How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph) or (Feed Chatter #.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Are you having a good time? She asked.
The moon really isn't working out, I said.
Next time, maybe you should try Mars.
Yeah, I've been to Mars, I said. It was dumb.
Suddenly, she laughed. Are you serious?
Yeah, I'm serious.
Omigod, she said. Mars is a whole planet.
And it's dumb!
She was like, Dumb?
She was starting to piss me off.
I said, Yes, dumb.
The whole world?
Dumb.
The whole world.
Dumb.
Oh, this is golden.
The Red Planet was a piece of s***. (5.71-87)
Here's Titus' 21st century equivalent: "Yeah, I've been to Europe. It was boring. No, really. It was so dumb. All those old buildings and stuff, like can't they put in new plumbing, or find someone to wash the windows? And I could hardly get wifi anywhere."
Quote #2
... In other news, protests continued today against the American annexation of the moon. Several South American countries including Brazil and Argentina have submitted requests to join the Global Alliance in response. President Trumbull spoke from the White House. "What we have today, with the things that are happening in today's society, is..." (17.33)
Uh-huh. America is trying to colonize the moon, and other countries aren't too happy about that. That sounds familiar.
Quote #3
... which the President denied in an address early on Tuesday. "It is not the will of the American people, the people of this great nation, to believe the allegations that were made by these corporate 'watch' organizations, which are not the majority of the American people, I repeat not, and aren't its will. It is our duty as Americans, and as a nation dedicated to freedom and free commerce, to stand behind our fellow Americans and not cast... things at them. Stones, for example. The first stone. By this I mean that we shouldn't think that there are any truth to the rumors that the lesions are the result of any activity of American industry. Of course they are not the result of anything American industry has done. The people of the United States know, as I know, that that is just plain hooey. We need to remember... Okay, we need to remember that America is the nation of freedom, and that freedom, my friends, freedom does not lesions make." The President is expected to veto the congressional... (ChatterFeed3.1)
Okay, Mr. President. Things start off well here, but they degenerate rapidly from "allegations," "duty as Americans," and "free commerce" to "not cast … things at them" and "freedom does not lesions make." Wait, what? Where is Titus' English-to-English wordbook when you need it?
Quote #4
"There was this one time? And I was flying along at night and I shined the light down at the ground, to look at the tops of all the suburb pods? And all over the top of them, it looked like it was moving, like there was a black goo? So I turned up the brightness, and I went down, and I shined it more bright, and it turned out the black moving goo was all these hordes of cockroaches. There were miles of them, running all over the tops of the domes. They kept on trying to get out of the light, so wherever you shined it, there would be this—" (22.24)
Feel free to read the plague of cockroaches as a symbol for the moral and ethical decay that's rampant in the near-future America that Anderson envisions. We certainly look at it that way.
Quote #5
Now that SchoolTM is run by the corporations, it's pretty brag, because it teaches us how the world can be used, like mainly how to use our feeds. Also, it's good because that way we know that the big corps are made up of real human beings, and not just jerks out for money, because taking care of children, they care about America's future. It's an investment in tomorrow. When no one was going to pay for the public schools anymore and they were all like filled with guns and drugs and English teachers who were really pimps and stuff, some of the big media congloms got together and gave all this money and bought the schools so that all of them could have computers and pizza for lunch and stuff, which they gave for free, and now we do stuff in classes about how to work technology and how to find bargains and what's the best way to get a job and how to decorate our bedroom. (25.4)
Titus chatters away here about a very real concern in American society of today: the education crisis and the push from some sectors of society to dismantle the public school system and to make everything private. Sound good to you? Not in Anderson's view. All the right catchphrases are here—love that "investment in tomorrow"—but all the corporations really care about is investing in themselves.
Quote #6
"... what the President meant in the intercepted chat. This was, uh, nothing but a routine translation problem. It has to be understood, that... It has to be understood that when the President referred to the Prime Minister of the Global Alliance as a 'big s***head,' what he was trying to convey was, uh--this is an American idiom used to praise people, by referring to the sheer fertilizing power of their thoughts. The President meant to say that the Prime Minister's head was fertile, just full of these nutrients where ideas can grow. It really was a compliment. We should say again that any attempt to withdraw the Alliance's diplomatic presence from American soil will be taken as a sign of ill will, and, uh, we are likely to respond with the most stringent..." (FeedChatter5.1)
Looks like the President was busy running his mouth, and he insulted the Prime Minister of the Global Alliance. Note how he falls all over himself to give the absolutely ridiculous explanation that "big s***head" could actually really be a compliment. A for effort, but really, this is just one more of Feed's examples of American arrogance
Quote #7
Smell Factor wasn't listening to anything. He had some crappy kids' music show blasting in his feed so loud his aud nerves were probably shot.
[. . .]
"Intercrural or oral! Ain't a question of moral!" (27.3,47)
So, here's what passes for a "kids'" show in this near-future America: Smell Factor's children's programming is telling him that either one of these sexual activities is just A-OK. We're not necessarily objecting to the message, but we feel pretty comfortable objecting to that message being broadcast on children's programming.
Quote #8
"... which is why I ask it. Consider: The United States has been instrumental in the overthrow of truly genocidal dictatorships. We dole out billions of dollars each year in foreign aid. We support failing economies. We give harbor to many who seek our shores. We are trying to do what is right. We are trying to do what is—" (FeedChatter11.4)
Okay, true: the U.S. has helped overthrow dictatorships. But did they do it out of the goodness of their heart… or because they like to bully their way into getting what they want, like new populations to create their consumer goods?
Quote #9
... the poor sales of the Ford Laputa in the Latin American market can't be explained by... (38.17)
It sounds like someone needs a Spanish-to-English wordbook: of course this car wouldn't sell very well in Latin America, since "puta" is the Spanish word for "whore." American ignorance and arrogance strikes again.