Railsea Quotes

“People have wanted to narrate since first we banged rocks together & wondered about fire. There’ll be tellings as long as there are any of us here, until the stars disappear one by one like turned-out lights.”
― China Miéville, Railsea

“Technically, our name, to those who speak science, is Homo sapiens— wise person. But we have been described in many other ways. Homo narrans, juridicus, ludens, diaspora: we are storytelling, legal, game-playing, scattered people, too. True but incomplete. That old phrase has the secret. We are all, have always been, will always be, Homo vorago aperientis: person before whom opens a vast & awesome hole.”
― China Miéville, Railsea

“Do please,” said Captain Naphi, “expedite this journey relevance-ward.”
― China Miéville, Railsea

“Humans like nothing more than to pigeonhole the events & phenomena that punctuate their lives.”
― China Miéville, Railsea

“Heaven might not be what everyone thinks it is, but that don’t mean it’s a myth.”
― China Miéville, Railsea

“There were times, Sham felt, when the captains regretted there being only two types of limb they could lose to their obsessions.”
― China Miéville, Railsea

“There was a time when wen we did not form all our words as we do now, in writing on a page. There was a time when the word "&" was written with several distinct & separate letters. It seems madness now. But there it is, & there is nothing we can do about it.

Humanity learned to ride the rails, & that motion made us what we are, a ferromaritime people. The lines of the railsea go everywhere but from one place straight to another. It is always switchback, junction, coils around & over our own train-trails.

What word better could there be to symbolize the railsea that connects & separates all lands, than “&” itself? Where else does the railsea take us, but to one place & that one & that one & that one, & so on? & what better embodies, in the sweep of the pen, the recurved motion of trains, than “&”?

An efficient route from where we start to where we end would make the word the tiniest line. But it takes a veering route, up & backwards, overshooting & correcting, back down again south & west, crossing its own earlier path, changing direction, another overlap, to stop, finally, a few hairs’ width from where we began.

& tacks & yaws, switches on its way to where it’s going, as we all must do.”
― China Miéville, Railsea

“History seemed meaningless here, or at least bewildered.”
― China Miéville, Railsea

“Standing there on his new perch, Sham was overwhelmingly bored of feeling overwhelmed. The more he worked, he realized, the quicker he worked.”
― China Miéville, Railsea

“Имало е време, когато не сме оформяли всички думи както сега при изписването им върху страница. Имало е време, когато думата „&“ се е изписвала с една точно определена буква. Сега това изглежда налудничаво. Но това е така & ние с нищо не можем да го променим.

Човечеството се научило да се придвижва по релсите & това движение ни направило тези, които сме — фероплавателен народ. Линиите на морелсите се простират навсякъде & никога не водят от едно място право на друго. Винаги има зигзази, възли, серпантини около & над собствените ни влакови релси.

Коя дума би могла да символизира по-добре морелсите, които свързват & разделят всички земи, от самото „&“? Къде ли другаде ни отвеждат морелсите освен на това място & на онова, & на онова, & на онова & тъй нататък? & кое ли по-добре въплъщава под замаха на писалката витиеватото движение на влаковете от „&“?

Един експедитивен маршрут от началната до крайната ни точка ще превърне думата в тъничка черта. Но лъкатушен маршрут е нужен — нагоре & назад, подминаване на целта & поправка, пак надолу, на юг, & на запад, пресичане на собствения по-ранен път, смяна на посоката, пак застъпване, за да спрем най-сетне на няколко косъма разстояние от мястото, откъдето сме тръгнали.

& маневри, & отклонения, прехвърляния по пътя към крайната цел, както правим всички ние.”
― China Miéville, Railsea

“Sham felt sure there was something he fervently wanted to do & to which he was excellently suited. Which made the more frustrating that he could not say what it was.”
― China Miéville, Railsea

“Why does everything have to be put into boxes?” they say. & fair enough, up to a point. But this vigorous drive to divide, subdivide & label has been rather maligned. Such conceptual shuffling is inevitable, & a reasonable defence against what would otherwise face us as thoroughgoing chaos.”
― China Miéville, Railsea

“In North Pittman is a particularly striking theology. There, one church memorably teaches that if all the trains were to be still, together, for one moment, if there were no rails percussing the iron road, all human life would wink instantly out. Because such noises are the snoring, the sleep-breathing of a railsea world, & it is the rails that dream us. We do not dream the rails.”
― China Miéville, Railsea

“Fights are much taxonomised. They have been subject over centuries to a complex, exhaustive categoric imperative. Humans like nothing more than to pigeonhole the events & phenomena that punctuate their lives.”
― China Miéville, Railsea

“Time was doing what time always does, going faster & faster as if downhill.”
― China Miéville, Railsea