Human existence comes down to a race against the world's darkness—the betrayals, the cruelty, the cowardice. A race that feels desperately futile most of the time, yet we run it anyway as long as hope survives. Nothing matters to me more than this struggle.
You say emotions are overrated. That's bullshit. Emotions are all we've got left. Been a while since I wrote about film, but Sorrentino's latest demands attention. It's that stunning.
Get out of your locked room, real or imaginary. Being terrified, scared shitless, is the beginning of freedom—the way to open your eyes to what's raw, dark, and sublime in life. That's how you tame the world.
It hurts to rush toward another person with only one thought: staying alive. Same old story—the agony of clinging to the first stranger who seems to understand, just to forget the pain.
Food was the best hiding place there was. The Middlestein family revolves around the mother—intelligent, energetic, authoritative, but obsessed with food. Despite her diabetes, despite the obesity threatening her life, she can't stop.
How small a thought it takes to fill a whole life. Peter Els, retired musician, dabbles in genetic engineering in his spare time. One night his dog has a seizure, he calls 911, and two cops show up at his door instead of paramedics.
I like being mean. It protects me from the world—I'm not afraid of anything. Three encounters between a man and a woman at three different moments, yet somehow a single encounter. This contradiction only works in Baricco's warped timeline.
What's real? It's when you bump into something. A few months back I told you not to fear quantum physics in Ferrari's novel. Today I'm telling you: don't fear semiotics in Binet's book. Just dive in.
Everything, and yet nothing. After her father dies broke, Nella Oortman has no choice but to marry quickly. What other option does a woman have to secure social status in Protestant Holland of the 1600s?