Saturday, January 18, 2020

"Only long enough to make a beginning"


I might come back later and do a full Book Covers post on this — the 1958 science-fiction novel 43,000 Years Later by Horace Coon. But for now I just wanted to share this excerpt, which I came across while flipping idly through the book:
"The most incredible thing about humans was not in their achievements, their art, their technical advancement, nor even their congenital irrationality. What strikes me most forcibly at this stage of our investigation was the prodigality, the pure and simple wickedness of the way in which they wasted their most precious possession — time. And not only time, but the stupidity and silliness with which they wasted their whole lives. I have studied the gravestones. Apparently their medical science could not advance the average age beyond seventy years, although many lived much longer. Now seventy Earth years is only long enough to acquire a background and a familiarity with their planet, only long enough to make a beginning. Humans did not realize what they could do with the few hours they had."

2 comments:

  1. I am pleased with your choice of photo-staging props.

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  2. Reading it now. Finding it full of interesting, satirical and insightful passages like the one you present.

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