How we cite our quotes: (Chapter. Paragraph)
Quote #10
The huge, heavy, metallic arm came up again. "We are attempting to make peaceful arrival," the elbow said all on one note. "Please inform others that this is peaceful arrival. We do not have any weapons. Great self-destruction follows upon unfounded fear. Please cease destruction of self and others. We do not have any weapons. We are nonaggressive unfighting species." (8.56)
This is the longest version of "we come in peace" that we have ever heard. Why do you think humanity assumed that these peaceful aliens were violent? Are humans just predisposed to interpret everything in terms of violence? Why?
Quote #11
People didn't sit home and watch TV much any more; Fed-peep television was on only two hours a day. The modern way of life was togetherness. This was Thursday; it would be the hand-to-hands, the biggest attraction of the week except for Saturday night football. More athletes actually got killed in the hand-to-hands, but they lacked the dramatic, cathartic aspects of football, the sheer carnage when 144 men were involved at once, the drenching of the arena stands with blood. The skill of the single fighters was fine, but lacked the splendid abreactive release of mass killing. (9.33)
Are we the only ones who are creeped out? We guess the Freudian desire for killing people had to be fulfilled in some way, so people went back to the gladiator days and started watching people kill each other for fun. Yay?