Smell Is A Very Animal Thing, Almost

If This Goes Badly And I Make A Crater, I Want It Named After Me!

What Is All Your Studying Worth, All Your Learning, All Your Knowledge, If It Doesn't Lead To Wisdom? And What's Wisdom But Knowing What Is Right, And What Is The Right Thing To Do?

But It Was Pointless, It Was Stupid; He Thought About Thoughtless Things. If I Were A Seabird . . . But How Could You Be A Seabird? If You Were A Seabird Your Brain Would Be Tiny And Stupid And You Would Love Half-rotted Fish Guts And Tweaking The Eyes Out Of Little Grazing Animals; You Would Know No Poetry And You Could Never Appreciate Flying As Fully As The Human On The Ground Yearning To Be You. If You Wanted To Be A Seabird You Deserved To Be One.

Stories Set In The Culture In Which Things Went Wrong Tended To Start With Humans Losing Or Forgetting Or Deliberately Leaving Behind Their Terminal. It Was A Conventional Opening, The Equivalent Of Straying Off The Path In The Wild Woods In One Age, Or A Car Breaking Down At Night On A Lonely Road In Another.

One Should Never Mistake Pattern For Meaning.