“The Crakers wouldn’t understand murder because they’re so trusting. They’d never imagine that anyone would rape them—What is rape? Or slit their throats—Oh Toby, why? Or slash them open and eat their kidneys—But Oryx would not allow it!”

Toby feels responsible for the Crakers’ well-being, although no one has told her to take charge, and the other MaddAddamites would just as soon they leave. Toby is a nurturer and a caretaker, and she knows that they’re innocent. Their imagined incredulity, which is undoubtedly accurate, highlights the absurdity of violence, and particularly the absurdity of the Painballers’ excessive violence.

“‘Once the roots get in,’ Adam One had been fond of saying to the Gardener inner circle, ‘Once they really take hold, no human-built structure stands a chance. They’ll tear a paved road apart in a year.’”

Toby is quoting Adam speaking about the power of nature and how quickly it will overtake any manmade structure. Cities that took decades or centuries to build can be ripped apart in a couple of years. After the plague, it won’t be long before the cities crash to the ground.

“There was only so much of that people could stand, judging from the ratings, which spiked and then plummeted as viewers voted with their thumbs, switching from imminent wipeout to real-time contests about hotdog-swallowing if they liked nostalgia, or to sassy-best-girlfriends comedies if they liked stuffed animals, or to Mixed Martial Arts Felony Fights if they liked bitten-off ears, or to Nitee-Nite live-streamed suicides or HottTott kissy porn or Hedsoff real-time executions if they were truly jaded. All of it so much more palatable than the truth.”

There was a brief trend of videos that featured computer simulations of how quickly nature would destroy humanmade structures after humans disappeared, but even though it was true and imminent, audiences lost interest. People have short attention spans, and even the demise of the human race can only hold their attention for so long, especially in a culture where so much that is taboo is commercially sold.