"I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you."

Jane Austen, inventor of slow burn.

”All is gestation, and then birthing. To allow every impression and every germ of a feeling, all in itself, in the darkness, in what is unsavable. unconscious, unattainable by one's own understanding, to complete itself, and to await with deep humility and patience the moment of birth of a new clarity: that alone is the artist's life, in understanding as in creating.”

In this compilation of ten letters across four years of correspondence between Rilke and the young poet Kappus, rilke's evasion of the initial request for criticism in favor of addressing fundamental principles of life and art provides his past and present audience with a greater sense of direction than what was had going into this first letter.

”Do not seek out the answers now, which cannot be given to you because you cannot live them. And what matters is to live everything. Live the questions for now.”

To appreciate solitude for what it can reconcile within us and inform us about ourselves, to be patient during the gestation and eventual birthing of our judgments and beliefs, to learn to love questions without needing their answers, to see love as a method of order and opportunity to grow into who we are destined to be, to trust life to be right and the world to not be our enemy, to subscribe to the difficult, for within difficulty is where we can find the truest parts of ourselves unshaken by the external.

”Perhaps everything terrifying is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants help from us.”

While reading these letters, I felt as if there was an invisible string connecting me and Rilke together because of how he mirrors my own thoughts and beliefs as I have never seen before, though much more eloquently. His words have given me a peace I did not know I lacked, reaffirming to me that I am right to walk this path. Everyone should read this, especially if you are a creative!

”You must not let yourself be misled in your solitude because there is something in you that wants out of it.”

”Is it true that human beings are fundamentally cruel? Is the experience of cruelty the only thing we share as a species? Is the dignity that we cling to nothing but self-delusion, masking from ourselves this single truth: that each of us is capable of being reduced to an insect, a ravening beast, a lump of meat? To be degraded, damaged, slaughter--is this the essential fate of humankind, one that history has confirmed inevitable?”

Han Kang explores the aftermath of the Gwangju Uprising and Massacre of 1980 by intertwining various individuals' stories with the murder of Dong-ho, a boy who stayed behind with the civilian militia on the night of military reentry into the city. From the spirit of Dong-ho's friend, Jeong-dae, who was gunned down during one of the early marches, to Eun-sook, an editor dealing with censorship, to a prisoner battling the long-lasting scars of dehumanizing torture, to Seon-ju grappling with strength and weakness in the face of trauma, to Dong-ho's grieving mother who never recovers but most definitely does not go quietly into that good night, and to a writer, held captive by the deceased in his desire to tell their stories and restore dignity to their memory.

I cannot comprehend how anyone can read this book and feel unmoved. Each character presents another outcome of such events, exploring survivor's guilt, personal sense of duty, mob mentality, humanity or lack thereof, and dignity over oneself when all else is stripped away. As we read these different stories and learn what each person has experienced, witnessed, and lost, we are able to create a full picture of who Dong-ho was, who he could have been, and what was stolen from him as well. Definitely teared up a couple of times.

A very important read so as to not let the voices of the dead remain suppressed by those who which mean to inflict pain for their own gain. Such an event was not the first of its kind, and it was not the last.

"’Gwangju’ had become another name for whatever is forcibly isolated, beaten down, and brutalized, for all that has been mutilated beyond repair. Gwangju has been reborn only to be butchered again in an endless cycle. It was razed to the ground, and raised up anew in bloodied rebirth.”

3.5? 3.25?

I really enjoyed the worldbuilding and the refreshingly realistic portrayal of how one would act when in a situation of such a drastic change in government/society. I enjoyed the duality and complexity of the characters, none were so black or white, good or evil. The women were suffering, and the men were suffering, too. All plagued by unhappiness.

But I personally do not enjoy 300 pages of worldbuilding and little else. Pretty much no plot, anything that had the potential to become an interesting plot point dissolved or was never explored further. Which I get why it was the case but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. The book is passive as a result of Offred’s own passiveness in the face of this authoritarian regime, which again, is a realistic approach, but not the most interesting to follow.

"Man corrupt everything, say Shug. He on your box of grits, in your head, and all over the radio. He try to make you think he everywhere. Soon as you think he everywhere, you think he God. But he ain't. Whenever you trying to pray, and man plop himself on the other end of it, tell him to git lost, say Shug."

Read for my Law & Literature class. Wow. What a book. The way I came to care so intensely for Celie finding happiness after all of the suffering she suffered was enough to make me emotional at times. This book has quite the group of characters, and all feel like real people in their imperfections, their flaws, their complexities and multifaceted natures. People I at one point disliked grew on me as they themselves grew as individuals, though that did not by any means excuse their past actions. The development and journeys underwent by those we come to know throughout the story are the best part, in my opinion.

Following Africa from the eyes of Nettie was very interesting, as well as seeing those events juxtaposed with what goes on in America. If we had not seen Celie and her reunite, I would've lost it. There are so many messages compacted in this novel, addressing religion, systemic racism, sexism, abuse, family, all crucial to enhancing the meaning of the work as a whole. Lots to digest.

We do not simply live in this universe. The universe lives within us.

The cosmic perspective reminds us that in space, where there is no air, a flag will not wave⁠—an indication that perhaps flag-waving and space exploration do not mix.

Amazing book and introduction for astrophysics/the universe. I made sure to take my time with this one to digest all the information, rereading anything I couldn't grasp until I could (attempt) to understand what exactly went on in the vast expanse of our universe (or maybe it's the multiverse). My favorite chapter has to be the last one on the cosmic perspective. It was a great way to tie everything up and offered some very fascinating perspectives, if you will. Certainly has given me a lot to think about tonight (and probably many more nights in the future).

The problems I had with this book are insignificant when compared to everything that was good, but I thought I'd mention them anyways. First, I felt that the chapter about how the universe began and came to a point in which planets and such were formed could have been a little more in depth/longer. Second, in my opinion, Tyson sounds somewhat pretentious at times? But, eh, not enough to affect my ability to enjoy the book.

Overall, this is a must read! I hope to continue to expand my knowledge of the universe.

I read this for my English class, and ironically, many of my peers did not complete the book as part of the assignment, opting to watch the movie instead.

Pages 54-60, the afterward, and the coda were what make this book a 5-star-read for me. The things Bradbury was trying to say/warn us of really moved me; Beatty’s speech to Montag about why and how books got censored was beautiful and depicts an eerie future that comes ever so closer by the day. I think I read Fahrenheit 451 at the perfect time.

Now, I’m going to go think about it some more and truly digest what I’ve read (Rule 2).

Prose was really lovely. I liked how the main character was written and the whole concept of the “figure in the Persian rug” (maybe because I’m Persian, but I just really liked the way of describing authorial intentions this way). A very interesting portrayal of falling down a rabbit hole and becoming so obsessed with something (knowledge in this case) that it consumes your entire being.