Queer Quests

Book reviews, recommendations, and general book talk

[queerquests]

We know how to live in a world without tuberculosis. But we choose not to live in that world.

—John Green, Everything Is Tuberculosis

[queerquests]

We are powerful enough to light the world at night, to artificially refrigerate food, to leave Earth's atmosphere and orbit it from outer space. But we cannot save those we love from suffering. This is the story of human history as I understand it—the story of an organism that can do so much, but cannot do what it most wants.

—John Green, Everything Is Tuberculosis

[queerquests]

Joy is a glimmer of love and forgiveness and wholeness that lifts us out of reality for a moment and gives us back to ourselves, anew.

—Kate Bowler, Joyful, Anyway

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It remains one of the great curiosities of American religious development that enslaved Africans and their descendents so readily embraced the faith of their oppressors, and then so adeptly reshaped it into a liberation theology.

—Henry Sack, Mother Emanuel: Two Centuries of Race, Resistance, and Forgiveness in One Charleston Church

[queerquests]

The missionaries could only fulfill the calling of slave conversion with the acquiescence of white enslavers. But white trust could only be gained through the corruption of Christian values.

—Henry Sack, speaking of missionary work in Southern slave communities in the 18th century in Mother Emanuel: Two Centuries of Race, Resistance, and Forgiveness in One Charleston Church

[queerquests]

Despite their lengthy cohabitation, Christianity and slavery had always made for uncomfortable bedfellows. For all the scriptural references to slaveholding, for all the assurances of religion's sedative effects, the owners of America's chattel recognized that Christianity, left unchecked, could encourage a subversive egalitarianism.

—Kevin Sack, Mother Emanuel: Two Centuries of Race, Resistance, and Forgiveness in One Charleston Church

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[queerquests]

It was the builders, not the takers, who changed the world.

—Brandon Sanderson, The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England

[queerquests]

In space, no one can hear you scream like a little girl.

—Andy Weir, The Martian

[queerquests]

I'm just going to sit in the acceleration couch and hope for the best.

—Andy Weir, The Martian

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Well, if I could have anything, it would be for the green-skinned yet beautiful Queen of Mars to rescue me so she can learn more about this Earth thing called "love-making."

—Andy Weir, The Martian

[queerquests]

I started the day with some nothin' tea. Nothin' tea is easy to make. First, get some hot water, then add nothin'.

—Andy Weir, The Martian

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I'll spend the rest of the evening enjoying a potato. And by "enjoying" I mean "hating so much I want to kill people."

—Andy Weir, The Martian

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As soon as the rover toppled, I curled up into a little ball and cowered. That's the kind of action hero I am.

—Andy Weir, The Martian

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Tomorrow night, I'll be in Giovanni Schiaparelli's favorite hole!

—Andy Weir, The Martian

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I can't wait until I have grandchildren. "When I was younger, I had to walk to the rim of a crater. Uphill! In an EVA suit! On Mars, ya little shit! Ya hear me! Mars!

—Andy Weir, The Martian

[queerquests]

This valley wasn't made by a river slowly carving it away. It was made by a mega-flood in a single day. It would have been a hell of a thing to see.

—Andy Weir (about Mawrth Vallis on Mars), The Martian