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peytonaaa's Reviews (927)
dark
reflective
"I’ve never been much good at keeping things in the right order; sometimes I reveal the outcomes first or I confuse them with the causes. It’s a symptom of my illness. The two were always connected, but there was no way I could know it. Right now, as I share my testimony with you, I think that perhaps the Nadine Ayotchow speaking to you today is the wrong part of me, the fate that wasn’t meant to be."
4 of these 6 stories were fine but not amazing which was kind of disappointing bc this felt like it would be right up my alley BUT the other 2 made up for it especially since they were the longest
4 of these 6 stories were fine but not amazing which was kind of disappointing bc this felt like it would be right up my alley BUT the other 2 made up for it especially since they were the longest
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
"But father was too trusting; he offended people with the raptures of first love, and they never forgave him for this, deceiving him mercilessly. And so father came to believe that his life was governed by some malicious fate, an enigmatic creature that dogged his every step and with which he had nothing in common."
reflective
"O Bappa, he thinks, his grip tightening on the window frame, Bappa, I believe every word I speak, but there are nights when I have no religion and no politics, I have only desires."
informative
reflective
"For years I lived as a son whose world was ruled by a fundamentally benevolent father with whom I was temporarily fighting. I was sure that we were moving, always moving, towards the ultimate happy family and that one day we would all live in harmony. When he died before this could happen I had to wake up from my fantasy, had to face the godlessness of my world and the fact that it is time-bound. There was not enough time for the rebellion and the dream. The rebellion had consumed all the available time. I turned around to ask my stage manager when the second act would start and found that there was none. I was alone. There was no second act and no stage manager. What hadn’t happened in the first act would never happen. Life moves in real time."
informative
reflective
sad
"I looked at a photograph of al-Sharif’s body covered with a black cloth, the blood pooling under him, while soldiers and settlers milled around unconcerned. I could not bring myself to watch the video taken by a brave Palestinian of what had happened. Yet ever since this killing I could not stop thinking about the twisted ideology that had turned a young man into someone capable of killing a wounded man only a few years older than himself. His words: ‘This terrorist must die.’ What brutality and fear had blunted his humanity to such a degree that he had shown no compassion or hesitation. After the killing, he was so unrattled that he had the wherewithal to send a text message to his father informing him of his action.
... From the way his family hugged him, there was no indication that they had any doubt about the morality of their son’s action, sparing no thought for the parents of the murdered young man, his family or friends. Nor did the majority of the Israeli public, who considered him a hero. Thousands went on to the streets to demonstrate on his behalf. Sixty per cent of young people expressed their belief that he had done the right thing by killing the Palestinian. The prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, called his family to express his support. Who, then, would help this young soldier to regain his humanity? What would it take to rehumanise the tens of thousands of desensitised Israelis like him?"
... From the way his family hugged him, there was no indication that they had any doubt about the morality of their son’s action, sparing no thought for the parents of the murdered young man, his family or friends. Nor did the majority of the Israeli public, who considered him a hero. Thousands went on to the streets to demonstrate on his behalf. Sixty per cent of young people expressed their belief that he had done the right thing by killing the Palestinian. The prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, called his family to express his support. Who, then, would help this young soldier to regain his humanity? What would it take to rehumanise the tens of thousands of desensitised Israelis like him?"
adventurous
mysterious
"Despite appearances, puzzling is not a solitary game: every move the puzzler makes, the puzzle-maker has made before; every piece the puzzler picks up, and picks up again, and studies and strokes, every combination he tries, and tries a second time, every blunder and every insight, each hope and each discouragement have all been designed, calculated, and decided by the other."
Special shout-out to the appendix in which Perec notes that this work includes excerpts and paraphrases of writers including Jorge Luis Borges, Franz Kafka, and Georges Perec
Special shout-out to the appendix in which Perec notes that this work includes excerpts and paraphrases of writers including Jorge Luis Borges, Franz Kafka, and Georges Perec
informative
reflective
"Masochism can be seen, therefore, not only as a strategy for escaping aloneness, but also as a search for aloneness with the other: by letting the other remain in control, the masochist hopes to find a 'safe' open space in which to abandon the protective false self and allow the nascent, hidden self to emerge... The masochist’s wish to be reached, penetrated, found, released—a wish that can be expressed in the metaphor of violence as well as in metaphors of redemption—is the other side of the sadist’s wish to discover the other. The masochist’s wish to experience his authentic, inner reality in the company of an other parallels the sadist’s wish to get outside the self into a shared reality."
reflective
"More than in God, I believe in the nameless wife
of Lot, who knew she would never find a home
outside of Sodom, and therefore choked on salt."
of Lot, who knew she would never find a home
outside of Sodom, and therefore choked on salt."
mysterious
"I was the First and Best Audrina who had always put love and loyalty first. There was no place for me to run."
Haha what if we all killed ourselves
Haha what if we all killed ourselves
reflective
tense
"I know now why Jappie cut deeper than diamonds, why the sheen of that word—slave—had all the dull brilliance of a rough coveted stone mired in dirt: because it's true. We were slaves. No better than them. Maybe even worse. After he said this, I was angry. But really, I was angry with myself. What else did I believe that was premised on a lie? That one simple truth shattered me open. I couldn't go back to pretending. I started to see things for what they really were."