Anecdote

"There was an uneasy silence. Several of the boys blushed. They had not yet learned to draw significant but often very fine distinction between smut and pure science." p.23

The anecdote of the Polish Reuben and his parents is real interesting not just in the story itself but the confusion that ensues. The discovery of the sleep learning is astonishing and the director explains its use in the factory. But the real interesting part comes in the explanation of what a "parent" was. The director asks the question no one wanted to answer about what "parents" and the brave boy explains how life was before the factory. I think the purpose of this story and discussion that ensues is to set the attitude and "wierdness", I guess, of having parents.The story interests me in that there are something that happened in the past that we don't quite grasp today. Although not nearly as awkward as the topic in the book, I don' t really get how my parents and grandparents every lived without a cell phone or the internet. What did they do for entertainment besides reality TV and video games? Read books? That must have been terrible.