False dichotomies

Two boys riding bicycles arrive at the foot of a steep hill and begin their ascent. One boy, inspired by the human capacity to overcome adversity, leaves his bike in the lowest gear. The other, delighting in the empirical validation of mechanical advantage, switches to the highest gear. For one, the joy is in the numinous power of mortal transcendence, for the other it is in the luminous principles of science, but both reach the summit equally gratified.

During my months of silence, I've read a few more books:

#393 The Life of Pi, Yann Martel
A meta-narrative on story-telling, this book makes the incredible fabulously credible. But I couldn't help thinking that the work was designed for post-college reading circles, with "study questions" in the back, and a plot strewn with obvious symbolism and life-affirming messages.

#392 Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides
A massive, flowing cultural history of the United States as an immigrant nation, but also a statement on gender, national, cultural ambiguity. Jeffrey Eugenides' prose is somehow both excessively exuberant and precise in metaphor, characterization, and insight.