The invention of Morel - Adolfo Bioy Casares [31]
"But I found, to my surprise, that when I succeeded in synchronizing the different parts of the machine, after much hard work, I obtained reconstituted persons who would disappear if I disconnected the projecting apparatus, and would live only the moments when the scene was taken; when the scene ended they would repeat these same moments again and again, like a phonograph record or a motion picture that would end and begin again,- moreover, no one could distinguish them from living persons (they appear to be circulating in another world with which our own has made a chance encounter). If we grant consciousness, and all that distinguishes us from objects, to the persons who surround us, we shall have no valid reason to deny it to the persons created by my machinery.
"When all the senses are synchronized, the soul emerges. That was to be expected. When Madeleine existed for the senses of sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch, Madeleine herself was actually there."
I have shown that Morel's style is unpleasant, with a liberal sprinkling of technical terms, and that it attempts, vainly, to achieve a certain grandiloquence. Its banality is obvious:
"Is it hard for you to accept such a mechanical and artificial system for the reproduction of life? It might help if you bear in mind that what changes the sleight-of-hand artist's movements into magic is our inability to see!
"To make living reproductions, I need living transmitters. I do not create life.
"The thing that is latent in a phonograph record, the thing that is revealed when I press a button and turn on the machine —shouldn't we call that 'life7? Shall I insist, like the mandarins of China, that every life depends on a button which an unknown being can press? And you yourselves—how many times have you wondered about mankind's destiny, or asked the old questions: 'Where are we going? Like the unheard music that lies latent in a phonograph record, where are we until
God orders us to be born?' Don't you see that there is a parallelism between the destinies of men and images?
"The theory that the images have souls seems to be confirmed by the effects of my machine on persons, animals, and vegetables used as transmitters.
"Of course, I did not achieve these results until after many partial reverses. I remember that I made the first tests with employees of the Schwachter Company. With no advance warning, I turned on the machine and took them while they were working. There were still some minor defects in the receiver; it did not assemble their data evenly,- in some, for example, the image did not coincide with the tactile sensations,- there are times when the errors are imperceptible for unspecialized observers, but occasionally the deviation is broad."
"Can you show us those first images?" asked Stoever.
"If you wish, of course; but I warn you that some of the ghosts are slightly monstrous!" replied Morel.
"Very well," said Dora. "Show them to us. A little entertainment is always welcome."
"I want to see them," continued Stoever, "because I remember several unexplained deaths at the Schwachter Company."
"Congratulations, Morel," said Alec, bowing. "You have found yourself a believer!"
Stoever spoke seriously, "You idiot—haven't you heard? Charlie was taken by that machine, too. When Morel was in Saint Gallen, the employees of the Schwachter Company started to die. I saw the pictures in magazines. I'll recognize them."
Morel, trembling with anger, left the room. The people had begun to shout at each other.
"There, you see," said Dora. "Now you've hurt his feelings. You must go and find him."
"How could you do a thing like that to Morel!"
"Can't you see? Don't you understand?" insisted Stoever.
"Morel is a nervous man; I don't see why you had to insult him."
"You don't understand!" shouted Stoever angrily. "He took Charlie with his machine, and Charlie died; he took some of the employees at the Schwachter Company, and some of them died mysteriously. Now he says that he has taken us!"
"And we are not dead," said Irene.
"He took himself, too."
"Doesn't