The Book of Strange New Things

by Michel Faber

when sophisticated technology fails, primitive technology steps in to do the job.

visualise the world map as a huge thick sheet of plastic floating on the sea, like a raft, with crowds of people balancing on it. And sometimes too many people stand together on one bit and it starts to sink. You just run to another bit where it’s better, he said. Then when THAT bit starts to sink, you move again. There’s always places where things aren’t so bad: cheaper accommodation, cheaper food, cheaper fuel. You go there and it’s OK for a while. Then it stops being OK and you get the hell out. It’s what animals do, he said. ‘Animals don’t live in countries, they just inhabit territory. What do animals care if a place has a name? Names don’t mean shit.

There are times of our lives when we feel indestructible even though quite a lot of things are going wrong, and other times when everything is going well yet we feel anxious and fragile from the moment we wake up.

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

We lack what we fundamentally need and forge ahead regardless, hurriedly hiding our wounds, disguising our ineptitude, bluffing our way through our weaknesses.

All the scars ever suffered by anyone in the whole of human history were not suffering but triumph: triumph against decay, triumph against death.