their shirts were bilious with pinks and oranges and every other clashing colour you could think of. The women had better taste, and were dressed for the most part in pretty cotton dresses. Nearly everyone carried a drink in one hand. - P10

I picked up my own drink and stepped down from the balcony on to the beach. I made a little detour around the coconut palm under which Mr Wasserman had supposedly met his end, and strode across the beautiful silvery sand to join the crowd. - P11

But what a turtle it was! It was a giant, a mammoth. I had not thought it possible for a turtle to be as enormous as this. How can I describe its size? Had it been the right way up, I think a tall man could have sat on its back without his feet touching the ground. It was perhaps five feet long and four feet across, with a high domed shell of great beauty. - P11

Upside down it lay, this magnificent creature, with its four thick flippers waving frantically in the air, and its long wrinkled neck stretching far out of its shell. The flippers had large sharp claws on them. - P11

Many of the women were squealing with pleasure clutching on to the arms of their men, and the men were demonstrating their lack of fear and their masculinity by making foolish remarks in loud voices. - P11

‘He’s a snapper, is he?’ ‘That’s no snapper. Snapper turtles don’t grow as big as that. But I’ll tell you what. He’ll snap your hand off quick enough if you get too close to him.’ - P11

‘I guess I’d get a bit snappish myself,’ the woman said, ‘if I was in his situation.’ - P12

I stood there listening to the conversation of these human beings. They were discussing the destruction, the consumption and the flavour of a creature who seemed, even when upside down, to be extraordinarily dignified. One thing was certain. He was senior to any of them in age. For probably one hundred and fifty years he had been cruising in the green waters of the West Indies. He was there when George Washington was President of the United States and Napoleon was being clobbered at Waterloo. He would have been a small turtle then, but he was most certainly there. - P14

They were all a bit off-balance now. They had the slightly hangdog air of people who had been caught doing something that was not entirely honourable. - P17

The two hooded black eyes of the turtle peered up at the boy. The eyes were bright and lively, full of the wisdom of great age. The boy looked back at the turtle, and this time when he spoke, his voice was soft and intimate. ‘Good-bye, old man,’ he said. ‘Go far away this time.’ The black eyes remained resting on the boy for a few seconds more. Nobody moved. Then, with great dignity, the massive beast turned away and began waddling towards the edge of the ocean. He didn’t hurry. He moved sedately over the sandy beach, the big shell rocking gently from side to side as he went. The crowd watched in silence. He entered the water. He kept going. - P24

To reach Eleuthera Island from Jamaica by sea, one must first travel north-east for two hundred and fifty miles and pass through the Windward Passage between Cuba and Haiti. Then one must go north-north-west for a further three hundred miles at least. This is a total distance of five hundred and fifty miles, which is a very long journey for a small boy to make on the shell of a giant turtle. - P31

I had a new car. It was an exciting toy, a big BMW 3.3 Li, which means 3.3 litre, long wheelbase, fuel injection. It had a top speed of 129 m.p.h. and terrific acceleration. The body was pale blue. The seats inside were darker blue and they were made of leather, genuine soft leather of the finest quality. The windows were electrically operated and so was the sun-roof. The radio aerial popped up when I switched on the radio, and disappeared when I switched it off. The powerful engine growled and grunted impatiently at slow speeds, but at sixty miles an hour the growling stopped and the motor began to purr with pleasure. - P33

My first story – 1942 I do not remember much of it; not beforehand anyway; not until it happened. - P237

Peter said, ‘It’s a piece of cake.’ ‘Yes. It ought to be easy.’ We separated and I climbed into my cockpit. - P238

‘Piece of cake,’ I said. ‘Like hell.’ ‘Really. It isn’t anything at all. It’s a piece of cake.’ - P238

How I became a writer
A fiction writer is a person who invents stories. But how does one start out on a job like this? How does one become a full-time professional fiction writer? Charles Dickens found it easy. At the age of twenty-four, he simply sat down and wrote Pickwick Papers, which became an immediate best-seller. But Dickens was a genius, and geniuses are different from the rest of us. - P199

‘Olive will come down in abou...

‘Olive will come down in about ten minutes; she told me to tell you that. About ten; that is exactly like Olive. Neither five nor fifteen, and yet not ten exactly, but either nine or eleven. She didn‘t tell me to say she was glad to see you, because she doesn‘t know whether she is or not, and she wouldn‘t for the world expose herself to telling a fib. She is very honest, is Olive Chancellor; she is full of rectitude. Nobody tells fibs in Boston; I don‘t know what to make of them all. Well, I am very glad to see you, at any rate.’

