A review by par3
Arkfall by Carolyn Ives Gilman
5.0
5 Stars! Wow! I didn’t understand the first few pages; didn’t know what was going on. But then after that, I was blown away. The story just kept getting better and better. Loved it! Such a cool exploration underseas in such a different culture. Enjoy!
Quotes:
- “It’s antisocial to make one’s personal problems into everyone’s problems.” (p21)
- “A dark illimitable ocean without bound, where length, breadth, time and place are lost.” (p29)
- “It’s a belligerent little vintage with a sarcastic attitude. I like it very much.” (p35)
- “If everyone has forgotten us, do you suppose we’ll still exist?” (p36)
- “You don’t have enough to forget. Try living a life like mine. You’ll know then, memory’s a disease… Forgetting is what nature does best. The universe is a huge forgetting machine. It erases information no matter how hard we try to hang onto it. How could it be any different? What if the memory of everything that ever happened still existed? The universe would be clogged with information, so packed with it we couldn’t move. We’d be paralyzed, because every moment we ever lived would still be with us. It would be hell.” (p36)
- “They were all swimming temporarily in a sea of darkness, and then they would be gone.” (p36)
- “Permeable membranes, that’s the key: a constant exchange between outside and in. You’ve got to let the world leak in, and let yourself flow out into the nutrient bath around you. You’ve got to let in ideas, and observations, and… well, affection… or you become hard and dead inside. Life is all about having a permeable self—not so you’re unclear who you are, but so you overlap a little with the others on the edges.” (p45)
- “Some people are too permeable. They spend their lives trying to flow out, and never take in nutrient for themselves. They end up thin and empty inside.” (p45)
Quotes:
- “It’s antisocial to make one’s personal problems into everyone’s problems.” (p21)
- “A dark illimitable ocean without bound, where length, breadth, time and place are lost.” (p29)
- “It’s a belligerent little vintage with a sarcastic attitude. I like it very much.” (p35)
- “If everyone has forgotten us, do you suppose we’ll still exist?” (p36)
- “You don’t have enough to forget. Try living a life like mine. You’ll know then, memory’s a disease… Forgetting is what nature does best. The universe is a huge forgetting machine. It erases information no matter how hard we try to hang onto it. How could it be any different? What if the memory of everything that ever happened still existed? The universe would be clogged with information, so packed with it we couldn’t move. We’d be paralyzed, because every moment we ever lived would still be with us. It would be hell.” (p36)
- “They were all swimming temporarily in a sea of darkness, and then they would be gone.” (p36)
- “Permeable membranes, that’s the key: a constant exchange between outside and in. You’ve got to let the world leak in, and let yourself flow out into the nutrient bath around you. You’ve got to let in ideas, and observations, and… well, affection… or you become hard and dead inside. Life is all about having a permeable self—not so you’re unclear who you are, but so you overlap a little with the others on the edges.” (p45)
- “Some people are too permeable. They spend their lives trying to flow out, and never take in nutrient for themselves. They end up thin and empty inside.” (p45)