“The catch is that fire is not always positive. And more crucially, fire is not a quality. It is not a trait that a life-form can possess. It isn’t night vision or silent wing feathers or a hinged jaw, a spring-loaded capacity to pounce. Man, bland and featureless in this myth, lacking in his own special trait, was condemned, instead, to ingenuity, to being a devious little bastard.”
