How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
And where he should continue his art was obvious: with Secrets of the Ages. He had spent five years on the cantos of that sequence, poems such as "Secrets of the Child," "Secrets of the Young Lovers," "Secrets of the Old." But his "Secrets of the Dying" had been an arrant fake, written before he really started to die—no matter that people seemed to think it was the most profound canto of the sequence. But now... yes, something new: "Secrets of the One Who Came Back." The ideas were coming and surely verse would follow. (3.45)
When you finish the book, you know that Robert will never get to writing that verse that he thinks he will. In fact, most of what we get of his poetry are these titles, which seem to break down life into fairly recognizable sections: child, young person, old person, dying person. Basically: don't the titles sound very generic?
Quote #2
Those were almost the only books in the house. This family was effectively illiterate. Sure, Miri bragged that many books were visible any time you wanted to see them, but that was a half truth. The browser paper that Reed had given him could be used to find books online, but reading them on that single piece of foolscap was a tedious desecration. (3.61)
If you had a dime for every time Robert called someone illiterate, you would have around half a dollar. And Robert doesn't make any excuses for the people close to him. Robert says this (they are "effectively illiterate") even though his next comment agrees that he could find books online. He basically seems to be a physical book snob here, right? Now here's a question that a website shouldn't ask: is he right to be a snob for physical books?
Quote #3
Some mornings, his mind was awash with ideas for "Secrets of the One Who Came Back" and his revision of "Secrets of the Dying." Yet none of these morning brainstorms contained poetical detail. He had the ideas. He had concepts down to the level of verse blocks. But he didn't have the words and phrases that made ideas into beauty. (3.108)
We hit pretty hard on the idea that Robert can't write poetry anymore… although the book hits pretty hard on that idea, too. It might seem unfair to Robert to say he can't write poetry—look, he still has ideas! Doesn't that count for something? Well, Robert doesn't think so and he's the expert. As long as he can't put words together, he's not really a poet anymore.
Quote #4
And then Juan wasn't really aware of the words anymore. He was seeing; he was there. His mind floated above the little valley, scooted up the creek bed, had almost reached the foot of Pyramid Hill... when suddenly Robert Gu stopped talking, and Juan was dumped back into the reality of his place at the rear end of Ms. Chumlig's composition class. He sat for a few seconds, dazed. (6.29)
But then we get to this section in Chapter 6, when Robert struts his poetry stuff. And Robert may not be particularly impressed by what he can do, but look at the effect it has on Juan, one of those illiterates that Robert looks down on. Juan is blown away—almost literally, since his mind seems to travel virtually over the area that Robert is poetizing about. Notice how Vinge uses one long line to express Juan's virtual movement ("His mind floated") and how an ellipsis ("…") interrupts that virtual experience. Why not break that long sentence up? Why not use a dash instead of an ellipsis?
Quote #5
Sharif had filtered out the plagiarists and the sarcastic jerkoffs. That left very little. So much for high technology. He had spent the last two semesters propping up Blandings's career in Deconstructive Revisionism. In the remaining time, he worked at a 411 job for the American Poetry Association and did his best to craft a thesis out of vapor. He had come to America hoping for old-world insight into the literature that he loved. (10.40)
Sharif might be the second biggest lover of literature after Robert. But even though Sharif loves literature and came to America to study it, it's not working out so well for him. First, there are all the academic shenanigans that go on (plagiarists and sarcastic people); second, there's the professor who isn't very helpful; third, there's the job and the trouble doing his thesis homework. He sounds like a lot of graduate students we know now.
Quote #6
Juan Orozco was distinctly less able than the students of Robert's experience. By twentieth-century standards he was subliterate... except where he needed words to access data or understand results. Okay, perhaps he was not subliterate. Maybe there was some other word for these crippled children. Paraliterate? (14.51)
Finally, Robert is beginning to use "subliterate" and "illiterate" less frequently when describing people around him. By this point, Robert is willing to admit that Juan isn't much dumber than the people from Robert's time as a teacher. It sure is nice of him to recognize that these "crippled children" have certain skills that he doesn't, like silent messaging.
Quote #7
A drug dealer, by God! Robert almost laughed for real. But then he considered himself, his smooth skin, his ability to run and jump and scarcely feel out of breath. What's already happened would be magic by the standards of my past life. Yes, this might be a drug dealer, but so what? (14.138)
Robert may laugh at first at the idea that drugs (or surgery) could get him back him poetic talent, but this is the future! Notice how quick Robert is here to come around: His first two lines are skeptical, but by the third line, he's already beginning to accept the idea. And this is another measure of how desperate Robert is to get his poetry back. If he's willing to take drugs from a drug dealer, you know he's desperate.
Quote #8
"You three are Knights Guardian. And I'm a Librarian Militant. It's all from Jerzy Hacek's Dangerous Knowledge stories."
Blount nodded. "You never read any of those, did you, Robert?"
Robert vaguely remembered Hacek from about the time he retired. He sniffed. "I read the important things." (15.129-131)
Not only does Robert starts out as a snob about physical books, he's a snob about the type of books he reads. So Robert may love poetry (or at least his poetry; he thinks Kipling is "jingoistic elevator music" (7.16)); but when it comes to Hacek, you can count him out. (Final question: Hacek seems like fantasy to us, but what description do we hear about those made-up books?)
Quote #9
"We represent books as near-living things, creatures that serve and bewitch their readers. Terry Pratchett and then Jerzy Hacek have been playing on that theme for years. But we really didn't appreciate the power of it all. We have some of the best Hacek belief circles helping with this." (15.148)
Writing is usually a pretty solitary pursuit (unless you're writing a screenplay at a coffee shop, in which case, so is everyone around you); but when a book is let out into the world, it can gain a life of its own—and a pretty social life at that. Here librarian Carlos Rivera describes how the Geisel library is taking that metaphor and making it literal: the books here act as if they are alive (as in the books of Pratchett and Hacek). Also, note that this virtual world—that started with a single author writing a book—has become a social activity, with the "Hacek belief circles" pitching in to help.
Quote #10
"Can we expect something new under the sun? For the first time in human history, a new Secret of the Ages?"
Ah. "You're right, there is room for something more. But you know—some secrets are beyond the expression of those who experience them." (35.15-6)
After all that trouble (nearly getting arrested by Homeland Security and all), Zulfi Sharif still wants to know if there's going to be some more poetry. Which shows how dedicated he is to poetry. But what does it say about Robert that he claims here that some experiences can't be captured in expression? Is he just saying that he can't do it? Or is he actually saying that literature can't "communicate" everything?