“We used to have this self-centred idea that Western democracies were the end-point of evolution, and we're dealing from a position of strength, and people are becoming like us. It's not that way. Because if you think this thing we have here isn't fragile you are kidding yourself. This, '- and here Jamison takes a breath and waves his hand around to denote Maida Vale, London, the whole of Western civilization, -'this is fragile.”
― Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia
― Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia
“Tis a Fearful Thing
‘Tis a fearful thing
to love what death can touch.
A fearful thing
to love, to hope, to dream, to be –
to be,
And oh, to lose.
A thing for fools, this,
And a holy thing,
a holy thing
to love.
For your life has lived in me,
your laugh once lifted me,
your word was gift to me.
To remember this brings painful joy.
‘Tis a human thing, love,
a holy thing, to love
what death has touched.”
―
‘Tis a fearful thing
to love what death can touch.
A fearful thing
to love, to hope, to dream, to be –
to be,
And oh, to lose.
A thing for fools, this,
And a holy thing,
a holy thing
to love.
For your life has lived in me,
your laugh once lifted me,
your word was gift to me.
To remember this brings painful joy.
‘Tis a human thing, love,
a holy thing, to love
what death has touched.”
―
“So you were dissidents? You believed in finishing the USSR?''No. It's not like that. You just speak several languages at the same time, all the time. There's like several "you"s.' Seen from this perspective, the great drama of Russia is not the 'transition' between communism and capitalism, between one fervently held set of beliefs and another, but that during the final decades of the USSR no one believed in communism and yet carried on living as if they did, and now they can only create a society of simulations.”
― Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia
― Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia
“In the ill-judged execution of the well-judged plan of things the call seldom produces the comer, the man to love rarely coincides with the hour for loving. Nature does not often say 'See!' to her poor creature at a time when seeing can lead to happy doing; or reply 'Here!' to a body's cry of 'Where?' till the hide-and-seek has become an irksome, outworn game. We may wonder whether at the acme and summit of the human progress these anachronisms will be corrected by a finer intuition, a close interaction of the social machinery than that which now jolts us round and along; but such completeness is not to be prophesied, or even conceived as possible. Enough that in the present case, as in millions, it was not the two halves of a perfect whole that confronted each other at the perfect moment; part and counterpart wandered independently about the earth in the stupidest manner for a while, till the late time came. Out of which maladroit delay sprang anxieties, disappointments, shocks, catastrophes -- what was called a strange destiny.”
― Tess of the D’Urbervilles
― Tess of the D’Urbervilles
taiwan book exchange.
— 134 members
— last activity Aug 23, 2017 04:29PM
book exchange for people living in taiwan.
Asian Lit in Translation
— 105 members
— last activity Apr 26, 2020 02:35PM
From the far east, I would like to begin reading the best-sellers and classics. I'm personally interested in Travel books and works written by Expats ...more
The Trouble With China
— 25 members
— last activity Jun 08, 2021 09:42AM
As the author of recently published The Trouble With China, this group is to interact with readers and authors. While China has a claimed history of ...more
Conor’s 2024 Year in Books
Take a look at Conor’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
More friends…
Favorite Genres
Polls voted on by Conor
Lists liked by Conor






























