Mannequin Quotes

“Resentment is an emotion based on some kind of a bond, and its next stages are feelings of unfamiliarity and indifference.”
― Ch'oe Yun, Mannequin

“Humans have always had two conflicting desires: the desire to be comforted, and the desire betray and destroy the one who's comforted you , for the sole reason that they brought you comfort. These two desires, in the end, are like two sides of a coin.”
― Ch'oe Yun, Mannequin

“The world, I dare say, is quite accommodating toward my plans in a way. The world falls, breaks, declines, and retreats, as if to make way for my plans. The world is rife with wards, and as relentless desires flood the world, people grow simpler and poorer, and finally disappear. We would have to come up with a different name for people of a world like that. I wait, bored, for the world to collapse on its own, like an eroded mound after a monsoon.”
― Ch'oe Yun, Mannequin

“There was a time when people whispered behind my back, a long time ago, "He must've been wounded badly." Okay. Let's say that it's true. But it's not something that should be spoken of in the past tense. Every moment inflicts wounds. I'm not the kind of person who sits there licking them. No one can say that the disorder, chaos, and immorality brought on by oblivion are greater offenses than the disorder, chaos, immorality, and corruption of those who remember all and commemorate the past. I'm of the mind that it's better to destroy everything and begin anew than it is to fix and mend.”
― Ch'oe Yun, Mannequin

“Who ever said oblivion is something to be ashamed of? There's nothing so comforting as oblivion. I have no desire whatever to bring back the lost time. Not only that, I lock up most of what's happening in my private life at the moment in a box of oblivion, let it suffocate, then annihilate it.”
― Ch'oe Yun, Mannequin

“The world I see hasn't always been this dark and suffocating. I assume that even for me, there was a time of genuine, warm smiles. But if such a time did exist, it didn't last long.”
― Ch'oe Yun, Mannequin

“When you're young, you rage and despair now and then. You turn on your boss, and publicly criticize him. But things like that don't happen often. It's different when you're older. You see things differently, and if something isn't terrible enough to threaten all mankind, you might turn a blind eye to it. And something that dangerous would rarely, if ever, fall into my hands without some objections. Important decisions are made higher up. People in my position go to work for simple pleasures, such as the pleasure of confirming that one plus one is two. You tend to put aside little conflicts, imagining that the outcome of your experiment can improve human life to some degree.”
― Ch'oe Yun, Mannequin

“No occupation is completely independent of the secrets the world tries to hide, or the crimes, big and little, that everyone is partly involved in.”
― Ch'oe Yun, Mannequin

“What I like are simple things. I like all sensations that expand. I don't believe in anything I can't confirm by touching, and I don't acknowledge the existence of anything that doesn't bring pleasure. I'm a presentist. That's the compass of my life. These are the things I like just now, but given more time, the list will grow infinitely. I like those moments when I'm reduced to a fleshy lump of sensation, when sensation expands to eliminate the mind. I feel eternity in those moments. I don't particularly like that sentence, but that's a fact, and has to be stated that way. An empty eternity where I'm in exile.”
― Ch'oe Yun, Mannequin

“The things people do are offensive and ugly to me. Why do they get up in the morning and go to bed at night? Why do they think something terrible will happen if they don't have three meals a day? Why do they smile and say hello to everyone they meet and say things that are different from what they're thinking, without ever reflecting on what they do? Why do they meet someone they hate and fail to express their feelings or someone they love? Why do they get married when their smooth skin turns rough, and have children when they're married, and buy a house when they have children, and fill up their house with ugly and boring things? Why can't you beat and break things when you're furious, or set fire to something when you're angry and disappointed, or kill someone when you hate him? Why do these others cling to people they hate, and say goodbye to people they love? I despise people who've come up with all these rules.”
― Ch'oe Yun, Mannequin

“How tedious life would be if life after twenty-two was nothing more than a repetition of what you've already done before. Knowing that, why grow older and become an adult? I hate kids, but I think it's the greatest disaster to become an adult. I'm not talking about actual age. Those who know, know what I'm talking about. Those who pretend they don't can do as they please. But unfortunately, the characteristics of adulthood manifest themselves in relation to one's age, so actual age, in reality, isn't altogether irrelevant.”
― Ch'oe Yun, Mannequin

“Roaming around the marketplace from a young age, you come to learn something: that everything that has a soul is corrupt. The days of pure, innocent souls are past. All that the rest of mankind can hope for in this backward age is to be subject to less destruction. Sometimes, I prefer inanimate objects over organisms, and inorganic matter over organic.”
― Ch'oe Yun, Mannequin

“Not suicide as intended, but suicide that finds its way in naturally as the thing that sustains life is exhausted.”
― Ch'oe Yun, Mannequin

“The virtue of a heart attack lies in instantaneous arrival. The death of the body takes place before the death of the mind.”
― Ch'oe Yun, Mannequin

“People avoided taking a closer look because they were thrown off by the fact. Getting angry, busting out crying, hating or resenting someone, these are all stages of evasion.”
― Ch'oe Yun, Mannequin

“There are a lot of people like that in the world, people who don't know how to accept a gift from the world, people who can't rest easy until they destroy the gift.”
― Ch'oe Yun, Mannequin

“That's the way it is - life is no big deal. It's like a gift that comes with a purchase. Some of them you like, but some you just can't stand.”
― Ch'oe Yun, Mannequin

“But not all wishes are fulfilled. It isn't that hard, however, to put such petty desires to rest, and finally, to forget. People say at times that trivial desires have a greater hold on the soul. Perhaps that's true. Perhaps that's why many people leave somewhere only to return there for the same reason.”
― Ch'oe Yun, Mannequin