Sublime

I thought once that gods are the opposite of death, but I see now they are more dead than anything, for they are unchanging, and can hold nothing in their hands.

He had the trick of speaking like one, rolling words like great boulders, lost in the details of his own legend.

If we were to endeavor once again to walk with God, how much would we each have to shed, so that only what was truly worthy of perfect existence remained? How much is our much-vaunted selfhood merely layer upon layer of protective pretense, deception, or rationalization for avoidance and rejection of responsibility? How much is detritus and

Hephaestus, the famous artisan whose legs are bent.

On life and death this old man walked.

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.

The aristocratic household preserves a good deal of Homer in life as well as in poetry. But the Homeric values no longer define the moral horizon, just as the household or kinship group are now part of a larger and very different unit. There are no more kings, even though many of the virtues of kingship are still held to be virtues.

fire as he passed. Of course, he did not consider how black it would be when he was gone. My father has never been able to imagine the world without himself in it.