Asakiyume mita

A thought: we've become a spectator society, where people often watch sports or plays rather than participating themselves. Are we also becoming a society where many people watch social relationships (on TV, the internet, etc.) rather than participating?

George chased after [Nikolai] and tackled [him] just a hair too late: Nikolai had already flung himself on top of the sweater. They tussled briefly, George trying to distract Nikolai by kissing the side of his face. But Nikolai, giggling, slipped away like an eel, and he danced away and pulled the sweater over his head before George was back on his feet. ​

George gave in gracefully. “You look hideous,” he informed Nikolai. ​Nikolai proudly smoothed the sweater “You are grieving the loss of your pompom,” he replied, giving Rudolph’s [pompom] nose a gentle squeeze.

We can inhabit this planet, but we will have to do so otherwise. If we don’t take steps in this direction, it would be as if someone wanted to get to the highest peak of the Himalayas but wanted to take along their house, their fridge, their dog, their parrot, their bicycle. They’ll never arrive with heavy luggage like that. We will have to radically reconceive of ourselves to be here. And we yearn for this newness.

There are people who were fish, there are people who were trees before imagining themselves as human. We were all something else before becoming people.

osprey_archer

sovay

There was a oconstant bristle at the edge of my mind, like I had to remember to tell someone something ... At random points throughout the day, I started laughing, as if I remembered something funny. But I never had any idea what the joke was.

Outside, the humans drift under its window in an endless river. The changeling watches them, envying their lack of choice.

mallorys_camera

wakanomori

mallorys_camera

Its sense of place is strong as is its sense of temporal duality, a feeling that the past is so strong, nothing is there to stop it from consuming the present.

What are they going to do? Steal from the souls? ... Those things aren't made for human eyes.

It didn't belong to anyone or it belonged to everyone ... [This is] only a temporary setup. But life itself is temporary.

“I explained to [the monk] that I needed charity, since not only had my parents abandoned me but so had the monks of Hieizan. Therefore, he ought to give me his robes. To my great astonishment, he refused! I ask you – what kind of Buddhist doesn’t simply hand over his clothing to the first stranger who wants it? I reminded him about the story of Satta Ōji, who virtuously sacrificed himself to feed a hungry tiger, and of Shibi Daiō, who gave up some of his own flesh to keep a dove from being eaten by a hawk. He had the cheek to ask me if I thought I was a tiger or a hawk!

“At that, I knew there was only one thing for me to do. As I was now a newly minted monk, I ought to teach Shunkai to be a better and more generous Buddhist. It wasn’t hard, since I was a lot bigger than he was. I had sworn not to steal, though, so after I took his robes, I gave him my own in return. They didn’t fit him very well, and it was a little silly to see an old man like him dressed as an acolyte, but I figured that would just teach him humility.”

Smuggling in these parts is a hanging offence, but it’s taking a while for the gravity of Jackie’s situation to descend upon him. His affable face strains from the effort of exerting his intelligence ....

“There are naval men of many years’ service,” Trevelyan remarks, without greeting, “who might expound to you all day long of the great accuracy of their timepieces, and never think to change from London time.”

Without realising it until now, she’s been staring all this time at Trevelyan’s delicate, lovely hands, cupped around roses of flame.

osprey_archer

Caleb nodded. "It's hard for people to let go of their preconceived notions [about the past]."

"They don't really want my opinion on anything," Russell griped. "They just want to draft the whole nineteenth century into supporting what they think. As if we all agreed with each other! We had this whole Civil War, you might could remember."

I felt sad because I honestly never knew how it was in the past (men being open with their affection to each other).

I came out in my teens, in the Midwest in the mid-70s, and the novel captures that sense of isolation and self-discovery: reading The Charioteer, Giovanni’s Room etc. anything with gay characters while feeling like you’re the only gay person in the world and trying to figure out how you’ll make a life. I never would have expected this book to capture the profundity and comedy of this forgotten world so well.