Mnemosyne
"You know what I think?" she says. "That people's memories are maybe the fuel they burn to stay alive. Whether those memories have any actual importance or not, it doesn't matter as far as the maintenance of life is concerned. They're all just fuel. Advertising fillers in the newspaper, philosophy books, dirty pictures in a magazine, a bundle if ten-thousand yen bills: when you feed 'em to the fire, they're all just paper. The fire isn't thinking, 'Oh, this is Kant' or 'Oh, this is the Yomiuri evening addition' or 'Nice tits', while it burns. To the fire they're nothing but scraps of paper. It's the exact same thing. Important memories, not-so-important memories, totally useless memories: there's no distinction-they're all just fuel." She nods to herself. Then she goes on: "You know, I think if I didn't have that fuel, if I didn't have these memory drawers inside of me, I would've sna...