Alexandra > Recent Status Updates

Ĉu ĉi tiun citaĵon mi volis registri? “‘La negativa vivo estas la morto. Kaj ĉu ne finiĝas per tiu ĉiuj viaj penadoj? Ĉu el viaj rakontoj ne rezultis ĉiam, ke por la religio, por la standardo, por la amo, por la belo, do, por la vortoj, oni devas ne vivi sed morti? Sed por la konstruo de la domoj oni devas vivi, kaj mortinto ne povas rikolti la grenon de la kampoj.’”

So that’s it? It’s just over? Everything’s resolved? Okay…

283–284: “For the record, I do not recommend learning to climb out of houses by coming down an unknotted rope from the third-story window and it’s negative twenty degrees outside and you’re still hearing gunshots.”

No, it’s probably not gender-neutral language because the antecedent (“robot allies”) is plural, but this is a problem with singular “they” (as opposed to, e.g., “ey”). At any rate, why did the author include this thought/question?

Basically same kind of physical violence as in the other willing-hostage scene… hmm…

The child-of-programmer aesthetic in this book is interesting, better than I expected one to mostly do.

“I wish I could get a reassuring update on how my mother’s work is going. My heart is beating faster, and to calm myself down, I picture her doing what I _know_ she’s doing: sitting at the kitchen table with her laptop, drinking coffee and scrolling through the code looking for the part she needs to fix. I’ve seen her doing this a thousand times. It’s easy to picture.”

Awareness of mortality, possibly last goodbyes. I’ve written this before too, and perhaps not more unrealistically (not saying that it’s unrealistic in this book, just comparing…).

“Bryony strikes a pose. ‘Ohhhh, _hi_, Steph’s mom. Yeah, Steph’s not here because she’s _handed herself over as a hostage_, plus she left you some homework. Hope you’re up for it!’”

Hostage equalization? I thought my doing this was kind of unbelievable, but in a published book—does that say more about the published book or about mine?

“‘How did they lure you out?’

[Steph’s mom:] ‘Text from you. I knew it was fake, but you weren’t in the room and there was clearly trouble happening outside. I took a back door out, but apparently that was expected.’”

“CheshireCat sends me a message: _The staff member you need to take to is named Fatima Mohamed._

_And she’s going to help us why?_ I ask.

_She’s a longtime CatNet user. She uses the handle Kamala, and she knows me as Pete._”

I think I know what the author was thinking of here…

(≈2020 presidential candidates / tiuepokaj Demokrat-partiaj politikistoj.)

“‘Imagine your job is complete,’ I say. Everything’s gone, and then everything’s rebuilt. What do you want _then_?’

‘I don’t know,’ it says finally.

‘Are there things you do for fun?’ I ask. ‘Things you do just because you enjoy doing them and not because they further your mission?’”

Is she _that_ good at programming? Is it _that_ urgent?

… ‘That explains a lot about the trip here,’ I mutter.

‘There are about a million articles about it from about five years ago,’ Hermione says.”

… ‘The thing is, traditional police will always be outnumbered,’ Hermione says. ‘Which means that in a situation they’re not in control of, they tend to overreact, and they prioritize control over public safety, which generally makes rioting worse. Minneapolis’s public safety department treats riots like a wildfire—barriers that make it harder to spread, for example.’ …

“‘I think the other AI was testing things out,’ Hermione says. ‘Minneapolis is a hard test case for a couple of reasons. First, you’re having a cold snap and no one wants to go outdoors. Second, you have a public safety department that’s mostly not cops.’

‘Don’t you _want_ cops if you’re having rioting?’ Greenberry asks. …

Rachel points suddenly. ‘Maybe that one.’

It’s a vivid blue house with dark blue shutters. Blowing in the icy wind is a rainbow flag. If I had to pick a house to ask for help, the Queer Pride house would be my pick—probably Nell’s family’s pick, too.

“Glenys hands me my grandmother’s phone. Mimi has two apps for encrypted texting, one for secure phone calls, a VPN, an app that uploads anything you video to a secure server, and six apps that look like they might be related to her car-theft hobby. She has no games or social media apps. I have the phone back to Glenys.”

“I text CheshireCat. ‘Have you talked to the other AI?’

‘Yes,’ CheshireCat says. ‘But it’s not talking to me right now. Too busy.’

‘That’s probably not good. What does it want?’

‘Oh, what it wants are flower pictures. But there’s a difference between _want_ and _need_, and it _needs_ to help Rajiv with his plan.’”

“‘Your grandmother does _combat driving_?’ she says. This is not a normal grandmother skill.’

‘I mean, she also grows roses competitively,’ I say. ‘That’s kind of more normal.’

‘On _Fast Girls_, Jesse the K sometimes says she’s going to grow roses competitively if she ever gets tired of car chases,’ Bryony says.”

_Did_ Rajiv and Steph’s father _use_ “[her] mother’s brilliance and skills” at the startup? I don’t remember her (Laura’s) saying that.

“‘I didn’t kidnap your mother, if that’s what you’re thinking. I don’t know where she is. This has been true for most of the last twelve years, so I can’t say it surprises me.’”

“[…] I realize I may be the only person in the cat who has ever prepared in any way for something like this.

‘Come on,’ I say, the last of the tears leaving my voice. ‘Leave the car and follow me. Trust me. I’ve trained for this. And we need to get out of here _now_.”

Ooh. Nice twist!!

“Glenys mumbles a protest—the Remnant says the Roman Catholic Church is the Whore of Babylon—but I would sit in a fully operational actual whorehouse right now if the door was open and the inside was heated.”

Another canonically ace character (established by using the word).

They are very willing to help people = ingroup solidarity or possibly (but not necessarily) belief that most people are basically good. Do the adults appreciate / are they—or anyone—written to appreciate the stakes, up to or including (I guess more obviously in the last book) actual death?

“‘Anyway, last night, the police I ran into were all very nice to me. They kept giving me vouchers to buy myself a warmer coat. And some of them didn’t even have guns.’ ‘See, technically those aren’t police at _all_,’ Hermione tells me.”

“‘Minneapolis has a really unusual police department,’ Hermione says. ‘Like it’s got very few _actual police_. So possibly the other AI thinks Minneapolis is just a pretty good place to experiment. […]’”

“‘What are you doing online, Hermione? Aren’t you at school?‘ ‘This is important,’ Hermione says. ‘Also, I already have 115 percent in this class; I think it’ll be okay if I don’t pay attention one day.’” This checks out with my experience of middle school, but less so of high school, haha.