Peter

“So that was love, then? Nhika thought. The things we protect and the people we can’t live without?”
― Vanessa Le, The Last Bloodcarver

“Proud as he was of it, he hadn’t forgotten the cost: the poor human children who’d been taken from their world and made into vessels. No matter how much Venkat might miss his family, no matter how much he wanted to have them again, he couldn’t pay that price. Anything bought in purloined youth and burnout could only ever be tainted, no matter how well intentioned.”
― Shveta Thakrar, The Dream Runners

“The rise of the English novel in the eighteenth century is inseparable from the rise of Calvinism and capitalism, which formed an unholy alliance to spread a gospel of industry and productivity (after chattel slavery and stolen land in the Americas made England rich and created a glut of resources). Calvinism focused on individual salvation, and a vision of “stewardship” in which every person needed to work hard to improve their situation on earth—which dovetailed nicely with capitalism’s new emphasis on relentless production.”
― Charlie Jane Anders, Lessons in Magic and Disaster

“In the wake of any slow-developing disaster that hits the news—a hurricane, or a flood, or a war—there’s this infuriating thing that Zoey always heard people say about the victims: “Why didn’t those people just get out of there when they knew what was coming? Why are they so stubborn?” Infuriating, of course, because of the blithe presumption that everyone actually has somewhere to go. If you’re someone to whom even a cheap hotel is an unthinkable extravagance, and all of your friends already have extended family sleeping on their living room floor, all you can do is hunker down and hope the storm takes a last-second turn. You don’t have a choice. That’s what it’s like being poor—choices are something you sit around and dream about having, some day after you strike it rich.”
― Jason Pargin, Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits