I Was Needed, But I Myself Did

The Idea That An Author Can Extricate Her Or His Own Ongoing Life Experience From The Tale Being Written Is A Conceit Of Very Little Worth.

More Than One Philosopher Has Claimed That We Ever Remain Children, Far Beneath The Indurated Layers That Make Up The Armour Of Adulthood. Armour Encumbers, Restricts The Body And Soul Within It. But It Also Protects. Blows Are Blunted. Feelings Lose Their Edge, Leaving Us To Suffer Naught But A Plague Of Bruises, And, After A Time, Bruises Fade.

None Could Guess My Confusion, My Host Of Deluded Illusions And Elusive Delusions! A Mantle Of Marble Hiding A Crumbling Core Of Sandstone. See How They Stare At Me, Wondering, All Wondering, At My Secret Wellspring Of Wisdom...' Let's Kill Him,' Crokus Muttered, 'if Only To Put Him Out Of Our Misery.

Morality Was Not Relative, They Claimed, Nor Even Existing Solely In The Realm Of Human Condition. No, They Proclaimed Morality Was An Imperative Of All Life, A Natural Law That Was Neither The Brutal Acts Of Beasts Nor The Lofty Ambitions Of Humanity, But Something Other, Something Unassailable

Kallor Said: "i Walked This Land When The T'lan Imass Were But Children. I Have Commanded Armies A Hundred Thousand Strong. I Have Spread The Fire Of My Wrath Across Entire Continents, And Sat Alone Upon Tall Thrones. Do You Grasp The Meaning Of This?" "yes," Said Caladan Brood, "you Never Learn."