xiaomei's flashcards

Sunday, August 27, 2017

Molecules Within The Beast

　　He sighed and shook his head. "No, I do not think that," he said, in a voice which was mine but deeper, somehow, and flatter. "I do not see a separation. I have lived with a human for only a few days, but I have seen violence and hypocrisy that runs through this species."

　　"Yes, but there is good in them. A lot of good."

　　"No. I don't see it. They can sit and watch dead human bodies on TV screens and feel nothing at all."

　　"That's how I saw it at first, but-"

　　"They can drive thirty miles every day and feel good about themselves for recycling a couple of empty jam jars. They can talk about peace being a good thing yet glorify war. They can despise the man who kills his wife in rage but worship the indifferent soldier who drops a bomb killing a hundred children."

　　"Yes, there is a bad logic here, I agree with you, yet I truly believe-"

　　He wasn't listening. He stood up now, state at me with determined eyes as he paced the room and delivered his speech. "They believe God is always on their side, even if their side is at odds with the rest of their species. They have no way of coming to terms with what are, biologically, the most import events that happen to them - procreation and death. They pretend to know that money can't buy happiness, yet they would choose money every time. They celebrate mediocrity at every available opportunity and love to see other's misfortune. They have lived on this planet for over a hundred thousand generations and yet they still have no idea about who they really are or how they should really live. In fact, they know less now than they once did."

　　"You're right, but don't you think there is something beautiful in these contradictions, something mysterious?"

　　"No. No, I do not. What I think is that their violence will has helped them dominate the world and 'civilize' it, but now there is nowhere left for them to go, and so the human world has turned in on itself. It is a monster that feats on its own hands. And still they do not see the monster, or if they do, they do not see that they are inside it, molecules within the beast."

　　... ...

The Humans, P248-249
Matt Haig
ISBN 978-0-85786-876-3

A Hard Thing to Get It Right

　　She had stuff to give, but it was ungiven; it was locked away.

　　And I felt an incredible excitement at being able to witness the love reemerge inside her, because it was a total, prime-of-life love. The kind that could only be possible in someone who was going to die at some point in the future, and also someone who had lived enough to know that loving and being loved back was a hard thing to get right, but when you managed it, you could see forever.

　　Two mirrors, opposite and facing each other at perfectly parallel angles, viewing themselves through the other, the view as deep as infinity.

　　Yes, that was what love was for. (I may not have understood marriage, but I understood love, I was sure of it.) Love was a way to live forever in a single moment, and it was also a way to see yourself as you had never actually seen yourself, and made you realize - having done so - that this view was a more meaningful one than any of your previous self-perceptions and self depictions. Even though, the big joke was, indeed the very biggest joke in the universe was, that Isobel Martin believed I had always been a human called Andrew Martin who had been born 100 miles away in Sheffield, and not in fact 8,653,178,431 light years away.

The Humans, P208-209
Matt Haig
ISBN 978-0-85786-876-3

Tug of War

　　Skittles and Neil raced around the classroom. They knocked over paints and scattered the books.

　　Skittles grabbed Miss Wing's green hat. Then Neil grabbed the other side.

　　Miss Wing shouted at the birds but they didn't listen, they just kept playing tug of war with her hat!

　　Polly looked at Ronita.

　　Ronita looked at Polly.

　　And they both started to laugh!

Polly and the Puffin, The New Friend, P52-53
Jenny Colgan
ISBN 978-1-5102-0090-6

　　Polly looked at Ronita. Ronita looked at Polly.

　　It's not so easy to make friends just like that. They didn't talk to each other for a little while.

　　"I hve dungarees," said Ronita finally.

　　"Oh," said Polly. "I have a bird. At home."

　　"I have a bird!" said Ronita.

　　"No you don't," said Polly. "I have a bird."

　　"Yes I DO!" Ronita raised her voice.

　　"No you DON"T!" Polly raised hers back.

　　... ...

