É demasiado complicado para poder ser simplificado, mas não há como os americanos para terem em carteira um numeroso naipe de princípios que seguem rigorosamente, se lhes convir. Ainda há semanas choravam baba e ranho pela Ucrânia e a “brutal unprovoked invasion” russa, liderando uma orquestra de papagaios a palrar em bando e a repetir mentiras cada vez mais delirantes, todos os dias, manhã, tarde e noite. Onde está a tal rules-based international order que nunca ninguém a viu? Graças a Deus que os judeus como exclusivistas do sofrimento mundial estão isentos de regras e princípios, e de qualquer forma se não gostássemos teriam outros.
Hoje em dia já ninguém lá vai, aquilo está cheio de gente
Artigos da categoria “Outras Coisas”
Before I go on with this short history let me make a general observation—the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise. This philosophy fitted on to my early adult life, when I saw the improbable, the implausible, often the “impossible” come true.
—F. Scott Fitzgerald, Esquire (magazine), The Crack-Up, Fevereiro de 1936
I am constantly trying to communicate something incommunicable, to explain something inexplicable, to tell about something I only feel in my bones and which can only be experienced in those bones.
—Franz Kafka, carta para Milena Jesenska, Novembro de 1920 (via Letters of Note).
When you start something new, how do you know where you’re going to end up? Most of the time, you don’t — you stumble around for awhile, exploring uncertainly until, slowly, things start to make sense. That messy journey is all part of the process.
—Jason Kottke, The Process Tee, 19 de Setembro de 2023, Kottke.org
I’d rather talk to one friend in a quiet cafe than fifty acquaintances at a party. Not only is it more of a cosy pleasure, it also works because there is a boundary with the friend; you know where you are. I’ve had a series of male friends, most of which were older than me, and all opened up the world, each in different ways. I was always pushy and curious as a kid; I wanted to know stuff, and be enthused by others. A smart friend can re-describe things for you; seeing stuff on your pal’s terms makes new objects suddenly pleasurable. As Emerson says, “The moment we indulge our affections, the each is metamorphosed”.
—Hanif Kureishi, Friends and Enemies, Substack, 13 de Setembro de 2023