May 2013
35 posts
When I can't wait for my best friend to visit
whatshouldwecallme:
“We absolutely must leave room for doubt or there is no progress and there is no...”
– Richard Feynman, born on May 11, 1918, on the role of scientific culture in modern society – timeless, remarkably timely read.
Pair with how ignorance drives science.
(via explore-blog)
“I keep thinking you already know. I keep thinking I’ve sent you letters that...”
– Iain Thomas (via botanicazilla)
Junot Diaz on Men Who Write About Women
The Atlantic: It sounds like you're saying that literary "talent" doesn't inoculate a writer—especially a male writer—from making gross, false misjudgments about gender. You'd think being a great writer would give you empathy and the ability to understand people who are unlike you—whether we're talking about gender or another category. But that doesn't seem to be the case.
Junot Diaz: I think that unless you are actively, consciously working against the gravitational pull of the culture, you will predictably, thematically, create these sort of fucked-up representations. Without fail. The only way not to do them is to admit to yourself [that] you're fucked up, admit to yourself that you're not good at this shit, and to be conscious in the way that you create these characters. It's so funny what people call inspiration. I have so many young writers who're like, "Well I was inspired. This was my story." And I'm like, "OK. Sir, your inspiration for your stories is like every other male's inspiration for their stories: that the female is only in there to provide sexual service." There comes a time when this mythical inspiration is exposed for doing exactly what it's truthfully doing: to underscore and reinforce cultural structures, or I'd say, cultural asymmetry.
April 2013
86 posts
“I think in many cases, your morality is deeply lacking if all you want is a...”
– Sister Joan Chittister (via thenewwomensmovement)
“To me, at least in retrospect, the really interesting question is why dullness...”
– David Foster Wallace, The Pale King (Little, Brown & Co., 2011, 85)
