The truth is that Trout, like Vonnegut and Ray Bradbury and many others, writes parables. These are set in frames which have become called, for no good reason, science fiction. A better generic term would be 'future fairy tales'. And even this is objectionable, since many science fiction stories take place in the present or the past, far and near.

There are Universes begging for Gods, yet he hangs around this one looking for work.

Give us power, give us light To holdall love within our breast's small space.

Dullard: Someone who looks up a thing in the encyclopedia, turns directly to the entry, reads it, and then closes the book.

Imagination is like a muscle. I found out that the more I wrote, the bigger it got.

This story is about love, which means that it is also about hate.

Human beings are part of nature. Anything they do is natural. It's impossible for anything in nature to do anything unnatural.