“So it was that, after the Deluge, the Fallout, the plagues, the madness, the confusion of tongues, the rage, there began the bloodletting of the Simplification, when remnants of mankind had torn other remnants limb from limb”
This sad narration recounting of past tragedies tells the reader one thing: violence only begets violence. History has proven this, and there is a terribly sad assumption that future generations of men will keep on learning this ugly truth the hard way. This quote is not just a very sad observation of humanity’s fate but also a very cynical one, as if saying that at the very heart of it mankind is truly and irredeemably savage.
“A General Council of the Church for the purpose of making a careful restatement of doctrine concerning the limitation of the magisterium to matters of faith and morals; it was a question which had been settled many times in history, but it seemed to rearise in new forms in every century, especially in those dark periods when man's "knowledge" of wind, stars, and rain was really only brief.”
The quote posits that religion is the go-to source of answers for humanity when science fails. Here the narrator describes how the Church works to create parameters for itself regarding matters of faith and morality—and only during periods where knowledge was patchy at best. Again, there is the treatment of time as cyclical in nature as this particular deliberation about doctrinal presentation had been settled at least a handful of times in the past.
“Brother Sarl finished the fifth page of his mathematical restoration, collapsed over his desk, and died a few hours later. Never mind. His notes were intact. Someone, after a century or two, would come along and find them interesting, would perhaps complete his work. Meanwhile, prayers ascended for the soul of Sarl.”
This is a fine example of the black humor inserted in the novel. The ignominious passing of Bro. Sarl, ironically and sadly, would actually be the most peaceful deaths in the novel. This is quote is also a good example of how time and life are seen as cyclical rather than linear as there is the implication that his work will be continued by someone else.
“And the hate said: Let us stone and disembowel and burn the ones who did this thing. Let us make a holocaust of those who wrought this crime, together with their hirelings and their wise men; burning, let them perish, and all their works, their names, and even their memories. Let us destroy them all, and teach our children that the world is new, that they may know nothing of the deeds that went before.”
Although it is the omniscient narrator speaking the lines it is interesting to note how it is attributed to “The Hate” and not “The Simpletons.” The narrator makes it a point to label this mass state of madness that is in operation—he is saying this because it is literally the hate of the millions of suffering disenfranchised individuals that is fueling the cycle of violence that has gripped the world. Another driving detail here is that this statement is a collective cry of outrage and dismay. Outrage that the leadership they had chosen had burned the world and dismay that all scientific and moral parameters have failed to prevent such a disaster from happening.