다음에서 발췌
The Bostonians, Vol. I (of II)
Henry James
이 자료는 저작권에 의해 보호됩니다. - P8

"Olive will come down in about ten minutes; she told me to tell you that. About ten; that is exactly like Olive. Neither five nor fifteen, and yet not ten exactly, but either nine or eleven. She didn‘t tell me to say she was glad to see you, because she doesn‘t know whether she is or not, and she wouldn‘t for the world expose herself to telling a fib. She is very honest, is Olive Chancellor; she is full of rectitude. Nobody tells fibs in Boston; I don‘t know what to make of them all. Well, I am very glad to see you, at any rate."

-알라딘 eBook <The Bostonians, Vol. I (of II)> (헨리 제임스) 중에서 - P3

‘These words were spoken with much volubility by a fair, plump, smiling woman who entered a narrow drawing-room in which a visitor, kept waiting for a few moments, was already absorbed in a book. ’

다음에서 발췌
The Bostonians, Vol. I (of II)
Henry James
이 자료는 저작권에 의해 보호됩니다. - P8

These words were spoken with much volubility by a fair, plump, smiling woman who entered a narrow drawing-room in which a visitor, kept waiting for a few moments, was already absorbed in a book.

-알라딘 eBook <The Bostonians, Vol. I (of II)> (헨리 제임스) 중에서 - P3

Mrs. Luna glanced at him from head to foot, and gave a little smiling sigh, as if he had been a long sum in addition. And, indeed, he was very long, Basil Ransom, and he even looked a little hard and discouraging, like a column of figures, in spite of the friendly face which he bent upon his hostess‘s deputy, and which, in its thinness, had a deep dry line, a sort of premature wrinkle, on either side of the mouth. He was tall and lean, and dressed throughout in black; his shirt-collar was low and wide, and the triangle of linen, a little crumpled, exhibited by the opening of his waistcoat, was adorned by a pin containing a small red stone. In spite of this decoration the young man looked poor—as poor as a young man could look who had such a fine head and such magnificent eyes. Those of Basil Ransom were dark, deep, and glowing; his head had a character of elevation which fairly added to his stature; it was a head to be seen above the level of a crowd, on some judicial bench or political platform, or even on a bronze medal. His forehead was high and broad, and his thick black hair, perfectly straight and glossy, and without any division, rolled back from it in a leonine manner. These things, the eyes especially, with their smouldering fire, might have indicated that he was to be a great American statesman; or, on the other hand, they might simply have proved that he came from Carolina or Alabama. He came, in fact, from Mississippi, and he spoke very perceptibly with the accent of that country. It is not in my power to reproduce by any combination of characters this charming dialect; but the initiated reader will have no difficulty in evoking the sound, which is to be associated in the present instance with nothing vulgar or vain. This lean, pale, sallow, shabby, striking young man, with his superior head, his sedentary shoulders, his expression of bright grimness and hard enthusiasm, his provincial, distinguished appearance, is, as a representative of his sex, the most important personage in my narrative; he played a very active part in the events I have undertaken in some degree to set forth. And yet the reader who likes a complete image, who desires to read with the senses as well as with the reason, is entreated not to forget that he prolonged his consonants and swallowed his vowels, that he was guilty of elisions and interpolations which were equally unexpected, and that his discourse was pervaded by something sultry and vast, something almost African in its rich, basking tone, something that suggested the teeming expanse of the cotton-field. Mrs. Luna looked up at all this, but saw only a part of it; otherwise she would not have replied in a bantering manner, in answer to his inquiry: "Are you ever different from this?" Mrs. Luna was familiar—intolerably familiar.

-알라딘 eBook <The Bostonians, Vol. I (of II)> (헨리 제임스) 중에서 - P5

"What kind of meetings do you refer to? You speak as if it were a rendezvous of witches on the Brocken."
"Well, so it is; they are all witches and wizards, mediums, and spirit-rappers, and roaring radicals."

-알라딘 eBook <The Bostonians, Vol. I (of II)> (헨리 제임스) 중에서 - P5

[오늘의 한문장] 매니악

금빛 드레스를 입은 여왕을 보았다. 드레스에 촘촘히 달린 눈들은 모두 투명했으며, 타오르는 불꽃 같기도 크리스털 같기도 했다. 머리에 층층이 쌓인 왕관은 드레스에 달린 눈만큼이나 많았다. 여왕은 소름 끼치게 빠른 속도로 다가와 내 목을 밟고서 끔찍한 목소리로 소리쳤다. "내가 누구인지 아는가?" 나는 말했다. "물론입니다! 오래도록 나에게 고통과 슬픔을 주지 않았습니까. 당신은 내 영혼의 이성입니다."

