Novelists From Canada

"He was acutely aware of how little attention the people who lived here actually paid to their immediate environment. They seemed cut off from their own senses, cocooned away from their bodies in the infinite spaces of inscape. Cybernetic realities were more real to most people now than their own lives, it seemed. And any connection between those internal spaces and the physical world seemed entirely accidental."

"In the end, her written ideology, the philosophy and new morals she had preached, were all means to an end. That end could never be reached; Armiger had taught her that. If so, then what mattered their disappointment, their disillusionment? They would hate her for leaving them alive, but they would be alive, and a life lived in bitterness was still better than a death colored by useless fanaticism."

"She looked up at the towering wisdom and felt a sudden love for it—as if these books were family."

"“It’s time to abandon the plans of the entity that enslaved me all these centuries,” he said. “And time to start making my own.”"

"“It’s not that simple.” “Ah! That phrase is Male for ‘I’m afraid to.’”"

"“All sound is music,” he had said, “and there is no place without sound.”"

"Just because something is convincing, that does not make it true. It is merely convincing."

"She started threatening the stability of the ruling classes, at least in their own eyes. No ruler who does that ever stands for long."

"“Humans become violent when they feel their interest are threatened.” Galas scowled. “They were never threatened! Parliament is a rumor mill staffed by trough-fed clods who abuse the tongue of their birth every time they open their mouths. They all gabble at once and confuse one another mightily, and when this confusion is committed to paper they refer to it as ‘policy.’”"

"“So why did you do it?” August stared at the ceiling pensively. “It gets easier to risk your life as you get older. I think women understand that when they have children. Suddenly they know they would give their life for their child, and it doesn’t bother them. With men it’s different, but we…trade our allegiance in the same way. At some point, if you’ve grown up at all, you have to decide that something outside yourself is more important than you are. Otherwise you’ll be a miserable bastard, and you’ll die screaming.” He closed one eye and peered at Jordan. “That make sense?” “I don’t know,” Jordan said uncomfortably. “You get perspective. You can stand outside your own death, a little. Not while you’re dying, though.”"

"“What if they don’t surrender?” “My Lady,” he said, “you never ask that question after you’ve gone to war.”"

"His lantern guttered and finally went out. “Shit,” he said, shaking it. “Excuse me.” “You’re not afraid of the dark, are you?” she asked, chiding. “No, ma’am. I’m afraid of what’s in it.”"

"“We’re all pretending; that’s what events like this are all about.” “Why are we doing it at all?” “To fit it. Better that we be there to be spoken to than absent to be spoken about.”"

"“Which do you prefer?” Armiger leaned over her and kissed her cheek. “Which what do I prefer?” “Do you prefer making love or reading?” Her voice held a teasing note, but he had learned there were frequently hidden needs behind her teasing questions. “To read is to make love to the world,” he said. “But to make love to a woman is to feel like the world is reading you.” She smiled, not comprehending, and fell asleep."

"Her own sincerity returned to her now like the remembrance of a crime."

"“Something’s wrong.” Axel shrugged. “That statement probably applies to every second I’ve spent on this blasted world.”"

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from nature."

"“I haven’t organized my life as a narrative, you know. I’m not sure you’ll understand.” “As listeners, we are not required to understand,” said Qiingi. “Only to care.”"

"“The great commandment of the narratives is that your life must be meaningful,” said Charon. “If knowing the truth strips the meaning away, then the truth must be suppressed.”"

"“You know I was once a human being, too, Doran. I remember how hard it was to marshal all the resources I needed to cure myself of the affliction. I also remember, quite clearly, how I always told people I had no interest in self-deification. It was a useful and sometimes necessary shield against interference.” “Blow off,” said Doran. “Unless you have some specific threat you want to use on me.” Choronzon laughed. “Not a threat. Just curiosity as to why someone so violently opposed to improving on the human model should decide to go against all his principles.” “Sometimes,” said Doran icily, “mature people do things they don’t want to do. It’s called following higher principles. But someone without mortal concerns, say, like yourself, wouldn’t understand that.”"

"“The fact is, there’s no such thing as an ultimate state of consciousness. It’s a myth; sentience has meaning only insofar as it’s connected into the physical world... If you’d like to see it, here’s a view of the Omega Point.” It gestured to open a large inscape window in the sky. Instantly Doran’s head was filled with an undifferentiated roar; white noise matched in the window by endless video snow. Choronzon laughed. “The more information there is in a signal, the more it resembles noise. You’re looking at infinite information density, gentlemen, a signal so packed with information that it has become noise. These idiots pushed so far in one direction that they ended up at the opposite pole... Perhaps the fanatics of Omega Point had gotten their wish, but if so they had been mistaken in thinking that the Absolute was something that hadn’t been there all along. Absolute meaning, it seemed, was no different from no meaning at all."

"What’s real is what’s valuable. Everything else is just an illusion."

"That’s what being human means: to be master of your own fate."

"They see something they may never have seen before: a normal human reacting normally to a traumatic situation. Livia, these people have been insulated within inscape their whole lives. They have lived in a world where their merest whim could be granted with a thought. Reality has always conformed to their desires—never the other way around. Now they find themselves in a world that obstinately refuses to change itself to fit their imagination. They literally have no idea how to respond."

