New York 2140

“We’ve been paying a fraction of what things really cost to make, but meanwhile the planet, and the workers who made the stuff, take the unpaid costs right in the teeth.” 

The potentially exploitative aspects of capitalism disgust Mutt and Jeff. The world could not run without the efforts of the poor and working class who make the products and provide the services that the rich enjoy. Jeff demands justice, which he sees as interchangeable with revenge, on behalf of useful, working people who do not benefit as much from their own labor as their employers, bankers, and traders do. 

“Depressed people did not usually engage in criminal conspiracies.” 

Gen notices that Vlade seems depressed. One of the themes of the book is that the working class is so busy surviving that they do not have time to protest the government or the finance industry. Vlade’s depression stems from the loss of his marriage and child, but his work schedule is also so oppressive that he has no time to devote to conspiracies or crimes. The wealthy and powerful are those with enough time to be proactive with their schemes and plotting. 

“Charlotte was coming to believe that arrogance was a quality not just correlated with but a manifestation of stupidity, a result of stupidity.” 

Charlotte dislikes Mayor Galina Esteban because power has made Galina arrogant. Charlotte views this arrogance as a symptom of Galina’s stupidity, not as the result of being elected to a position of power. Throughout the novel, the most arrogant people are often ignorant in fundamental ways, despite their intelligence in other areas. 

“Efficiency, n. The speed and frictionlessness with which money moves from the poor to the rich.” 

This definition comes from the 2002 International Monetary Fund charter. It stresses one of the novel’s devices: everything, even productive behavior like efficiency, is first defined by its relationship to money. 

“History is humankind trying to get a grip.” 

The unnamed Citizen who narrates many of the chapters has a more cynical view than the other characters. Human resilience does not encourage The Citizen, who sees positive changes in history as anomalies and accidents. He views history as a cycle of people trying and failing to cope with disasters of their own making—in this case, climate change and the various market crashes. 

“No one cares about books, that’s why you can write anything you want in them.” 

Jeff explains his reasons for wanting to hack the code of the 16 laws, rather than write a book or a manifesto outlining his ideas and then hope people agree with his views. This is a sly metafictional joke by Kim Stanley Robinson, who has of course done that exact thing by writing this novel. 

“When you are a small minority and you own the majority’s wealth, security is naturally a primary consideration.” 

The Citizen explains the rise of private security firms after the Second Pulse. The poor, the homeless, orphans, and refugees are constantly fighting to survive. They must protect themselves from the elements and from starvation. Meanwhile, the rich view these oppressed people as their greatest immediate threat and take increased measures to keep them away as the wealth gap grows. 

“This was a simple index, as befitting its subject: inflation plus unemployment.” 

Franklin tells Jojo that the key to his index is measuring misery: There is always a correlation between rising prices, the devaluation of currency, and a dropping unemployment rate. In the submerged areas of New York, prices rise while people lose their homes, jobs, and lives. Misery is the only outcome for the majority of the intertidal population. 

“There is no such thing as purity. It’s an idea in the heads of religious fanatics, the kind of people who kill because they are so good and righteous.”

Amelia mocks the purity group that wants her to keep the polar bears out of Antarctica. They are fighting against what they see as an unnatural geographic defilement. Amelia takes issue with the notion of purity itself. Purity connotes perfection, and the achievement of perfection is unlikely among fallible, whimsical people. 

“How could it be about more than money, when money was the ultimate source of value itself?” 

Part of Franklin’s character shift is his reframing of the concept of value. During his early scenes, Franklin treats value and money as if they are interchangeable words and concepts. But Jojo’s ideas about value investing, and about contributing to social causes while making money, change his approach. 

“Safe and fast are financial opposites.” 

In Franklin’s financial universe, when disaster strikes, a fast response to emergencies means making the biggest profits, despite the risk of acting hastily. Safety requires patience, and patience does not result in financial windfalls. 

“What’s good is what’s good for the land.” 

Amelia’s professor Lucky Jeff has a simple philosophy about how to determine what is ethically and morally good: The state of the land will determine people’s quality of life. The consequences of neglecting the environment are dire. Jeff provides a simple framework for ethical decision-making that could have saved the world from the avoidable tragedy of the Pulses. 

