Read Online Empire V by Victor Pelevin - Free Book Online

why?’
    â€˜Because Glamour and Discourse are in fact one and the same thing,’ continued Baldur.
    â€˜Yes,’ agreed Jehovah. ‘They are the twin pillars of contemporary culture which come together in an arch high above our heads.’
    They fell silent, expecting me to react.
    â€˜I don’t really understand what you are saying,’ I confessed. ‘How can they be one and the same if they have different names?’
    â€˜They only appear different at first glance,’ said Jehovah. ‘“Glamour” comes from a Scottish word meaning witchcraft. It came originally from the word “grammar”, and “grammar” in turn gives us “ grammatica ”. In the Middle Ages this word had various meanings relating to aspects of erudition, and one of these was occult practices, which were associated with literacy. In this sense, the meaning is almost the same as “discourse”.’
    I found this interesting. ‘What is the derivation of the word “discourse”?’
    â€˜In mediaeval Latin one finds the term “ discursus ”, literally “running hither and thither”, “flight forward and back”. Carefully peeling off the etymological layers, you find it comes from the verb “ discurrere ”. “ Currere ” means to flee, and “ dis ” is a negative-signifying prefix. “Discourse”, therefore, is forbidding flight .’
    â€˜Flight from what?’
    â€˜If you wish to understand that,’ said Baldur, ‘we had better begin from the beginning and proceed in order.’
    He dived into his holdall and produced a glossy magazine. Opening it at the centrefold he turned it towards me.
    â€˜Everything you see in these photographs is Glamour. The columns of type running between the photographs are Discourse. Clear?’
    I nodded.
    â€˜You can put it another way,’ said Baldur. ‘Everything a person says is Discourse …’
    â€˜And how he looks while saying it is Glamour,’ added Jehovah.
    â€˜But this explanation only holds good as a starting point …’ said Baldur.
    â€˜Because in reality the meaning of the concepts is much wider,’ finished Jehovah.
    I began to feel as though I was sitting in front of a stereo system with two brisk, black-garbed revenants taking the place of the loudspeakers. It was like a retro experience from the sixties, a psychedelic sensation much prized by the early pioneers of rock, who used to chop the wall of sound in two in order to overwhelm the listener with the maximum stereophonic effect.
    â€˜Glamour is sex expressed as money,’ said the left-hand speaker. ‘Or, if you prefer, money expressed as sex.’
    â€˜While Discourse,’ came the response from the right-hand speaker, ‘is the sublimation of Glamour. Do you know what sublimation is?’
    I shook my head.
    â€˜Then,’ continued the left-hand speaker, ‘let us put it like this: Discourse is sex, which is lacking, expressed as money, which is absent.’
    â€˜In extreme cases one may find sex having exceeded the brackets of Glamour,’ said the right-hand speaker. ‘Money, expressed as sex, may be seen as money expressed as sex expressed as money, which comes to money being expressed as money. The same applies to Discourse, only with a necessary correction for the hypothetical nature of the factor outside the brackets.’
    â€˜Discourse is the flickering play of the inconsequential concepts produced from Glamour simmering in the furnace of black envy,’ said the left-hand speaker.
    â€˜While Glamour,’ came from the one on the right, ‘is the scintillating glint of insubstantial images produced from Discourse evaporating in the fire of sexual excitement.’
    â€˜Glamour and Discourse together stand in the relationship of yin and yang,’ declared Left.
    â€˜Discourse encases Glamour and acts as an