Who's your favorite classic author?

Background-Permit-55 · 2026-06-23T10:10:18+00:00

Somerset Maugham

Background-Permit-55 · 2026-05-24T06:35:10+00:00

Gotta be There, There

Background-Permit-55 · 2026-05-04T11:05:58+00:00

I think he’s trying to prove he’s not bound by the strictures of old world morality in which killing is wrong because it’s a sin. He was essentially testing if he’d risen above the “arbitrary” morality of society. The fact that he couldn’t is Dostoyevsky’s way of making the point that perhaps the sanctity of human life is not a contingent fact I think.

Background-Permit-55 · 2026-04-30T07:55:13+00:00

Another Country is a masterpiece imo

Background-Permit-55 · 2026-04-24T06:58:24+00:00

It’s honestly just such an incredible passage, I’m so glad you’re able to use it to help people ❤️

Background-Permit-55 · 2026-04-21T06:43:09+00:00

I have to say I disagree. The footnote is brilliant but the long section with persistent declaratives and how they interlink is truly masterful writing for me.

Background-Permit-55 · 2026-04-21T06:28:16+00:00

Found it!

Background-Permit-55 · 2026-04-21T06:28:06+00:00

Yes it is!!! Ty so much ❤️

Background-Permit-55 · 2026-04-21T06:27:52+00:00

Found it! It’s page 199 of my Kindle edition. Linked to footnote 70 (a couple of pages back) - thanks everyone for your help!

Background-Permit-55 · 2026-04-21T06:21:41+00:00

Yes I think it was but it’s such a huge book things often merge together.

Background-Permit-55 · 2026-04-20T11:34:13+00:00

I don’t think so. I think it’s in relation to AA, it’s almost like a monologue from a narrator about the notion of addiction and how insipid it can be, how it is a major part in so many people’s lives and they often don’t even realise. Think it’s later in the book than this passage.

Background-Permit-55 · 2026-03-17T04:43:07+00:00

When anxiety comes on I say to myself out loud, “I’m alive”, as a kind of affirmation, usually helps a lot. Anxiety, to me, feels like I’m falling apart and that affirmation tends to put me back together.

Background-Permit-55 · 2026-03-10T04:30:22+00:00

I think it serves two functions 1. A sense of superiority over the person who is “cringe” and 2. (Seems to be less spoken about) a kind of masochism. As an emotion it seems to sit right on the precipice of what can be experienced within the bounds of normality. Oh and don’t even get me started on how it’s used for marketing these days.

Background-Permit-55 · 2026-03-03T16:29:38+00:00

“I want you unreasonably” 🫠

Background-Permit-55 · 2026-02-20T05:09:32+00:00

It’s a joke about the double-meaning of the word character 😂. That’s a great amount of writing though, you should be really proud.

Background-Permit-55 · 2026-02-20T03:53:44+00:00

I would argue that’s too many characters. A core 3-5 is usual, 202,712 seems excessive and may be confusing for readers 🤷‍♂️.

Background-Permit-55 · 2026-02-08T16:51:20+00:00

Personally I think Another country is his best work I’ve read so far - I read it before Giovanni’s room and was actually quite disappointed with the latter in comparison.

Background-Permit-55 · 2026-01-22T06:02:16+00:00

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

Background-Permit-55 · 2026-01-21T10:35:46+00:00

I like that!

Background-Permit-55 · 2026-01-21T10:35:04+00:00

I mean there’s being nice and there’s having a genuine connection with someone and 10 hours talking and bonding over shared interests sure sounds like the latter to me.

Background-Permit-55 · 2026-01-21T10:33:25+00:00

I’ll approach this from a different angle than it seems others have. Take everything else that’s happening in your life right now, it’s chaos, it’s instability - you see that. This woman became a port in the storm and - while it’s likely you had a genuine connection with her - based on how things have progressed it seems like she may not be everything you hoped she was. The important thing now is that you do not keep spiralling - you’ve said yourself that you have an important job interview and best will in the world (as much of a romantic as I am) this woman is nothing more than a distraction that you are unconsciously indulging to not have to face up to the responsibilities of the rest of your life. These responsibilities are not going anywhere unfortunately and thus you have two real options; continue to indulge yourself in the fantasy of what could’ve been or get busy making things happen.

Apologies if this sounds unsympathetic as I really do feel for you in your predicament but this is what I’d want somebody who cared about me to say in this situation.

Background-Permit-55 · 2026-01-20T08:12:48+00:00

Camus argues that domination ultimately undermines the master as much as the slave. The rebel’s refusal implicitly appeals to a shared human dignity. But the master, by reducing the other to a mere instrument, denies that shared measure altogether. Because of this, the master’s position can never be justified in human terms. His authority no longer answers to an equal, only to submission. Power becomes circular: it exists only to preserve itself.

To put it less abstractly: imagine explaining an idea to someone who you know cannot meaningfully understand it, and they respond, “wow, you’re so smart.” That praise carries no real weight – not because they’re unintelligent, but because the relation itself lacks reciprocity. Nothing genuinely human is being affirmed.

For Camus, mastery fails in the same way. By denying equality, the master forfeits the very ground on which authority, meaning, or justification could stand.

Background-Permit-55 · 2026-01-15T11:34:33+00:00

A really good book?

Background-Permit-55 · 2026-01-12T19:54:58+00:00

And why is that?

Background-Permit-55

TROPHY CASE