Annotated 38-18
“I doubt you know the meaning of the word. I mean, Bedard there seems to subscribe to the Humpty Dumpty school of definitions, Caneghem comes from a culture of takers, Miyamoto would rather dis people with his determined ignorance of words than learn them, I’m not sure whether Jarvis is actually aphasic–”
Bedard: “Of course I know what it means! An ‘ism’ is a belief, and altruism is believing that all our statements are true, even the contradictory ones! All-true-ism! See, that’s why I love paradoxes!”
In upcoming chapters, we will learn that Iwatani himself believes that he’d be pretty nonchalant if his own wife passed away, and then we’ll learn whether or not that’s actually true.
(Image via Curiosity Guide.)
This page is where the men stop having a conversation with Syr’Nj and start talking about her. This is actually a word duel between Miyamoto and Iwatani, assisted by Bedard, about whether or not to keep Syr’Nj as a member of the council. Whatever she says in the meantime serves merely to supply some keywords to that debate.
Also, it’s kind of relieving to see that she *can* in fact lose her composure, in a way that does not help her at all. And I’m not sure if Caneghem helped her in that regard or made it worse. I mean, who ever calms down when told to calm down? With most people I know, even when only very mildly excited, telling them to calm down already is a sure way to achieve the opposite.