“Only one endowed with restless vitality is susceptible to pessimism. You become a pessimist—a demonic, elemental, bestial pessimist—only when life has been defeated many times in its fight against depression.”
―
―
“With its passive and unobtrusive despotism, the camera governed the smallest spaces of our lives. Even in the privacy of our own homes we had all been recruited to play our parts in what were little more than real-life commercials. As we cooked in our kitchens we were careful to follow the manufacturer's instructions, as we made love in our bedrooms we embraced within a familiar repertoire of gestures and affections. The medium of film had turned us all into minor actors in an endlessly running daytime serial. In the future, airliners would crash and presidents would be assassinated within agreed conventions as formalised as the coronation of a tsar.”
― The Kindness of Women
― The Kindness of Women
“The bourgeois novel is the greatest enemy of truth and honesty that was ever invented.”
― J.G. Ballard Conversations
― J.G. Ballard Conversations
“To claim you are more detached, more alien to everything than anyone, and to be merely a fanatic of indifference!”
― The Trouble With Being Born
― The Trouble With Being Born
Jonathan’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Jonathan’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
More friends…
Polls voted on by Jonathan
Lists liked by Jonathan













