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A Yellow who had amassed a large amount of merits had most likely done so not by worthy civil duty, but by snitching.
don’t call me ‘Bunts.’ That is reserved only for my closest and dearest friends.” “So no one ever uses it, right?”
Sick burn, Eddie.
colour was aspirational. National Colour didn’t simply distribute colour, they were the suppliers of a dream-goal: to bring to our discoloured world the bounteous joy of full colourisation.
If something in our surroundings—object, person, rule or phenomenon—didn’t fit within the strict terms of definition of the Book of Harmony, then it was conveniently dealt with by being ignored.
How many aspects of the modern world are treated as apocrypha...
It had been long suspected that swans might also be of non-biological origin, except the Rules stated they were real, and the Rules were infallible because it said so. In the Rules.
Religious overtones lol
“They are savages,” snorted Celandine disapprovingly. “Base, vulgar and ignorant. I heard they engage in procreative behaviour simply for fun.” “Shocking,” said Bunty. “Congress without benefit to the community is congress wasted.”
Little wonder curiosity was so frowned upon. A frightened population, Jane told me, was a compliant one.
Maybe not in America... There seemed to be plenty of scared people during the pandemic who did NOT want to comply.
Higher Purples often referred dismissively to their lower-hued brethren as simply: “Bluey-Reds.”
“If there is any way at all I can assist in this effort, please keep it to yourself.”
“I will listen to all the party’s testimony with due diligence, look upon the evidence dispassionately and without bias, then weigh all the factors to arrive at a verdict that supports Mrs. Gamboge’s initial finding: that her son’s death was foul and unnatural and that the perpetrators be punished forthwith.” “You have already made up your mind?” asked Carlos as he glanced at me. “I am not here to impugn upon the word of a much-respected Yellow,” he said. “I am here merely as a formality.
Ugh. Too real.
it didn’t have to be like this: the Rules weren’t the problem, it was their unchangingly rigid interpretation that made them unworkable.
Hey there, common Christian view of the Bible
In truth, the crackletrap had only two attributes that were incontestable: it had cost a vast amount of communal cash merits in its construction, and was of no use to anyone at all.
Is this book just a complete satire of American society? The human condition even? Sheesh!
the past was not only unknown, but unknowable.
Things don’t have to have a reason or explanation—isn’t life vexing enough without mysteries and unknowns to divert us from happiness? When I found out how rainbows worked it didn’t improve my life, so neither will the knowledge regarding zoological barcodes.” “Wait, you know how rainbows work?”
I’d rather to be a happy fool than a dead expert.”
Human barcodes were so far unreadable, but considered to also be Taxa—hence the name “index finger.”
You and I are joined as one—trusted and indivisible unto death.” “Married?” I said. “Marriage is for hopeless romantics,” she said. “What we have is bigger than that.” “Love?” “Nope. Love fades, and entanglements of emotion lead to irrationality of decision. We have a bond of mutual trust and understanding, forged in the furnace of shared jeopardy.” “Oh,” I said. I must have sounded disappointed, for Jane asked: “Why, would it help our relationship if I told you I loved you?” “Not so much now you’ve diluted it with preamble.”
She stared at me, and if I didn’t know right now if she loved me I was a bloody fool and never would.
subjects that make it out are never let back in. You can have answers, but knowing them is all you’ll have. Muse on that before asking.”
