'the miseries that people suffer through their particular abnormalities of temperament are visible on the surface: the deeper design is that of the human misery and bondage which is universal. in normal lives this misery is mostly concealed; often, what is most wretched of all, concealed from the sufferer more effectively than from the observer. the sick man does not know what is wrong with him; he partly wants to know, and mostly wants to conceal the knowledge from himself. in the puritan morality that i remember, it was tacitly assumed that if one was thrifty, enterprising, intelligent, practical and prudent in not violating social conventions, one ought to have a happy and "successful" life. failure was due to some weakness or perversity peculiar to the individual; but the decent man need have no nightmares. it is now rather more common to assume that all individual misery is the fault of "society," and is remdiable by alterations from without. fundamentally the two philosophies, however different they may appear in operation, are the same. it seems to me that all of us, so far as we attach ourselves to created objects and surrender our wills to temporal ends, are eaten by the same worm.'
-- t.s. eliot, introduction to nightwood by djuna barnes.
-- michelle tea, the chelsea whistle
0 Responses to “although you know where you'll land, you're always pushing harder”
Leave a Reply