Telluria Quotes

“We must not take anyone else's karma upon ourselves, not even in small matters," the brigadier continued. "Especially now in our renewed, postwar world. Take a look at the Eurasian continent: after the collapse of the ideological, geopolitical, and technological utopias, it was finally plunged back into the blessed and enlightened Middle Ages. The world returned to humans scale. Nations found themselves. Man ceased to be the sum of the technology around him. Mass production is living out its final years. There aren't two identical nails beaten into humanity's head. Man regained a sense of the things, started to eat healthy grub and ride horses again. Genetic engineering helps man to feel his true size. Man has regained his faith in the transcendental. Regained his sense of time. We're not rushing anywhere anymore. Most importantly-we understand that there can be no technological heaven on earth. And, in broader terms, no heaven at all. Earth has been given to us as an island of overcoming. Everyone chooses what to overcome and how to overcome it. And they make that choice themselves!”
― Vladimir Sorokin, Telluria

“In the thirteenth century, the Mongols entered Europe after conquering Russia. Economically, it was an incomparably daintier tidbit than the semideserted peasantries of Russia. The knights of Europe gathered together an army and, near Budapest, there was an epoch-deciding battle between the nomads and the Europeans. The nomads utterly destroyed the Europeans. Europe lay before them. But they didn’t even enter Budapest. After camping for a little while beneath its walls, they turned around and headed back to the steppes of Russia. For what reason did the army of Khan Batu neither enter nor conquer Europe? The Mongols explained it in this way: There’s not enough room for our horses in European cities. Having been born on vast steppes, they felt insecure on city streets. They didn’t understand urban spaces. It follows that one cannot conquer or attempt to possess that which one doesn’t understand.”
― Vladimir Sorokin, Telluria