
Oryx and Crake (MaddAddam Trilogy, Book 1)

He is Crake’s prophet now, whether he likes it or not; and the prophet of Oryx as well. That, or nothing. And he couldn’t stand to be nothing, to know himself to be nothing. He needs to be listened to, he needs to be heard. He needs at least the illusion of being understood.
Margaret Atwood • Oryx and Crake (MaddAddam Trilogy, Book 1)
“It is the strict adherence to daily routine that tends towards the maintenance of good morale and the preservation of sanity,” he says out loud.
Margaret Atwood • Oryx and Crake (MaddAddam Trilogy, Book 1)
“All it takes,” said Crake, “is the elimination of one generation. One generation of anything. Beetles, trees, microbes, scientists, speakers of French, whatever. Break the link in time between one generation and the next, and it’s game over forever.”
Margaret Atwood • Oryx and Crake (MaddAddam Trilogy, Book 1)
the less we eat, the more we fuck.”
Margaret Atwood • Oryx and Crake (MaddAddam Trilogy, Book 1)
I’m your past, he might intone. I’m your ancestor, come from the land of the dead. Now I’m lost, I can’t get back, I’m stranded here, I’m all alone. Let me in!
Margaret Atwood • Oryx and Crake (MaddAddam Trilogy, Book 1)
Even as Snowman has made himself a prophet for the new people who were engineered to take over the earth, he still has a yearning for community and feels the pain of exclusion from the traditions that are forming in the midst of this new civilization.
Human society, they claimed, was a sort of monster, its main by-products being corpses and rubble. It never learned, it made the same cretinous mistakes over and over, trading short-term gain for long-term pain. It was like a giant slug eating its way relentlessly through all the other bioforms on the planet, grinding up life on earth and shitting
... See moreMargaret Atwood • Oryx and Crake (MaddAddam Trilogy, Book 1)
“Imagination,” said Crake. “Men can imagine their own deaths, they can see them coming, and the mere thought of impending death acts like an aphrodisiac. A dog or a rabbit doesn’t behave like that. Take birds – in a lean season they cut down on the eggs, or they won’t mate at all. They put their energy into staying alive themselves until times get
... See moreMargaret Atwood • Oryx and Crake (MaddAddam Trilogy, Book 1)
But the body had its own cultural forms. It had its own art. Executions were its tragedies, pornography was its romance.