2013年1月13日星期日

缇庡浗浼楃 American Gods_139

ormal things. And then there are the gods. Some guy is running back to report on the outcome of a battle and he's running and running, and he sees Pan in a glade. And Pan says, 'Tell them to build me a temple here.' So he says okay, and runs the rest of the way back. And he reports the battle news, and then says, 'Oh, and by the way, Pan wants you to build him a temple.' It's really matter-of-fact, you know?"
"So there are stories with gods in them. What are you trying to say? That these guys had hallucinations?"
"No," said Shadow. "That's not it."
She chewed a hangnail,cheap foamposites. "I read some book about brains," she said. "My roommate had it and she kept waving it around. It was like, how five thousand years ago the lobes of the brain fused and before that people thought when the right lobe of the brain said anything it was the voice of some god telling them what to do. It's just brains."
"I like my theory better," said Shadow.
"What's your theory?"
"That back then people used to run into the gods from time to time."
"Oh." Silence: only the rattling of the car, the roar of the engine, the growling of the muffler-which did not sound healthy. Then, "Do you think they're still there?"
"Where?"
"Greece. Egypt. The islands. Those places. Do you think if you walked where those people walked you'd see the gods?"
"Maybe. But I don't think people'd know that was what they'd seen."
"I bet it's like space aliens," she said. "These days,cheap air max, people see space aliens. Back then they saw gods. Maybe the space aliens come from the right side of the brain."
"I don't think the gods ever gave rectal probes," said Shadow. "And they didn't mutilate cattle themselves. They got people to do it for them."
She chuckled. They drove in silence for a few minutes,http://www.foampositesforcheap.us/, and then she said, "Hey, that reminds me of my favorite god story, from Comparative Religion One-oh-one. You want to hear it?"
"Sure," said Shadow.
"Okay. This is one about Odin. The Norse god,cheap nike air max 1. You know? There was some Viking king on a Viking ship-this was back in the Viking time

缇庡浗浼楃 American Gods_061

looked out of the window, at the buildings across the street.
Zorya Utrennyaya went out. Czernobog stared at her as she left. "That's a good woman," he said. "Not like her sisters. One of them is a harpy, the other, all she does is sleep." He put his slippered feet up on a long, low coffee table, a chess board inset in the middle, cigarette burns and mug rings on its surface.
"Is she your wife?" asked Shadow.
"She's nobody's wife." The old man sat in silence for a moment,coach canada outlet, looking down at his rough hands. "No. We are all relatives. We come over here together, long time ago."
From the pocket of his bathrobe, Czernobog produced a pack of unfiltered cigarettes. Wednesday pulled out a narrow gold lighter and lit the old man's cigarette. "First we come to New York," said Czernobog. "All our countrymen go to New York. Then, we come out here, to Chicago. Everything got very bad. Even in the old country, they had nearly forgotten me. Here, I am just a bad memory. You know what I did when I got to Chicago?"
"No," said Shadow.
"I get a job in the meat business. On the kill floor. When the steer comes up the ramp, I was a knocker. You know why we are called knockers? Is because we take the sledgehammer and we knock the cow down with it. Bam,cheap foamposites! It takes strength in the arms. Yes? Then the shackler chains the beef up, hauls it up, then they cut the throat. They drain the blood first before they cut the head off. We were the strongest, the knockers." He pushed up the sleeve of his bathrobe, flexed his upper arm to display the muscles still visible under the old skin. "Is not just strong though. There was an art to it. To the blow. Otherwise the cow is just stunned,Cheap Foamposites, or angry. Then, in the fifties, they give us the bolt gun,Homepage. You put it to the forehead, bam! bam! Now you think, anybody can kill. Not so." He mimed putting a metal bolt through a cow's head. "It still takes skill." He smiled at the memory, displaying an iron-colored tooth.
"Don't tell them cow-killing stories." Zorya Utrennyaya carried in their coffee on a red

2013年1月9日星期三

35

"Is it right, what he told me? Did I get it wrong?"
"Well, I don't know. I'm sure you know much more than I do. Let's get back to those electrons...."
Later, Pantalaimon said, "You know when all the fur stood up on her daemon? Well, I was behind him, and she grabbed his fur so tight her knuckles went white. You couldn't see. It was a long time till his fur went down. I thought he was going to leap at you."
That was strange, no doubt; but neither of them knew what to make of it.
And finally, there were other kinds of lessons so gently and subtly given that they didn't feel like lessons at all. How to wash one's own hair; how to judge which colors suited one; how to say no in such a charming way that no offense was given; how to put on lipstick, powder,pink foamposites, scent. To be sure, Mrs. Coulter didn't teach Lyra the latter arts directly, but she knew Lyra was watching when she made herself up, and she took care to let Lyra see where she kept the cosmetics, and to allow her time on her own to explore and try them out for herself.

* * *

Time passed, and autumn began to change into winter. From time to time Lyra thought of Jordan College, but it seemed small and quiet compared to the busy life she led now. Every so often she thought of Roger, too, and felt uneasy, but there was an opera to go to, or a new dress to wear,Cheap Foamposites, or the Royal Arctic Institute to visit, and then she forgot him again.
When Lyra had been living there for six weeks or so, Mrs. Coulter decided to hold a cocktail party. Lyra had the impression that there was something to celebrate,foamposites for sale, though Mrs. Coulter never said what it was. She ordered flowers, she discussed canapes and drinks with the caterer, and she spent a whole evening with Lyra deciding whom to invite.
"We must have the archbishop. I couldn't afford to leave him out, though he's the most hateful old snob. Lord Boreal is in town: he'll be fun. And the Princess Postnikova. Do you think it would be right to invite Erik Andersson? I wonder if it's about time to take him up...."
Erik Andersson was the latest fashionable dancer. Lyra had no idea what "take him up" meant, but she enjoyed giving her opinion nonetheless. She dutifully wrote down all the names Mrs. Coulter suggested,http://www.coachoutletcanada.net/, spelling them atrociously and then crossing them out when Mrs. Coulter decided against them after all.
When Lyra went to bed, Pantalaimon whispered from the pillow:
"She's never going to the North! She's going to keep us here forever. When are we going to run away?"