[Serious] Literal and Not Literal

[Belacqua]

Perhaps you can play with your inner knowledge and leave us to do adult things.

Working to manipulate nature to make it do what you want comes from lack.

Play comes from abundance. 

I like playing.

Without ever enlarging knowledge of the outside world, inner knowledge is a sterile masturbation.

You are a Puritan. Only Puritans speak against the pleasure of masturbation. We must save our seed for procreation! Sterile equals evil!

Yet I have never regretted a minute of the time I spent learning kinbaku-bi, and neglecting to make babies.

Puritans think that adults work to manipulate nature for practical ends. They think that only children are allowed the autotelic pleasures like play and self-understanding. Yet playful people aren't sterile, though they may grow roses instead of spinach.