"“Then you have no more wish to rule? The country needs you now more than ever.” She shook her head. “I’ve been crushed under the weight of power all my life. I think I’m going to enjoy missing it.” She laughed at the lightness with which she dismissed royal power. Every moment was a surprise, these days. She hoped that that feeling would never end."

"Idiots. They were losing everything because of their short-sightedness. Maybe they deserved to lose it."

"The being was trying to get him to think about what he was saying, not just recite."

"Our whole life we’ve lived in a world of softened edges and easy decisions. All except once. One time, when someone had to look at the world through adult eyes and even the grown-ups who survived the crash with us failed the test. Someone had to look at the world as it was, and make the hard decisions that were necessary—not to romanticize, not to retreat into illusions. You did it then. I’m asking you to do it again. See what’s really going on here. See what’s real."

"In such a way she had done what her people prized above all else: she had given her respect to those different from herself."

"“I am the Government,” she said. “I am a force of omniscience and unparalleled power within the human part of the Archipelago. I am a public-domain distributed artificial intelligence. I have made all human institutions redundant, for I am the personal and intimate friend of each and every one of the trillion humans under my domain. I am the selfless advocate of each of them, from the lowliest to the greatest. The only problem is...Well, nobody listens to me much anymore.”"

"Even the gods fight boredom in vain."

"Each technology equated to some human value or set of values, she saw. She’d known that. But on Earth, in the Archipelago and everywhere else, technologies came first, and values changed to accommodate them. Under the locks, values were the keys to access or shut away technologies... The locks proclaimed that there were no neutral technologies. The devices and methods people used didn’t just represent certain values—they were those values, in some way."

"Only the dead are free of the influence of others."

"But what good's abundance if nobody can experience it?"

"“Technologies are control systems,” she said. “They dictate your reality.”"

"“You don’t quench ambition by feeding it any more than you quench a fire the same way,” said Cletus. “To an ambitious man, what he already has is nothing. It’s what he doesn’t have that counts.”"

"“Exaggeration of confidence,” he said, “is a fault in people who don’t know their business.”"

"Plainly he was one of those rare people who burn with an inner fire—but the inner fire that never failed in James Arm-of-the-Lord was a brand of woe and a torch of terror to the Unrighteous. Nor was it lessened by the fact that the ranks of the Unrighteous, in James’ estimation, included all those whose opinions in any way differed from his own."

"The immediate teaching of philosophers may be gentle, but the theory behind their teaching is without compunction—and that’s why so much bloodshed and misery has always attended the paths of their followers, who claim to live by those teachings. More blood’s been spilled by the militant adherents of prophets of change than by any other group of people down through the history of man."

"Actually, each generation likes to think of itself as at the pivot point in history, that in its time the great decision is made which puts man either on the true road or the false. But things aren’t really that serious. Truthfully, the way of mankind is too massive to be kinked, suddenly; it only changes direction in a long and gradual bend over many generations."

"Blunt nodded slowly, like an old man. It was not clear whether he had understood and was agreeing, or whether he had given up the attempt to understand and was merely being agreeable."

"It’s a dirty, damn universe, and every once in a while I get a chance to hit back at it. That’s all. If I knew in the morning when I started out that I was going to be killed that day, I’d still go—because I couldn’t die happier than to go down hitting back."

"Trouble rather the tiger in his lair than the sage amongst his books. For to you Kingdoms and their armies are things mighty and enduring, but to him they are but toys of the moment, to be overturned by the flicking of a finger..."

"In a climate of confusion, one of the surest ways of confounding the enemy is to tell him the plain truth."

"With the situation fully and correctly understood, it becomes entirely reasonable that the very small fraction of a second preceding a violent death could be a trigger to speculative thought."

"“I don’t pretend to be anything but a soldier,” growled Galt. “And it’s precisely that that makes you dangerous in negotiations,” replied William. “Politicians and businessmen always feel more at home with someone who they know doesn’t mean what he says. Honest men always have been a curse laid upon the sharpshooter.” “A pity,” put in Anea, “that there aren’t enough honest men, then, to curse them all.”"

"Why should there be some sort of virtue always attributed to a frank admission of vice?"

"Gradually there broke on him the understanding that this was a contest that he perpetuated by the very act of fighting in it. The way to victory here was to deny the enemy. He laughed."

"Even as she lay dreaming these dreams, however, a sane part of her mind was still on duty. Realistically, she knew that what she was thinking was nonsense."

"“And someone that brilliant must be a devil?” queried Galt, dryly. “Not at all,” explained Donal, patiently. “But having such intellectual capabilities, a man must show proportionately greater inclinations toward either good or evil than lesser people. If he tends toward evil, he may mask it in himself—he may even mask its effect on the people with which he surrounds himself. But he has no way of producing the reflections of good which would ordinarily be reflected from his lieutenants and initiates—and which, if he was truly good—he would have no reason to try and hide. And by that lack, you can read him.”"