영어로 읽는 고전 _ 조셉 새먹슨의 사진 신부
조셉 새먹슨의 "사진 신부"는 20세기 중반에 쓰인 SF 단편소설이다. 이야기는 페리라는 남성과 그가 직접 만난 적이 없지만 천 년 후 미래에 존재하는 여성 사이의 특별한 사랑 이야기를 중심으로 전개된다. 이 작품은 페리가 미래의 신부와 소통할 수 있게 해주는 가상의 시간 접촉 장치를 사용하여 시간을 초월한 사랑이라는 주제를 탐구한다.
줄거리는 페리가 형 조지에게 시간 접촉 장치를 통해서만 본 먼 미래의 여성과 사랑에 빠졌다고 고백하면서 펼쳐진다. 조지의 회의적 반응에도 불구하고 페리는 그들의 사랑에 대한 생각에 빠져들고, 이로 인해 조지는 더 자세히 조사하게 된다. 조지가 시간 접촉 세션 중 하나에서 페리의 실험실로 뛰어들면서 긴장감이 고조되고, 이는 페리가 사라지는 재앙적 사건을 초래하지만 두 연인 사이의 깊은 연결을 암시한다. 이야기는 장비가 고장 나기 직전 조지가 화면에서 페리와 그 소녀가 함께 있는 모습을 목격하면서 절정에 달하며, 그들의 사랑이 시간의 장벽을 초월한다는 것을 시사한다.
Classics Read in English _ Picture Bride by Joseph Samachson
Joseph Samachson's "Picture Bride" presents an innovative mid-20th century science fiction exploration of romantic connection that defies temporal boundaries. The short story weaves together themes of faith, skepticism, and the transformative power of love through its portrayal of an impossible courtship conducted across a millennium.
At the story's heart lies Perry's extraordinary claim: he has discovered true love with a woman who won't be born for another thousand years. Using a revolutionary time-contact apparatus, Perry has established communication with this future inhabitant, developing what he believes to be a genuine romantic bond despite their chronological separation.
The narrative tension emerges through Perry's relationship with his pragmatic brother George, whose rational skepticism contrasts sharply with Perry's romantic idealism. George represents the voice of conventional wisdom, questioning both the technology's legitimacy and the possibility of authentic emotion across such vast temporal distances.
Samachson builds toward a climactic moment when George's investigative intrusion into Perry's laboratory triggers a technological catastrophe. The equipment's failure coincides with Perry's mysterious disappearance, creating an ambiguous ending that invites multiple interpretations.
The story's final image?George's glimpse of Perry alongside his temporal beloved on the screen?serves as both confirmation and mystery. Whether Perry has achieved temporal transportation, suffered a tragic accident, or experienced something beyond conventional understanding remains deliberately unclear.
Through this brief but powerful narrative, Samachson examines whether love can truly exist without physical presence, challenging readers to consider the nature of human connection in an age of technological mediation.
Among the contents
My brother, Perry, always was a bit cracked. As a kid, he almost blew up our house doing experiments. When he was eighteen, he wrote poetry, but fortunately that didn't last long and he went back to science.
Now, when he showed me this picture, I figured he'd had a relapse of some kind. "This is the girl I'm in love with," he said.
She wasn't bad. Not bad at all, even if her clothes were crazy. She wasn't my type?too brainy-looking?although I could see how some guys would go for her. "I thought you liked blondes."
"I wouldn't give you two cents for all the blondes in Hollywood," he answered. "This is the only girl for me."
