The Only Harmless Great Thing

by Brooke Bolander

Without stories there is no past, no future, no We. There is Death. There is Nothing, a night without moon or stars.

If you do not know how to die, never trouble yourself; nature will in a moment fully and sufficiently instruct you; she will exactly do that business for you; take no care for it. —Michel de Montaigne

The final fruit to be plucked is not rage, but song—a learning song, a teaching song, a joining-together song.