How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"Didn't you say the house alone probably cost a million dollars? Al?""It's a large house but cheaply done," Alfred said with a sudden vigor. "The walls are like paper"
"All the new houses are like that," Enid said (2.74-76)
While modern America boasts technological wonders, it seems like that knowledge is used to make things cheaper—not better. Sure, that new McMansion might be look pretty, but peek behind the curtains and you'll find shoddy craftsmanship and poor design.
Quote #2
If the great Materialist Order of technology and consumer appetite and medical science really was improving the lives of the formerly oppressed [...] then there was no longer even the most abstract utility to his criticism. It was all, in Melissa's word, bulls***. (2.278)
Chip—like his father—isn't fond of what the modern world has to offer. It would be a huge blow to his ego to admit that he was wrong the whole time.
Quote #3
What survived of the Midpac's truck lines had been sold off to enable the company to concentrate on prison-building, prison management, gourmet coffee, and financial services; a new 144-strand fiber-optic system lay buried in the railroad's old right-of-way. (3.211)
The Midpac represents a time in history when you couldn't send someone a text message in an instant—fancy that. Now that the moment has passed, this formerly illustrious company is forced to imprison Americans and serve caffeine addicts to make ends meet.