How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"But what—?"
"A fragment of a play, or a dialogue, it seems. I've seen it before. It's something about some people creating some artificial people as slaves. And the slaves revolt against their makers. If Thon Taddeo had read the Venerable Boedullus' De Inanibus, he would have found that one classified as 'probable or allegory.'" (22.82-83)
What goes around comes around, eh, Taddeo? Though a fan of objective thinking, Taddeo is as susceptible to reconstructing his memory of the past to suit his present worldview as the Church he scorned earlier. Bam.
Quote #8
"We only know what that thing says, and that thing is a captive. The Asian radio has to say what will least displease its government; ours has to say what will least displease our fine patriotic opinionated rabble, which is what, coincidentally, the government wants it to say anyhow, so where's the difference?" (26.9)
In the world of tomorrow, that thing (read: the not-so-futuristic radio) presents information at the speed of sound. But faster information doesn't mean better information. And history and personal memory still get fused together. Just wait until these characters get a hold of the internet.
Quote #9
That's where all of us are standing now, [Zerchi] thought. On the fat kindling of past sins. And some of them are mine. Mine, Adam's, Herod's, Judas', Hannegan's, mine. Everybody's. (26.13)
We've talked a lot about memory distorting the past, but let's remember that the past really does influence the present. In this case, it's imagined as the pyre upon which the world will be burned, making distortion a dangerous proposition.