Polostan (Bomb Light #1)

by Neal Stephenson

But miracles no longer belonged in the Soviet Union, so ice and gravity were doing their best to tear it all down.

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“I’m not altogether joking,” she said. “Got to start somewhere. And if he has an eye for a hobo in blue jeans—” “Let me tell you something, girl,” Booker said. “I almost called you child, but this is not child talk. When it comes down to it, men do not care. They got an eye for everything.” “Then why do women—” “Women dress that way for each other. You want to make friends with a girl, you go get yourself all dressed up. With a boy? Better think twice.”

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Some of them seemed to understand it, though, or at least could write a decent story about it, which amounted to the same thing as far as Dawn was concerned.