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293 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1988
He learned more about the Empire itself, its history and politics, philosophy and religion, its beliefs and mores, and its mixtures of subspecies and sexes.
It seemed to him to be an unbearably vivid tangle of contradictions; at the same time pathologically violent and lugubriously sentimental, startlingly barbaric and surprisingly sophisticated, fabulously rich and grindingly poor (but also, undeniably, unequivocally fascinating).
Every few meters along the walls, and on both sides of every doorway, gaudily-uniformed males stood stock still, their trousered legs slightly apart, gloved hands clasped behind their rod-straight backs, their gaze fixed firmly on the high, painted ceilings.
"What are they standing their for?" Gurgeh whispered to the drone in Eachic, low enough so that Pequil couldn't hear.
"Show," the machine said.
Gurgeh thought about this. "Show?"
"Yes; to show that the Emperor is rich and important enough to have hundreds of flunkeys standing around doing nothing."
"Doesn't everybody know that already?"
The drone didn't answer for a moment. Then it sighed. "You haven't really cracked the psychology of wealth and power yet, have you, Jernau Gurgeh?"
“you cannot choose not to have the politics you do; they are not some separate set of entities somehow detachable from the rest of your being; they are a function of your existence.”