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“My mother said I broke her heart...but it was my integrity that was important. Is that so selfish? It sells for so little, but it's all we have left in this place. It is the very last inch of us...but within that inch we are free.”
― V for Vendetta
― V for Vendetta
“If the Agency could become a container for something neither Anna nor Mary had known before: a family. Now, without Caroline depending on her, Anna was alone. It did not taste good. There were voices inside: I am risking everything; I could lose everything.”
― The Alchemy Fire Murder
― The Alchemy Fire Murder
“Exposition: the workings of the actual past + the virtual past may be illustrated by an event well known to collective history, such as the sinking of the Titanic. The disaster as it actually occurred descends into obscurity as its eyewitnesses die off, documents perish + the wreck of the ship dissolves in its Atlantic grave. Yet a virtual sinking of the Titanic, created from reworked memories, papers, hearsay, fiction--in short, belief--grows ever "truer." The actual past is brittle, ever-dimming + ever more problematic to access + reconstruct: in contrast, the virtual past is malleable, ever-brightening + ever more difficult to circumvent/expose as fraudulent.
The present presses the virtual past into its own service, to lend credence to its mythologies + legitimacy to the imposition of will. Power seeks + is the right to "landscape" the virtual past. (He who pays the historian calls the tune.)
Symmetry demands an actual + virtual future too. We imagine how next week, next year, or 2225 will shape up--a virtual future, constructed by wishes, prophecies + daydreams. This virtual future may influence the actual future, as in a self-fulfilling prophecy, but the actual future will eclipse our virtual one as surely as tomorrow eclipses today. Like Utopia, the actual future + the actual past exist only in the hazy distance, where they are no good to anyone.
Q: Is there a meaningful distinction between one simulacrum of smoke, mirrors + shadows--the actual past--from another such simulacrum--the actual future?
One model of time: an infinite matryoshka doll of painted moments, each "shell" (the present) encased inside a nest of "shells" (previous presents) I call the actual past but which we perceive as the virtual past. The doll of "now"likewise encases a nest of presents yet to be, which I call the actual future but which we perceive as the virtual future.”
― Cloud Atlas
The present presses the virtual past into its own service, to lend credence to its mythologies + legitimacy to the imposition of will. Power seeks + is the right to "landscape" the virtual past. (He who pays the historian calls the tune.)
Symmetry demands an actual + virtual future too. We imagine how next week, next year, or 2225 will shape up--a virtual future, constructed by wishes, prophecies + daydreams. This virtual future may influence the actual future, as in a self-fulfilling prophecy, but the actual future will eclipse our virtual one as surely as tomorrow eclipses today. Like Utopia, the actual future + the actual past exist only in the hazy distance, where they are no good to anyone.
Q: Is there a meaningful distinction between one simulacrum of smoke, mirrors + shadows--the actual past--from another such simulacrum--the actual future?
One model of time: an infinite matryoshka doll of painted moments, each "shell" (the present) encased inside a nest of "shells" (previous presents) I call the actual past but which we perceive as the virtual past. The doll of "now"likewise encases a nest of presents yet to be, which I call the actual future but which we perceive as the virtual future.”
― Cloud Atlas
“He woke up blinking with a slight pain in his head and opened his eyes upon a world boiling in chaos in which everything was in proper order.”
― Catch-22
― Catch-22
“Straightway [Juno] sought the filthy slimy shack
Where Envy dwelt deep in a dreary dale,
A gruesome sunless hovel, filled with frost,
Heart-numbing frost, its stagnant air unstirred
By any breeze, for ever lacking warmth
Of cheerful fire, for ever wrapped in gloom.
...
The door flew wide and there
She saw foul Envy eating viper's flesh,
Fit food for spite, and turned her eyes away.
...
[Envy's] cheeks are sallow, her whole body shrunk,
Her eyes askew and squinting; black decay
Befouls her teeth, her bosom's green with bile,
And venom coats her tongue. She never smiles
Save when she relishes the sight of woe;
Sleep never soothes her, night by night awake
With worry, as she sees against her will
Successes won and sickens at the sight.
She wounds, is wounded, she herself her own
torture,”
―
Where Envy dwelt deep in a dreary dale,
A gruesome sunless hovel, filled with frost,
Heart-numbing frost, its stagnant air unstirred
By any breeze, for ever lacking warmth
Of cheerful fire, for ever wrapped in gloom.
...
The door flew wide and there
She saw foul Envy eating viper's flesh,
Fit food for spite, and turned her eyes away.
...
[Envy's] cheeks are sallow, her whole body shrunk,
Her eyes askew and squinting; black decay
Befouls her teeth, her bosom's green with bile,
And venom coats her tongue. She never smiles
Save when she relishes the sight of woe;
Sleep never soothes her, night by night awake
With worry, as she sees against her will
Successes won and sickens at the sight.
She wounds, is wounded, she herself her own
torture,”
―
Karyl’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Karyl’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
343 books
|
44 friends
129 books
|
35 friends
70 books
|
20 friends
249 books
|
25 friends
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