-Herman Hesse, Glasperlenspiel
Ender sat on his bed with his desk on his knees. It was private study time, and Ender
was doing Free Play. It was a shifting, crazy kind of game in which the school computer
kept bringing up new things, building a maze that you could explore. You could go back
to events that you liked, for a while; if you left them alone too long, they disappeared and
something else took its place.
-Orson Scott Card, "The Giant's Drink"
-Orson Scott Card, "The Giant's Drink"
Not a Game
"Selling books is like a game; it has rules, and you have to learn them and get serious about them because it's not a game!"
A Stock Phrase used on characters frivolous – or apparently frivolous – in the face of a Matter of Life and Death.
"This isn't a game." or "We are not playing a game."
— Evan, Black Books
I don't know why we are here, but I'm pretty sure that it is not in order to enjoy ourselves.
-Ludwig Wittgenstein
"And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."
-SCENE V. Dunsinane. Within the castle.
Enter MACBETH, SEYTON, and Soldiers, with drum and colours
"On the journey I said to myself, 'I am going into the world of
men. I don't know much, perhaps, but a new life has begun for me.' I
made up my mind to be honest, and steadfast in accomplishing my task.
Perhaps I shall meet with troubles and many disappointments, but I have
made up my mind to be polite and sincere to everyone; more cannot be
asked of me. People may consider me a child if they like. I am often
called an idiot, and at one time I certainly was so ill that I was
nearly as bad as an idiot; but I am not an idiot now. How can I possibly
be so when I know myself that I am considered one?"
-Prince Myshkin
"Not an Idiot Now"
Part II
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
"At least he's dedicated to something. Too many
people float around this world doing nothing! Just smoking, drinking and
having ten children. But as many of you say, he is still a bit of an
idiot."
"They were so clever, keeping the truth from him all this time. But now was it going to backfire on
them. If Ender understood that it was not a game, that the real war had come down to this moment,
then he might make some desperate effort, or with his genius he might even come up with an
answer to a problem that, as far as Bean could see, had no solution."
-Ender's Shadow
-Joseph Campbell
New commands, actions and triggers coming soon!
"Furthermore, we have not even to risk the
journey alone; for the heroes of all time have gone before us; the
labyrinth is thoroughly known; we have only to follow the thread of the
hero-path. And where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall
find a god; where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay
ourselves; where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the
center of our own existence; where we had thought to be alone, we shall
be with all the world."
Google 'Horrible Paintings', first hit
Google 'Horrible Paintings,' twenty-first hit
Hesse is no black humorist. Black humorists' holy wanderers find nothing
but junk and lies and idiocy wherever they go…. Not so with the
wanderers of Hesse; they always find something satisfying—holiness,
wisdom, hope. (p. 108)
-Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. "Why They Read Hesse"
