Posts filed under “Books”
Life vs. living
From Haruki Murakami’s The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: I happened to lose my life at one particular moment in time, and I have gone on living these forty years or more with my life lost. As a person who finds himself in such a position, I have come to think that life is a far more […]
Sense of self
From Haruki Murakami’s The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: No one said anything. Noboru Wataya appeared not to have even noticed that I had arrived. In order to make sure that I had not suddenly turned transparent, I put a hand on the table and watched as I turned it over and back a few times.
Pessimism
We’ve made a great big overpopulated mess of our planet and sometimes I feel like we aren’t going to take effective action before things really fall apart. I don’t really think I’m pessimistic, because I certainly keep trying. Perhaps this is stupid. May Kasahara in Haruki Murakami’s The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle says this: I’m only […]
Protected: Recovering from chronic pain
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
The privilege of the wealthy
From Jared Diamond’s Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed: in the United States … wealthy people increasingly seek to insulate themselves from the rest of society, aspire to create their own separate virtual [communities], use their own money to buy services for themselves privately, and vote against taxes that would extend those amenities […]
Protected: Friendship and Chronic Pain, Or This F*cking Sucks
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
Terrible myths
From Jared Diamond’s Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed: “The environment has to be balanced against the economy.” This quote portrays environmental concerns as a luxury, views measures to solve environmental problems as incurring a net cost, and considers leaving environmental problems unsolvd to be a money-saving device. This one-liner puts the truth […]