emily’s Reviews > Axiomatic > Status Update
emily
is on page 72 of 200
‘—I always dreaded film sequences in which—life—a normal, long life—gets condensed into a few emblematic scenes—Time as a straight line is a monstrosity. Homo sum: humani nil a me alienum puto—‘I am human, I consider nothing human alien to me’—How come, I ask. ‘Because people are people.’ I overheard her say, ‘I couldn’t do what you’re doing’—I tried hard, tried & failed to figure out if she meant it as a compliment’
— Jul 29, 2026 12:41PM
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emily’s Previous Updates
emily
is on page 182 of 200
‘—she says Vietnamese is—food with a profound history. ‘Love my food, you’ve also got to love my culture.’ At first I think—Desperation, pain, shame, fear, bodies buried in oceans / unmarked graves in other people’s countries—these are your branding apparatus? ‘People don’t listen to stories unless they can eat them or feel them or wear them—I don’t want anywhere to feel like home. I don’t want to anchor like that.’’
— Aug 23, 2026 09:03PM
emily
is on page 178 of 200
‘The past found him—through a stranger’s story—spun—into the vortex of his own—history. So much of the past works like that—vortex-like. ‘The past shapes the present,’ they teach—in schools—Shapes? Infiltrates more like, imbues, infuses, it is invisible this past, it is gas—odourless, colourless chemical agent bouncing around in the lungs, crackling in the spaces between us, in the air the culture breathes in, out.’
— Aug 22, 2026 02:35AM
emily
is on page 133 of 200
‘On the street as anywhere, people are good and bad, both at once. Poverty, neglect, abuse—disadvantage—biochemistry—residential zipcodes—Borges’s Infinite Library of Larkin’s they-fuck-you-up—fables—More echoes than in an echo chamber—Books are imperishable—because they are so ready to survive, dispersed across the world—memories—We are the—vessels containing, spilling all over the place, those who came before us.’
— Aug 13, 2026 07:07PM
emily
is on page 108 of 200
‘All the talk about the sanctity of human life. As if knowing your life is precious is a default state—I sit back & wait for the lecture—the legal shit sandwich–‘Despite your intelligence & commitment you’re still relapsing.’ Did I hear respect expressed in a court of law for a woman who has gone back to drugs more times than Marina Abramovic invited a snake to orbit her head? People’s lives aren’t straightforward—’
— Aug 03, 2026 11:19AM
emily
is on page 39 of 200
‘What a ubiquitous phrase it is—back to normal—but perhaps not as glib, nor so obscurantist, as it sounds—Freedom is—like full moons, glistening like melons washed by monsoon rain. Don’t use my tragedy to mask your moral failure—We hug like two people on a train platform—strangers who love each other with the love that belongs not to them, but to the world around them that has gone off its axis. Time is not a river.’
— Jul 24, 2026 05:46PM
emily
is on page 9 of 200
‘Possible description of a human life: salad days at our peak—casserole days when it’s over. And for those we leave behind—post-casserole eternity,—‘robots don’t procrastinate, they don’t have feelings, they are machines that are made to work.’ I am interested in perspective shifts. Voice shifts. Third person. First person. A rose garden floating—no explanation of its reason for being, a silent, fragrant signifier.’
— Jul 23, 2026 03:52AM