Autobiography of a Corpse

Quotes

Yellow Coal

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Autobiography of a Corpse (New York Review Books Classics) (Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky)
- Highlight on Page 137 | Loc. 2361-65  | Added on Tuesday, September 26, 2017, 10:34 PM

A dingily bilious sun was seeping through a tent of black clouds. Passersby, spitefully elbowing elbows, were rushing along the pavement. People thronging the doorways of shops tried to pummel their way through and stuck fast, their faces flushed with spite and fury, their teeth bared. The running boards floating along the tram tracks were jammed with passengers: Chests tried to climb up on backs, but the backs, brandishing spiteful shoulder blades, would not give an inch; tangles of hands gripped the vertical handrails with a predatory vigor, like flocks of carrion crows fighting over prey. 
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Autobiography of a Corpse (New York Review Books Classics) (Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky)
- Highlight on Page 138 | Loc. 2379-84  | Added on Tuesday, September 26, 2017, 10:35 PM

The competitor who came up with the motto Oderint [1] might well have lost out to the witty and scientifically sophisticated idea of forcing the sun itself to pay for the damages it had inflicted on the planet: Heightened solar activity in some parts of the world should, this project said, be boosted to temperature levels capable of doing work by converting heat into mechanical energy. The idea of harnessing the sun to rebuild the globe’s half-ruined industries was close to winning the seven-figure prize, but . . .the corners of the commission chairman’s eyes looked a little yellow, while the lenses of the deputy chairman’s pince-nez had a prickly glint. 
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Autobiography of a Corpse (New York Review Books Classics) (Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky)
- Highlight on Page 139 | Loc. 2389-93  | Added on Tuesday, September 26, 2017, 10:36 PM

Whereas other emotions—tenderness, say, or affection—are accompanied by a certain loss of muscle tone and relaxation of the motor system, spite is muscular to the core; it’s all tensed muscles, clenched fists, and gritted teeth. But this feeling has no outlet; it is muted, muffled, and socially dimmed, like an oil lamp, which is why it produces soot but no light. So then, remove the mufflers, let that bile burst the social dams, and this yellow coal, as I call it, will set our factory flywheels spinning again, a million lamps will shine with electric bile and . . .I must ask you not to interrupt . . . How can this be done? If I may have a piece of chalk, I will draw you a diagram of my myeloabsorberator: 
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Autobiography of a Corpse (New York Review Books Classics) (Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky)
- Highlight on Page 146 | Loc. 2499-2502  | Added on Tuesday, September 26, 2017, 10:47 PM

The yellow-coal conversion had naturally led to unrest among workers in obsolete industries. Meanwhile, the capitalists, hand in glove with CANOE, abandoned the old policy of appeasing workers who bore grievances against the exploiter class. Now that hatred of exploitation could be . . .exploited for industrial purposes, collected by an absorberator, and pumped into engines and machines. 
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Autobiography of a Corpse (New York Review Books Classics) (Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky)
- Highlight on Page 149 | Loc. 2540-44  | Added on Tuesday, September 26, 2017, 10:53 PM

The governments of all nations were making every effort to avert a full-blown crisis. They needed to raise spite-radiation to former levels by artificial means. They decided to cut off people’s heat and electricity from time to time. But those people with their bankrupt livers simply sat, patiently and uncomplainingly, in their enormous now-dark rooms and didn’t even try to move closer to their rapidly cooling stoves. Even had it been possible, it would have been pointless to turn on a light to see the expressions on their faces: Their faces wore no expression at all. They were vacant, rosy-cheeked, and mentally dead.