"The old order, it is good for the old. A farmer wants his son to be afraid of beautiful women, so that he will not leave home too soon, so he tells a story about how one drowned his brotherâ€™s cousinâ€™s friend in a lake, not because he was a pig who deserved to be drowned, but because beautiful women are bad, and also witches. And it doesnâ€™t matter that she didnâ€™t ask to be beautiful, or to be born in a lake, or to live forever, or to not know how men breathe until they stop doing it."

-- Catherynne M. Valente

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