Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Suli Qyre @suliqyre.com · 14h

“I am at this instant in a white void awaiting the next instant. Measuring time is just a working hypothesis. But whatever exists is perishable and this forces us to measure immutable and permanent time. It never began and never will end. Never.”

— Clarice Lispector, Água Viva

1 1

Suli Qyre @suliqyre.com · 19h

“My attachment to my beliefs about productivity causes me to treat myself like a machine that must complete a certain amount of work over a certain amount of time. As a result, I withhold compassion from myself, my needs go unmet, and I suffer.”

Read more:
suliqyre.com/posts/produc...

187. Productivity And Compassion

When I feel I’m not making enough progress, I can easily become frustrated. This is especially true when the source of the delay is my own carelessness. I’ve been doing something other than what I sho...

suliqyre.com

1 2

Suli Qyre @suliqyre.com · 1d

The writer is the man who discovers the use of suffering in the economy of art — as the saints discovered the utility and necessity of suffering in the economy of salvation.”

— Susan Sontag, “The Artist As Exemplary Sufferer”

1

Suli Qyre @suliqyre.com · 1d

“The writer is the exemplary sufferer because he has found both the deepest level of suffering and also a professional means to sublimate his suffering. As a man, he suffers; as a writer, he transforms his suffering into art.

(1/2)

1 1 1

Suli Qyre @suliqyre.com · 1d

“The certainty of words does not seem to fit with the uncertainty of ourselves... The task of accuracy is never an easy one. It's a fight with language itself, a battle we must wage merely to communicate, and it often goes awry.”

Read more:
suliqyre.com/posts/words-...

186. Words Say Too Much

The problem with language is that it always says too much. This is especially true when we’re trying to talk about how we feel. Our words come out sounding like a solemn declaration of fact, as though...

suliqyre.com

1 2

Suli Qyre @suliqyre.com · 2d

“Our words come out sounding like a solemn declaration of fact, as though the emotions we're describing are substantial, permanent, and unchanging, when they might be none of these things.”

Read more:
suliqyre.substack.com/p/words-say-...

“Words Say Too Much”, etc. (186-190)

The task of accuracy is never an easy one. It's a fight with language itself, a battle we must wage merely to communicate, and it often goes awry.

suliqyre.substack.com

1 1

Suli Qyre @suliqyre.com · 3d

From Eco's Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language

Suli Qyre @suliqyre.com · 3d

“The Zohar says that “in any word shine a thousand lights” (3.202a). The unlimitedness of the sense of a text is due to the free combinations of its signifiers, which in that text are linked together as they are only accidentally but which could be combined differently.”

— Umberto Eco

1 1 2

Suli Qyre @suliqyre.com · 3d

“This is part of the tragedy of being human. The temporary nature of our existence means we are unable to achieve all of the things we want to achieve. There will always be something more we must leave undone. There will always be something we want that we will never have.”

Read more:

185. Endless Desire

You have a desire you cannot completely satisfy. You might be able to partly fulfill it, either now or in the future, but it will continue to exist because it is endless. You want more and more of the...

suliqyre.com

1 1

Suli Qyre @suliqyre.com · 4d

It cannot be understood; it can only be accepted or rejected. If accepted we are revitalized; if rejected we are diminished.”

— Henry Miller, The Rosy Crucifixion

1

Suli Qyre @suliqyre.com · 4d

“A great work of art, if it accomplishes anything, serves to remind us, or let us say to set us dreaming, of all that is fluid and intangible. Which is to say, the universe.

(1/2)

1 1 2

Suli Qyre @suliqyre.com · 4d

“To claim that chaos is imminent because change is needed is a great exaggeration. Our normative agreements are all interconnected, but this is not a point of weakness, it is one of strength.”

Read more:
suliqyre.com/posts/rules-...

184. Rules And Rebellions

When there is a rule that feels wrong or harmful, we might rebel against it. A tension has formed between us and the rule. The rule says we ought to do something, but we can see it’s better to act in ...

suliqyre.com

1 1

Suli Qyre @suliqyre.com · 5d

There is no more fiction that life could possibly confront, even victoriously — it is reality itself that disappears utterly in the game of reality — radical disenchantment, the cool and cybernetic phase following the hot stage of fantasy.”

— Jean Baudrillard, Simulations

1

Suli Qyre @suliqyre.com · 5d

“The old slogan ‘truth is stranger than fiction,’ that still corresponded to the surrealist phase of this estheticization of life, is obsolete.

(1/2)

1 1 1

Suli Qyre @suliqyre.com · 6d

“A day is not long but terrifyingly short from this place of unlimited rumination, searching, and striving to reach what cannot even be located. The hours pass one after the other, and at the end of each one I'm still the same.”

Read more:
suliqyre.com/posts/until-...

183. Until I No Longer Can

Another hour has vanished. I stare at the clock in disbelief, but the time is correct. An entire hour is gone, and I have done nothing. Time is passing quickly not because I’m fruitfully occupied but ...

suliqyre.com

1 1

Suli Qyre @suliqyre.com · 7d

“Pleasure in color, form, and movement, awareness of the amazing diversity of life, and the enjoyment of natural beauty are part of man’s heritage as a living creature.”

— Rachel Carson, Lost Woods

2 4

Suli Qyre @suliqyre.com · 7d

“The urge to return the sentiment is strong because of the belief that reciprocation is required. The other person does not want to seem ungrateful or otherwise lacking by failing to return what you have graciously given them.”

Read more:
suliqyre.com/posts/the-ur...

182. The Urge To Reciprocate

If you tell someone you like them and they immediately respond by telling you they also like you, there are two possibilities. The first is what you’re hoping for: they genuinely appreciate you and th...

suliqyre.com

1 1

Suli Qyre @suliqyre.com · 8d

From Barthes's The Pleasure of the Text

1

Suli Qyre @suliqyre.com · 8d

“The bastard form of mass culture is humiliated repetition: content, ideological schema, the blurring of contradictions — these are repeated, but the superficial forms are varied: always new books, new programs, new films, news items, but always the same meaning.”

— Roland Barthes

1 1 4

Suli Qyre @suliqyre.com · 8d

“When it feels like there is no choice it's because something is weighing me down. It's influencing me so heavily that I feel I cannot possibly go against it. If I'm paying attention to the forces that are at work in me, I can notice when this happens and respond.”

Read more:

181. There Is Always A Choice

For every situation I find myself in, I’m faced with a number of possible options. It’s up to me to choose among them and decide what I will do. Sometimes it feels like there is no choice, or like the...

suliqyre.com

1 1

Suli Qyre @suliqyre.com · 9d

“Sometimes it feels like there is no choice, or like the choice has already been made for me. I have to remind myself this is never true. There are always options. There is always a choice.”

Read more:
suliqyre.substack.com/p/there-is-a...

“There Is Always A Choice”, etc. (181-185)

Sometimes it feels like there is no choice, or like the choice has already been made for me. I have to remind myself this is never true.

suliqyre.substack.com

1 3

Suli Qyre @suliqyre.com · 10d

Our goal is to discover that we have always been where we ought to be. Unhappily we make the task exceedingly difficult for ourselves.”

— Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception

1

Suli Qyre @suliqyre.com · 10d

“To be enlightened is to be aware, always, of total reality in its immanent otherness — to be aware of it and yet remain in a condition to survive as an animal, to think and feel as a human being, to resort whenever expedient to systematic reasoning.

(1/2)

1 1 1

Suli Qyre @suliqyre.com · 10d

“We are all human beings, members of a shared world and participants in the shared project of life. To see distinctions between us as permanent and uncrossable is a mistake. Communication is always possible. Cooperation is always possible. Compassion is always possible.”

Read more:

180. Not Like Us

You’ve done something I consider wrong. Your actions aren’t criminal but I still find them reprehensible. I tell you that what you’ve done is wrong, but you ignore me and you keep doing it. I cannot a...

suliqyre.com

2 2

Suli Qyre @suliqyre.com · 11d

the bond to a living being, to a creative piece of reality, is always at the same time a separation.”

— Andreas Weber, Matter and Desire

1