How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"Excuse me, do you happen to know what time it is?" My voice sounded almost normal. That was good.
"Let's see…" He turned his head and looked back toward Broadway like maybe there was a giant clock hovering in the air right behind us. "It's three-sixteen."
I nodded like I could see the invisible clock too. (10.4-6)
How can Marcus tell time if he's not wearing a watch – and doesn't look at one? How is Marcus's understanding of time different from Miranda's?
Quote #5
"If they land in the broccoli at eight twenty-five, they should be in the broccoli at eight twenty-five. Period."
"That makes no sense," I said. "What if they couldn't do it – save Meg's father and get back in one piece?"
"Then they wouldn't have landed in the broccoli at all. But they did do it, right?"
"Yes, but- the end can't happen before the middle!"
He smiled. "Why can't it?" (14.54-58)
Miranda and Marcus are discussing a scene from Madeline L'Engle's novel A Wrinkle in Time. Marcus says the novel made a mistake because the kids in the garden should have seen themselves in the broccoli if they really returned home five minutes before they left. Meg doesn't understand. Do you?
Quote #6
"Einstein says common sense is just habit of thought. It's how we're used to thinking about things, but a lot of the time it just gets in the way."
"In the way of what?"
"In the way of what's true." (14.62-64)
Miranda is using common sense, but Marcus is using Einstein. Here he argues that his understanding of time may not make sense to Miranda, but that doesn't mean it's not true. The truth is more complicated than the way we might commonly understand it to be.