exigency

When I'm feeling tired, there are two ways to wake myself up. I can either have a coffee or read Simone Weil. 

dark times

Years ago, I read Leon Uris's Mila 18, about one of the darkest periods in human history - a book about war, terror, depravity and triumph. There's a scene early in the book when one of the main characters pulls this book of poetry off his shelf and reads from it, seeking a kind of consolation. I remember that more clearly than anything else in the book, although, when I look for it, I can't find it. That's OK. The idea of it is probably better than the text. 

something made

To represent something in a book or a film, accurately, you have to distort it and craft it. Anything absolutely authentic would be unbelievable. 

moodible

The reason you have two ears is so that you can listen to two things at once. If you're just listening to one video or podcast at a time, you're missing out. 

out of body

I was listening to Ethel Caine when my dog attacked. I said, 'Don't sink in me with your dog teeth'. 

freedom and bondage

We long for freedom, but we think that freedom is about doing what you want, when actually it's as much about doing what you don't want than it is about doing what you want. 

When you just do what you want and only that, you aren't free, you're a slave to your desires. 

a kind of selflessness

I'm reading my way through all of Patrick White's novels and short story collections. I finished The Vivisector, which I've actually read before, and today I started on A Fringe of Leaves. At first I felt like it was OK, but then, once it got going with the main story, it was like - yes, this is good stuff...this is great literature. 

There's that unmistakable thing. Is it always the same thing? It feels like it in a way. It's a kind of vividness and immediacy. It's a kind of flow, where you cease to be aware that you're reading a book, and you experience the story.