Books Undone But the emptiness has the value and the appearance of plenty. One way of getting is not looking, one way of having is not asking and only believing that the silence I believe to be inside me is the answer to my—to my mystery. Mystery. …
Books Undone Within a year there were fires on the ridges and deranged chanting. […] He thought that in the history of the world it might even be that there was more punishment than crime but he took small comfort from it. This stark quote …
Language Makes Horror Bearable: The Linguistics Behind Tender is The Flesh “His brain warns him that there are words that cover up the world. Words that are convenient, hygienic. Legal.” This is the hidden premise behind a layered …
Scarcity Makes Status: What Dune and Blade Runner Reveal About Prestige My job requires it, he thought, scraping bottom. Prestige. We couldn’t go on with the electric sheep any longer; it sapped my morale. Maybe I can tell her that, he decided. …
“No more terrible disaster could befall your people than for them to fall into the hands of a Hero.” This line cuts against everything modern storytelling has trained us to crave: saviours, chosen ones, and destiny confused with …
“Language was never possible. We never spoke in one voice.” This line captures just a fraction of the novel’s daring ideas about how we speak and how we think. I’m talking about the book that Ursula K. Le Guin once called …
No Exit from Half-Life: Demiurges and Unanswered Questions in Ubik “He felt all at once like an ineffectual moth, fluttering at the windowpane of reality, dimly seeing it from the outside.” This is one of the key ideas behind one of the …
When Books Offend Us: What Our Taste Reveals About Ourselves “You don’t have to burn books, do you, if the world starts to fill up with non-readers, non-learners, non-knowers?” Perhaps that is why we are slowly losing our ability to …
The World Doesn't Need You: Existentialism in Annihilation “My work amounted to a futile attempt to save us from who we are.” This is a quaint statement on the tendencies of humankind, as discussed in a book with so many facets as only …
Lies That Become Truths: Twisted History in Snail “A masterful, highly organised, carefully crafted offensive by the present on the past.” This is the central theme we will analyse on a book banned for over twenty years and now boasting a …
“It was all for them. It revolved around them, only really made sense if they were here—and that itself was a kind of power.” This is a powerful statement made in a book that discusses one’s purpose in life through …
“There must be something in books, something we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t stay for nothing.” This memorable quote belongs to a tale about book burning and …
“If to remember is to be human, then remembering more means being more human.” This is one of the many mind-blowing truths on memory, interwoven in the plot of one of the latest cyberpunks written by the Dr of Cyberpunk …
“There is no flesh or blood within this cloak to kill. Only an idea. And ideas are bulletproof.” Spoken by V, in V for Vendetta, this is one of the most iconic phrases regarding the immortality of ideas and one that has been discussed …
“To retain puzzle pieces that don’t connect, dropped without context, is a skill that not all have.” This is the start of an incredible reflection on reading for world-building, as presented by author Ada Palmer on the foreword of …
“All my falsehoods were recoiling on me, and I, who remembered everything, could not be certain those memories were more than my own dreams.” Memory and truth are two powerful concepts implicitly discussed in two books that redefined the …
“It seemed that even in paradise, men would find reasons to squabble and fight.” This is an interesting take on utopian fiction, that poignantly highlights a common opinion—that utopias are quote-on-quote “unrealistic”. But …
“[We] grew stronger through interpersonal connections. By creating what came to be called ‘society’.” This is a thoughtful consideration of human connections as presented in one of the deepest and most allegorical story-based …
“Life before death. Strength before weakness. Journey before destination.” That is the First Ideal of the Immortal Words for all ten orders of the Knight Radiants present in the Stormlight Archive, a series written by Brandon Sanderson. …
“When selfishness becomes a pathology, there will be many innocent victims.” That is one of the many brutal truths of human behaviour explored in a modern take on first-contact sci-fi. I’m talking about Rejoice: A Knife to the Heart …
“But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.” That is the premise behind the prescribing language proposed in a cautionary tale about the politics of power. It is considered one of the most influential dystopian novels of the …
“If there is no word for it, how do you think about it?” reflects the central topic of a sci-fi masterwork known for its discussion on linguistic relativity. I’m talking about Babel-17, a Nebula Award-winning novel by Samuel R. …
“He doesn’t realise I was a person before I came here,” is one of the many heart-breaking realisations discussed in a sci-fi masterwork centred on neurodivergency and trauma. I’m talking about Flowers for Algernon, a Hugo and …
“It was a pleasure to burn” is the iconic opening of a story that became a staple in the discussion of censorship and book burning—I’m talking of Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury. Let’s get this book undone. Hello everyone, and …
