ابنة السيناتور

by Edward Page Mitchell, محمد فتحي خضر (مترجم)

تَعرِضُ هذِهِ القِصَّةُ المُمتِعةُ قِصَّةَ الحُبِّ المُستحِيلِ بَينَ وانلي عُضْوِ مَجْلسِ النُّوَّاب، الشابِّ المُنحدِرِ مِنْ أُصولٍ مَنْغولِيَّة، وكلارا ابْنةِ أَحَدِ أَعْضاءِ مَجْلسِ الشُّيُوخِ ذَوِي التَّوجُّهِ المُعادِي لِلتَّيارِ الَّذِي يُمثِّلُه وانلي. يُعارِضُ والِدُ الفَتاةِ هَذِهِ الزِّيجةَ بشِدَّة، ويُهدِّدُ ابْنتَه ومَحْبوبَها بتَطْبيقِ القانُونِ عَلَيْهِما؛ الَّذِي يَنصُّ عَلى أنَّهُ لا يَحِقُّ لأُنْثى تقِلُّ عَنْ ثلاثِينَ عامًا مِن أبَوَيْنِ قُوقازِيَّيْنِ أنْ تَتزوَّجَ مِن ذَكَرٍ مِن أَصْلٍ مَنْغُوليٍّ مِن دُونِ المُوافَقةِ الكِتابِيَّةِ لِوَلِيِّ أَمْرِها، بَلْ يحِقُّ أيضًا لِوَلِيِّ أَمْرِها إِخْضاعُها للتَّجْمِيدِ حتَّى تَصِلَ إلَى هَذا العُمْر. وهَكَذا لَا يَجِدُ الحَبِيبانِ سَبِيلًا إلَى الخَلاصِ إلَّا بالزَّوَاجِ رغْمَ أنْفِ وَالِدِ الفَتاةِ ثُمَّ إِخْضاعِها للتَّجْمِيدِ عشْرَ سَنَواتٍ كامِلةٍ عَلَى أمَلِ أنْ يَسْتأنِفَا حَياتَهُما كزَوجَيْنِ حِينَ تَسْتيقِظ. فتُرَى إلَامَ سَتَئُولُ الأُمُور؟ وهَلْ ستَسِيرُ الخُطَّةُ عَلَى نَحْوِ ما أَرادَ العاشِقان؟

يَتنبَّأُ الكاتِبُ مِن خِلالِ أَحْداثِ هذِهِ القِصةِ ببَعضِ الاخْتِراعاتِ الَّتِي ظَهرَتْ بَعدَ عَشَراتٍ مِنَ الأَعْوام، مِثْل: التَّدْفِئةِ الكَهْرُبائِيَّة، والطِّباعةِ المَنْزلِيَّة، والنَّقْلِ الإِلِكْترُونِي، وتَعْليقِ الحَياةِ عَن طَرِيقِ التَّجْمِيد. كَما تَحْتوِي القِصَّةُ عَلى تَنبُّؤاتٍ اجْتِماعيَّةٍ غَيرِ مَسْبوقةٍ في زَمنِها، مِثْل: مَنْحِ المَرْأةِ حَقَّ التَّصْوِيت، والزَّوَاجِ بَينَ الأَعْراقِ المُختلِفة.

24 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 1879

About the author

"Edward Page Mitchell (1852–1927) was an American editorial and short story writer for The Sun, a daily newspaper in New York City. He became that newspaper's editor in 1897, succeeding Charles Anderson Dana. Mitchell was recognized as a major figure in the early development of the science fiction genre. Mitchell wrote fiction about a man rendered invisible by scientific means ("The Crystal Man", published in 1881) before H.G. Wells's The Invisible Man, wrote about a time-travel machine ("The Clock that Went Backward") before Wells's The Time Machine, wrote about faster-than-light travel ("The Tachypomp"; now perhaps his best-known work) in 1874, a thinking computer and a cyborg in 1879 ("The Ablest Man in the World"), and also wrote the earliest known stories about matter transmission or teleportation ("The Man without a Body", 1877) and a superior mutant ("Old Squids and Little Speller"). "Exchanging Their Souls" (1877) is one of the earliest fictional accounts of mind transfer. Mitchell retired in 1926, a year before dying of a cerebral hemorrhage.

The gradual rediscovery of Mitchell and his work is a direct result of the publication in 1973 of a book-length anthology of his stories, compiled by Sam Moskowitz with a detailed introduction by Moskowitz giving much information about Mitchell's personal life. Because Mitchell's stories were not by-lined on original publication, nor indexed, Moskowitz expended major effort to track down and collect these works by an author whom Moskowitz cited as "the lost giant of American science fiction".

Mitchell's stories show the strong influence of Edgar Allan Poe. Among other traits, Mitchell shares Poe's habit of giving a basically serious and dignified fictional character a jokey name, such as "Professor Dummkopf" in Mitchell's "The Man Without a Body". Since Mitchell's fictions were originally published in newspapers, typeset in the same format as news articles and not identified as fiction, he may possibly have used this device to signal to his readers that this text should not be taken seriously."

-- Wikipedia

Reviews

[Forked Radish · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Senator's Daughter"… Vegetarianism expostulated. Do polyps deserve suffrage? They can't do any worse than the plebs, peeps, and perps. I say yes! A diatom in every oral/body (whatever) cavity! Vote Forked Radish!