I thought it might be useful to collect some of the quotes you analyzed on my blog so we could see them as a group...
“The dead were parted one from the other and could no longer remember the faces and lands they had loved in the light.”
(If, however, I had not read that it was the moon – if, like most of the world’s people throughout time, I had simply glanced up and seen this thing – then I doubtless would not have speculated much, but would of, like Emperor Louis of Bavaria in 840, simply died of fright on the spot.)
"There was no world. We were the world's dead people rotating and orbiting around and around, embedded in the planets's crust."
(Pg. 489, lines 14-20)
“We never looked back. It was a general vamoose, and an odd one, for when we left the hill, the sun was still partially eclipsed- a sight rare enough, and one which, in itself, we would probably have driven five hours to see. But enough is enough. One turns at last even form glory itself with a sigh of relief. From the depths of mystery, and even from the heights of splendor, we bounce back and hurry for the latitudes of home.”
"If there had ever been people on earth, nobody knew it. The dead had forgotten those they had loved. The dead were parted one from the other and could no longer remember the faces and lands they had loved in the light."
"Seeing this black body was like seeing a mushroom cloud. The heart screeched. The meaning of the sight overwhelmed its fascination. It obliterated meaning itself. If you were to glance out one day and see a row of mushroom clouds rising on the horizon, you would at once that what you were seeing, remarkable as it was, was intrinsically not worth remarking. No use running to tell anyone. Significant as it was, it did not matter for a whit. For what significance? It is significance for people. No people, no significance. This is all I have to tell you. "
