How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph) or (Feed Chatter #.Paragraph)
Quote #1
I guess if I'm honest? Then I was hoping to meet someone on the moon. Maybe part of it was the loneliness of the craters, but I was feeling like it was maybe time to hook up with someone again, because it had been a couple of months. At parties, I was starting to get real lonely, even when there were other people around me, and it's worse when you leave. (1.8)
We find out right away that one of Titus's motivations is that he's looking to hook up—so, successful moon trip? He's been without a youch unette (that's "hot chick" for all you uncool types) for a few months, and is looking to get back in the game. Sounds like a great basis for a lasting relationship.
Quote #2
I was unhappy because Loga and I had been a diad, and now when I ran into her at high speeds it wasn't anything like when Link ran into her at high speeds. I thought she and I should have a little secret way of collision. But usually we sailed right past each other. (2.13)
Sad face. Loga and Titus were once an item, but the connection's fizzled: when they bump into each other at The Ricochet Lounge (literally), there's no magic. She's all about throwing herself (again, literally) at Link. Way to literalize things for us, Anderson.
Quote #3
She sat down in the chair by my bed. I could see the curve of her nose against my pulse, which was green and bumpy.
We sat there for a little while. I was thinking, This is nice. We're just sitting here. We don't have to say anything.
I felt real contented. I lay my head back on my pillow. (12.13-15)
Here, Titus bonks us over the head with the idea that Violet is special. Earlier, he said he needs the noise of friends; here, it's the exact opposite. With Violet, there's no need for words. They can be comfortable just hanging with each other, not saying anything—and not m-chatting anything, either.
Quote #4
I hoped she could see my smile in the light of my brain. (12.27)
If you took this line out of context (which we just did), it would sound like a line from any teen romance. Truth: you might even scribble something like this in your top-secret diary. Teens of the future: they're just like us! Only with lesions.
Quote #5
She was staring at me, and I was staring at her, and I moved toward her, and we kissed. The vines beat against each other out in the gray, dead garden, they were all writhing against the spine of the Milky Way on its edge, and for the first time, I felt her spine, too, each knuckle of it, with my fingers, while the air leaked and the plants whacked each other near the silent stars. (15.12)
Whoa there, Titus. This is some meg poetic imagery for a guy who's probably never read a book in his life. Notice the parallelism in the imagery of the "spine of the Milky Way" and Violet's spine, which Titus is feeling up? This is a clue that, while Titus may have started out just wanting to hook up, he's going to end up falling hard.
Quote #6
It was great because we had music on our feeds, and it was the same music, so I knew she was hearing the same notes that I was hearing, and our heads were moving together, and she put her hand near the lift lever, so when I got to the exit tube and went to lift us, her hand was there, and our fingers closed over the lift lever, and we lifted it together, and were flung up into the sky. (18.12)
They're in the same upcar and they're also connected to the feed, listening to the same tunage the same way you might share iPod earbuds with your boo, each of you listening to the music through one earbud. So far, so cliché.
Quote #7
She leaned close to my head and took a handful of my hair in her hand and pulled my head down. She whispered, "Keep thinking." You can hear our brains rattling inside us, like the littler Russian dolls. (20.67)
The heat of the moment fires up Titus's brain enough to produce another one of his metaphors: he thinks of the noise their brains are making as the noise made by those Russian dolls clacking inside each other. It's a pretty effective way of describing how close the two of them are in that moment—we just might use it ourselves someday.
Quote #8
It was a strange moment, like when you get sad after sex, and it feels like it's too late in the afternoon, even if it's morning, or night, and you turn away from the other person, and they turn away from you, and you lie there, and when you turn back toward them, you can both see each other's moles. Usually there seem to be shadows from venetian blinds all across your legs. (33.25)
Titus comes up with this sad image shortly after he and Violet have their first big fight. The imagery of turning away from the other person, and the shadows of venetian blinds like the bars of a prison, reinforce Anderson's point that people have problems making deep connections to each other. But you know what? These aren't just problems of the future. Forming and sustaining relationships is hard in any century, feed or no feed.
Quote #9
When school ended for the year, Link and Marty and I went to one of the moons of Jupiter to stay with Marty's aunt for a few weeks. It was okay. We had a pretty good time. By that point, I was going out with Quendy, and I kind of missed her. (55.1)
Well, that didn't last long. School's over, and Titus is over Violet. Keep in mind the timeframe: Violet and Titus met during spring break, and school has just let out, so that means Titus has been through three relationships (if we count Loga) in about the space of four to six months. Maybe that life-changing experience with Violet wasn't so life-changing after all.
Quote #10
"It was thus that I realized that my daughter would need the feed. She had to live in the world. I asked her if she wanted it. She was a little girl. Of course she said yes. It was installed." (57.16)
Sometimes, love makes us do really stupid things—like get a feed permanently installed in our daughter's brain. Violet's dad loves his daughter and realizes that she'll need the feed to survive in this brave new world. Too bad it just ends up killing her.