The Infinite Matrix | Michael Swanwick & Francisco Goya | The Sleep Of

Reason 2

04.04.02

the sleep of reason

by Michael Swanwick

with illustrations by

Francisco JosÉ de Goya y Lucientes

Click image to enlarge

Digital image © copyright

Davison Art Center,

Wesleyan University

DAC permission required

for any other use.

2. [Plate 2]

Elena's Heart

Not all mad scientists are men. Not all are young. Some are mad old

women, disappointed in life and in love, and determined to wreak their

revenge upon the race of Men. Such were Eleanor, Enid, and Annaprudenzia

who, old and brilliant and ugly, decided to build the young woman they

all wished they had been: Beautiful as the dawn in springtime, lusty as a

summer afternoon, and cruel as the harshest winter's night.

The creation of Elena's form and features was but a trifle. Eleanor was a

bioengineer and an accomplished graverobber. Enid was a neurosurgeon,

chiefly, but capable of a little plastic surgery on the side.

Annaprudenzia knew how to sew. She got out the wedding gown she had never

found need for, and cut it down to fit their new ward's exquisite shape.

Finally, all was ready.

All was ready, save one thing ? a heart! What sort of heart must she

have? A woman's heart would never do. It was too kind and rational for

what they had in mind. The three learned ladies consulted long and hard.

Finally, they gave her the heart of a fox.

"Suppose you met a man, a perfect man, one in a million, the only man for

you. Suppose you had it in your power to destroy him. Would you let him

live?"

"Of course not!" she said. Then, "But, well ? I can imagine a certain

sort of man, one with stiff red hair and a cynical smile. A liar, a

thief, and a rogue, and yet faithful to me to the death. Him I might

permit to let live a year or three. Just in order to prolong his torment,

you understand."

"Too merciful by half!" the three scientists cried. They took out the

fox's heart, and put in the heart of a wolf.

Then they asked the question again.

"Preposterous!" she snorted. "Still ? supposing I were to meet a savage

brute of a man, with sleek black hair and a murderous look in his eyes.

Him I might take decades to kill."

"Not cruel enough, not cruel enough!" the old women wailed.

They gave her the heart of a man.

"Who cares?" Elena said when they asked her the question a third time.

"There's plenty of fish in the sea. I could find as many like him as I

wanted."

So, joyfully, the three mad scientists introduced their creation to the

world.

A man, having decided to destroy everything, would have created something

that would do the job all at once. They, being women, were more patient.

Their weapon would destroy the world one man at a time.

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This is the second of 80 stories by Michael Swanwick written to accompany

Francisco Goya's Los Caprichos. For a listing of the most recently

available stories, go to The Sleep of Reason.

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