The Idiot
by
We learned about the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which said that the language you spoke affected how you processed reality.
“I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.”
― The Bell Jar
― The Bell Jar
“I will tell you what is my overriding perception of the last twenty years: that we are a civilization careening toward a succession of anticlimaxes – toward an infinity of unsatisfying, and disagreeable endings. ”
― A Prayer for Owen Meany
― A Prayer for Owen Meany
“But what I mean is, lots of time you don’t know what interests you most till you start talking about something that doesn’t interest you most. I mean you can’t help it sometimes.”
― The Catcher in the Rye
― The Catcher in the Rye
“Was that the beginning, that evening—on the dock of Avilion, with the fireworks dazzling the sky? It's hard to know. Beginnings are sudden, but also insidious. They creep up on you sideways, they keep to the shadows, they lurk unrecognized. Then, later, they spring.”
― The Blind Assassin
― The Blind Assassin
“It's funny. All you have to do is say something nobody understands and they'll do practically anything you want them to.”
― The Catcher in the Rye
― The Catcher in the Rye
Meghna’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Meghna’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
Favorite Genres
Polls voted on by Meghna
Lists liked by Meghna





















