How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Quarry-speech used memories to carry messages. (9.40)
Miri finally figures out that quarry-speech isn't transmitted just through song, or through people working in the quarries—it's a means of communicating via shared memories. Now she just has to put her knowledge into action.
Quote #2
The sight of Olana shivered, and her memory of the game expanded, seeming immediate and clear. Half the girls stood right up, and the rest flinched or jumped or shook their heads as if trying to jiggle water out of their ears. (10.41)
Miri may think that she doesn't have a lot in common with the other girls now that they're grown up, but they still share a lot of the same childhood memories. Never underestimate the power of childhood games in bringing people together.
Quote #3
Miri clapped her hands together. "It must be true. I've been thinking that quarry-speech works in memories. If two people have the same memory, like Esa and me, then we might imagine the same scene. But if not, then the quarry-speech nudges the nearest memory." (10.68)
Quarry-speech seems pretty complicated and sophisticated. How does the linder even know which memories to choose? This completely refutes the saying dumb as a rock.
Quote #4
It was her own memory, but stronger, vivid, pulled forward to the front of her thoughts, and full of color. And she knew it was Peder speaking that memory, the way she knew the smell of baking bread—it had the sense of him. (11.68)
Quarry-speech even carries the memory of the person who's communicating it. What a wonderful way to reach those closest to you—with those special experiences that you've shared.
Quote #5
"No," said Britta. "Does that make me a bad person? I miss other people from the lowlands—a woman who used to take care of me, a family that lived nearby. But my father was always gone, and my mother was…" she shrugged, unable to finish her sentence. (14.83)
Britta doesn't seem to miss the lowlands as much as she should. Maybe her memories of being at home aren't as happy as the ones she has of her new friends on Mount Eskel. It sounds like she lived a pretty sheltered and lonely childhood.
Quote #6
"Your pa is a house with shutters closed," said Doter. "There are things going on inside that a person can't see, but you sense he has a wound that won't heal." (14.123)
Miri's pa has some memories that he's kept to himself all these years, which has led to misunderstandings between him and Miri. It's only when Miri learns the truth about her mother's death that she better understands her pa's point of view.
Quote #7
The memory was a time when she, Esa, and other children had played Wolf and Rabbit in the village center. Miri had been the rabbit and run as fast as she could flee around the circle. She could not see the face of the wolf.
With sickening terror, Miri thought she understood. Esa was telling her to run. (19.50-51)
The memory Esa sends Miri may be a game, but the message is no game. She's using a frivolous childhood memory to warn Miri and tell her that she needs to run as fast as she can—right now. There's a real life wolf on the way.
Quote #8
"One lifetime ago bandits came to Mount Eskel," she said.
At the sound of that phrase, all the girls looked up. It was the first line in the story told every spring holiday. (21.52-53)
Mount Eskel villagers have a culture all their own, including shared stories that they can all tell from memory. In order to creep the bandits out, the girls turn to the old story of bandits invading Mount Eskel that they hear every spring holiday.
Quote #9
There was nothing special about that day. It was just one of many from her childhood, one hour out of thousands she had spent beside Peter. But the thought of it made her feel warm. (21.88)
Memories don't have to be momentous in order to be special. When Miri remembers all the times that she's spent with Peder just hanging out and talking, she feels more comforted than she could from a memory of any big occasion.
Quote #10
His response was immediate—the mountain cat hunt. Miri was seven again, standing in her doorway, watching some thirty men and women set out to hunt down a mountain cat that had stalked the village's rabbits. (22.5)
The mountain cat hunt memory is an interesting thing for Peder to choose, but it tells Miri everything she needs to know. The villagers have come to save the girls, and they're armed and determined to catch the new mountain cat a.k.a. the bandits.