Status Updates From Alberte og friheten

Skjelvende på hånden legger Alberte boken fra sig, tar den ikke op igjen. Noen ord i den gjorde ont i henne, sved som salt i sår. Harde, ubarmhjertige, traff de blink og skånte ikke. Mannsord. Tenkt av en mann, skrevet ned av en mann.

Dontcha just hate it when your butch lesbian friend virtually tries to rape you, and then you receive an unexpected proposal of marriage from a nice male acquaintance you aren't the least bit attracted to but feel rather sorry for, both on the same afternoon and moreover when it's stiflingly hot and you have a headache?

Vokt Dem for Deres hjerte, sier Alphonsine.

I den lille pausen, mens Alphonsine påny overveier, bøier Potter sig frem over bordet og sier lavt til Alberte: Men are like hungry dogs, I always told you ---

Og hun slår over i sitt langsomme, omstendelige og oforbederlige amerikanerfransk og sier høit, til hele selskapet: Det er kvinnens ulykke at hun tenker med hjertet. Mannen, han tenker med noe som sitter lavere.

Ord kastes fra tid til annen mot henne, imellem morsomme, undertiden pene, aldri grove og rå som hjemme. Det verste er det korte, lave: Tu viens? nakent som en ordre til en slave. Men går en fort og later som ingenting, faller det hele bort av sig selv. Det hender det gjøres godt igjen med en undskyldning, Pardon madame.

"And something dawned on her. All the pain, all the vain longing, all the disappointed hope, all the anxiety and privation, the sudden numbing blows that result in years going by before one understands what happened - all this was knowledge of life."

"Hope, the untiring, again put out surface roots into nowhere, in spite of everything. The pain could not go on forever, nor did it. This evening she seemed to recognize that everything comes to an end, even pain. It burns itself out finally. One dies of it, or it passes out of one's system like an ache that is over. All that is left is a calcification in the mind, a hard scar, that cannot be affected again."

"Nothing is incurable, everything passes."

"Money in your pocket makes your step light. It is a sort of credential, giving one again the right to exist and look people in the eyes, to do things that increases one's well being and self-respect: to ask about prices, choose foodstuffs, take them home and eat them, pay debts, smarten oneself up."