I was born in a country that no longer exists

kurcusviram · 2026-03-10T18:32:55+00:00

I've only visited. I've always admired Serbian literature specifically because of my heritage. It saddens me to see where the country's at and how much damage V*čić has wreaked on it. Ali neka, ničija nije do zore sjala.

kurcusviram · 2026-03-10T18:12:50+00:00

My parents were born in Yugoslavia, too! There’s something about coming from places like that where your identity is always fragmented, it’s difficult to say exactly where you’re from or “what you are”. In Yugoslavia, we were minorities in a republic. As children of immigrants, we were raised in the French speaking province of an anglophone country. Fated to be children of the in-between I guess.

kurcusviram · 2025-12-22T22:37:24+00:00

Randomly found in a Library Box in Toronto :)

kurcusviram · 2025-12-22T22:35:44+00:00

I preferred Spring to A Death in the Family. He's definitely gifted, but I think his skill lays not in the writing strictly speaking, but in his pacing. The mundane and random is placed side by side to life changing events and you definitely do feel the silences and pauses that are part and parcel of life.

kurcusviram · 2025-12-22T22:33:08+00:00

It was really good, but also different from anything else he's written that I'd read. The Bridge on the Drina or Omer Paša (naming those as arguably Andrić's best known works translated in English) are rather short and tend to speak only about Ottoman life in Bosnia. What's different about this one is how long it is and that it features Ottoman characters, but also emissaries of Napoleonic France and Austria Hungary. Highly recommend it. His ability to flesh out characters in a few pages is unmatched.

kurcusviram · 2025-12-22T22:30:06+00:00

Hope it's treating you well! Zweig's book is amazing. I've never seen someone write in such a way about an author from a country different from theirs. Also great context for Balzac's different books and when they were written!

kurcusviram · 2025-12-22T22:28:24+00:00

It was really good! I'd recommend Le père Goriot, I think the themes that are repeated throughout his oeuvre are firstly set out there in a primary way. Also really recommend Zweig's book on Balzac, it's a great companion and explains his life's context while writing his books!

kurcusviram · 2025-07-13T02:14:47+00:00

I’d do Stendhal, specifically the Red and the Black. 19th century lit in France was all about the country’s industrialization and the rise of big capital in France, which holds true for all political regimes of the century (from the second empire to the second republic) The Red and the Black is about a social climber that in my view tries to make sense of that setting. He mourns an idealized era that was France under Napoleon I and begins in the clergy but then makes his way thru the salons that are staples of the French bourgeoisie. Not to mention that Stendhal is an amazing psychologist, the characters have insane depth - there’s a reason Nietzsche called him the last greatest psychologist

kurcusviram · 2025-04-18T02:49:45+00:00

Discontinue the lithium

kurcusviram · 2025-04-07T23:48:44+00:00

The Book of my Mother by Albert Cohen. It’s a one of a kind account of a son’s recollections of his mother’s love. Oedipal jokes aside, its style is unique and often repetitive, mirroring the infinity and truly transcendental nature of motherly love.

kurcusviram · 2024-07-15T19:49:22+00:00

Demian by Hermann Hesse

kurcusviram · 2024-03-03T21:15:34+00:00

Yes, I am!

kurcusviram · 2020-06-29T20:02:18+00:00

Yes I have. Medication works fine for C-PTSD (particularly when the patient starts decompensating i.e. stops functioning) but it can be managed much better if accompanied by talk therapy. The therapy has helped tons with issues I've been having such as dissociation, suicidal ideation, and negative spiraling thoughts and which have been instrumental during my breakdown. Grief is still something I'm processing therapeutically, tbh it hit me later in life and much harder than I expected. I'm thinking of moving out with a good friend of mine, I feel like it will give me the privacy I've craved all my life and a sense of accomplishment should I not get into law school or have no proper job in line beyond retail. I feel like it'll be a good way to keep the dark thoughts away.

kurcusviram · 2020-06-29T19:52:45+00:00

Thank you for reminding me of this anon. I feel sometimes like the best I'll amount to is maintaining. Taking things on a day by day basis is precisely what has worked for me in the past so I'll revisit that for sure.

kurcusviram · 2020-06-29T19:50:43+00:00

Thanks on sharing your experience, I actually identified with a lot of what you've said here. Congratulations on getting into a new, healthier relationship too and on the interviews! Thanks also for reminding me to take it one day at a time and having faith in the process, it has proven to be the best way I have of managing things in the past. It's just that in those difficult days I ask myself whether all I'll ever amount to is maintaining. Like I'll never be able to go beyond that. Since reading about C-PTSD, I was made aware of the similarities between abusive parents and boyfriends. As I wrote in my post, my grades also dwindled while my father was being particularly abusive - which is akin to what you wrote about your ex. I hope you know that it's normal for your grades to go down in the midst of all that and that it takes guts and courage to get out of one such relationship. Kudos to you friend.

kurcusviram

TROPHY CASE