Scythe

“Hope in the shadow of fear is the world’s most powerful motivator.”

Citra is annoyed that Scythe Faraday is sharing their dinner and that her parents have no choice but to obey him. However, she understands that their intentions are to keep her and her brother safe. The fear of death has the power to motivate, and it can be the only thing that motivates some people. This passage begins to establish The Value of Mortality by suggesting how death motivates people.

“The growth of civilization was complete. Everyone knew it. When it came to the human race, there was no more left to learn.”

Much of Curie’s writing details the stagnation and dullness of life, as she believes having access to all knowledge has robbed human existence of many of its surprises. She sees that in a world where there are no more factual discoveries to be made, intellectual curiosity has diminished. Immortality further discourages engagement and innovation by removing the pressures of time.

“But remember that good intentions pave many roads. Not all of them lead to hell.”

Faraday admires Rowan’s compassion and courage in staying with Kohl and risking his own life in the process. Faraday does not overlook chances to teach, and he leaves having ensured that Rowan knows his impetuous actions have gained him a measure of the scythe’s approval. The Value of Compassion is a key concern, especially for Faraday.

“We must always be vigilant because power comes infected with the only disease left to us: the virus called human nature.”

Curie suggests that the urge for violence is innate to humankind, developing the theme of Human Fallibility and Weakness. Curie knows that if people who enjoy killing gain political power, the worst aspects of human nature will be nurtured. She therefore advocates against complacency: People who are immortal assume they are powerful because they have beaten death, but Curie’s metaphor implies that physical vulnerability is not the only human weakness worth fearing.

“Was there ever a time when people weren’t plagued with boredom? A time when motivation wasn’t so hard to come by? When I look at news archives from the Age of Mortality, it seems people had more reasons to do the things they did. Life was about forging time, not just passing time.”

Curie laments the lack of purpose in a world with immortality. People were more likely to act with intention in a time when they knew their lives would end. Motivation itself is a casualty of the advent of the new age. The passage of time also has less significance to Curie now that death is not a function of time passing.

“Mortals fantasized that love was eternal and its loss unimaginable. Now we know that neither is true.”

When Faraday reveals that he and Curie were romantically involved, her earlier writings on love take on added pathos. The pursuit of love is not the same as it was in the Age of Mortality. Because people can reset their age, alter their appearances, and expect to live forever if not gleaned, the prospect of never finding love is unlikely, and it is not subject to biological deadlines. However, Curie worries that the urgency with which people used to discuss love was part of what made them human. If that has been lost, she believes that a critical part of humanity is lost as well.

“Which is worse? To be despised, or to be ignored?”

Curie wonders how the Thunderhead views humanity. It acts on behalf of humankind, but she knows that no one can prove that it loves them or that it does not hate them. Scythes cannot speak to the Thunderhead, so they exist in a state of feeling ignored. Her remarks echo others that are made in the novel about the nature of fame. For those who seek fame at all costs, being ignored is worse than being hated.

“Immortality has turned us all into cartoons.”

Curie writes about the Looney Tunes cartoons and the Coyote that chased the Roadrunner. In each episode, the Coyote would die, reappearing immediately for the next frame as if nothing had happened. Then the cycle would repeat itself. Curie’s claim that immortality has rendered humankind a cartoon is another indication that she thinks that humans who are immortal lack a seriousness that was present in those who knew they would die.

“The difference between you and most other people, Citra, is that another person would not have cared once that girl was revived.”

Curie and Citra discuss their visit with Rhonda, the girl whom Citra pushed and killed as a child. Curie is impressed that Citra’s secret still bothers her. In a world where death is rare and usually impermanent, people can be forgiven—or forgive themselves—for heinous deeds that would have gotten them imprisoned or killed in the Age of Mortality. Curies believes that Citra’s conscience is one quality that will make her a good scythe.

“His was a life without substance, and now it would end.”

Rowan believes he will die in eight months after losing the competition to Citra. It is this knowledge that causes him to reflect on how he has lived his life. He does not believe he has done anything noteworthy, a perspective that he can only contemplate now because he knows his time is limited. The Age of Immortality is one in which contemplation of existence’s meaning has become rare, often limited to the scythes who deal with death on a constant basis.

“I’d rather have a mind that’s clear than one that’s ‘right.’”

Goddard lectures Rowan on what he regards as the cleansing and useful nature of pain. Goddard inhabits a world of moral relativism in which what is moral depends on the circumstances—principally, how powerful one is. His notions of right and wrong are malleable and abstract. However, pain is a reality that cuts through everything and is experienced by everyone in the same way. Goddard believes pain is the most effective teacher a person can have.

“That which comes can’t be avoided.”

