Why should the universe have a purpose? The question of the purpose of the universe is an invention of human minds, and has no significance, except for the way that it illuminates the psychology of scholarly pursuit and of the pursuing scholars themselves. We should not impose human-inspired attitudes and questions on material things. There is a considerable grandeur, I think, in the presence of our spectacularly majestic universe just hanging there, wholly without purpose. 

 - Peter Atkins, On Being

Marianne: In the quantum multiverse, every choice, every decision you've ever and never made exists in an unimaginably vast ensemble of parallel universes. 

Roland: Everything?

Marianne: Everything. 

Roland: Everything I've ever done?

Marianne: Everything you've ever and never done. We should try and keep our voices down, my housemate - 

Roland: But if everything I'm ever gonna do already exists, then what's the point in me - 

Marianne: There isn't. 

Roland: What? 

Marianne: In none of our equations do we see any sign whatsoever of any evidence of free will. 

Roland: In your e--

Marianne: We're just particles. 

Roland: Speak for y'self. 

Marianne: You, me, everyone, we might think that we have some say in - We might think that the choices we make will have some say in the - 

Roland: Right, no, sure - 

Marianne: We're just particles - 

Roland: No, sure, but -

Marianne: We're just particles governed by a series of very particular laws being knocked the fuck around all over the place. 

Roland: You make it sound so glamorous. 

 - Nick Payne, Constellations

后者是我今年看过的戏里最喜欢的一段对白，前者是剧本里的三段epigraph中的一段。《纽约时报》的剧评人把这部戏捧太高了，说是“the nearest I've come across in ages to a play that feels heaven-sent”。期望值过高，刚看完的时候略失望。仅就15-16季度我在Steppenwolf Theatre看的几出戏而言，我都不敢说Constellations就一定是最好的，毕竟还有Annie Baker的The Flick。隔了几个月，可能是因为我已经不太记得自己不喜欢的部分了，想想又觉得这出戏确实不错。可我还是不觉得它比The Flick强，虽然它比后者要对我口味得多（。啊，如果评芝加哥最佳剧院奖的话我一定给Steppenwolf投一票，他家的戏还从没让我觉得自己是在浪费时间过。

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昨晚把剧本翻出来摘抄了Peter Atkins那段话以后就一直在想，我肯定见过一个绝妙的关于给宇宙impose human-inspired attitudes and questions的说法。早上躺在床上胡思乱想的时候突然明白过来了，原来是品钦呀。Gravity's Rainbow里的一句，“what are the stars but points in the body of God where we insert the healing needles of our terror and longing?”