Octavia E. Butler - Earthseed, Book 1 -… [506]

I mean, I know people have always gotten married and had kids, but now… Now there’s nowhere to go, nothing to do. A couple gets married, and if they’re lucky, they get a room or a garage to live in—with no hope of anything better and every reason to expect things to get worse. — , Octavia E. Butler - Earthseed, Book 1 -…, 506

Note

The concessive opener (‘I mean, I know…’) then collapses into the ellipsis of ‘but now…’ — the pause enacts the dead end it describes. The paired absolutes ‘nowhere to go, nothing to do’ are then grounded in the specific, humiliating unit of housing (a room or a garage) and sealed by the chiasmus of ‘no hope of anything better / every reason to expect things to get worse.’