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Blanca

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Blanca’s Bookshelves

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“Who is the other woman whose photograph I do not have? If my mother was the first in my life, she was the last: my lover and my downfall, my hope and my despair. Her photographs I burned in an ashtray, one at a time - some might say to be rid of the evidence. Her name was Theresa Aden: Theresa like the saint; Aden like Eden, complete with snake.”
― Philip Sington, The Valley of Unknowing

tags: eden, lovers, photographs, women

5 likes

“We drank our coffee the Russian way. That is to say we had vodka before it and vodka afterwards.”
― Philip Sington, The Valley of Unknowing

tags: coffee, russia, vodka

27 likes

“Old Prague was a story-book city caked in grime: ancient, soot-blackened. History lived in every detail: in the deerstalker rooftops and the blue-sparking trams. He wandered the streets in disbelief, photographing everything, images from Kafka crowding into his head. With the turn of every corner it came back to him: the special frisson you get behind enemy lines.”
― Philip Sington, Zoia's Gold

tags: prague

11 likes

“For the writer under Actually Existing Socialism describing sex is a simple matter: he simply does not do it (the describing, I mean, not the sex).”
― Philip Sington, The Valley of Unknowing

tags: sex, socialism, writing

7 likes

“All writers are insecure, the male ones especially. It's well known. Why else would they spend so much time on make-believe? They're only happy in their imaginary worlds, because that's where they're in charge - where they're God. Did you know that Hemingway's mother dressed him as a girl until he was six years old?"
I was not offended by Claudia's glib psychological theory. Like many glib psychological theories, it struck me as fundamentally correct.”
― Philip Sington, The Valley of Unknowing

tags: insecurity, psychology, sington, writers

12 likes

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