Space Opera - Catherynne M. Valente

On Enrico Fermi´s small, watery planet, it could be generally agreed upon, for example, that a chicken was not people, but a physicist. Ditto for sheeps, pigs, mosquitoes, brine shrimp, squirrels, seagulls, and so on and so forth on the one hand, and plumbers, housewives, musicians, congressional aides, and lightning designers on the other. This was a fairly easy call (for the physicist, anyway), as brine shrimp were not overly talkative, squirrels failed to make significant headway in the fields of technology and mathematics, and seagulls were clearly unburdened by reason, feeling, or remorse. Dolphins, gorillas, and pharmaceutical sales representatives were considered borderline cases.

 

Lol. I have to think of this the next time I talk to a pharmaceutical sales representatives.