Words&Dirt

“He was always conscious of the swiftly passing days, and the unsolved mysteries around them.  He was becoming more and more certain that something was about to happen, and that they would have to abandon Rama even before it reached perihelion––the moment of truth when any orbit change must surely take place.

‘Now listen, Hub, Rome, London––everyone,’ he said. ‘I want a report at every half-hour through the night.  We must assume that from now on we may expect visitors at any time.  Some of them may be dangerous, but at all costs we have to avoid incidents.  You all know the directives on this subject.’

That was true enough; it was part of their training––yet perhaps none of them had ever really believed that the long-theorized ‘physical contact with intelligent aliens’ would occur in their lifetimes––still less that they would experience it themselves.

Training was one thing, reality another; and no one could be sure that the ancient, human instincts of self-preservation would not take over in an emergency.  Yet it was essential to give every entity they encountered in Rama the benefit of the doubt, up to the last possible minute––and even beyond.

Commander Norton did not want to be remembered by history as the man who started the first interplanetary war.”

––Rendezvous with Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke, loc. 2255-63

“Many parents today are horrified when their children come home from school innocently using the verbs suck, bite, and blow, unaware of their origin as words for fellatio.  But those parents probably gave just as little thought to their own use of the now-innocuous sucker (from cocksucker), jerk (from jerk off), and scumbag (a condom).”

––The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature, by Steven Pinker, pg. 328