Monday 29 January 2018
Saturday 27 January 2018
Kindness is all we have: goodbye, dearest Ursula
Excerpt from Ursula K. Le Guin's speech at the 2014 National Book Awards
Books, you know, they’re not just commodities. The profit motive often is in conflict with the aims of art. We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art—the art of words.
There was kindness. I and certain others, an old man and one with a bad cough, were recognised as being least resistant to the cold, and each night we were at the centre of the group, the entity of twenty-five, where it was warmest. We did not struggle for the warm place, we simply were in it each night. It is a terrible thing, this kindness that human beings do not lose. Terrible, because when we are finally naked in the dark and cold, it is all we have. We who are so rich, so full of strength, we end up with that small change. We have nothing else to give.
No. It is not wonderful. It is an ugly world. Not like this one. Anarres is all dusty and dry hills. All meager, all dry. And the people aren’t beautiful. They have big hands and feet, like me and the waiter there. But not big bellies. They get very dirty, and take baths together, nobody here does that. The towns are very small and dull, they are dreary. No palaces. Life is dull, and hard work. You can’t always have what you want, or even what you need, because there isn’t enough. You Urrasti have enough. Enough air, enough rain, grass, oceans, food, music, buildings, factories, machines, books, clothes, history. You are rich, you own. We are poor, we lack. You have, we do not have. Everything is beautiful here. Only not the faces. On Anarres nothing is beautiful, nothing but the faces. The other faces, the men and women. We have nothing but that, nothing but each other. Here you see the jewels, there you see the eyes. And in the eyes you see the splendour, the splendour of the human spirit. Because our men and women are free—possessing nothing, they are free. And you the possessors are possessed. You are all in jail. Each alone, solitary, with a heap of what he owns. You live in prison, die in prison. It is all I can see in your eyes—the wall, the wall!
See also:
Monday 22 January 2018
Wednesday 17 January 2018
Sunday 14 January 2018
Thursday 11 January 2018
Tuesday 9 January 2018
Friday 5 January 2018
![[Vimeo]](https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/624794797.jpg?mw=1920&mh=1080&q=70){kind=link}
Monday 1 January 2018
Sonny Rollins: life is all about giving
Sonny Rollins, quoted in 'Jazz Legend Sonny Rollins on Retiring His Sax, His Legacy, and the Secret to Life', by David Marchese, Vulture
You know, I listen to the radio a lot and there’s a guy that comes on and says, “Have a good day today and enjoy.” I hate the word “enjoy.” Because to me life is not about enjoyment or, in other words, getting for yourself. That’s not why we’re here. The reason of life, to me, is all about giving. Giving is what gives me happiness. Making somebody else happy is the greatest thing you can do.
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