“Fragile creatures of a small blue planet, surrounded by light years of space.” (156)
The narrators choice of words here are exquisite in its generalization. “Fragile creatures” viewing humans not as people but of unknown mysteries both capable of good and evil. Not only capable but expected to, because one doesn’t come without the other in human nature. The power in these words loses the essence and need to gender people, because like the language that Winterson uses, the language allows room for growth and tolerance of not having to define and categorize all that we are.
“…of a small blue planet, surrounded by light years of space.” We are physically surrounded by ninety seven percent water only which two percent has been explored by the humans, in a system of unknown. This unknown is what the narrator is getting at in the entire context of the novel. No matter how much research can be conducted on the solar system, or to whatever extensions we can try to make in order to understand the depths of the ocean that go miles deep into the earth, it is impossible to know it all. So our frail minds, bodies, and souls, have to embrace this fact in order to truly live and see past the definitions that we quickly look to make.
Your interpretation of the quote is very interesting. The unknown world and creatures you emphasize perceived as mysterious and unable to be interpret are somewhat comparable to this genderless world that Winterson might have in mind since the beginning of the novel. To me the meaning of fragile creatures are a mirror reflection of the narrator and Louise, their bodies, their sins, their love, and the way they hurt themselves sentimentally. The idea of time is again interpret by the separation between the narrator and Louise, whether from two blocks away or around the world. Either way, it is crazy the different ways we can interpret this novel. 🙂