"Did you come to this Village? Or did you make it?"

epub or mobi, with thanks to the original sharer

“Observe, now, what these switches do. Again I will insist that you put the marble egg in your mouth. Again you refuse. Again I insist – put the egg in your mouth. I do more than insist, I threaten. Put the egg in your mouth! You have not, and so I touch, gently, the switch of pain. I release it, and suggest, only suggest that you would like to put the marble egg in your mouth. It is, after all, in keeping with your character to do so. Can you feel it there now, the larger end lodged in the soft flesh beneath the tongue, the smaller end touching the roof of your mouth, a small cold ovoid of marble, in your mouth? You do feel it there, and now I touch, briefly, this switch for pleasure. And, oh the bliss! You realize that it is good to have that marble egg just where it is, in your mouth. Can you feel the goodness of it there? Can you? And I touch, again, the switch. If I should touch it once or twice more, you would never again be able to look at, or even imagine, a marble egg without a maniacal craving to place it in your mouth. That is how the human machine works. What it can be made to do depends on where we decide to drive it.”