Feelin' - II

No he ocultado mi más reciente afición por las novelas de Isaac Asimov, especialmente las pertenencientes a su serie de la Fundación, pero no quería ignorar a su otra gran serie, y que finalmente está estrechamente ligada a la ya mencionada.

Hablo de la serie de los Robots, compuesta por cuatro novelas, protagonizadas por Elijah Baley y R. Daneel Olivaw (the "R" stands for Robot).

Faltándome todavía la cuarta y última novela, Robots and Empire, quisiera citar precisamente un fragmento que me encontré por el comienzo, y que me conmovió demasiado y que probablemente nadie entienda en su total magnitud (¡por eso tienen que leerlas!), pero es mi blog y lo pongo igual.

“Others can. It would be perfectly possible to clean out your brain, Daneel, and then, under supervision, refill it with its important memory content only--say, ten percent of the whole. You would then be able to continue for centuries longer than you would otherwise. With repeated treatment of this sort, you could go on indefinitely. It is an expensive procedure, of course, but I would not cavil at that. You’d be worth it.”
“Would I be consulted on the matter, madam? Would I be asked to agree to such treatment?”
“Of course. I would not order you in a matter like that. It would be a betrayal of Dr. Fastolfe’s trust.”
“Thank you, madam. In that case, I must tell you that I would never submit voluntarily to such a procedure unless I found myself to have actually lost my memory function.”
They had reached the door and Gladia paused. She said, in honest puzzlement, “Why ever not, Daneel?”
Daneel said in a low voice, “There are memories I cannot risk losing, madam, either through inadvertence or through poor judgment on the part of those conducting the procedure.”
“Like the rising and setting of the stars?--Forgive me, Daneel, I didn’t mean to be joking. To what memories are you referring?”
Daneel said, his voice still lower, “Madam, I refer to my memories of my onetime partner, the Earthman Elijah Baley. “
And Gladia stood there, stricken, so that it was Daneel who had to take the initiative, finally, and signal for the door to open.