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The best piece of Sci Fi I've ever read Juliana said, "Oracle, why did you write The Grasshopper Lies Heavy? What are we supposed to learn?" "You have a disconcertingly superstitious way of phrasing your question," Hawthorne said. But he had squatted down to witness the coin throwing. "Go ahead," he said; he handed her three Chinese brass coins with holes in the center. "I generally use these." She began throwing the coins; she felt calm and very much herself. Hawthorne wrote down her lines for her. When she had thrown the coins six times, he gazed down and said: "Sun at the top. Tui at the bottom. Empty in the center." "Do you know what hexagram that is?" she said. "Without using the chart?" "Yes," Hawthorne said. "It’s Chung Fu," Juliana said. "Inner Truth. I know without using the chart, too. And I know what it means." Raising his head, Hawthorne scrutinized her. He had now an almost savage expression. "It means, does it, that my book is true?" "Yes, she said. With anger he said, "Germany and Japan lost the war?" "Yes." Hawthorne, then, closed the two volumes and rose to his feet; he said nothing. |
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