A.C. Grayling: In 2005 when the Songhua River itself was profoundly poisoned by an explosion (no surprise there) at a petrochemical plant, decanting vast quantities of benzene and nitrobenzene into the water, the Chinese government tried to hide the incident. It failed to; think how often it succeeds.
Andrew Brown: The storyline is just gruyere, made up of nothing but cheese and holes.
Caleb Crain: On Cameron's Pandora, the animals cavort with one another much like the peripherals on his desk, plugging and playing at will, and the afterlife is more or less equivalent to cloud computing. Once you upload yourself, you don't really have to worry about crashing your hard drive. Your soul is safe in Google Docs. In a climactic scene, rings of natives chant and sway, ecstatically connected, while the protagonists in the center plug into the glowing tree, and I muttered silently to myself, The church of Facebook. You too can be reborn there.
Amy Wilentz: You have a choice in a situation like the one we're confronting. You can sit back in your chair and fondle your nihilism, or you can try to be original and work toward something creative.
Jennifer Schuessler: Boredom isn't just good for your brain. It's good for your soul.
David Foster Wallace: Bliss -- a second-by-second joy and gratitude at the gift of being alive, conscious -- lies on the other side of crushing, crushing boredom. Pay close attention to the most tedious thing you can find (Tax Returns, Televised Golf) and, in waves, a boredom like you've never known will wash over you and just about kill you. Ride these out, and it's like stepping from black and white into color. Like water after days in the desert. Instant bliss in every atom.
Rebecca Brock: People say to me, "Whatever it takes." I tell them, It's going to take everything.
Philip K. Dick: Never oversee or criticize what they take. It's not worth it. Just see what you've got left afterward, and go with that.
Caleb Crain: Wouldn't you like to be the vampire of yourself? Wouldn't you like to live in an alternate reality, at the cost of consuming yourself?
Michael Osinski: Oyster farmers eat lots of oysters, don't they?
Richard Wiseman: We are far more like somebody watching ourselves than somebody in charge of ourselves.
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