(no subject)

[learnedax]

Ordinary fuckin' people. I hate 'em. An ordinary person spends his life avoiding tense situations. A repoman spends his life getting into tense situations.
...
The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.
...
Well, do you ever get the feeling that the story's
too damn real and in the present tense?
Or that everybody's on the stage, and it seems like
you're the only person sitting in the audience?
...
And did you exchange
A walk on part in the war
For a lead role in a cage?
...
So we shall let the reader answer the question for himself. Who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived, or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed?

Comments

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

Why are these always either/or questions?

[learnedax.livejournal.com]

Must it all be either less or more,
Either plain or grand?
Is it always 'or'?
Is it never 'and'?

[new-man.livejournal.com]

Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death!
...
Why would I lie about a thing like that? Well, because most of the time the truth is so boring or complicated that most people don't really want to hear it.

[learnedax.livejournal.com]

I would sooner have you hate me for telling you the truth than adore me for telling you lies.
...
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away

[new-man.livejournal.com]

I think your first one is almost the exact inverse of my second one. Alternatviely, your second and my first are pretty good paraphrases of the same sentiment.

[learnedax.livejournal.com]

There is no such thing as a life of passion any more than a continuous earthquake, or an eternal fever. Besides, who would ever shave themselves in such a state?

[new-man.livejournal.com]

I burn my candle at both ends;
It will not last the night.

But oh my foes, and ah, my friends,
it makes a lovely light.

[learnedax.livejournal.com]

Things they do look awful cold
I hope I die before I get old
...
Astride of a grave and a difficult birth. Down in the hole, lingeringly, the grave digger puts on the forceps. We have time to grow old. The air is full of our cries
...
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in the rain

[new-man.livejournal.com]

We're now playing "swap the quote", which is kind of fun... but doesn't really us anywhere near talking about what prompted you to post the thematically related quotes. Are you feeling like you're not achieving enough? Or like it's impossible to achieve enough.

When I look at the television I want to see me, staring right back at me

[learnedax.livejournal.com]

Can you see the real me, preacher?

I think of it as building a point-counter elaboration in the medium of quotation, but nevertheless... I thought I expressed my state of mind in an effective if Picasso-esque manner.

The art is a lie that leads us to the truth.

What prompted me to post? Reading that at 15 herooftheage was shot at by mormons. That sort of thing doesn't happen to me, usually because I have a greater sense of self-preservation. See above on remaining safe on the beach. Am I protecting myself from Life? Or, on the other hand, is it that the grass is always greener, with my desire for what I don't have turning me into the dog with two bones? Perhaps, on the gripping hand, achieving the breadth of experience I want is impossible, a goal too big for one lifetime, or a hundred.

Too bad she won't live - but then again who does?

... then again, maybe my central conceit has overreached itself.

Stay at home in your mind. Don't recite other people's opinions. I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.

[new-man.livejournal.com]

I think of it as building a point-counter elaboration in the medium of quotation, but nevertheless...

Yeah... you'd be wrong about that. I mean, if the purpose was to show your masterful knowledge of the breadth and depth of quotations, you succeeded in that. If you wanted to actually communicate ... it didn't work so well.

What prompted me to post? Reading that at 15 herooftheage was shot at by mormons. That sort of thing doesn't happen to me, usually because I have a greater sense of self-preservation.

Being shot at is not something to aspire to. Unless you're... I can't actually think of a profession where you hope to be shot at. A martyr, maybe. Soldiers don't want to be shot at, neither do cops. Anyway, I don't think it's a sense of self-preservation that has kept you from being shot at, any more than a deathwish has caused me or Vis to be in situations where we get shot at.

See above on remaining safe on the beach. Am I protecting myself from Life?

Are you? If so, it's for naught. It'll kill you anyway. While you can compare your experiences to Vis' (or anyone else's), it doesn't do any good. By the time he was my age, my namesake had conquered the known world... and died. Jesus died five years ago on my personal timeline. I was very proud of a letter E I had written (it had 28 horizontals) at about the same age Mozart performed his first violin solo.

The question isn't "Are you protecting yourself from life", but how you feel about yours. If you feel it's lacking something, figure out what, and what to do about it. Hitchhike across the country. Climb Mt. Washington. Work with Habitat for Humanity. Take up painting. Start poking at things and yourself until you find the thing that makes you go "Aha!". The thrill may last a week or a year or a decade. It may even last all your life -- but if it doesn't, find something else that thrills you.

Unless, of course, you think eliptical whinging is the thing that's going to rock your socks. In which case... carry on.

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

A ship is safe in the harbor, but that's not what a ship is for.