Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

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Atmospheric Disturbances 2

"People naturally perseverate on their personal tragedies, even though such perseveration doesn't really serve anyone, neither the living nor the dead...It's simply not a practical use of time to think constantly of the dead. I'm not heartless, and I do regret that I must sound that way, and I understand how resilience is in its way a demonic kind of strength, a strength that is discomforting evidence against the existence of true, eternal love. But is it better for the living to burn themselves in others' funeral pyres? As I wrote, once, "Mourning should be mortal." And, well, I think it's worth considering why memorial writing is so awful, why it so entirely fails to communicate the feeling of loss. I at least feel that it fails. Those vague earnest words all seem so demeaning, so shameful, like strangers hearing the sound of you going to the bathroom."

-Rivka Galchen, Atmospheric Distubances

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Interesting thing about Liars and Non-Lying People

"I don't think of my honesty as moral value, since I think of morality as involving choices, and I've never particularly chosen to be honest, have simply never been able to be otherwise, feel rather predetermined to fail at lying. Even as a child, in order to avoid saying thank you, upon prompting, for things I wasn't truly thankful for, I would bury my face in my mother's skirt...I even kind of like it when other people lie, when Rema lies, for example; it's a way of finding out, IF the lie is uncovered, what she thinks is worth lying about."

p.22 Rivka Galchen, Atmospheric Disturbances

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Atmospheric Disturbances

Went to the Strand Bookstore the other day. J and I went crazy, yet AGAIN. I'm hoping to collect enough books to last me until December. I'm already anticipating how moving to that town will heighten my loneliness.



So..anyway, I'm currently reading this book. The cover's awesome! And the reviews won me over:

"A relentless exploration of how a man could fail to see clearly the woman he loves"

"Galchen's dark and comical mystery is a clever take on the ways of love, longing, and overanalysis can drive you absolutely nuts"

Sounds quite promising, doesn't it? I'm looking forward to how this story will unravel.

There's hope after all, L. The writer's a DOCTOR and an MFA graduate! It's really possible, 'ey? I'm rooting for you.

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We rejoice in our broken-ness.

"How children love the broken thing! And a puzzle is for the piecing together, especially for the young, who still believe it can be done."

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I'm in the middle of reading Sebastian Night..and can I just say that it articulates the You in my head and the You that I know so perfectly? Sometimes I don't know if I've created you so poetically sound in my mind that every time you are unconventional it seems like it's rational that you aren't rational?

p.41-42

Sebastian in spite of himself realized with perhaps a kind of helpless amazement that no matter how wisely and sweetly his surroundings played up to his old dreams, he himself, or rather still the most precious part of himself, would remain hopelessly alone as it had always been. The keynote of Sebastian's life was solitude and the kindlier fate tried to make him feel at home by counterfeiting admirably the things he thought he wanted, the more he was aware of his inability to fit into the picture,--into any kind of picture. When at last he thoroughly understood this and grimly stated to cultivate self-consciousness as if it had been some kind of rare talent or passion, only then did Sebastian derive real satisfaction from its rich and monstrous growth, ceasing to worry about his awkward congeniality--but that was much later.

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