Favourite quotes?

[nanila]

p. 88, paperback version:
Without feelings insignificant decisions become excruciating attempts to compare endless arrays of inconsequential things. It's just easier to handle those with emotions.

I paused in my reading to savour these statements for quite some time. It was such a wonderful antidote to the commonly espoused belief that emotions always cloud objective judgment, that "being emotional" precludes the ability to apply logic and rational thought. It makes sense. And, if I dare say so, it feels right. I find that an examination of my emotions enhances and clarifies my judgment rather than obscuring it.

As an aside, it has taken me ages to read this book, but not for the usual full-time-job-and-a-kid reason, which has cut down severely on my long-form reading. Instead, it's because it kept giving me these moments when I want to sit and think over a scene and enjoy their pleasurable effects on my brain.

What are some lines that gave you pause? What did they inspire in you?

Comments

[davidgillon]

(And sadly I'm not sure Awn ever dared believe there was real love there).

[nanila]

Agreed. I doubt she would have brought the topic up even in the most intimate private moments.

[kaberett]

Yes. :-( Which makes me cry when I think to hard about it, because - of all the stuff I've been talking about, about feeling oneself beloved on the earth.

(... CRAP THAT IS GOING TO BE A FIC.)

[davidgillon]

Awn is perhaps the character most worthy of that in the entire book, and she never gets the chance to understand that she actually is beloved, and not simply some casual dalliance of Skaaiat's (and I suspect she was as close to beloved by the Orsians as they could come for any Radchaai).