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116 voters
Oliver Bateman
rated a book it was amazing
Reading for the 2nd time
Oliver Bateman said:
"
If you grew up in the deep, dreamy south, this glorious collection of essays--once considered an important cultural statement--is bucolic nostalgia nonpareil.
"
“A high station in life is earned by the gallantry with which appalling experiences are survived with grace.”—Tennessee Williams
“Everything should take place slowly and incorrectly so that man doesn't get a chance to start feeling proud, so that man is sad and perplexed.”
― Moscow to the End of the Line
― Moscow to the End of the Line
“You are a clot, so to speak. A clot of envy in the dying era's bloodstream. The dying era envies the era that's coming to take its place.”
― Envy
― Envy
“(Things don’t like me. Furniture purposely sticks out its leg for me. A polished corner once literally bit me. My blanket and I have always had a complicated relationship. Soup served to me never cools. Any little thing—a coin or a cuff link—that falls off the table usually rolls away under furniture that’s hard to move. I crawl across the floor and lifting my head I see the sideboard laughing.)”
― Envy
― Envy
“I like the fact that my compatriots have such vacant and protruding eyes. They fill me with virtuous pride. You can imagine what eyes are like (in the capitalist world). ...such eyes look at you with distrust, reflecting constant worry and torment. That's what they're like in the land of ready cash.
How different from the eyes of my people! Their steady stare is completely devoid of all tension. They harbor no thought - but what power! What spiritual power! Such eyes would not sell you. They couldn't sell anything or buy anything. You could spit in the eyes, and they’d call it God's (divine) dew...”
― Moscow to the End of the Line
How different from the eyes of my people! Their steady stare is completely devoid of all tension. They harbor no thought - but what power! What spiritual power! Such eyes would not sell you. They couldn't sell anything or buy anything. You could spit in the eyes, and they’d call it God's (divine) dew...”
― Moscow to the End of the Line
“I've always been in two minds about women, really. On the one hand, I always liked the fact they had waists, and we hadn't. That aroused in me a feeling of - how shall I put it? - well, pleasure. Yes, pleasurable feelings. Still, on the other hand, they did stab Marat with a penknife, and Marat was Incorruptible, so they shouldn't have stabbed him. That fairly killed off the pleasure. Then again, like Karl Marx, I've always loved women for their little weaknesses - i.e. they've got to sit down to pee, and I've always liked that - that's always filled me with - well, what the hell - a sort of warm feeling. Yes, pleasurable warmth. But then again they did shoot at Lenin, with a revolver no less! And that put a damper on the pleasure as well. I mean, fair enough, sitting down to pee, but shooting at Lenin? That's a sick joke, talking about pleasure after that.
However, I digress.”
― Moscow to the End of the Line
However, I digress.”
― Moscow to the End of the Line
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Oliver’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Oliver’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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