Everything written by Greg Egan for the first decade or so of his writing career

Sure

What’s a tortoise?

Replace death with any heavy executive-issued penalty. The point here is the polite-implicit vs the impolite-explicit. (Ok i reworded it)

Every time I eat a mcD cheeseburger I get a tummy ache. That shit is concrete.

And therefore… this is an example of the dreams of youth definitely not being the regrets of maturity.