“ZEAL WITHOUT PRUDENCE IS LIKE A SHIP ADRIFT. But the lines of the letters were like fine invisible threads and it was only by closing his right eye tight and staring out of the left eye that he could make out the full curves of the capital.” ––A Portrait of the Artist as a Young […]
It is fitting that the final Culture novel should ruminate so radiantly on matters of longevity and disembodiment, but disappointing that it should also be so decidedly dull. I’ve long considered Iain M. Banks to be one of the brightest stars in the sky of scifi authorship, but this visit to the Culture universe failed […]
“You should always tell the truth, unless you find yourself in a situation where it would be utter moral folly to do so.” ––The Hydrogen Sonata, by Iain M. Banks, pg. 505 “Human beings were not the least significant portion of the wealth to have been plundered by the Republic during its wars of […]
“‘Isn’t it like a threat, though, this thing, hanging over us? I look at it some days, hanging over the city, over us, and it makes me shiver.’ ‘It used to make me catch my breath, sometimes, I’ll give you that. What can I say, Virisse? Promises take many shapes, and the more…momentous they are, […]
“‘So, do we get more secure as we get older?’ ‘Some do. I have. Though I have also detected a sort of long-term tidal action in that and a lot of other emotional states. For real-time centuries I will feel, say, gradually more secure in myself, then for the next few centuries I’ll feel less […]
“‘One thing that does happen when you live a long time is that you start to realise the essential futility of so much that we do, especially when you see the same patterns of behaviour repeated by succeeding generations and across different species. You see the same dreams, the same hopes, the same ambitions and […]
“‘Where do you keep your memories of love, past lovers?’ QiRia looked at her. ‘In my head, of course.’ He looked away. ‘There are not so many of those, anyway,’ he said, voice a little quieter. ‘Loving becomes harder, the longer you live, and I have lived a very long time indeed.’ He fixed his […]
“The Zoologist looked troubled. Eventually it said, ‘When you come back from the Sublime, it is as though you leave all but one of your senses behind, as though you have all the rest removed, torn away––and you have become use to having hundreds.’ It paused. ‘Imagine you,’ it said, nodding at the Caconym, ‘being […]
Throughout his distinguished career, Edward O. Wilson has brought a vast wealth of interdisciplinary knowledge to bear on some of humanity’s most complex and pressing questions. The Meaning of Human Existence is his most philosophical work, and contains many worthwhile insights about humanity’s origins and possible futures. Wilson’s method, best characterized as a kind of […]
“‘One should never mistake pattern…for meaning.’” ––The Hydrogen Sonata, by Iain M. Banks, pg. 127