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“[...] like any human practices, those of religions are not exempt from ethical questioning. Rituals and rites in groups change behavior, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. For the madness of crowds is a very close cousin to the fervor or congregations and the martial spirit of armies.”
― Mirror, Mirror: The Uses and Abuses of Self-Love
― Mirror, Mirror: The Uses and Abuses of Self-Love
“a person only has to step sideways for everything to look different.”
― The Morning Star
― The Morning Star
“WORTH IT?
It is no credit to our phase of civilization if it is fear rather than ambition that drives most of those who bankrupt themselves on the vanities, or who end up under the surgeon's knife. It is the fear of falling short, of being inadequate in the eyes of others, including loved ones. [...]
It is unfitting, one might say, improper, treating one's owm body as a tool rather than a part of oneself. [...]
The bottom line is that it dishonors ourselves, for we ought to think better of ourselves than that.”
― Mirror, Mirror: The Uses and Abuses of Self-Love
It is no credit to our phase of civilization if it is fear rather than ambition that drives most of those who bankrupt themselves on the vanities, or who end up under the surgeon's knife. It is the fear of falling short, of being inadequate in the eyes of others, including loved ones. [...]
It is unfitting, one might say, improper, treating one's owm body as a tool rather than a part of oneself. [...]
The bottom line is that it dishonors ourselves, for we ought to think better of ourselves than that.”
― Mirror, Mirror: The Uses and Abuses of Self-Love
“The novel’s not dead, it’s not even seriously injured, but I do think we’re working in the margins, working in the shadows of the novel’s greatness and influence. There’s plenty of impressive talent around, and there’s strong evidence that younger writers are moving into history, finding broader themes. But when we talk about the novel we have to consider the culture in which it operates. Everything in the culture argues against the novel, particularly the novel that tries to be equal to the complexities and excesses of the culture. This is why books such as JR and Harlot’s Ghost and Gravity’s Rainbow and The Public Burning are important—to name just four. They offer many pleasures without making concessions to the middle-range reader, and they absorb and incorporate the culture instead of catering to it. And there’s the work of Robert Stone and Joan Didion, who are both writers of conscience and painstaking workers of the sentence and paragraph. I don’t want to list names because lists are a form of cultural hysteria, but I have to mention Blood Meridian for its beauty and its honor. These books and writers show us that the novel is still spacious enough and brave enough to encompass enormous areas of experience. We have a rich literature. But sometimes it’s a literature too ready to be neutralized, to be incorporated into the ambient noise. This is why we need the writer in opposition, the novelist who writes against power, who writes against the corporation or the state or the whole apparatus of assimilation. We’re all one beat away from becoming elevator music.”
―
―
“»Es war zu allen Zeiten gefährlich, auf der Welt zu sein. Glücklich ist, wer es einmal geschafft hat.«”
― Hier sind Löwen
― Hier sind Löwen
Around the World in 80 Books
— 31114 members
— last activity 2 hours, 25 min ago
Reading takes you places. Where in the world will your next book take you? If you love world literature, translated works, travel writing, or explorin ...more
Zen Buddhism
— 209 members
— last activity Aug 15, 2022 12:17AM
Discussion of books about Zen Buddhism in general and American Zen in particular.
Goodreads Librarians Group
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— last activity 2 minutes ago
Goodreads Librarians are volunteers who help ensure the accuracy of information about books and authors in the Goodreads' catalog. The Goodreads Libra ...more
A Place for Recommendations
— 98 members
— last activity Jan 03, 2018 07:46PM
If you want to give recommendations, receive recommendations or have more people check out your reviews, this is the place for you.
Saskia’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Saskia’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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