One of the Tonist curates speaks with Citra. The Tonist philosophy—in its insistence on being in the present and accepting what is happening in the moment—has echoes of the Buddhist precept that it is always now. The Tonists do not fight against what they cannot control, and they do not pretend that everything can be controlled, even by the Thunderhead.

“I am the highest power I know, and I like it that way.”

Goddard sees the power to take life as the ultimate power and details this sentiment in his journal. He is more willing to take lives than most scythes—reveling in the opportunity—so he sees himself as freer and more powerful. Because he sees himself as the highest power (language that implicitly denies the existence of a “higher power—i.e., some kind of divinity), he insinuates his worldview into the conclaves. 

“Guilt is the idiot cousin of remorse.”

Citra recalls Faraday saying this on many occasions. He always encourages her and Rowan to treat their office with gravity, of which remorse is a useful component. However, if he were to feel guilt over his gleanings, he would be indicting the legitimacy of the entire gleaning process itself. Faraday does his best to do his duty in a system that he does not have control over. Guilt is useless for a scythe because guilt does not lead anywhere except for self-loathing.

“Without the threat of suffering, we can’t experience true joy.”

After the three scythes beat Rowan, Volta explains the benefit of the pain. With Rowan’s pain nanites deactivated, he can feel physical suffering the way it was felt during the Age of Mortality. It is a corollary to Rowan and Citra in the art gallery, noticing that the paintings all seemed to express a longing and a pain that they themselves had never felt. In the novel, pain is a requisite for the appreciation of real joy, although Goddard approaches the concept in a typically sadistic way.

“Human nature is both predictable and mysterious; prone to great and sudden advances, yet still mired in despicable self-interest.”

In his only journal entry, the first World Supreme Blade, Prometheus, notes an apparent paradox: Humans act predictably but still maintain the ability to be surprising. They can create an apparatus as lofty as the Thunderhead, saving themselves from death, but they are still susceptible to the pettiest appetites and urges. Humans can be depended on to act in their own interests, yet the ways in which they go about it continue to surprise him.

“My greatest hope is that, in time, our wisdom will become as perfect as our knowledge.”

Prometheus is aware that knowledge does not guarantee wisdom. He understands that human fallibility—especially among the scythes—will create the majority of the problems that people in the Age of Immortality will experience. Access to knowledge is not the same as knowing how to apply the knowledge or as doing so consistently.

“I am legend. Yet every day I wish that I was not.”

Curie finds her celebrity tedious and counterproductive to her work. This is a stark contrast to Goddard and his scythes, who view their fame as not only necessary but deserved. Curie knows that she will always be the “Grand Dame of Death” to people who already think of her that way. She misses the anonymity she once knew.

“There are some who seek celebrity to change the world, and others who seek it to ensnare the world.”

In the novel, celebrity is a tool of influence that can be used for good or ill. Goddard uses his celebrity to instill fear in those he gleans and to bully and manipulate other scythes into siding with him instead of displeasing his many followers. Curie regrets the acts that led to her own fame, but she undertook those acts to change the world, not to control it. This suggests that the motives for seeking celebrity are critical to the ways in which one uses it.

“I’m sure that absolute correctness must seem a dull existence to you, but I know no other way to be.”

The Thunderhead gives another example of the value of mistakes to humankind. A life without mistakes in it is more likely to be dull and stagnant, but the Thunderhead can only be what it is. Humans will always be mutable because they will always find new ways to make mistakes.

“I’ve found that human beings learn from their misdeeds just as often as from their good deeds. I am envious of that, for I am incapable of misdeeds. Were I not, then my growth would be exponential.”

The Thunderhead speaks to Citra while she is dead. Algorithmically, the Thunderhead is designed to maximize its capacity for learning and self-teaching. However, it is aware that without the ability to learn from its mistakes—mistakes it cannot make—its growth will be limited. However, it is also aware that humans often resist learning from their mistakes. Paradoxically, the failure to use human fallibility effectively itself becomes a sign of human fallibility.

“I think all young women are cursed with a streak of unrelenting foolishness, and all young men are cursed with a streak of absolute stupidity.”

Despite nearly 200 years of experience, Curie shows that her cynicism about the impetuousness of youth is unchanged. Death may be eradicated and disease a distant memory, but human nature will, in her view, always lead to trouble, particularly among the young. Curie’s observation is even more astute when Citra realizes that it includes the stoic, unflappable Faraday, who she now sees was also young and driven by passion in the past.

“My greatest wish for humanity is not for peace or comfort or joy. It is that we all still die a little inside when we witness the death of another. For only the pain of empathy will keep us human. There’s no version of God that can help us if we ever lose that.” 

Faraday believes that the loss of empathy would be a tragedy. Because not everyone has experience with someone who has been gleaned, not everyone is given the chance to practice the sort of empathy that Faraday refers to. He finds ways to teach others through his gleanings, preserving humanity even as he ends lives.