News from Nowhere

Walter, joining the boating party, continues to discuss the situation he described the evening prior. Rather than going into exile overseas, he believes it makes more sense for the man who committed the crime to live in a house isolated from their community. Waiting for the water to rise at a lock, Guest asks why they have not invented something faster or better with all the time on their hands. Dick replies that they are not in an age of invention.

They come across a group of girls who are bathing and urging them to come with them, but Dick declines. Guest notices that they make a lot of small talk about the present situation with genuine interest rather than discussing anything serious. In the old times, outside of one’s job, one knew nothing about the country, but these people know because they wanted to learn more. He notices more birds of all kinds and assumes that hunting must no longer be a pastime.

The girls laughingly banter with Dick, joking about a group of men engaged in a nearby building project rather than in the harvest. Dick tries to explain to a confused Guest that they’re laughing because some people have work that interests them instead of easy-hard work like haymaking.