―브라반트의 하데베이흐,
13세기 시인이자 신비주의자
(엘리엇 와인버거 『천사와 성인』에 변형되어 인용)

-알라딘 eBook <매니악> (벵하민 라바투트 지음, 송예슬 옮김) 중에서 - P9

뉘른베르크 전범 재판 전날 밤 건강진단에서 의사들은 ...

뉘른베르크 전범 재판 전날 밤 건강진단에서 의사들은 나치 지도자 헤르만 괴링의 손톱과 발톱이 새빨갛게 물든 것을 발견했다. 진통제 디히드로코데인을 하루에 백 알 넘게 복용하다 중독된 것이었다. 작가 윌리엄 버로스가 묘사했듯 이 약물은 자극성은 코카인만큼 약하지만 효능은 코데인의 두 배로 헤로인과 맞먹기에 미국 의사들은 괴링을 법정에 세우기 전에 의존증부터 치료해야겠다고 생각했다. 쉬운 일은 아니었다. 연합군에 체포될 당시 괴링이 가지고 있던 여행 가방에는 2만 회 넘게 투약할 수 있는 디히드로코데인이 들어 있었다. 제2차세계대전 막바지 독일에 남아 있던 생산분의 사실상 전부였다. - P9

독일 작가 하인리히 뵐은 1939년 11월9일 전선에서 부모에게 보낸 편지에서 페르비틴을 더 보내달라고 부탁했다. "상황이 열악합니다. 편지를 이틀이나 사흘에 한 번씩만 쓰더라도 이해해주시길 바랍니다. 오늘 편지를 쓴주요 용건은 페르비틴을 더 보내주십사 말씀드리기 위해서입니다. 사랑합니다. 하인 올림." - P10

독일어로 ‘블라우조이레‘, 즉 청산이라 불리는 액체 상태의 시안화물은휘발성이 매우 강하다. 섭씨 26도에서 끓으며 연한 아몬드향을 내는데, 인류의 40퍼센트는 해당 유전자가 없어서 이 냄새를 맡지 못한다. 이 진화적 변이 때문에 아우슈비츠르케나우, 마이다네크, 마우트하우젠 강제 수용소에서 치클론B에 살해당한 유대인 중 상당수는 가스실을 채우는 시안화물의 냄새를 낌새조차 알아차리지 못했지만 일부는 자신들의 절멸을 계획한 자들이 자살용 캡슐을 깨물며 들이마신 것과 같은 향기를 맡으며 죽었다. - P16

나치가 강제 수용소에서 사용한 독가스의 전신인 치클론A는 수십 년 전 캘리포니아 오렌지에 살충제로 뿌려졌으며 멕시코인 수만 명이 미국에 밀입국하려고 몰래 탑승한 기차의 이를 구제하는 데 쓰였다. 객차의 나무판은 고운 파란색으로 물들었는데, 오늘날까지도 아우슈비츠의 벽돌에서 볼 수 있는 바로 그 색깔이다. 여기서 알 수 있듯 시안화물의 진짜 기원은 1782년에 최초의 현대적 합성 안료 프러시안블루에서 분리된 부산물이다. - P16

프러시안블루를 사용한 최초의 대화가는 1709년 네덜란드의 피터르 판데르베르프였다. 그의 <그리스도의 매장>에서 지평선을 가린 구름 아래로 성모 마리아의 얼굴에 그림자를 드리우고 은은하게 빛나는 파란색 장옷은 메시아의 벌거벗은 시신을 둘러싼 제자들의 수심을 상징한다. 예수의 피부는 어찌나 창백한지 마치 쇠못에 벌어진 상처를 입술로 소독하려는 듯 무릎 꿇고서 그의 손등에 입맞추는 여인의 얼굴이 비칠 정도다. - P20

디펠의 영약에 들어 있던 성분에서 탄생한 파란색은 결국 반 고흐의 <별이 빛나는밤>, 호쿠사이의 <가나가와의 파도 아래>에서뿐 아니라 마치이 색깔의 화학 구조에 들어 있는 무언가가 폭력을 유발하기라도 하는 듯 프로이센군의 제복에서도 빛난다. 그 무언가는 저 연금술사의 실험에서 이어져내려온 과오, 그늘, 실존적 얼룩이었다. 이 실험들에서 그는 동물을 산 채로 해부하고 조각조각 이어 붙여 끔찍한 키메라로 만들어서는 전기 자극을 가해 되살리려 했다. 이 괴물은 메리 셸리에게 걸작 <프랑켄슈타인: 현대의 프로메테우스>의 영감을 선사했다. 소설에서 그녀는 인간의 모든 능력 중에서 가장 위험한 능력인 과학을 맹목적으로 발전시키는 것이 얼마나 위험한가를 경고했다. - P23

