Learning is Good and All, but . . .

Unlike Tegan, I am not concerned with the selfishness of the Shangri-La people. They are just trying to protect themselves. I will say however, that I wish they could come up with a better screening system. I mean, kidnap if you must, but can't you avoid kidnapping people like Mallinson? Talk about dead weight. And couldn't you have tried to get a few more people on the plane? Also, Miss Brinklow is nice and all, but if repopulating is your goal, she just doesn't seem much like a likely candidate.

I have always been attracted to monasteries as places of great focus on increasing knowledge and isolation from unimportant things in the world. But I only picture people being in monasteries for 30 years or so. This Shangri-La thing is serious. You could be there for centuries. And as cool as it seems, I would be a little worried about getting bored. I mean read, converse, look at art, and learn music, but at the end of the day you still want to be able to laugh at funny jokes and gossip about dumb or annoying people. Where is the entertainment? So far everyone is nice and impressive to talk to, but where are the funny, witty people? I wouldn't want to live 200 years with just Chang for a best friend.

But I will say I am very happy that Shangri-La only slows time. I was thinking people lived forever there. That would have been dumb. The delayed death is a smart move by Hilton. No one really wants to live forever so Shangri-La could not have been the ideal place. But to live some extra time, quite comfortably, and most of the time looking and feeling a significantly younger age is a good deal. Maybe our next book club book should be one on yoga techniques.