Kristyna K.

“So you don't think that God created the brain?' I asked.
'No, I don't think that,' Dr. Enderby replied. 'I think that the brain created God. Because the human brain, however wonderful, is still quite fallible - as both you and I know. It's always searching for answers, but even when it's working as it should, its explanations are rarely perfect - especially when it comes to very big, complicated questions. That's why we have to nurture it. We have to give it plenty of space to develop.”
― Gavin Extence

“... The Sirens of Titan ….

…

‘That’s a funny name for a book,’ I said with a gulp. ‘Are those women going to get arrested?’

Mr Peterson didn’t know what the hell I was talking about.

‘They’re not wearing many clothes,’ I pointed out.

‘What’s your point?’ he asked.

‘So I thought maybe the sirens might be for them.’

Mr Peterson frowned.
‘ I think the police are allowed to arrest you for wearing too few clothes,’ I explained.
Comprehension dawned on Mr Peterson’s face. ‘No, kid. Not sirens as in police sirens. Sirens as in Homer.’
I frowned. ‘Simpson?’
‘The Odyssey!’
I looked at him blankly. At some point in the last thirty seconds, we’d stopped speaking the same language.

Mr Peterson sighed and rubbed his wrinkled forehead. ‘The Odyssey’s a very old Greek story by a very old Greek man called Homer. And in The Odyssey there are these very beautiful women called sirens ……

‘oh’, I said. ‘So the women are the sirens? And that’s why they’re not wearing very many clothes?”

‘Right. Except in Kurt Vonnegut’s book the Sirens don’t live in the Mediterranean. They live on Titan, which is one of Saturn’s moons.’

‘Yes, I know that,’ I said. (I didn’t want Mr Peterson to think I was an idiot). ‘It’s the second largest moon in the solar system, after Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon. It’s actually larger than Mercury, though not nearly so dense.’

Mr Peter frowned again and shook his head. ‘I guess these days school puts a big emphasis on sciences instead of the arts, huh?’

‘No, not really. School puts a big emphasis on exam questions. Do sirens breathe methane?”
― Gavin Extence, The Universe Versus Alex Woods

“Well, for each of us the brain creates a whole, unique universe. It contains everything we know. Everything we see or touch. Everything we feel and remember. In a sense, our brains create all of reality for us. Without the brain, there's nothing. Some people find this idea scary, but I think it's rather beautiful.”
― Gavin Extence, The Universe Versus Alex Woods

“The world is so strange that maybe it’s perfectly logical.”
― Beth Lisick