Polly and the Puffin, The New Friend, P29-30
Jenny Colgan
ISBN 978-1-5102-0090-6

　　The walked along the harbour wall, but Polly didn't jump up on it as she usually did. Instead, she dragged the toes of her shoes on the cobbles.

　　"I also think," said Polly, "you should not have another baby while I am at school."

　　"OK, I won't do that," said Mummy.

　　"Good," said Polly. "Because, you know. You already have me and Neil. And that is Quite Enough."

　　"I agree," said Mummy. "Also, shoes are expensive."

Polly and the Puffin, The New Friend, P18-19
Jenny Colgan
ISBN 978-1-5102-0090-6

Heaven is a Place where Nothing Ever Happens

Heaven is a Place where Nothing Ever Happens

　　I was back at home, on Vonnadoria, and it was exactly how it had always been. And I was exactly how I had always been, among them, the hosts, feeling no pain and no fear.

　　Our beautiful, warless world, where I could be entranced by the purest mathematics for all eternity.

　　Any human who arrived here, gazing at our violet landscapes, might well have believed they had entered Heaven.

　　But what happened in Heaven?

　　What did you do there?

　　After a while, didn't you crave flaws? Love and lust and misunderstandings, and maybe even a little violence to liven things up? Didn't light need shade? Didn't it? Maybe it didn't. Maybe I was missing the point. Yes, to exist with an absence of pain. Yes, maybe that was the only aim you needed in life. It certainly had been, but what happened if you'd never required that aim because you were born after that goal had been met? I was younger than the hosts. I did not share their appreciation of just how lucky I was. Not anymore. Not even in a dream.

The Humans, P174
Matt Haig
ISBN 978-0-85786-876-3

Flying Lemurs

　　Don't worry. You don't have to jump. There are lots of other things you're good at.

　　You're really good at having the fluffiest ever tail ...

　　You're brilliant at playing the tambourine ...

　　And you're fantastic at throwing custard pies.

Flying Lemurs
Zehra Hicks
ISBN 978-1-4472-8665-3

Once It Started to Slip It Gained Mass

　　... ... . Human life, I realised, got progressively worse as you got older, by the sound of things. You arrived, with baby feet and hands and infinite happiness, and then the happiness slowly evaporated as your feet and hands grew bigger. And then, from the teenage years onwards, happiness was something you could lose your grip of and once it started to slip it gained mass. It was as if the knowledge that it could slip was the thing that made it more difficult to hold, no matter how big your feet and hands were.

The Humans, P117
Matt Haig
ISBN 978-0-85786-876-3

The pleasure of Counting without Realising You were Counting

　　This primitivism struck me as funny. And so was the idea that the music had anything whatsoever to do with those dead planets. But it seemed to soothe Newton a little bit, and I must admit one or two parts of it had some kind of effect on me, a kind of electrochemical effect. Listening to music, I realised, was simply the pleasure of counting without realising you were counting. As electrical impulses were transported from the neurons in my ear through my body, I felt - I don't know - calm. It made that strange unease that had been with me since I had watched Daniel Russell die on his carpet settle a little.

The Humans, P99
Matt Haig
ISBN 978-0-85786-876-3

Because of It

　　There are other questions, too, that humans have in bookstores. Such as, as it one of those books they read to feel clever, or one of those they will pretend never to have read in order to stay looking clever? Will it make them laugh, or cry? Or will it simply force them to stare out of the window watching the tracks of raindrops? Is it a true story? Or is it a false one? Is it the kind of story that will work on their brain or one which aims for lower organs? is it one of those books that ends up acquiring religious followers or getting burned by them? Is it a book about mathematics or - like everything else in the universe - simply because of it?

　　Yes, there are lots of questions. And even more books. So, so many. Humans in their typical Human way have written for too many to get through. Reading is added to that great pile of things - work, love, sexual prowess, the word they didn't say when they really needed to say them - that they are bound to feel a bit dissatisfied about.

The Humans, P18-19
Matt Haig
ISBN 978-0-85786-876-3