Top highlights from Remarkably Bright Creatures
Humans. For the most part, you are dull and blundering. But occasionally, you can be remarkably bright creatures.
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Why can humans not use their millions of words to simply tell one another what they desire?
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As a general rule, I like holes. A hole at the top of my tank gives me freedom. But I do not like the hole in her heart. She only has one, not three, like me. Tovas heart. I will do everything I can to help her fill it.
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It seems to be a hallmark of the human species: abysmal communication skills. Not that any other species are much better, mind you, but even a herring can tell which way the school it belongs to is turning and follow accordingly. Why can humans not use their millions of words to simply tell one another what they desire?
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Tova has always felt more than a bit of empathy for the sharks, with their never-ending laps around the tank. She understands what it means to never be able to stop moving, lest you find yourself unable to breathe.
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Tova knew there was a bottom to those depths of despair. Once your soul was soaked through with grief, any more simply ran off, overflowed, the way maple syrup on Saturday morning pancakes always cascaded onto the table whenever Erik was allowed to pour it on himself.
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Some trees arent meant to sprout tender new branches, but to stand stoically on the forest floor, silently decaying.
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Humans are the only species who subvert truth for their own entertainment. They call them jokes. Sometimes puns.
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Ah, to be a human, for whom bliss can be achieved by mere ignorance! Here, in the kingdom of animals, ignorance is dangerous. The poor herring dropped into the tank lacks any awareness of the shark lurking below. Ask the herring whether what he doesnt know can hurt him.
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Secrets are everywhere. Some humans are crammed full of them. How do they not explode? It seems to be a hallmark of the human species: abysmal communication skills.
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Tova wonders sometimes if its better that way, to have ones tragedies clustered together, to make good use of the existing rawness. Get it over with in one shot. Tova knew there was a bottom to those depths of despair. Once your soul was soaked though with grief, any more simply ran off, overflowed, the way maple syrup on Saturday-morning pancakes always cascaded onto the table whenever Erik was allowed to pour it himself.
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Tell me again about the intelligence of humans. They cannot even manage to comprehend predictable meteorological events.
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Humans For the most part you are dull and blundering. But occasionally you can be remarkably bright creatures.
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But I do not like the hole in her heart. She only has one, not three, like me.
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All of these things had been stored away for her to pass along someday, relics to be carried up the branches of the family tree. But the family tree stopped growing long ago, its canopy thinned and frayed, not a single sap springing from the old rotting trunk. Some trees aren't meant to sprout tender new branches, but to stand stoically on the forest floor, silently decaying.
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Conscience does make cowards of us all.
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Last year, Terry threw a little baby shower for the entire staff, all eight of them, when the seahorses spawned. Mackenzie had stayed after her admissions shift to blow up balloons and paint a banner that read GIDDY-UP, LITTLE COWBOYS! Dr. Santiago, the veterinarian, had dropped by with a cake that read, in cursive icing: HIP-HIP-HOORAY FOR HIPPOCAMPUS BABIES!
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The parents will grow old atop this mountain of a family theyve built, and even if parts of it crumble, from time to time, there will be enough left to support them.
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If I had a clam for every time I heard someone call them [wolf eels] hideous or ugly, I would be a very plump octopus indeed.
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But I have grown to enjoy the bucket. With the bucket comes a sensation of total nothingness, which, in most ways, is more pleasant than the everything-ness.
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He devoted a whole panel to the etymology of the term, its derivation from ancient Greek, its shared meaning with the scientific term for the seahorse genus, and its mythological connection to sea monsters. Maybe we all have sea monsters living in our brains,
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But I do not like the hole in her heart. She only has one, not three, like me. Tovas heart. I will do everything I can to help her fill it.
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CAMERON STILL CANT seem to wrap his head around the shape of the sea here. Its like a monster with hundreds of long fingers is gripping the edge of the continent, tendrils of deep blue cutting channels through the dark green countryside in every unexpected way.
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The beginning of Mary Anns ending, the first sentence of her last chapter. Unable to continue living on her own. Reverted to childlike dependence.
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Katie had gone through a phase where she tried to ban phones from their bedroom after she read some article about how the light was addictive. Messed up your brain waves somehow. Hed always assumed it was nonsense, but now his eyes burn in the screens glow and his brain feels scrambled.
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Why does he remember shit like this? If only he could cleanse his brain of the useless knowledge clogging it up. Gaining speed after turning onto the highway that runs out to Aunt Jeannes trailer park, Cameron rolls down all the windows and lights a cigarette, which he never does anymore, only when he feels like garbage; and this morning he feels like hot, steaming garbage.
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