[arepublicadoceu]

THERE was a wall. It did not look important. It was built of uncut rocks roughly mortared. An adult could look right over it, and even a child could climb it. Where it crossed the roadway, instead of having a gate it degenerated into mere geometry, a line, an idea of boundary. But the idea was real. It was important. For seven generations there had been nothing in the world more important than that wall.

Like all walls it was ambiguous, two-faced. What was inside it and what was outside it depended upon which side of it you were on.

[statusfailed]

For anyone wondering, the parent is quoting "The Dispossessed"[0] by Ursula K. Le Guin, which is one of my all-time favorite books. Definitely read it if you like science fiction.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dispossessed

[kwhitefoot]

Read it even if you don't like science fiction. The science in it is much less important than the politics or anthropology; actually this is true of quite a lot of the best science fiction.