Răzvan Penescu
Theatres, museums, philharmonics, dancers? To hell with them. We wipe them out or at least merge them. Libraries? We close them. What is the need for them? Nobody reads anything but social media anymore, and we know how to customize those. We keep televisions. We add some soap operas, some football and betting, and talk shows and that's it. Anyway, communities only bring us trouble. Let them mind their own business. It's fine, we'll give them everything they need. Are you asking me if I'm afraid of intellectuals? No, I'm not afraid. Your intellectuals are weak.
Luchian Abel
I made the mountains in the shape of breasts, the sea is emerald green because that's the colour of my eyes, I put clouds on curlers left by my mother, the rivers are red like the blood in my veins, the wind blows like I used to blow in soup for my little baby my after he had burned himself with yoghurt, the rain contains so much tear salt that it melts umbrellas, the sun is the light I had in my heart when I met my husband, it's thundering the way my heart was beating, the lightning is the flashes from the wedding. And I made the earth a great womb, to have a place to rest.
Vlad Mușat
AI was generating a virtual reality based on everyone's thoughts. I sat comfortably and was connected to the machine. Beach house, jazz, cool bars, me, Scarlett Johansson and millions of dogs. After a few days of peace and quiet, I was awakened by the barking of hundreds of dogs. I opened the door and immediately closed it. The dogs were hungry. Scarlett was neither in the house nor outside. I knew it was an experiment, but panic had set in. They cut me off. You were right. I swear that I will have full confidence in the Party.
(Translated by Bianca-Andreea Rîmboacă / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year II / Corrected by Silvia Petrescu, coordinator of the translations)
Versiunea în română a acestui text se poate citi aici, în rubrica Ficțiuni Reale.