Player Piano Quote

"Finnerty shook his head. ''He'd pull me back into the center, and I want to stay as close on the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center.'' He nodded, ''Big, undreamed-of things -- the people on the edge see them first.''

This quote is a major part of the novel, it is Finnerty's response to Paul's suggestion of getting a psychiatrist. I feel that it was during this conversation that Paul really began to question his existence in Ilium and really everyone's purpose there, since there are so many people who are completely purposeless, for example the reeks and recks.

Paul had lived in his contained life, with his fake marriage and his job, which neither gave him pleasure or contentment. Finnerty brought Paul closer to the edge, and as Paul viewed over the edge, he saw the truth of Ilium. He saw really how he, and his father had ruined to lives of generations to come. The book does not display much guilt it this but I think that is because this realization was so sudden. I don't even believe that Paul was certain of himself at any point in the novel. He was as confused as always, but by rebelling he had taken a step to the other side, he was taking his chances and living on the edge, something that no one in his position besides Finnerty had ever done. This in itself was a rebellion, he was taking charge of a gut feeling, of his humanly instincts.

The idea for an engineer to join the ghostshirts, who mainly consisted of reeks and recks was unheard of. It was an "undreamed of thing." Pauls last name seems to serve a connection in being the first of his kind to go against the grain and take charge of a feeling. Proteus is close to prototype. This is a brief and hasty observation but maybe with some meaning behind it. All in all, this quote seems to show one of the major ideas of the novel. Revelation, the change Paul had gone through from engineer to rebel.