How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
Please, he thought, don't let the arcade fall apart, too. Bad enough that friends disappeared, people were killed and buried in the real world, but let the arcade run along the way it was, please, please… (34.51)
Despite Mr. Auffmann's warning about man and machine never getting along, Doug invests more and more of his sanity in them as the book goes along. What are the equivalent machines today—the ones in which we invest our sanity, on which we become dependent, even though we know there's always a chance they'll fall apart?
Quote #8
Here in the world of people you might give time, money, and prayer with little or no return.
But there in the arcade you could hold lightning with the CAN YOU TAKE IT? Electrical machine when you pried its chromed handles apart as the power wasp-stung, sizzled, sewed your vibrant fingers. (34.53-54)
Ah, how awesome the world must have been before people got all litigious. The inability to electrocute yourself at will for amusement is but one of the many casualties of human greed.
Quote #9
In the arcade, then, you did this and this, and that and that occurred. You came forth in peace as from a church unknown before. (34.55)
Interesting that a boy so invested in ritual should view an arcade as a kind of church. What other rituals bring us comfort, and in what other ways are churches like arcades?