How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"When a thing has history in it. Listen. One of those two Zippo lighters was in Franklin D. Roosevelt's pocket when he was assassinated. And one wasn't. One has historicity, a hell of a lot of it. As much as any object ever had. And one has nothing. Can you feel it?" He nudged her. "You can't. You can't tell which is which. There's no 'mystical plasmic presence,' no 'aura' around it." (5.24)
Everyone's got an opinion about history and authenticity—usually an opinion that makes them feel better, right? Here's Wyndam-Matson explaining to his girlfriend-mistress-date how history is all subjective. These two lighters are exactly the same, unless you know which was at a critical turning point in history.
Quote #5
"They halt the Germans' eastward advance into Russia at some town on the Volga. We never heard of this town, but it really exists because I looked it up in the atlas." "What's it called?" "Stalingrad. And the British turn the tide of the war, there." (5.76-8)
Rita tells W-M the plot of The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, including the alternate history that the author invented for it. Now, from our POV, this Grasshopper book's history sounds familiar to ours, but also different. Stalingrad was a huge battle, but the British weren't involved. A lot of reading this book (for the first time) is noticing those little tweaks to history.
Quote #6
"We must all have faith in something," Mr. Tagomi said. "We cannot know the answers. We cannot see ahead, on our own." (5.100)
Like Frink, Tagomi feels that the future is an unknowable thing. We can never be sure of what's coming. But for Tagomi, this acceptance of ignorance comes with a need for some "faith in something." Does Frank share that idea that you've got to have faith in something?