The Hour of the Star Life, Consciousness, and Existence Quotes Page 1
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| Quote #1 Everything in the world began with a yes. One molecule said yes to another molecule and life was born. (1.1) |
Okay, so we start off positively enough: if molecules can say yes to each other and connect together to make life, why shouldn't we?
| Quote #2 But before prehistory there was the prehistory of prehistory and there was the never and there was the yes. It was ever so. I do not know why, but I do know that the universe never began. (1.1) |
Whew. This is setting us up for a Major Story—it's not just going to be some little insignificant tale about a poor girl in a slum but a story that might actually help us understand something about the nature of the universe. That is, if we can even understand what this guy is saying.
| Quote #3 How does one start at the beginning, if things happen before they actually happen? If before the pre-prehistory there already existed apocalyptic monsters? If this history does not exist, it will come to exist. (1.3) |
If Macabéa represents all the poor, hungry, sick people in the world, it's hard to say that there's a "beginning" to this story at all. After all, is there a beginning to poverty? Or is it the result of complex economic, political, and social forces that are so tangled it's not even possible to trace their origins?