“To her data analysis was the ugly love child of science and Kafka.” 

In the stories and novels of Franz Kafka, main characters often draw irrational conclusions from seemingly confirmable data or suffer as a result of others interpreting information in nonsensical ways. Inspector Gen is suspicious of data analysis, because she has to take the word of the experts in this arcane jargon on faith—and she does not like to rely on others for her work. 

“At this point justice and revenge are the same thing! Justice for people would be revenge on the oligarchs. So yeah, I want both. Justice is the feather in the arrow, revenge is the tip of the arrowhead.” 

Jeff tells Mutt how the peasants revolted to overthrow the monarchy during the French Revolution. Jeff believes the wealthy have exploited the system to such a degree that they deserve to be punished just like the French nobles. In his view, justice and revenge are interchangeable. 

“No one knows anything. But I know less than that, because I thought I knew something, but it was wrong. So I know negatively. I unknow.” 

Franklin is an expert trader and a skilled market analyst, but one of his greatest strengths is that he is aware of the limits of his knowledge. When an investment does not play out the way he thought it would, he uses it as a chance to adapt and to learn something new. The adaptability of his mind and his perceptions later allows him to develop into someone more substantial than, as Jojo puts it, someone who only cares about making money. 

“But that was back in the twentieth century, in the dark ages, the age of fascisms both home and abroad. Since the floods they had learned better, hadn’t they?” 

Charlotte views the 20th century as the dark ages. The Holocaust, the Vietnam War, and other 20th-century conflicts seem to her as archaic as the Crusades did to 20th century humans. The flood, in her view, had a historical cleansing effect similar to the Biblical flood, providing a fresh start with hard lessons learned. However, the voracious greed of drowned coastline profiteers and the increasing numbers of homeless and refugees make her see that there could be darker times ahead. 

“We pretend that democracy is real.” 

Amelia calls for a strike of the Householders’ Union. She has seen that even though America is democratic, it cannot pretend that it is a pure democracy as long as money can buy influence and banks control the outcome of elections. She calls for a revolution to give people enough leverage to work towards something more like true democracy. 

“Self-reliance my ass. We’re fucking monkeys. It’s always about teamwork.” 

Jeff scoffs at Ralph Waldo Emerson and his essay “Self-Reliance.” He knows that society will always be a cooperative effort. This is why he insists that a revolution is necessary. Even if his hack of the 16 laws were a success, maintaining the new status quo would require teamwork on the part of like-minded individuals. Revolutions are never solitary endeavors. 

“Helping animals or helping people. That’s the usual solution.” 

Mr. Hexter helps the boys think about options for their gold, stressing that they could do a lot of good with their fortune. Mr. Hexter’s simple creed—helping animals and people will never have a downside—is similar to Lucky Jeff’s philosophy that what is good for the land is good for people. Under Mr. Hexter’s influence, the boys will eventually found an Institute for Manhattan Marine Life.

“If you are in bed next to a person, naked under the sheets, but alone, totally alone: maybe that’s the worst solitude.” 

Vlade thinks about the divide that grew between him and Idelba after their son drowned. The loneliness of knowing that although Vlade and Idelba were still together, might never be able to comfort each other again, was his greatest misery. They had become reminders of each other’s pain and felt alienated from each other. 

“You’re always stuck with the people you save. You might as well learn that one now.”

Mr. Hexter tells the boys that when you save someone, you take on some responsibility for the rest of their life. The characters in the novel have bonded through their shared hardships and successes and have learned the value of cooperation. They complement each other’s talents as well and will achieve more together than apart. 

“There are no happy endings! Because there are no endings!” 

Although the characters wrap up their story arcs in positive ways, The Citizen remains pessimistic about humanity’s chances of avoiding future disasters. The Citizen frames each financial crash as an event that will make future financial crashes possible. He views climate catastrophes the same way: they are the cyclical result of human carelessness are greed—and human carelessness and greed are not going to go away.

“It passes the time, and then you don’t have to think. Don’t have to have a life.” 

Mutt and Jeff talk about how much Inspector Gen works. She is not unique—tireless work is a way for many of the characters to avoid dwelling on their situations, sorrows, and regrets. But to Mutt and Jeff, life can’t be spent in this kind of denial.