Anthem Page #8

Anthem is a dystopian fiction novella by Russian-American writer Ayn Rand, written in 1937 and first published in 1938 in the United Kingdom. The story takes place at an unspecified future date when mankind has entered another Dark Age.

• Science fiction

								

      forth.

      We have built strange things with this discovery of ours. We used
      for it the copper wires which we found here under the ground. We
      have walked the length of our tunnel, with a candle lighting the
      way. We could go no farther than half a mile, for earth and rock
      had fallen at both ends. But we gathered all the things we found
      and we brought them to our work place. We found strange boxes
      with bars of metal inside, with many cords and strands and coils
      of metal. We found wires that led to strange little globes of
      glass on the walls; they contained threads of metal thinner than
      a spider’s web.

      These things help us in our work. We do not understand them, but
      we think that the men of the Unmentionable Times had known our
      power of the sky, and these things had some relation to it. We do
      not know, but we shall learn. We cannot stop now, even though it
      frightens us that we are alone in our knowledge.

      No single one can possess greater wisdom than the many Scholars
      who are elected by all men for their wisdom. Yet we can. We do.
      We have fought against saying it, but now it is said. We do not
      care. We forget all men, all laws and all things save our metals
      and our wires. So much is still to be learned! So long a road
      lies before us, and what care we if we must travel it alone!

      PART FOUR

      Many days passed before we could speak to the Golden One again.
      But then came the day when the sky turned white, as if the sun
      had burst and spread its flame in the air, and the fields lay
      still without breath, and the dust of the road was white in the
      glow. So the women of the field were weary, and they tarried over
      their work, and they were far from the road when we came. But the
      Golden One stood alone at the hedge, waiting. We stopped and we
      saw that their eyes, so hard and scornful to the world, were
      looking at us as if they would obey any word we might speak.

      And we said:

      “We have given you a name in our thoughts, Liberty 5-3000.”

      “What is our name?” they asked.

      “The Golden One.”

      “Nor do we call you Equality 7-2521 when we think of you.”

      “What name have you given us?” They looked straight into our eyes
      and they held their head high and they answered:

      “The Unconquered.”

      For a long time we could not speak. Then we said:

      “Such thoughts as these are forbidden, Golden One.”

      “But you think such thoughts as these and you wish us to think
      them.”

      We looked into their eyes and we could not lie.

      “Yes,” we whispered, and they smiled, and then we said: “Our
      dearest one, do not obey us.”

      They stepped back, and their eyes were wide and still.

      “Speak these words again,” they whispered.

      “Which words?” we asked. But they did not answer, and we knew it.

      “Our dearest one,” we whispered.

      Never have men said this to women.

      The head of the Golden One bowed slowly, and they stood still
      before us, their arms at their sides, the palms of their hands
      turned to us, as if their body were delivered in submission to
      our eyes. And we could not speak.

      Then they raised their head, and they spoke simply and gently, as
      if they wished us to forget some anxiety of their own.

      “The day is hot,” they said, “and you have worked for many hours
      and you must be weary.”

      “No,” we answered.

      “It is cooler in the fields,” they said, “and there is water to
      drink. Are you thirsty?”

      “Yes,” we answered, “but we cannot cross the hedge.”

      “We shall bring the water to you,” they said.

      Then they knelt by the moat, they gathered water in their two
      hands, they rose and they held the water out to our lips.

      We do not know if we drank that water. We only knew suddenly that
      their hands were empty, but we were still holding our lips to
      their hands, and that they knew it, but did not move.

      We raised our head and stepped back. For we did not understand
      what had made us do this, and we were afraid to understand it.

      And the Golden One stepped back, and stood looking upon their
      hands in wonder. Then the Golden One moved away, even though no
      others were coming, and they moved, stepping back, as if they
      could not turn from us, their arms bent before them, as if they
      could not lower their hands.

      PART FIVE

      We made it. We created it. We brought it forth from the night of
      the ages. We alone. Our hands. Our mind. Ours alone and only.

      We know not what we are saying. Our head is reeling. We look upon
      the light which we have made. We shall be forgiven for anything
      we say tonight....

      Tonight, after more days and trials than we can count, we
      finished building a strange thing, from the remains of the
      Unmentionable Times, a box of glass, devised to give forth the
      power of the sky of greater strength than we had ever achieved
      before. And when we put our wires to this box, when we closed the
      current—the wire glowed! It came to life, it turned red, and a
      circle of light lay on the stone before us.

      We stood, and we held our head in our hands. We could not
      conceive of that which we had created. We had touched no flint,
      made no fire. Yet here was light, light that came from nowhere,
      light from the heart of metal.

      We blew out the candle. Darkness swallowed us. There was nothing
      left around us, nothing save night and a thin thread of flame in
      it, as a crack in the wall of a prison. We stretched our hands to
      the wire, and we saw our fingers in the red glow. We could not
      see our body nor feel it, and in that moment nothing existed save
      our two hands over a wire glowing in a black abyss.

      Then we thought of the meaning of that which lay before us. We
      can light our tunnel, and the City, and all the Cities of the
      world with nothing save metal and wires. We can give our brothers
      a new light, cleaner and brighter than any they have ever known.
      The power of the sky can be made to do men’s bidding. There are
      no limits to its secrets and its might, and it can be made to
      grant us anything if we but choose to ask.

      Then we knew what we must do. Our discovery is too great for us
      to waste our time in sweeping the streets. We must not keep our
      secret to ourselves, nor buried under the ground. We must bring
      it into the sight of all men. We need all our time, we need the
      work rooms of the Home of the Scholars, we want the help of our
      brother Scholars and their wisdom joined to ours. There is so
      much work ahead for all of us, for all the Scholars of the world.

      In a month, the World Council of Scholars is to meet in our City.
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