The Weavers

“It’s well known,” B said, “that every piece of hand-woven cloth has an
element of magic in it, which is the special magic of its weaver. This magic
doesn’t necessarily die with the individual weaver but rather can be passed on
from generation to generation and shared among families and even whole
nations, so that one who is sensitive to such things can tell in a moment
whether a piece of cloth was woven in Ireland or France or Virginia or
Bavaria. This is true on every planet in the universe where weaving is
practiced, and it was true on the planet I’d like to tell you about right now.

“It happened on this planet that a weaver named Nixt came along who was
a strange compound of genius and insanity, violence and artistry, ruthlessness
and charm—and this was the magic he wove into his cloth, and those who
wore garments made from it became just like the weaver. The weaver was
quickly renowned, and everyone wanted clothes imbued with his magic.

Wearing such clothes, artists created masterpieces, merchants got rich,
leaders extended their power, soldiers triumphed in battle, and lovers left
their rivals in the dust. Almost immediately it was noticed that Nixtian magic
had some drawbacks. It was so powerful that it tended to devour what it
touched. Instead of lasting for centuries, artists’ masterpieces tended to
disintegrate after only decades. Instead of lasting for generations, merchants’
riches tended to melt away in a single lifetime. Instead of lasting for decades,
leaders’ power tended to ebb away in years. Instead of lasting for years,
lovers’ charms tended to pall in months.

No one cared. Artists wanted masterpieces, merchants wanted money, leaders
wanted power, and lovers wanted conquests.

“Naturally every weaver in the land wanted to weave with Nixtian magic,
and Nixt himself was soon so extravagantly wealthy that he was glad to share
it with them. Within a generation, every single weaver in the realm was
practicing only this one kind of magic and all others had been forgotten.

From swaddling clothes to shrouds, everyone in the land wore clothes woven
with Nixtian magic—and, as you can easily imagine, this nation almost
overnight became preeminent among the nations of the world. There wasn’t a
thing to stop them from taking over the entire planet, and they proceeded to
do so in just a few generations, and in every land they conquered, weavers
who were practicing other kinds of magic either learned Nixtian magic or
they took up some other occupation.

“The spread of Nixtian magic revealed another of its drawbacks. Its
exhaustive qualities seemed to increase exponentially. When twice as many
masterpieces were created with Nixtian magic, they disintegrated four times
as fast. When three times as many merchants were getting rich with Nixtian
magic, their money melted away nine times as fast. No one liked it, of course,
but artists still wanted masterpieces, merchants still wanted wealth, leaders
still wanted power, and so on.

“Within a thousand years, every weaver on the planet knew only one kind
of magic and all others had been forgotten. Within another thousand years, it
was forgotten that any other kind of magic had ever been practiced in
weaving, and people soon ceased to think of it as magic at all; it was just part
of the process of weaving, and for all they knew, this had always been the
case. In other words, they experienced a Great Forgetting of their own. They
eventually came to view Nixtian magic as just part of weaving—just the way
people of our culture eventually came to view totalitarian agriculture as just
part of being human.

“The trouble was that once every man, woman, and child on the planet was
wearing clothes woven with Nixtian magic, the exhaustive power of this
magic was operating at such a high level that masterpieces were lasting only
weeks—and no one wanted them. Fortunes were made and routinely lost
within days, and merchants lived in a state of suicidal depression.

Governments and whole political systems came and went like seasons of the
year, and no one even bothered to learn the names of presidents or prime
ministers.

Romances and love affairs seldom lasted for more than two or three hours.

“It was at this point of total systemic burnout that some enterprising
paleoanthropologists happened quite fortuitously to discover that weaving
had existed long before the time of Nixt, and that people had for hundreds of
thousands of years been very happy to wear clothes woven with other kinds
of magic. And amazingly enough—even without Nixtian magic—artists had
still occasionally produced masterpieces, merchants had gotten rich, leaders
had become powerful, and lovers had made conquests. And, more important,
these achievements had, by modern standards, been durable to an almost
unthinkable degree.

“Terrifically excited, these paleoanthropologists brought their discovery to
the attention of their department head and asked to be released from other
duties so they could study ancient weavings and possibly even rediscover the
magic employed in their production. ‘I guess I don’t get it,’ the department
head said, after patiently listening to their proposals. ‘Why is it important to
know what weavers were doing before the age of Nixt?’ ”

/Daniel Quinn
/The Story Of B