As the book progresses, he tries desperately to remember a vocabulary and literacy rendered otiose; but, as all previous achievement slips away, irrevocably, there are signs that the human desire for belief systems, inquiry, iconography and cosmology is ineradicable, and will resume.

otiose (adj) 1: serving no useful purpose; having no excuse for being [syn: pointless, superfluous, wasted] 2: producing no result or effect [syn: futile, ineffectual, unavailing] 3: disinclined to work or exertion [syn: faineant, indolent, lazy, slothful, work-shy] – source: The Guardian Review 26.4.2003, p. 23