Inside Man

by K.J. Parker

While there’s life, at the very least there’s being here, even if here is a shitheap. Not being here, even in a shitheap, is nothing at all.

counted by the camp commandant. Even you mortal humans can grasp the simple truth that went over our heads like a flock of migrating geese. What was the first thing He did? Let there be light. And as soon as you have light, you have its inevitable opposite: the absence of light, the places where the sun don’t shine. Not being stupid, He knew precisely what the consequence would be, but He went ahead and did it anyway. He didn’t actually say, Let there be darkness, but it was very strongly implied, you bet.

There’s never a pig around when you need one, so I slide in through the ear of the nearest camel and wait for him. I don’t have to wait long.

I give him a sour look. “Your lot was wrong about one thing,” I say. “It’s not the eye of a needle that’s a bitch to go through, it’s the proper channels.

In the beginning was the Word. It proved to be untranslatable. They

We fought the Lord, and the Lord won. That doesn’t mean we were wrong. Just weaker.

“You won’t get away with this, and you won’t achieve anything. Nobody will even know. And there’s nothing in the universe of time and space more pathetic than an unnoticed martyr.”

It’s a bit far-fetched, but try and imagine a war between two sides: One’s unimaginably stronger, and the other can’t die. The strong one always wins, but he can never win. The weak one keeps getting shredded, but can’t be defeated, not so long as he resists. Opposes,