“Because beauty — true beauty, mathematical beauty, the beauty of phi — is: light. And light is what these creatures: oppose. Not because they are evil — I have learned this in eleven years of: captivity. Because they believe that human light, unchecked, will: overwhelm. That if every human believes they are beautiful, the collective light will: blind. That beauty without: suffering produces: a world without: depth. They believe that the dimming they cause — the culture of inadequacy that they: whisper into existence — is: necessary. That suffering produces: meaning. That darkness makes light: valuable.”