Jena Parnes’s Reviews > A Psalm for the Wild-Built > Status Update

“You keep asking why your work is not enough, and I don't know how to answer that, because it is enough to exist in the world and marvel at it. You don't need to justify that, or earn it. You are allowed to just live. That is all most animals do."
😭

“What is wrong with me that I can have everything I could ever want and have ever asked for and still wake up in the morning feeling like every day is a slog?"

As someone who has celiac, I totally get this. I’ve experienced it often enough. Sharing food is cultural. Human. Being unable to share food or feed others is awkward. Because you’re not participating.

Dex raised an eyebrow. "That's a little macabre."
"Do you think so?" said Mosscap with surprise. "Hmm. I disagree." It absently touched a soft fern growing nearby, petting the fronds like fur. "I think there's something beautiful about being lucky enough to witness a thing on its way out."

“So, the paradox is that the ecosystem as a whole needs its participants to act with restraint in order to avoid collapse, but the participants themselves have no inbuilt mechanism to encourage such behavior.”
“Other than fear.”

Of course they meet the robot when they’re butt naked. Lol