Oh, they were part of twenty-first-century humanity, no doubt about it; they were sophisticated scientists and technicians, cocooned like everyone else in a protective shell of technology at every moment of their lives, and busy making and watching their own life movies.
Clipping
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books > Red Mars (Kim Stanley Robinson)
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books > Red Mars (Kim Stanley Robinson)
They were Qadarite Sufis, they told him, pantheists influenced by early Greek philosophy and modern existentialism, trying by modern science and the ru’ yat al-qalb, the vision of the heart, to become one with that ultimate reality which was God. “There are four mystical journeys,” Dhu said to him. “The first begins with gnosis and ends with fana, or passing away from all phenomenal things. The second begins when fana is succeeded by baqa, or abiding. At this point you journey in the real, by the real, to the real, and you yourself are a reality, a haqq. And after that you move on to the center of the spirit universe, and become one with all others who have done likewise.”
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books > Red Mars (Kim Stanley Robinson)
“The King asked his wise men for some single thing that would make him happy when he was sad, but sad when he was happy. They consulted and came back with a ring engraved with the message ‘This Too Will Pass.’
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books > Red Mars (Kim Stanley Robinson)
“The urge to excel and the urge to lead aren’t the same. Sometimes I think they may be opposites.”
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books > Red Mars (Kim Stanley Robinson)
over the years they had become like sisters, in that they were not much alike, and did not often get along, and yet were intimate.
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books > Sufficiently Advanced Magic (Andrew Rowe)
Heart marks can channel mana through the entire body before dispersing it through a spell. This requires intense focus and slows the casting of the spell, but increases its intensity.
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books > Bewilderment: A Novel (Powers, Richard)
This late in the world’s story, everything was marketing. Universities had to build their brands. Every act of charity was forced to beat the drum. Friendships were measured out now in shares and likes and links. Poets and priests, philosophers and fathers of small children: we were all on an endless, flat-out hustle. Of course science had to advertise. Call it my belated graduation from naïveté.
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books > Bewilderment: A Novel (Powers, Richard)
Almost nobody knows this, but plants do pretty much all the work. Everybody else is just a parasite. “You are correct, sir!” I mean, eating light? That’s crazy stuff! Better than SF!
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books > Bewilderment: A Novel (Powers, Richard)
A woman my mother’s age fussed over Robbie. “You made this? You did all this all by yourself?” Nobody does anything by themselves. Something Aly used to tell him, back when Robin was little.
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books > Bewilderment: A Novel (Powers, Richard)
At our wedding, in a part of the vows I didn’t know was coming, my wife-to-be gave me an oval loaf of ciabatta. This is not a symbol. It’s not a metaphor. It’s just a loaf of bread. I made it. I baked it. It’s food. We can eat it together tonight. From each according to her abilities, eh? Just stay with me, spring through winter. Stay with me when there’s nothing left. I’ll stay with you. There’ll always be food enough.