J.M. Coetzee, In the Heart of the Country. (via trialandterror
)
SOMETIMES I FEEL LIKE … I DON’T KNOW … LIKE I’VE BEEN LOCKED UP TIGHT, FOR A CENTURY OF LONELY NIGHTS, WAITING FOR SOMEONE TO RELEASE ME.
IT’S ALMOST LIKE MY BODY’S SAYING “LET’S GO” BUT MY HEART’S SAYING “NO.”
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“He had a rational desire to fall madly in love, that much he knew.”
…
“I looked it up in an encyclopedia once, and it said that the word “atheist” comes from the Greek word athos. But that word doesn’t refer to people who don’t believe in God: it refers to the lonely ones, the people whom the gods have abandoned. And so this proves that people can’t ever really be atheists.”
…
“This was not to suggest that Heaven was the future of which we dream: for Ka, Heaven was the place where you kept alive the dreams of your memories.”
…
“In a poor country, people’s sole consolation comes from their beliefs.”
- Orhan Pamuk, Snow
I think, despite everything, there has always been a little spark there, with us. It could easily remain dormant, or could bubble, burst, grow with the right trigger. The key is to find it.
Doors of Rajasthan
It was in the movie Donnie Darko that as an existentially naive thirteen year old, I was first brought into contact with the idea that:
Every living creature on earth dies alone.
Soon after, I began to read Aldous Huxley, and found in the second part of The Doors of Perception entitled
This is such a brilliant video, bringing to light the salient points that we tend to forget about everyday when we obsess about our bodies, our image and the responses people have to us, physically. I wish young girls would take people like her as a role model, instead of models who are sometimes digitally enhanced to actually look healthier.
Aspirational advertising affects all of us - men and women, alike. We all want to live up to the ideal, whether that’s physical or mental. Most adverts now are acquisitional - you can acquire the perfect body, the perfect man/woman, the perfect house, the perfect holiday in the perfect location.
I am for ambition, but advertising takes it so much further than is ever possible to achieve.
Yet, the speaker is also wearing makeup, has obviously made an effort to look presentable. Are any of us immune?
And I’d like to leave you with that:
