Witches Own Nothing

“Well, that seems kinda precipitate. Seems to me a man should have a choice whether to take up arms or not.”

“We have no more choice in that than in whether or not to be born.”

“Oh, I like choice, though,” he said. “I like choosing the jobs I take and the places I go and the food I eat and the companions I sit and yarn with. Don’t you wish for a choice once in a while ?”

Serafina Pekkala considered, and then said, “Perhaps we don’t mean the same thing by choice, Mr. Scoresby. Witches own nothing, so we’re not interested in preserving value or making profits, and as for the choice between one thing and another, when you live for many hundreds of years, you know that every opportunity will come again. We have different needs. You have to repair your balloon and keep it in good condition, and that takes time and trouble, I see that; but for us to fly, all we have to do is tear off a branch of cloudpine; any will do, and there are plenty more. We don’t feel cold, so we need no warm clothes. We have no means of exchange apart from mutual aid. If a witch needs something, another witch will give it to her. If there is a war to be fought, we don’t consider cost one of the factors in deciding whether or not it is right to fight. Nor do we have any notion of honor, as bears do, for instance. An insult to a bear is a deadly thing. To us… inconceivable. How could you insult a witch? What would it matter if you did?”

Notes:

Therefore cost does not factor into their reasoning, because they live long enough to know that every opportunity comes around again.

Folksonomies: immortality materialism

Taxonomies:
/religion and spirituality/alternative religions/pagan and wiccan (0.632215)
/society/unrest and war (0.591368)
/food and drink (0.447244)

Keywords:
choice (0.917089 (negative:-0.525346)), kinda precipitate (0.768649 (negative:-0.503756)), Mr. Scoresby (0.629862 (neutral:0.000000)), Serafina Pekkala (0.623222 (neutral:0.000000)), warm clothes (0.594378 (negative:-0.409438)), deadly thing (0.586085 (negative:-0.903266)), different needs (0.560350 (negative:-0.339971)), good condition (0.558447 (positive:0.475421)), mutual aid (0.549455 (neutral:0.000000)), witch (0.458166 (negative:-0.668219)), Witches (0.367003 (negative:-0.330639)), opportunity (0.304779 (neutral:0.000000)), insult (0.239132 (negative:-0.903266)), reasoning (0.220318 (negative:-0.226500)), instance (0.207710 (negative:-0.252694)), profits (0.206137 (negative:-0.281289)), notion (0.205655 (negative:-0.491560)), arms (0.205396 (negative:-0.546384)), companions (0.204960 (positive:0.709034)), trouble (0.200747 (negative:-0.216835)), man (0.200676 (negative:-0.546384))

Entities:
Serafina Pekkala:Person (0.822486 (neutral:0.000000)), Mr. Scoresby:Person (0.747209 (neutral:0.000000)), cloudpine:City (0.679914 (negative:-0.228883))

Concepts:
Witchcraft (0.911360): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Choice (0.908591): dbpedia | freebase
Need (0.906075): dbpedia | freebase

 Golden Compass
Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book:  Pullman , Philip (2002-09-01), Golden Compass, Random House Childrens Books, Retrieved on 2011-08-10
Folksonomies: fiction atheism fantasy