Calvin: I’m going to paste Susies pate with a slushball! Heh, Heh, Heh
Hobbes: Some philosophers say that true happiness comes from a life of virtue.
……………..
Calvin: Someday I’ll write my own philosophy book.
Hobbes: Virtue needs some cheaper thrills.
1902: Saint Pierre
Only the Condemned Is Saved
On the island of Martinique, too, a volcano explodes. As if splitting the world in two, the mountain Pelee coughs up a huge red cloud that covers the sky and falls, glowing, over the earth. In a wink the city of Saint Pierre is annihilated. Its thirty-four thousand inhabitants disappear—-except one.
The survivor is Ludger Sylbaris, the only prisoner in the city. The walls of the jail had been made escape-proof.
| — | Eduardo Galeano’s Century of the Wind This is a lyrical collection of vignettes that spans the history of Latin America from 1900 to around 1980. It is the ultimate mind bender, showing many of America’s political, economic, and cultural influences from a totally inverted perspective. Traditional histories are more ethnocentric, focusing purely on the “big kid”. Century of the Wind is like hearing the story from all of the other kids on the block. |
| — | Roald Dahl’s The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar |
“Well,” Harry said, “look at it this way: Suppose you were an intelligent bacterium floating in space, and you came upon one of our communication satellites, in orbit around the Earth. You would think, What a strange, alien object this is, let’s explore it. Suppose you opened it up and crawled inside. You would find it very interesting in there, with lots of huge things to puzzle over. But eventually you might climb into one of the fuel cells, and the hydrogen would kill you. And your last thought would be: This alien device was obviously made to test bacterial intelligence and to kill us if we make a false step.”
“Now, that would be correct from the standpoint of the dying bacterium. But that wouldn’t be correct at all from the standpoint of the beings who made the satellite. From our point of view, the communications satellite has nothing to do with intelligent bacteria. We don’t even know that there are intelligent bacteria out there. We’re just trying to communicate, and we’ve made what we consider a quite ordinary device to do it.”
| — | Michael Chrichton’s Sphere |
Bill Watterson has a knack for keen observations.
Dr. Monnitoff: Each vessel travels along a vector path through space-time… along its centre of gravity.
Donnie(to himself): Like a spear
Dr. M: Beg Pardon?
Donnie: Like a spear that comes out of your stomach?
Dr. M: Uhh… sure. And in order for the vessel to travel through time it must find the portal, in this case the wormhole, or some unforeseen portal that lies undiscovered.
Donnie: Could these wormholes appear in nature?
Dr. M: That… is highly unlikely. You’re talking about an act of God.
Donnie: If God controls time… then all time is pre-decided. Then every living thing travels along a set path.
Dr. M: I’m not following you.
Donnie: If you could see your path or channel growing out of your stomach you could see into the future. And that’s a form of time travel, right?
Dr. M: You are contradicting yourself, Donnie. If we could see our destinies manifest themselves visually… then we would be given the choice to betray our chosen destinies. The very fact that this choice would exist… would mean that all preformed destiny would end.
Donnie: Not if you chose to stay within God’s channel…
- Richard Kelly’s Donnie Darko
