Gregisdead121 ’s Reviews > Black Bag > Status Update

Mind blowing. It did get tedious towards the final stretch but the ending made up for most of it.

You look for relationships like that because … I mean I’m not a shrink. But
you’re trying to work something out.
What am I trying to work out?
You let people walk all over you!
They shouldn’t want to!
But they do! You get someone to treat you quite badly and then you’re
all, Why does this keep happening to me?
I punch him in the shoulder

''You will not come to a final room where you have to face yourself; this
is already yourself. It is already talking to you and this is the only language
it knows, a language you used to know.''

Misery, he begins, is the norm. We must accept this. With this in mind,
we must understand exactly how sensitive we are. Embarrassingly sensitive,
to the last one of us. And petty and vain and vindictive. We like to accuse
one another of being oversensitive because all of us are. “A trifle consoles
us because a trifle upsets us,”

''Don’t ransom the present to the future. You may not be the undiscovered
genius you think you are, but you certainly deserve better than this. And
you did choose it. And it is too late. So now you don’t have a choice. Try
something else and see how quickly whatever’s in you devours your spirit
and spits out the husk. If you’re going to fail, and we’re all going to fail, do
it with your head held high.''

''I know this isn’t a doctoral thesis. But it’s interesting, isn’t it? That that’s
never come up. Because people are obsessed with narcissism and empathy
at the moment, right? It’s like the topic. Sometimes it’s like relationships
have replaced religion.''

''Shame, says Claudio. The shame that runs under masculinity like a great
and powerful river. Ever it roars, and we dip into it at the least provocation.
That’s quite poetic, I say.
If we can do something about the Great River of Shame, we’re halfway
to sorting things, says Claudio. That moment where you see a man for who
he is—a comment, a gesture reveals it and you realize you’re both just drowning in shame,''

''How important is it to have a big dick? I ask him.
Claudio looks away from his screen and ponders this for a while.
I’m sorry to say that it’s very important, he says. We must not say so, but
it is.
It is important, isn’t it?
Oh more than we’d care to admit, homes. For certain. To have, and to be
quietly known for, having a big, beautiful dick. Men go to war over less.
Commit great white-collar crimes.''

Hope that better things are coming. And that when they come, it would
be a shame if we’d given up.
This is exactly what I’ve been trying to tell you about black bag
What exactly?
Black bag is the better thing coming.
What can black bag do for anyone?
Men are very lost, says Claudio. This is the great reset.
I thought you were selling it as performance art?
Does art not have the power to effect change? says Claudio.

'' I will put any questions or thoughts of Justine’s husband in a
corner of my mind and erect a force field around it made of thoughts of
Justine and how wonderful she is and how urgently I want to talk to her or
put my hand on her waist. Naturally this solar-powered force field only
holds up during daylight hours—it has no battery or means of power
storage—and at night I think about little else.''