Chapter 37

• “We go along the corridor, and through another flat grey door and along another corridor, softly lit and carpeted this time, in a mushroom colour, browny-pink.”
• “I can stare, here, look around me, there are no white wings to keep me from it.”
• feels curiously light; as if a weight had been removed from it, or substance.
• “The women are sitting, lounging, strolling, leaning against one another”
• “There are men mingled with them (…) they form only a kind of background”
• “The women on the other hand are tropical”
• “Some are in bathing suits, one-piece or bikini; one, I see, is wearing a crocheted affair, with big scallop shells covering the tits. Some are in jogging shorts and sun halters, some in exercise costumes like the ones they used to show on television, body-tight, with knitted pastel leg warmers. There are even a few cheerleaders’ outfits”
• “All wear makeup, and I realise how unaccustomed I’ve become to seeing it”
• ““It’s like walking into the past,” says the Commander. His voice sounds pleased, delighted even.”
• “A movie about the past is not the same as the past.”
• “as he talks his spine straightens”
• “It occurs to me that he is showing off. He is showing me off, to them, and they understand that they are decorous enough, they keep their hands to themselves, but they review my breasts”
• It's a juvenile display, the whole act, and pathetic; but It's something I understand.
• “he leads me away again, to a puffy flowered sofa of the kind they once had in hotel lobbies”
• ““It means you can’t cheat Nature,” he says. “Nature demands variety, for men. It stands to reason, it’s part of the procreational strategy. It’s Nature’s plan.”
• "Why did they buy so many different clothes, in the old days? To trick the men into thinking they were several different women. A new one each day."
• ““Well, some of them are real pros. Working girls” – he laughs – “from the time before. They couldn’t be assimilated; anyway, most of them prefer it here.”
• Maybe he believes it. Maybe he doesn't, or maybe he does both at the same time.
• “we have quite a collection. That one there, the one in green, she’s a sociologist. Or was. That one was a lawyer, that one was in business, an executive position”
• “I’m told you can have quite a good conversation with her if all you feel like is talking”
• ““You’d have to watch your weight, that’s for sure,” he says. “They’re strict about that. Gain ten pounds and they put you in solitary.” Is he joking? Most likely, but I don’t want to know.”
• “[the outfit] doesn’t quite fit Moira”
• “She has a black bow tie around her neck and is wearing black net stockings and black high heels. She always hated high heels.”
• “why are rabbits supposed to be sexually attractive to men?” [...] “a devil outfit”
• “a devil outfit”
• her spine sag slightly
• “Then she makes a small motion of her head, a slight jerk to the right. [...] Then she turns her back on me. Our old signal.”
• ““Just show them your tag,” he says. “It’ll be all right. They’ll know you’re taken.””