Notable quotes, excerpts, and profound lines.

[kennyc]

"Studies into consciousness suggest boundaries beyond which we cannot go. Our internal worlds are potentially unknowable to others. But isn’t that one of the reasons we write and read novels? It is the most effective way to give others access to that internal world."
- Marcus du Sautoy "The Great Unknown"

[astrangerhere]

What have you learned? my father asked, and I didn’t have the words then, but, in retrospect, the lesson seemed to be that what you accomplish will never matter so much as where you fail.

...

When there was an invisible elephant in the room, one is from time to time bound to trip over a trunk.

— Karen Joy Fowler | We are All Completely Beside Ourselves

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

...



— Karen Joy Fowler | We are All Completely Beside Ourselves

[AlexBell]

'We live here in an atmosphere of combats de générosité. It is
tremendous. Mrs Barnes and I are always doing things we don't want to
do because we suppose it is what is going to make the other one happy.
The tyranny of unselfishness! I can hardly breathe.'

From In the Mountains by Elizabeth von Arnim

[bfisher]

Originally Posted by AlexBell

'We live here in an atmosphere of combats de générosité. It is
tremendous. Mrs Barnes and I are always doing things we don't want to
do because we suppose it is what is going to make the other one happy.
The tyranny of unselfishness! I can hardly breathe.'

From In the Mountains by Elizabeth von Arnim

[AlexBell]

'What is it about Mrs Barnes that makes Dolly and me sit so quiet and
good? I needn't ask: I know. It is because she is single-minded,
unselfish, genuinely and deeply anxious for everybody's happiness and
welfare, and it is impossible to hurt such goodness. Accordingly we are
bound hand and foot to her wishes, exactly as if she were a tyrant.'

from In the Mountains, by Elizabeth von Arnim

[BenG]

Scientific Romance
by Tim Pratt

If starship travel from our
Earth to some far
star and back again
at velocities approaching the speed
of light made you younger than me
due to the relativistic effects
of time dilation,
I’d show up on your doorstep hoping
you’d developed a thing for older men,
and I’d ask you to show me everything you
learned to pass the time
out there in the endless void
of night.

If we were the sole survivors
of a zombie apocalypse
and you were bitten and transformed
into a walking corpse
I wouldn’t even pick up my
assault shotgun,
I’d just let you take a bite
out of me, because I’d rather be
undead forever
with you
than alive alone
without you.

If I had a time machine, I’d go back
to the days of your youth
to see how you became the someone
I love so much today, and then
I’d return to the moment we first met
just so I could see my own face
when I saw your face
for the first time,
and okay,
I’d probably travel to the time
when we were a young couple
and try to get a three-way
going. I never understood
why more time travelers don’t do
that sort of thing.

If the alien invaders come
and hover in stern judgment
over our cities, trying to decide
whether to invite us to the Galactic
Federation of Confederated
Galaxies or if instead
a little genocide is called for,
I think our love could be a powerful
argument for the continued preservation
of humanity in general, or at least,
of you and me
in particular.

If we were captives together
in an alien zoo, I’d try to make
the best of it, cultivate a streak
of xeno-exhibitionism,
waggle my eyebrows, and make jokes
about breeding in captivity.

If I became lost in
the multiverse, exploring
infinite parallel dimensions, my
only criterion for settling
down somewhere would be
whether or not I could find you:
and once I did, I’d stay there even
if it was a world ruled by giant spider-
priests, or one where killer
robots won the Civil War, or even
a world where sandwiches
were never invented, because
you’d make it the best
of all possible worlds anyway,
and plus
we could get rich
off inventing sandwiches.

If the Singularity comes
and we upload our minds into a vast
computer simulation of near-infinite
complexity and perfect resolution,
and become capable of experiencing any
fantasy, exploring worlds bound only
by our enhanced imaginations,
I’d still spend at least 10^21 processing
cycles a month just sitting
on a virtual couch with you,
watching virtual TV,
eating virtual fajitas,
holding virtual hands,
and wishing
for the real thing.

— Antiquities and Tangibles and Other Stories by Tim Pratt

[Deskisamess]

"Children can be the most cruel creatures alive. They have the herd instinct of prejudice against any outsider, and they are merciless it it's indulgence. Emily was a stranger and one of the proud Murray's...two counts against her."

From Emily of New Moon by L. M. Montgomery

[kennyc]

"I think I write mostly about death and so it is interesting to hear how often people think I’m writing about pregnancy and birth. Though of course they are two sides of the same coin. Both when I was pregnant and now as a mother, I am consumed with thoughts of death. This is a strange role in parenting. The death guardian. Ugh. I hate worrying and so I try to turn it into something else. The first time I took my daughters to the ocean—and I love the ocean but where we swim is very rough, very New England, rip tide, not messing around ocean—and a thought arrived: I was asking my daughters to slowly recognize death, just dip their toes in its fathomless edge, to know it is there, even in the night when we don’t see it and that it, in its mystery and largeness, in its terror, is the thing that makes life precious, magnificent and full of never-ending curiosity."

- Samantha Hunt from her Rumpus interview

[covingtoncat73]

"Hold the line. We see the moms and agree with your threat assessment." ~The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.

[bfisher]

Originally Posted by covingtoncat73

"Hold the line. We see the moms and agree with your threat assessment." ~The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.

Lovely.
It's on my TBR. I must move it up.

[John F]

"Against stupidity the very gods themselves contend in vain." - Friedrich Schiller

Quoted in The Gods Themselves by Issac Asimov

[AlexBell]

... she was having a violent reaction against beautiful clothes and the slavery they impose on one, her experience being that the instant one had got them they took one in hand and gave one no peace till they had been everywhere and been seen by everybody. You didn't take your clothes to parties; they took you. It was quite a mistake to think that a woman ... wore out her clothes; it was the clothes that wore out the woman ... dragging her about at all hours of the day and night.

from The Enchanted April, by Elizabeth von Arnim

[BenG]

“When a man's freedom equals zero, he commits no crime. That is clear. The only means of ridding man of crime is ridding him of freedom”

— Yevgeny Zamyatin, We

[astrangerhere]

I’ve lost 15 pounds for you
I’ve dyed my hair brown for you
I’ve designed a special smile for you
But I haven’t met you yet

I’ve bought a flashy shirt for you
I’ve plucked my eyebrows out for you
I’ve covered myself in Musk Oil for you
I’m still hunting around for you

I’ve changed my walk for you
I’ve even changed my talk for you
I’ve changed my entire point of view for you
I hope we’ll find each other soon

–Sam Shepard