Status Updates From Whales and Men

Maybe hope springs eternal in the whale’s heart too. I don’t know. If you look at the species there seems to be no selective advantage to intelligence. … The process of evolution appears to be about specialization and adaptation and yet these are the very things that seem ultimately to mediate against survival itself.

"There are times when I think [humans] noble and generous and . . . all those things we celebrate by the word humanity. And then there are times I agree with John at his darkest . . . He said that he thought mankind was a misfortune without measure or bound." (107)

"The water is dark. The calls of the whales in the sea beyond are intermittent and very lonely." (3)