Home > Work > Our Friends from Frolix 8
1 " I am life,’ the girl said.‘What?’ he said, startled.‘To you, I am life. What are you, thirty-eight? Forty? What have you learned? Have you done anything? Look at me, look. I’m life and when you’re done with me, some of it rubs off on you. You don’t feel so old now, do you? With me here in the squib beside you.’Nick said, ‘I’m thirty-four and I don’t feel old. As a matter of fact, sitting here with you makes me feel older, not younger. Nothing is rubbing off.’‘It will,’ she said. "
― Philip K. Dick , Our Friends from Frolix 8
2 " God is dead,' Nick said. 'They found his carcass in 2019. Floating in space near Alpha.''They found the remains of an organism advanced several thousand times over what we are,' Charley said. 'And evidently could create habitable worlds and populate them with living organisms, derived from itself. But that doesn't prove it was God. "
3 " Describe a cat for me,’ Morgo said. ‘Let it take shape in your mind. All your recollections and associations with cats.’ Thors Provoni thought about cats. It seemed a harmless thing to do as they waited out the six days until they reached Earth.‘Opinionated’ Morgo said at last.‘Me, you mean? On the subject?’‘No, I mean cats. And self-centred.’Angrily, Provoni said, ‘A cat is loyal to its master. But shows it in a subtle way. That’s the whole point, a cat gives himself to no one, and this has been his way for millions of years, and then you manage to knock a chink in his armor, and he rubs against you and sits on your lap and purrs. So, because of his love for you, he breaks the inherent genetic behavior-pattern of two million years. What a victory that is.’‘Assuming the cat is sincere,’ Morgo said, ‘Rather than trying to cadge extra food.’‘You think a cat can be a hypocrite?’ Provoni asked. ‘I’ve never heard an insinuation of insincerity directed towards cats. Actually, much of the critisism comes from their brutal honesty; if they don’t like a person then shit, they’re of to someone else.’‘I think,’ Morgo said, ‘When we get to Terra I would like to have a dog. "
4 " You know, these great planet-wide and inter-planet-wide wars break out and everyone is supposed to be thinking of the ideologies involved . . . whereas in actuality most people simply want a good, safe night’s sleep. "