비소가 신체 조직의 가장 은밀한 곳에 숨어들어 몇 년에 걸쳐 쌓이는 끈질긴 암살자인 데 반해 시안화물은 일시에 당신의 숨을 멎게 한다. 시안화물 농도가 충분히 높아지면 경동맥 소체의 수용체가 한꺼번에 자극되어 호흡을 중단시키는 반사가 일어난다. 빈맥, 무호흡, 경련, 심혈관 허탈에 앞서 나타나는 이 증상을 의학 문헌에서는 ‘헐떡거림‘이라고 부른다. 시안화물은 속효성 덕에 수많은 암살자에게 사랑받았다. - P26

하지만 제1차세계대전 참호 속에서 사린 가스, 겨자 가스, 염소 가스 공격으로부터 살아남은 병사들이 느낀 공포는 한 세대 전체의 무의식에 스며들었다. 역사상 최초의 대량살상무기가 초래한 공포에 대한 가장 확실한 증거는 제2차세계대전 때 가스 공격 금지 조치를 모든 나라가 받아들였다는 사실이다. - P30

이프르 공격을 감독한 인물은 이 새로운 전쟁 수단의 아버지인 유대인 화학자 프리츠 하버였다. 하버는 천재였으며, 이프르에서 죽은 병사 5000명의 피부를 검게 물들인 복잡한 분자 반응을 이해할 수 있는, 아마도 유일한 사람이었다.
그는 임무 성공으로 전쟁부 화학 부서의 책임자로 승진했으며 카이저 빌헬름 2세와 만찬하는 영광을 누렸다. 하지만 베를린으로 돌아왔을 때 그를 기다린 것은 아내의 분노였다.
독일의 대학교에서 화학 박사 학위를 받은 최초의 여성인 클라라 이머바르는 실험실에서 가스가 동물에게 어떤 영향을미치는지 보았을 뿐 아니라, 현장 시험중에 바람 방향이 갑자기 바뀌는 바람에 하마터면 남편을 잃을 뻔했다. - P33

1907년 하버는 식물 생장에 필요한 주요 영양소인 질소를 사상 최초로 공기 중에서 직접 채취했다. 이렇게 하루하루, 그는 20세기 초에 전례 없는 세계 대기근을 몰고 올 뻔한 비료 부족 사태와 맞섰다. 하버가 아니었다면 구아노와 초석같은 천연 비료에 의존하여 농사짓던 수억 명이 영양 결핍으로 사망했을 것이다. - P35

하버는 질소의 성공에 고무되어 바이마르공화국을 재건하고 경제를 옥죄는 전쟁 배상금을 지불할 계획을 고안했다.
그에게 노벨상을 안겨준 것만큼 놀라운 그 계획은 바닷물에서 금을 채취한다는 것이었다. 그는 의심을 피하기 위해 거짓 신분으로 돌아다니며 전 세계 바다에서 물 시료 5000점을 채집했다. 그중에는 북극과 남극의 얼음 조각도 있었다.
그는 바닷물에 녹아 있는 금을 캐낼 수 있으리라 확신했지만, 몇 년간 고생한 끝에 자신의 처음 계산이 이 귀금속의 양을 몇 배나 과대평가했음을 인정해야 했다. 그는 빈손으로귀국했다. - P39

프리츠 하버가 죽을 때 지니고 있던 몇 안 되는 소지품 중에는 아내에게 쓴 편지가 있었다. 편지에서 그는 견딜 수 없는 죄책감을 느낀다고 고백했다. 무수한 사람들의 죽음에 직간접적으로 관여했기 때문이 아니라 공기 중에서 질소를 뽑아내는 자신의 방법이 지구의 자연적 평형을 무지막지하게 교란하는 바람에 인류가 아니라 식물이 세계를 차지할까봐 두려웠기 때문이었다. 단 몇십 년 동안이라도 인구가 산업시대이전으로 감소한다면 인류가 공급한 잉여 영양소 덕에 식물이 무한히 증식하여 지구에 두루 퍼지고 땅을 완전히 뒤덮어 모든 생명을 끔찍한 초록 아래 질식시킬 테니까. - P42