The Complete Works of Primo Levi

by Primo Levi

  She knew that it was her duty to summon Mario to a one-on-one meeting. It was also the only right thing to do. Something in her, however, feared such a meeting and, like a coward, she sought to put it off. When the day came, she felt oddly younger than the boy—less stern, less serious, more frivolous, less weighed down. But she was a conscientious woman and played her part as best she could.

  “. . . I just don’t understand what’s come over you. You mustn’t put strange ideas in your head, you’re an intelligent and clever boy. I’ve been following your progress for two years now and I know how much you’re capable of. All you need is a little focus. Perhaps you’re tired. Or not feeling well? Or perhaps something’s wrong at home?”

  Silence, and then, as if through the slits of a visor, “No, no. Everything’s fine. I’m not tired.”

  “Then it’s something they said to you? Is it something they said to you . . . here? I’ve seen that Renato often talks to you, and whenever he does you lower your eyes. Perhaps he humiliates you? Or tells you some nonsense? I’m sure he’s only joking—you know, meaningless kids’ stuff. Don’t pay any attention, laugh it off, and everything will go back to the way it was. If you make a fuss, you’ll just encourage them to continue.”

  She’d taken a shot in the dark, and yet it was immediately apparent she’d hit her mark. Mario turned pale and raised his eyes to hers with the relief and exhaustion of one who gives up a fight. He unglued his lips with difficulty and said, “It’s not nonsense. It’s true. I’m not like the others. I’ve known it for a while.” He laughed shyly. “Renato is right.”

  “Why aren’t you like the others? What makes you feel different? In any case, your difference makes you better. I don’t see why it should bother you. If you were at the bottom of the class . . .”

  “It’s not that. I’m different because I was born different. No one can do anything about it.”

  “You were born . . . how?”

  “I’m synthetic.”

  The principal, insofar as a principal can be of help, was the last resort. In this particular case, the principal was a gentleman and a friend, but even the best of principals has crossed a certain threshold and can understand only certain things. He advised her to wait and see—a great piece of advice. In the meantime, Mario was outside in the hallway and she could almost hear his brain droning uselessly like a moped stalling—droning and drumming and questioning and responding in vain. She asked the principal for permission to let him come in. He acquiesced reluctantly and Mario entered and sat down as if before a firing squad. The principal felt like a fourth-rate actor: “Hello, Mario. So then? What do you have to say for yourself?”

  “Nothing,” said Mario.

  “Nothing . . . is too little. Nothing will come of nothing. I’ve been informed, you see, about certain of your ideas . . . certain strange stories that must have been told to you . . . and I am surprised, truly surprised, that a boy like you, logical, rational, would have listened. What do you have to say about this?”

  “Nothing,” said Mario.

  “Listen, son, I think that you (and certainly not you alone) have had your head filled and are suffering from, well, overload . . . like a telephone line. You’ve absorbed too much from the environment surrounding you: from books, newspapers, television, movies . . . and also from school, certainly. Do you agree with me?”

  Mario was silent and stared off into space, not even trying, it seemed, to find the words to respond.

  The principal continued: “But if you won’t talk . . . if you don’t help me to help you . . . we won’t get anywhere. I’ll teach you another lesson,” he said, laughing nervously, “beyond all the ones you’ve already had to absorb. . . . Different, so you feel different. But we are all different, by golly, and God help us if we weren’t. There are those who are born to be scientists, like you, right? And instead those who’ll make good businessmen, and then there are those who are better off if they limit themselves to . . . to a more modest employment. Each of us can and must do something to make ourselves better, to nourish ourselves, but the earth, our human essence, it’s different for each one of us. It might be unjust, but that’s the way it is, it’s what we have inherited from our parents and ancestors at birth and—”

  Mario interrupted him with a restrained voice: “Okay. It’s true. But now I have to go.”

