That image has stayed with me more than most of the book, honestly. Philip describing the pool as finite — and all the bottles of experience you keep pouring in, trying to fill it — something about that just clicked in a way I wasn't expecting.
I took it as being about how meaning gets diluted the more you chase it. But I'm not sure that's right.
How did others read it? Did it feel like a warning, or more of an observation — like he wasn't judging the bottle-collecting, just noticing it? And did it shift anything for you, the way you think about whatever you've been chasing yourself?