The Plato Papers Read Free

Plato.
    Madrigal:
And Sparkler. How could you forget Sparkler? With his long robe and white hair.
    Ornatus:
And Sidonia, too, with her red hair and the blue light shining from her.
    Madrigal:
I have known them so long that sometimes they seem very close, and sometimes in the far distance.
    Ornatus:
All human perception is a dream. Or so Plato tells us. And there he is by the clerk’s well. He seems to be talking to himself.
    Madrigal:
Impossible. He must be practising his next oration.

4
    Plato:
How do I know that you are my soul?
    Soul:
How do you know that I am not?
    Plato:
I have been taught that our souls exist, of course, but this is the first time you have decided to appear.
    Soul:
It is unusual, I admit, but not wholly unprecedented. I can prove that I am your soul, by the way. Look at this.
    Plato:
Is it truly? Oh, my mother. Can I touch—?
    Soul:
No. It is not allowed. Now look what you have done. She has faded.
    Plato:
How is it possible? How did you summon her?
    Soul:
Her own soul was a close companion of mine. We used to talk and sing, when you and your mother were sitting together.
    Plato:
She was always wreathed in white.
    Soul:
That was the colour of the city in those days.
    Plato:
We had an old house, built of light and not of stone.
    Soul:
I remember it well. That was where it all began, I suppose.
    Plato:
Began?
    Soul:
Do you always ask questions? It may become irritating. She used to tell you stories. Fables and legends of the old time.
    Plato:
So I became aware of the city and its history.
    Soul:
So you did.
    Plato:
And so I studied.
    Soul:
So-so. You were chosen as orator, at least.
    Plato:
No other citizen desired the office. It is not considered quite proper to dwell upon the past, as I do. It is not appropriate. Yet they attend the orations, and listen politely.
    Soul:
Or laugh.
    Plato:
I enjoy their laughter. I am their clown. I protect them from doubt about themselves. Even when I speak the truth, I am so small that they do not consider my words of much importance.
    Soul:
You always speak the truth, as far as you understand it.
    Plato:
And, presumably, that is not very far.
    Soul:
I am not permitted to dwell upon such things. You are becoming. I am being. There is a difference. I wish that I could help you with your glossary of ancient terms, for instance, but it is forbidden. I cannot intervene.
    Plato:
How did you know about—?
    Soul:
You must have realised by now that we have a very intimate relationship. Well, if you will excuse me, I think I ought to rest for a while. May I just slip away quietly?
    Plato:
Do you think anyone has noticed you?
    Soul:
Of course not. You have been staring into space, and talking to yourself. That is all.

5
    antibiotic:
a death ray of the Mouldwarp era.
    biographer:
from bio-graphy, the reading of a life by means of lines. A fortune-teller or palmist.
    brainstorm:
on certain occasions the amount of anger or anxiety in the brain was believed to cause a violent change in the weather.
    CD:
an abbreviation of ‘cold dirge’, a form of music designed to calm or deaden human faculties.
    common sense:
a theory that all human beings might be able to share one another’s thoughts, so that there would in reality be only one person upon the earth.
    cost of living:
a phrase used to denote signs of weariness or debility; thus ‘Can you calculate her cost of living?’
    daylight saving:
a technique by which light was stored in great containers and then taken through underground pipes to the residences of Mouldwarp.
    dead end:
a place where corpses were taken. One such site has been located at Shadow-well or Shade-well in the east of the old city. Another has been found at Mortlake. Those who chose to inhabit these areas apparently suffered from a ‘death wish’.
    decadence:
a belief in the recurrence of the decades so that, for example, the 2090s resembled the 1990s, which in turn recalled the 1890s. It is a theory that has never been wholly disproved and it retained