經典科幻文學:《宇宙盡頭的餐館》第10章3

“Many years ago this was a thriving, happy planet – people, cities shops, a normal world. Except that on the high streets of these cities there were slightly more shoe shops than one might have thought necessary. And slowly, insidiously, the numbers of these shoe shops were increasing. It’s a well known economic phenomenon but tragic to see it in operation, for the more shoe shops there were, the more shoes they had to make and the worse and more unwearable they became. And the worse they were to wear, the more people had to buy to keep themselves shod, and the more the shops proliferated, until the whole economy of the place passed what I believe is termed the Shoe Event Horizon, and it became no longer economically possible to build anything other than shoe shops. Result – collapse, ruin and famine. Most of the population died out. Those few who had the right kind of genetic instability mutated into birds – you’ve seen one of them – who cursed their feet, cursed the ground, and vowed that none should walk on it again. Unhappy lot. Come, I must take you to the Vortex.”
Zaphod shook his head in bemusement and stumbled forward across the plain.
“And you,” he said, “you come from this hellhole pit do you?”
“No no,” said Gargravarr, taken aback, “I come from the Frogstar World C. Beautiful place. Wonderful fishing. I flit back there in the evenings. Though all I can do now is watch. The Total Perspective Vortex is the only thing on this planet with any function. It was built here because no one else wanted it on their doorstep.”
At that moment another dismal scream rent the air and Zaphod shuddered.
“What can do that to a guy?” he breathed.
“The Universe,” said Gargravarr simply, “the whole infinite Universe. The infinite suns, the infinite distances between them, and yourself an invisible dot on an invisible dot, infinitely small.”
“Hey, I’m Zaphod Beeblebrox, man, you know,” muttered Zaphod trying to flap the last remnants of his ego.
Gargravarr made no reply, but merely resumed his mournful humming till they reached the tarnished steel dome in the middle of the plain.
As they reached it, a door hummed open in the side, revealing a small darkened chamber within.
“Enter,” said Gargravarr.
Zaphod started with fear.
“Hey, what, now?” he said.
“Now.”

“許多年前，這裏曾經足顆繁榮、歡樂的星球……人、城市、商店……一個正常的世界。這些城市的主幹道上的鞋店比需要的多了些。並且，這些鞋店的數量還在緩慢地、不知不覺地增長着，這是一個著名的經濟現象，但親眼看着它發展下去卻是一場悲劇。因爲鞋店越多，所必須生產的鞋就越多，鞋的質量就越差，穿起來就越不舒服，而鞋穿起來越不舒服，就會有越多的人必須買鞋……以保證自己有鞋穿，從而導致鞋店的數量越發增加，直到這個地方的經濟超過了界線，我稱之爲鞋事件，再也不可能修建除了鞋店之外的任何東西。結果暱——招來毀滅以及饑荒。大多數人口都消亡了。剩下的人在基因結構上不穩定，他們都變異成了鳥……你剛纔已經見到過他們中的了。他們詛咒自己的腳，詛咒這片土地，發誓沒有會再在這上面行走。真是巨大的不幸啊。來吧，我必須帶你到旋渦去了。”
贊福德困惑地搖了搖頭，跌跌撞撞地沿着平原往前走。
“你是本地人？……”他問，“這個可怕地方的人，是嗎？……”
“不，不，”伽古拉瓦說，彷彿吃了一驚，“我來自蛙星系c世界。美麗的地方，可以開開心心釣魚。每天晚上我都會飛回去，我所能做的只有遙望着它。這顆行星上惟一還能運行的絕對透視旋渦。它被建造在這裏，因爲沒有任何人願意建造在自己家門口的臺階前。”
又一聲淒厲的尖叫撕裂了空氣，贊福德哆嗦了一下。
“那玩意兒究竟能對一個人幹些什麼？”他喘息着問。
“讓你看見宇宙，”伽古拉瓦簡潔地說，“整個無限的宇宙。無限多的恆星，它們之間無限遠的距離，以及你自己……一個小到不可見的點上的一個小到不可見的點，無限小。”
“嘿，你知道，夥計，我可是贊福德·畢博布魯克斯。”贊福德咕噥着，試困振作起他最後殘存的一絲自尊。
伽古拉瓦沒有回答，只是恢復了他那悲哀的“哼哼”聲，直到他們來到平原中央那個已經失去了光澤的鋼鐵拱頂前。
他們到達時，側面的一扇門“轟”地一下打開，露出裏面一間漆黑的小房間，
“進去。”伽古拉瓦說。
贊福德充滿了恐懼。
”啊？什麼？現在嗎？”他說。
“現在。”