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“I believe that this wise and blessed frame of mind would have continued with me, had it not been for the unsolicited and uncharitable remarks obtruded upon me by my professional friends who visited the rooms. But thus it often is, that the constant friction of illiberal minds wears out at last the best resolves of the more generous.”
― Bartleby, The Scrivener. A Story of Wall-Street
― Bartleby, The Scrivener. A Story of Wall-Street
“That, as of old, was the writer's job, maybe his primary job. To show us the futures we didn't want, and the futures we could have if we wanted. The key line in the speech for me, was the one about, "We live in captialism, its power seems inescapable--but then, so did the divine right of kings." We can change out lives.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin: The Last Interview and Other Conversations
― Ursula K. Le Guin: The Last Interview and Other Conversations
“He stopped, for saying the truth aloud was unendurable. It was not shame that stopped him, but fear, the same fear. He knew now why this tranquil life in sea and sunlight on the rafts seemed to him like an afterlife or a dream, unreal. It was because he knew in his heart that reality was empty: without life or warmth or color or sound: without meaning. There were no heights or depths. All this lovely play of form and light and color on the sea and in the eyes of men, was no more than that: a playing of illusions on the shallow void.”
― The Farthest Shore
― The Farthest Shore
“Nothing so aggravates an earnest person as a passive resistance. If the individual so resisted be of a not inhumane temper, and the resisting one perfectly harmless in his passivity, then, in the better moods of the former, he will endeavor charitably to construe to his imagination what proves impossible to be solved by his judgment.”
― Bartleby the Scrivener
― Bartleby the Scrivener
“Disciplinary society is a society of negativity. It is defined by the negativity of prohibition. The negative modal verb that governs it is May Not. By the same token, the negativity of compulsion adheres to Should. Achievement society, more and more, is in the process of discarding negativity. Increasing deregulation is abolishing it. Unlimited Can is the positive modal verb of achievement society. Its plural form—the affirmation, “Yes, we can”—epitomizes achievement society’s positive orientation. Prohibitions, commandments, and the law are replaced by projects, initiatives, and motivation. Disciplinary society is still governed by no. Its negativity produces madmen and criminals. In contrast, achievement society creates depressives and losers.”
― The Burnout Society
― The Burnout Society
Mark’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Mark’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
611 books
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27 friends
163 books
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16 friends
205 books
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203 friends
696 books
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24 friends
442 books
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4 friends
1,237 books
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42 friends
815 books
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11 friends
3 books
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1 friend
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