“Man is above all else mind, consciousness -- that is, he is a product of history, not of nature.”
―
―
“There is a mode of vital experience -- experience of space and time, of the self and others, of life's possibilities and perils -- that is shared by men and women all over the world today. I will call this body of experience "modernity." To be modern is to find ourselves in an environment that promises us adventure, power, joy, growth, transformation of ourselves and the world -- and, at the same time, that threatens to destroy everything we have, everything we know, everything we are. Modern environments and experiences cut across all boundaries of geography and ethnicity, of class and nationality, of religion and ideology: in this sense, modernity can be said to unite all mankind. But it is a paradoxical unity, a unity of disunity: it pours us all into a maelstrom of perpetual disintegration and renewal, of struggle and contradiction, of ambiguity and anguish. To be modern is to be part of a universe in which, as Marx said, "all that is solid melts into air.”
― All That Is Solid Melts Into Air: The Experience of Modernity
― All That Is Solid Melts Into Air: The Experience of Modernity
“The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born”
― Selections from the Prison Notebooks
― Selections from the Prison Notebooks
“Are ye all right, man?" Ian asked, in the same tone of mild concern he'd heard his da use now and then on his mam or Uncle Jamie. Evidently it was in fact the right tone to take with a Fraser about to go berserk, for William breathed like a grampus for a moment or two, then got himself under control.”
― Written in My Own Heart's Blood
― Written in My Own Heart's Blood
Ismael’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Ismael’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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