Quotes
So, once upon a time I read about a book by Mark Twain, and in this book Satan sends letters back to heaven describing the amazing oddity that is humanity. My immediate thought was "o shit Kira would love that book" and I sought to find it next time I needed reading material.
Kira does, in fact, love this book. I've marked out passages I felt fitting to be transcribed here. I'll share them as I go through it.
Satan to Gabriel and Michael, regarding Man:
Moreover - if I may put another strain upon you - he thinks he is the Creator's pet. He believes the Creator is proud of him; he even believes the Creator loves him; has a passion for him; sits up nights to admire him; yes, and watches over him and keeps him out of trouble. He prays to Him, and thinks He listens. Isn't it a quaint idea? Fills his prayer with crude and bald and florid flatteries of Him, and thinks He sits and purrs over these extravagancies and enjoys them. He prays for help, and favor, and protection, every day; and does it with hopefulness and confidence, too, although no prayer of his has ever been answered. The daily affront, the daily defeat, do not discourage him, he goes on prayer just the same. There is something almost fine about this perseverance.
Regarding Man's imagined Heaven:
First of all, I recall to your attention the extraordinary fact with which I began. To wit, that the human being, like the immortals, naturally places sexual intercourse far and away above all other joys - yet he has left it out of his heaven! The very thought of it excites him; opportunity sets him wild; in this state he will risk life, reputation, everything - even his queer heaven itself - to make good that opportunity and ride it to the overwhelming climax. From youth to middle age all men and all women prize copulation above all other pleasures combined, yet it is actually as I have said: it is not in their heaven; prayer takes its place.
-Mark Twain, Letters from the Earth
Kira does, in fact, love this book. I've marked out passages I felt fitting to be transcribed here. I'll share them as I go through it.
Satan to Gabriel and Michael, regarding Man:
Moreover - if I may put another strain upon you - he thinks he is the Creator's pet. He believes the Creator is proud of him; he even believes the Creator loves him; has a passion for him; sits up nights to admire him; yes, and watches over him and keeps him out of trouble. He prays to Him, and thinks He listens. Isn't it a quaint idea? Fills his prayer with crude and bald and florid flatteries of Him, and thinks He sits and purrs over these extravagancies and enjoys them. He prays for help, and favor, and protection, every day; and does it with hopefulness and confidence, too, although no prayer of his has ever been answered. The daily affront, the daily defeat, do not discourage him, he goes on prayer just the same. There is something almost fine about this perseverance.
Regarding Man's imagined Heaven:
First of all, I recall to your attention the extraordinary fact with which I began. To wit, that the human being, like the immortals, naturally places sexual intercourse far and away above all other joys - yet he has left it out of his heaven! The very thought of it excites him; opportunity sets him wild; in this state he will risk life, reputation, everything - even his queer heaven itself - to make good that opportunity and ride it to the overwhelming climax. From youth to middle age all men and all women prize copulation above all other pleasures combined, yet it is actually as I have said: it is not in their heaven; prayer takes its place.
-Mark Twain, Letters from the Earth