  In the courtyard, two teams were playing a pickup game of basketball, with few rules and a lot of yelling and hurling of insults; another group, nearly on top of them, was trying to conduct a long-jump competition, even if the sandbox was almost empty. In a corner, Mario was talking to a handful of random listeners, not from his class, who were more stunned than focused. Mario was saying: “. . . now we’re only a few, but later we’ll be many and we’ll rule, and then there will be no more wars. Yes, because we won’t fight among ourselves, as happens now, and no one will be able to attack us, because we’ll be the strongest. And there will be no differences. We won’t make differences anymore: white, black, Chinese, they’ll all be equal—even the redskins, the ones who are still around. We’ll destroy all the atomic bombs and missiles, which in any case will no longer be necessary, and with the uranium we recover there will be enough free energy for everyone throughout the entire world. And food will be free for everyone, even in India, and no one will die of hunger anymore. Only a few babies will be born, so that there’s room for everyone. And all those who are born will be born like us.”

  “Born how?” asked a timid voice.

  “Like me. Or even by telephone or radio: a man telephones a woman, and then a baby is born, but not by chance, the way it happens now. It’ll be a planned birth. . . . Well? You don’t have to look at me like that. I’m one of the first, and perhaps with me they didn’t calculate as well as they could have, but now they’re trying out a new system, and the children are designed just the way a bridge is, cell by cell, and they can be made to order, as tall and strong and intelligent as one wants, and also good, courageous, and just. They can also be made to breathe underwater like fish, or to be capable of flying. In such a world there will be order and justice, and everyone will be happy. But don’t think I’m the only one. You don’t even have to look very far: Scotti Masera. At first I just suspected it but now I’m sure. I thought so because of her accent and the way she moves but also because she never gets angry and never raises her voice. Never getting angry is important: it means that you have achieved control or that you’re about to achieve it. When control is complete one can even exist without breathing, or feeling pain. One can order one’s heart to stop. Well, I realized that she was one of us the other day when she took me aside.”

  “So old?” Giorgio asked, making his way among the listeners whose number had grown considerably.

  “She’s not actually that old, and what difference does it make, old or not old?”

  “It does make a difference,” Giorgio explained patiently. “Didn’t you say that it’s only been a short time that they’ve known how to do these things?”

  Mario looked at him with the demeanor of someone who has just woken up, but he quickly recovered. “I don’t know, maybe she’s not as old as she looks, but it could also be true that she was born like that.”

  “What? Born old . . . I mean elderly?”

  “I said ‘born’ so to speak, but you all understand me. She was built that way, because we’re in a hurry, we can’t wait anymore. There’s no time to lose. In the year 2000, there will be ten billion people—you understand, ten billion. If we don’t watch out, we’ll be eating one another. But even if it doesn’t become that dire, the water and air will be contaminated throughout the world. Even at the top of Everest the air will be smog, and water will be precious because the sources will all be dried up. I’m not making this up, it’s already happening. That’s why it’s indispensable to give birth to grown men, to engineers and biologists. We can’t wait for the children of today to grow up and finish college. It would take thirty years before they co
uld start working. So this is why it’s necessary . . . why we need grown-ups immediately.”

  Renato appeared in front of him with his arm raised, as if he wanted to stop a charging bull. In fact he wanted him to shut up; he was full of anger and also a dark fear. “Stop it, you idiot! Stop telling stories. Scotti is not an engineer or a biologist. She’s just an old witch!”

  Mario answered in such a loud voice that all the kids in the entire courtyard stopped and turned toward him. “She’s not a witch. She’s one of us. I met her in the hallway just yesterday and she gave me the sign.”

  “What sign?” Renato asked.

  Mario didn’t answer right away. He looked at Renato, and it seemed that something inside him was extinguished. He let his arms dangle and bowed his head, then with a muffled voice, hardly audible, he said, “Go away, Renato. I can’t bear to see you. That’s right, you made me speak up, and I spoke up, and now I’m like everyone else—like you, like one of you. Go away, go away all of you, leave me alone.” He backed up against the wall, then slipped along it until he reached the door. A little while later Giorgio found him in a corner of the gym, sitting on the floor, his head in his hands, sobbing heavily.

