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"[...]a vessel cleaving the dungeon of the waves[...]"
You're Love in the Time of Cholera!
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Like Odysseus in a work of Homer, you demonstrate undying loyalty by
sleeping with as many people as you possibly can. But in your heart you never give
consent! This creates a strange quandary of what love really means to you. On the
one hand, you've loved the same person your whole life, but on the other, your actions
barely speak to this fact. Whatever you do, stick to bottled water. The other stuff
could get you killed.
Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.
Never miss a word
You're Infinite Jest!
by David Foster Wallace
While you1 consider yourself2 to be clever,
there are those3 who think you're just full of yourself or, perhaps worse,
playing a joke4 on everyone around you, and yet you are pretty sure that
you really are that brilliant after all, since people would hardly take the time to
get to know you5 if they didn't care very deeply about what you had to
say to them, to wit, about their lives, their hopes, their dreams, their fears, their
drug habits, and of course what videos6 they prefer to watch, since,
after all, your impressive vocabulary and tendency to go on and on7 makes
you seem superior, able to educate them, and really drive a sense of something
ineffable into their measly little skulls while you are not above making a cheap
gag or really going after anyone or anything or telling them about incredible
futures involving tennis, geopolitics, and
1Meaning you personally, not someone like you or your own
personal daddy, for example.
2As well as you can see yourself, which, frankly, may not be that well.
3Though we wouldn't deign to be so peripatetic as to name them here, mind.
4Jokes, though not common in Victorian England, were known to originate
sometime in ancient history, perhaps as early as the time of Babylon, or even before.
It is thought that the history of the joke plays an integral role in the mindset of
the characters depicted here, though you may disagree at this point, in which case I
am facing quite the dilemma in relaying this narrative, no?
5It is rather time consuming, after all.
6Ha!
7and on and on and on...
Take the Book Quiz II
at the Blue Pyramid.
You're The Metamorphosis!
by Franz Kafka
Though you think you're in the midst of a dream, the fact of the
matter is that your life has become a nightmare. The nightmare at first seems
horrific to you, but you are slowly able to adjust to the facts of the matter
and settle down and make do with what you've been given. There are those that
would say you're pointless and absurd, but you're really just trying to
demonstrate that people can (and do) adapt to anything, no matter how absurd
it is. Not that this will really inspire them to change, because they probably
don't understand.
Take the Book Quiz II
at the Blue Pyramid.
About Me
- Σφιγξ
- possesses wholly unmerited academic pretensions; examines love as an entomologist; collects haunted dollshouses; notes the lunar phase as regularly as the temperature; peruses field guides; reads like a serial magazine subscriptionist; functions through coffee and "mood" music; draws to the very corners of the page; takes notes on unlined paper; reads poetry as prayer; observes textual authority with the incredulity of fiction; suppresses the smart-ass answer(s); adapts as well as anyone beseiged by her own bibelots; she is a sensation seeker in spite of all of this.
5 comments:
Would you also like to change the place of your "nest" now and then?
This construct certainly gives that impression...
Nests were fairly ubiquitous along this bank and I introduced some wistfulness by the title...their manufacture and abandonment.
Hashgacha pratit. The Hidden Hand of Divine Providence in individual lives.
This is not to ascribe weighty matters to seemingly fad diets, but there is always the prayer, let me make my livelihood in a permitted, not forbidden, manner. Sustenance in a less tortured way, by increasing degrees.
https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Routledge_Handbook_of_Vegan_Studies/BxwfEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=hashgacha%20pratit&pg=PA199&printsec=frontcover
"If Hashem desires, the amount of money we’re allotted on Rosh Hashanah can cover many more months’ worth of expenses than anticipated, or alternately, be consumed by expenses we never budgeted for in the first place.
This is the meaning behind the word 'aleinu' in the opening of the brachah ('Bareich aleinu'). We entreat Hashem that the sum He’s apportioned us at the beginning of the year be distributed in a manner of brachah, uniquely tailored for our specific needs.
The brachah opens with a request for Hashem to bless 'hashanah hazos,' this year, and continues to reference time in increments of 'shanah.' Shanah shares a root with the word 'shinui — change.' Here we allude to the potential for change in the ensuing year. Our financial needs shift with the seasons. Yamim Tovim, back-to-school, summer, and winter all have their unique expenses, and we daven that Hashem’s largesse correspond with the needs each 'shinui' on the calendar engenders.
Additionally, our spiritual state fluctuates as well, and the amount Hashem decreed for us on Rosh Hashanah is distributed in tandem with our spiritual merits. We ask that Hashem bestow His generosity in a way that ensures brachah, even when our spiritual self changes in the wrong direction."
https://mishpacha.com/a-prayer-for-parnassah/
I heard a lecture where one pointed out that striving for parnassah is desired because as soon as one's material needs are met, the predictable part of human nature attributes a living to one's own efforts and abilities. One can easily lose sight of the provision of health, wealth or happiness until it is taken.
Retirees living off investments are some of the most unhappy people, particularly when the reason to resume in society for a living is not needed. Work in many domains is the aim.
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