Here we’ll explore quotes from The Bell Jar, an influential modern novel that took mental illness head on in a chronicle both terrifying and tender. The Bell Jar wasn’t published in the U.S. until 1971, in accordance with the wishes of Ted Hughes, to whom she had been married at the time of her deathContinue reading “Quotes from The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath”
Category Archives: Excerpts
Pennywise and Georgie – IT Excerpt (Stephen King)
“Want your boat, Georgie?’ Pennywise asked. ‘I only repeat myself because you really do not seem that eager.’ He held it up, smiling. He was wearing a baggy silk suit with great big orange buttons. A bright tie, electric-blue, flopped down his front, and on his hands were big white gloves, like the kind MickeyContinue reading “Pennywise and Georgie – IT Excerpt (Stephen King)”
Man’s Search for Meaning – Achievement Orientation Quote
“But today’s society is characterized by achievement orientation, and consequently it adores people who are successful and happy and, in particular, it adores the young. It virtually ignores the value of all those who are otherwise, and in so doing blurs the decisive difference between being valuable in the sense of dignity and being valuableContinue reading “Man’s Search for Meaning – Achievement Orientation Quote”
Understand a novelette by Ted Chiang (Full Excerpt)
Ted Chiang writes… The initial impulse to write “Understand” arose from an offhand remark made by my roommate in college; he was reading Sartre’s Nausea at the time, whose protagonist finds only meaninglessness in everything he sees. But what would it be like, my roommate wondered, to find meaning and order in everything you saw? To meContinue reading “Understand a novelette by Ted Chiang (Full Excerpt)”
The Gift of Fear – Survival Signals by Gavin De Becker (Excerpt)
The following is respectfully quoted from “The Gift of Fear” by Gavin De Becker: Many homicides have occurred at the courthouse where women were seeking protection orders, or just prior to the hearings. Why? Because the murderers were allergic to rejection. They found it hard enough in private but intolerable in public. For men likeContinue reading “The Gift of Fear – Survival Signals by Gavin De Becker (Excerpt)”
Do you notice how people hurt each other nowadays? Quote from Farenheit 451
“Why aren’t you in school? I see you every day wandering around.” “Oh, they don’t miss me,” she said. “I’m antisocial, they say. I don’t mix. It’s so strange. I’m very social indeed. It all depends on what you mean by social, doesn’t it? Social to me means talking to you about things like this.”Continue reading “Do you notice how people hurt each other nowadays? Quote from Farenheit 451”
My life thou shalt command, but not my shame
My life thou shalt command, but not my shame: The one my duty owes; but my fair name, Despite of death that lives upon my grave, To dark dishonour’s use thou shalt not have. I am disgraced, impeach’d and baffled here, Pierced to the soul with slander’s venom’d spear, The which no balm can cureContinue reading “My life thou shalt command, but not my shame”
How should one read a book? Virginia Woolf Book Quote
The only advice, indeed, that one person can give another about reading is to take no advice, to follow your own instincts, to use your own reason, to come to your own conclusions. If this is agreed between us, then I feel at liberty to put forward a few ideas and suggestions because you willContinue reading “How should one read a book? Virginia Woolf Book Quote”
Hamlet * To be or not to be?
Fear of the unknown is possibly the only thing keeping a man from killing himself to end his troubles. And the sleep might still take over! “To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take armsContinue reading “Hamlet * To be or not to be?”
Don’t trust your memories
I came across an interesting take on the False Memory Syndrome. While we all experience memory failures from time to time, false memories are unique in that they represent a distinct recollection of something that did not actually happen. It is not about forgetting or mixing up details of things that we experienced; it is aboutContinue reading “Don’t trust your memories”
One Book a Week 