Friday, November 05, 2004
Insight for the Weekend:
Well, it may not actually be so much an insight as a quote taken out of context that seems to fit my mood after the election.... Or if it is an insight it's a pretty cynical one. Make of it what you will.
"These phrases run trippingly off the tongues of the extremely respectable. They think in terms of a sentimental ballad. And that's what terrifies you about them. It isn't their cruelty, it isn't even their shrewdness - it's their extraordinary naivete. Everything in their whole bloody world is a cliche. Everything is born out of cliche, rests on a cliche, survives by cliche. And they believe in the cliches - there's no hope."
- Jean Rhys, Good Morning, Midnight
"These phrases run trippingly off the tongues of the extremely respectable. They think in terms of a sentimental ballad. And that's what terrifies you about them. It isn't their cruelty, it isn't even their shrewdness - it's their extraordinary naivete. Everything in their whole bloody world is a cliche. Everything is born out of cliche, rests on a cliche, survives by cliche. And they believe in the cliches - there's no hope."
- Jean Rhys, Good Morning, Midnight
