How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
Lena watched the other woman for a second and then she seemed to wilt back into her wheelchair. She looked down at her granddaughter. "Poor Miri. You don't understand. You live in a time that thinks it can ignore the human condition." She cocked her head. "You never read Secrets of the Ages, did you?" (13.107)
For Lena, whose disease can't be cured (and whose ex-husband was a total jerk), all those medical miracles can't change the human condition; as she tells her granddaughter Miri, the future tech "distracts you from the bedrock of reality" (109). This is the meaning of Robert's poem sequence Secrets of the Ages, according to Lena: some stuff can be changed, but the human condition remains the same.
Quote #8
The Mysterious Stranger waved them on through the brush. "A tradition?" he said. "But that would be a plus. Like panty raids and putting automobiles on top of administration buildings. The sort of thing that made American universities great." (21.19)
Of course, to Rabbit/The Mysterious Stranger, it's the prank-like traditions that made American universities great. So it's no wonder that he would want to contribute by making the library riot into a sort of tradition. Which nicely points out how traditions start as change, as something new (and probably disruptive). It's only when it sticks around that it becomes "tradition" and we forget what a big change it was in the first place.
Quote #9
Sometimes decisions come down to one poor slob on the ground. (31.29)
Bob has a lot more firepower in 2025 than he would have in 2013. His command also involves far fewer actual marines (20.135). But some things don't change in a war or battle, like how the soldiers at the scene sometimes have to make decisions for themselves. Note also that this comment of Bob's is present tense and broad—it's not just "this decision," but multiple "decisions." Bob recognizes that this is a situation that will continue to happen without serious change.