Help me find a passage in 2312
July 29, 2019 10:23 AM Subscribe
I have a memory of a passage from Kim Stanley Robinson's 2312 that'd I'd love to find and reread. I don't have the book anymore so I can't flip through it, it's the part about cycles and how they interconnect.
Very light spoilers below, but if I remember correctly it's either during or upon reflection of the walk under Mercury, and Fitz Wahram talks about how they view cycles and each as part of a larger whole. Does this job anyone's memory?
Very light spoilers below, but if I remember correctly it's either during or upon reflection of the walk under Mercury, and Fitz Wahram talks about how they view cycles and each as part of a larger whole. Does this job anyone's memory?
It's probably not this but it's one of my preferred Wahram-related passages:
I want to be able to talk to someone and have it mean something to me. I want to hear things that interest me, that surprise me, no matter how impossible I am to surprise. Except in truth I am so easily surprised. How could it be that someone was not there to surprise someone so easily surprised. The saturnine person. What if there was a person you could depend on, someone who was steady, reliable, predictable, resolute; decisive after due thought; generous; kind. Phlegmatic, and yet prone to little gusts of enthusiasm, usually aesthetic pleasures of one sort or other. Happy in danger, a little drunk in danger. Someone capable of loving a landscape. Someone who liked to watch animals and chase them for a look. Someone who looked at her as if figuring her out was an interesting project and not just a problem to be solved, or part of the backdrop in some other more important drama. And looked at everyone else met with that same regard. Often with a little smile that seemed to express pleasure in the company shared. A reserved but friendly manner. If all our acquaintances were characterized in language only, we would look like collectors of contradictions, paradoxes, oxymorons. For every kind of this there was a balance of that. People cut both ways. In someone like him a little cheery laugh began to seem like boisterousness
posted by signsofrain at 12:38 PM on July 29, 2019 [1 favorite]
I want to be able to talk to someone and have it mean something to me. I want to hear things that interest me, that surprise me, no matter how impossible I am to surprise. Except in truth I am so easily surprised. How could it be that someone was not there to surprise someone so easily surprised. The saturnine person. What if there was a person you could depend on, someone who was steady, reliable, predictable, resolute; decisive after due thought; generous; kind. Phlegmatic, and yet prone to little gusts of enthusiasm, usually aesthetic pleasures of one sort or other. Happy in danger, a little drunk in danger. Someone capable of loving a landscape. Someone who liked to watch animals and chase them for a look. Someone who looked at her as if figuring her out was an interesting project and not just a problem to be solved, or part of the backdrop in some other more important drama. And looked at everyone else met with that same regard. Often with a little smile that seemed to express pleasure in the company shared. A reserved but friendly manner. If all our acquaintances were characterized in language only, we would look like collectors of contradictions, paradoxes, oxymorons. For every kind of this there was a balance of that. People cut both ways. In someone like him a little cheery laugh began to seem like boisterousness
posted by signsofrain at 12:38 PM on July 29, 2019 [1 favorite]
I have the eBook of 2312 and have been looking for the passage for you. Any chance you might remember a turn of phrase or relatively unique word that's used in the bit you're looking for? I've searched for both "routine" and "cycle" and didn't find anything that seemed like what you were looking for.
posted by signsofrain at 4:30 PM on July 29, 2019
posted by signsofrain at 4:30 PM on July 29, 2019
Here's another try... doesn't quite jive with what you said you were looking for but maybe...?
My joints are probably just sore from all the walking,” Wahram said.
“Could be. What do you do for aerobics?”
“I walk.”
“That’s not much of a test of your aerobic system.”
“I huff and I puff as I walk and I talk.” Trying to distract her.
“Another quote?”
“I think I made that up. One of my mantras for the daily routine.”
“Daily routine.”
“I like routine.”
“No wonder you’re happy in here.”
“It’s true that there is a routine here.”
posted by signsofrain at 4:35 PM on July 29, 2019
My joints are probably just sore from all the walking,” Wahram said.
“Could be. What do you do for aerobics?”
“I walk.”
“That’s not much of a test of your aerobic system.”
“I huff and I puff as I walk and I talk.” Trying to distract her.
“Another quote?”
“I think I made that up. One of my mantras for the daily routine.”
“Daily routine.”
“I like routine.”
“No wonder you’re happy in here.”
“It’s true that there is a routine here.”
posted by signsofrain at 4:35 PM on July 29, 2019
Response by poster: Thanks all, yeah I may just have to go back and buy a copy to reread it. The sentiment was pretty vivid in my mind about how every day falls into a pattern that's part of a larger pattern etc, of course it could be I'm confusing it for another book entirely! Appreciate the help.
posted by Carillon at 7:25 AM on July 30, 2019
posted by Carillon at 7:25 AM on July 30, 2019
Just a note: your library may have ebooks, so you may be able to borrow it and search passages that way.
posted by kristi at 9:31 PM on August 1, 2019
posted by kristi at 9:31 PM on August 1, 2019
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posted by Carillon at 11:14 AM on July 29, 2019