  Observed from a Distance

  NOTE IN GOOD FAITH: We have been assured that within a few years, perhaps even within the present year of 1967, humans will walk on the Moon, irreversibly transporting there our cellular mechanisms, our infections, and our civilization.

  After this event occurs and the first accounts of the first visitors are published, all the fantasies regarding the Selenites expressed throughout the ages in our literature, some of it illustrious, some not, will be rendered vain and futile. I would, therefore, be delighted if the essay below were to be read and understood as a last respectful homage to Lucian of Samosata, Voltaire, Swedenborg, Rostand, E. A. Poe, Flammarion, and H. G. Wells.

  NOTE IN BAD FAITH: The deciphering of the Report below, which was received in Selenitic linear B characters, has caused the FBI decoders to whom it was assigned considerable technical difficulties; the reader will please forgive all textual incongruities and gaps. Furthermore, be advised that for reasons of simplicity it seemed appropriate in the transcription to use whenever possible tellurian dating, units of measurement, and geographical terms equivalent or corresponding to those contained in the original.

  Therefore, when, for example, cities or ships are mentioned, it is necessary to remember that these are “cities” (i.e., dense conglomerates of human habitations) and “ships” (i.e., voluminous floating objects constructed and piloted by humans) for us, but not for the unknown author of the Report, to whom both appeared in a much less discernible guise.

  REPORT

  1. VALIDITY. This Report describes variations and movements recently observed on the Earth’s surface. What is not described, however, are the periodic variations and movements that coincide with the sidereal year or the lunar month, such as the cycles of the polar ice caps, the variations in color of the mountains and plains, the tides, the variations in the atmosphere’s transparency, etc. These phenomena, which have been known to us for a long time, are certainly related to astronomical cycles and are the subject of numerous previous reports. They therefore appear to be irrelevant with regard to any discussion concerning the presence of life on Earth.

  2. CITIES. For the description, nomenclature, and location of the principal Cities and Ports, refer to the previous Report no. 8, dated January 15, 1876. Thanks to recent improvements in the resolution power of our optical instruments, it has been observed that the majority of Cities are in a rapid growth phase, the atmosphere above them prone to increasing opacity, thick with dust, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and sulfur trioxide.

  It was furthermore possible to determine that Cities are not simply areas of a different color from the surrounding terrain. In many, we have observed a “subtle structure”: some—for example, Paris, Tokyo, Milan—have a well-defined center from which thin filaments radiate outward; other filaments surround the center at varying distances, in the form of progressive concentric circles or polygons. Other Cities, and among these are all, or almost all, the Ports, exhibit instead a grid structure made up of filaments that are basically rectilinear and orthogonal and which subdivide the urban area into rectangles or squares.

  2.1. EVENING LIGHT. Beginning during the years 1905–10, all the urban filaments referred to above became suddenly luminous shortly after the local setting of the Sun. More precisely: about 30–60 minutes after the terminator’s transit, the filaments in each city light up in rapid succession; every filament is illuminated instantaneously, and the illuminations occur within 5–10 seconds. The luminosity lasts for the entire night and stops abruptly around 30 minutes before the terminator’s next transit. The phenomenon, which is rather conspicuous and has been carefully studied by many observers, reveals characteristics of a surprising regularity: for each individual city, interruptions in luminosity have been observed only one to two nights in every thousand, and for the most part coinciding with severe storms in the vicinity, rendering highly plausible the hypothesis that this is some sort of electrical phenomenon.

  Regarding the alterations of Evening Light during the Anomalous Period, see Point 5 below. At the end of that period, the phenomenon resumed its manifestations with typical regularity. However, spectroscopic examination of urban luminosity has shown that up until around 1950 it contained a mostly continuous spectrum (like incandescence), while since then spectra with bands or with lines, of the kind emitted by rarefied gasses or fluorescence, have been superimposed on this luminosity with ever greater intensity.

