How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
He wished he could stop time. As much as Mr. Hosokawa was overwhelmed by love, he could never completely shake what he knew to be the truth: that every night they were together could be seen as a miracle for a hundred different reasons, not the least of which was that at some point these days would end, would be ended for them. He tried not to give himself over to fantasies: he would get a divorce; he would follow her from city to city, sitting in the front row of every opera house in the world. Happily, he would have done this, given up everything for her. But he understood that these were extraordinary times, and if their old life was ever restored to them, nothing would be the same. (10.7)
Mr. Hosokawa has started to dream of a completely different future than he could ever have imagined before. Maybe he could be with Roxane Coss for the rest of his life. How dope would that be? But he's also not too sure this would work in the real world. It's a question near the heart of Bel Canto. If something strange and intense like art or crisis opens up a whole new world for you, what happens when the real world comes back? And we're not just talking the next season of MTV's naughtiest show. Kind of the opposite, actually.
Quote #8
He [Messner] sighed. There was no such place as Switzerland. Truly, time had stopped. He had always been here and he would always be here. "I'm afraid those are your two choices," he said. (10.78)
Messner thinks this at a moment when almost everyone else in the story is enjoying life in the house and doesn't want it to change. Others are relishing the sense that time has stopped. But Messner lives half in the real world and half in negotiations in the house, and he realizes that the situation in the house is its own thing, out of the usual experience of time. For him, that's a problem, because he wants to go back to his real life in Switzerland. His hopes and plans are more realistic than most of the others', whether that's good or bad.
Quote #9
It was too much work to remember things you might not have again, and so one by one they opened up their hands and them let go. Except for Messner, whose job it was to remember. And Simon Thibault, who even in his sleep thought of nothing but his wife. (10.94)
In case you hadn't noticed, most of the people in the house forget the hopes, dreams, and plans they had before the crisis. That's what lets them imagine new futures in the house. Thibault has an edge in transitioning back to the reality that's bound to start sneaking back in, and that's because he hasn't forgotten his wife. His love connects him to ordinary life and makes him remember it.