Oliver > Recent Status Updates

298 pages in and the thriller has finally started. Bit of a slow burn this one! 😂

Honestly not sure I can read more of this today because it is so beautiful that I will cry.

"No negligible thing could shine so bright, no far-hurled nothingy satellite could both itself with these shows of beauty, no paltry rock could arrange such intricacy as fungus and minds."

Every short story in this book is a masterpiece of unpicking the mad modern world. I absolutely love how astute Chiang can be, through such varied lenses.

"The dildo of consequence rarely arrived lubricated." 😆

Okay, I'm really not a fan of Cameron. But nobody deserves to have such a bad experience with an airline 😫

"... stuff has leaked to the heart of the earth and maybe soured even the deepest deep springs..."

"All her aches were joined as a chorus to sing pain throughout her flesh and thoughts."

"I see I missed a few things..." - Mordecai

😂😂 OMG runaway train - so good

"I don't reserve my friendship for perfect people." - Mal

"He's born for greatness, in a place where greatness will be sorely needed."
Remore: "And if he doesn't live up to that greatness?"
"Then guide him to happiness. I suggest that be the priority, in fact. And fit in greatness if you can. A life doesn't have to be exceptional to be worthwhile."

"Autumn had barely entered, barely taken off its coat, but the air smelled like winter already."

"Isabel held her by the meat of her ass"

😂

I love this line about a Mexican ballad or "corrido":

"[The corrido] tells what it wishes to tell. It tells what makes the story run. The corrido is a poor man's history. It does not owe allegiance to the truths of history but to the truths of men."

I'll be thinking of this next time I hear a spun tale on the news. You spout nothing but a corrido! A tale designed to tell the story you want to tell.

"... most men were in their lives like the carpenter whose work went so slowly for the dullness of his tools that he had not time to sharpen them."

"The road has its own reasons and no two travelers will have the same understanding of those reasons."

"... we long for something of substance to oppose us. Something to contain us or to stay our hand. Otherwise there are no boundaries to our own being and we too must extend our claims until we lose all definition."

"... and the world cannot lose it."

😭😢 so much emotion

HOLY SHIT, WHAAAAT?! 😱

"Often I feel like talking to [my sister and brother in law] is like making conversation with... a blank Facebook profile." Buuurrrrn 😆

But also makes me wonder if I'm the same 🥺 am I a blank Facebook profile in conversation?

"Awards in this industry are... less a marker of prestige or literary quality and more an indication that you've won a popularity contest with a very small, skewed group of voters."

Omfg that was intense

Okay, so... first off, I am LOVING this book. Great pace, interesting science, funny.

Spoiler alert...

But I think I've hit a pretty major plot hole...

if the Iridians live in temperatures hotter than the boiling point of water, wouldn't the solder melt? I mean, it depends how much hotter they need, but the book makes it out like it's "waaay hotter".

OMG NO!