Читать книгу Homo Ludus - Владимир Андерсон - Страница 1

Daikoku, the god of happiness, for the first time in his entire life, found himself in a country where people were unhappy and happy to suffer in their lifetime, hoping to get what they wanted after death. This was very strange to Daikoku. In his native Japan, people knew that they were not entitled to happiness, but they also knew that some people did get it. Yet Daikoku himself was always walking around frowning disgruntled and miserable. No one should know how much happiness all people have now. After all, there is no more expensive item, and everyone will want to take it. And everyone will want more. And then he would need so many resources that he never possessed… That is why the god of happiness was known as the greediest of all gods.

But in the bag of magic rice he carried on his shoulders there was an old and wise rat, the main symbol of wealth. And it was this rat that gnawed holes in the bag of rice. And the rice fell to the ground, bringing people happiness they thought they didn't deserve. And no one but the rat and Daikoku himself knew that not a single hole had been chewed by accident, and not a single rice had accidentally fallen – all the people who received the magic rice had been chosen in advance and very carefully. And not because of how much happiness they deserved, but because of how much they were ready to preserve that happiness.

And among Krakozhia's people, Daikoku saw very few people who wanted to be happy, and even fewer who were willing to cherish their happiness. But what surprised him most of all was that the tiny fraction that had happiness was soon to lose it as well. Such things Daikoku knew in advance of all the gods. Because he had seen how much happiness people would lose. Because happiness was easier to lose than anything else.