"This is going to give you an even heavier ego," Grace said, laughing already. "But a few centuries from now, there are going to be people who worship you."
"No," I said.
(Listen, I am honored, but--I'm making all of this up. You can't trust me.)
"I've read your book," she said. "Clearly they didn't get it."
"You're putting a lot of pressure on me right now Grace."
"Shouldn't have said anything."
"No, I'm glad you did, but--I mean, is there anything I can do? To like, make that not happen?"
"Cults are good for people. It's not like you're orchestrating it; don't give yourself so much credit. They choose to create a magnetic field of meaning around anything that sticks in their minds' narrative long enough to feel stable and safe. And don't try to change the future; it can't happen. You're a drop in an ocean trying to steer the winds."
"Jesus had the same problem, right?"
"Traits of narcissistic personality disorder? Yes."
"No, I mean, like, people misunderstanding his words, changing them for their own benefit. Goddamn, I do not have NPD. Jesus fucking Christ."
"Perhaps. Narcissus didn't really even have NPD, so that's not much of a victory. Jesus did though; he never did say he was the literal son of God, that isn't what he meant; he was using symbolic language to describe what he'd heard in Nepal and India so that they could be understood in a new culture. When they misunderstood, he didn't correct them too harshly, and when he bribed the Roman guards who "stabbed" him on the cross, as well as the ones guarding his tomb, he didn't say a single word when he heard in China the tale of a man transcended to Heaven after being put to death as a traitor. Later, swearing anonymity in the satisfaction at having somehow survived that bullshit, he turned away missionaries come to spread the good news that death had been triumphed over! Jesus covered his face and hid, for he already knew."
YOU ARE READING
Pale Fragments
Science FictionAn alien Robot came to me before she left to die. She sang to me the stories of how her ancient world and species ended, how she was created to travel through Time, how (in the far future) she met an essential boy named Anders, how she named herself...