  In the winter of 1965–66, a total extinction was observed in New York City, even though the sky was clear.

  2.2. GROWTH. As noted, many Cities appear to be in active growth. In general, the growth respects the existing grid structure: Cities laid out on a spoke model expand along the spokes; the grid Cities expand with new layers in an orthogonal grid. The analogy with crystalline growth is obvious and leads one to surmise that Cities are vast zones in which the Earth’s surface is characterized by pronounced crystallinity. Furthermore, on the Moon we have an example of this in the impressive, highly crystallized feldspar formations covering several hectares of land within the Aristarchus Crater.

  The hypothesis concerning the Cities’ crystalline nature is reinforced by the recent discovery of structures of a regular form rising a hundred or so meters above ground level and apparently attributable to the trimetric system. These structures are easily observable at dusk, thanks to their shadows: they have rectangular or square sections and, in some cases, it has been possible to witness their formation, which occurs along a vertical axis at a velocity of 10–20 meters a month. Very rarely do these structures appear outside urban areas. Some, in favorable geometric conditions, specularly reflect solar light, rendering the measurement of crystallographic constants much easier.

  Other signs of two-dimensional crystalline organization can perhaps be recognized in the rectangular structures with slight color variations observed on many terrestrial plains.

  2.3. ELLIPTICAL CRATERS. The existence of elliptical craters (more rarely circular or semicircular) within some Cities, or in their immediate vicinity, has already been noted in previous reports. They were formed slowly (in the course of five to fifteen years) in ancient times in various Cities of the Mediterranean zone; there is no record, however, of their observation before the eighth century BC. The majority of these ancient craters were subsequently almost entirely obliterated, perhaps by erosion or as a result of natural catastrophes. Over the past sixty years, numerous other craters have formed with great regularity either within or near all Cities of an area greater than 30–50 hectares: the largest Cities often have two or more. Their shape and dimensions are exceedingly uniform, and they never appear on inclines. Rather than having a precise elliptical form, they consist of a rectangle approximately 160 by 200 meters in size, closed on the two shorter sides by two semici
rcles. Their orientation appears random, with respect both to the urban grid and to the cardinal points. The contours revealed by their evening shadow render them clearly identifiable as craters: their rim is 12–20 meters high with respect to their base, and descends vertically on the exterior and with an approximately 50 percent incline on the interior. In the summer season, some will periodically emit a pale luminosity in the early hours of the night.

  A volcanic origin is considered probable, but their relationship to the urban formations is unknown. Equally mysterious is the weekly rhythm to which the craters themselves seem to be typically prone, and which we describe in the following point.

  3. NON-ASTRONOMICAL PERIODICITY. A certain number of phenomena observed on Earth follow a seven-day rhythm. It is only thanks to the optical equipment we’ve had at our disposal for the past several decades that we have been able to discover this singularity; therefore, we’re not able to establish if its origin is recent or remote, or whether it might not even date back to the solidification of the Earth’s crust. An astronomical rhythm is certainly not involved: as is well-known, neither the Earth’s month (synodic or sidereal) nor its year (solar or sidereal) contains a number of days in multiples of seven.

  The weekly rhythm is extremely rigid. The phenomena that we call SDE (Seventh Day Events), which primarily concern the Cities and their immediate environs, take place simultaneously across the entire surface of the Earth—all, of course, subject to their local times. This effect is unexplained, and all proposed hypotheses aren’t very satisfying. As a curiosity, we point out that the hypothesis of a biological rhythm has been formulated by some observers. The possible life (vegetable and/or animal) on Earth, which under this hypothesis must be accepted as strictly monogenetic, would be subject to an extremely broad cycle in which activity and rest (or vice versa) follow each other in segments of six days and one day.