Thank You Universe!

"The bottom line is: You're going to die. You're gonna be dead forever. It's an infinitely longer time than you ever were alive. And it's painful, but of course, the thing is, it's just intensely beautiful, too. Because infinite life, as even dogs in the street know, would be the hell that never ended. So it's this extraordinary, beautiful gift."

I've been fangirling real hard lately. But I don't feel too bad, even Buzzfeed feels her vibe deeply (click here).

Brain Pickings!

This is my favourite website (click here). It is packed to the rafters with things that make my brain get juicy. 

I am an advice addict. I love reading how other people understand the world and their tried and tested theories of the best path to anything worthwhile. I don't generally mind where the advice comes from, I can ignore it after all, I just find it fascinating to hear or read, because really, in giving advice the person is actually just doling out a slice of nostalgia or regret dressed up as an instruction. 

This website is filled with advice and I am a sponge for shit like this. I especially like this from Zadie Smith (click here) and this from Neil Gaiman (click here).

I tried to think about what advice I have to give to anyone and I pretty much drew a blank. It is strange since in my day-to-day conversations I often say things that must sound like wanker advice but really I'm just bullshitting, I have no idea. I just like to talk, too much and too often. 

Apologies to the countless victims of my ramblings, I am unlikely to change but hey, you never know. 

Books!

So Lola insisted on being in this photograph which was intended to artfully showcase the books  that Tommy got me for my birthday. 

All I was getting from her vibe is captured in the captions. Captured in the captions, I like that. 

Anyway, that's Lola. A simple and determined bibliophile. 

So back to the books, Zadie Smith is my favourite writer (sort of). For me, it is difficult to isolate a favourite, the more I read, the more I love. But it is safe to say that she is a firm favourite. Her third novel, On Beauty lives in my mind like a little snow-globe that I sometimes shake and I particularly love her collection of essays called Changing My Mind. She is so startlingly intelligent that I am torn between drunken jealousy and childlike admiration. This book is her long awaited (seven years!) fourth novel so I have great expectations. 

The other book is by a Dominican-American author, it is noteworthy that he is Dominican because well, it's cool. I read his first novel and kinda loved it and I love the title of this book so I will spend December reading and trying to ignore the blatant fact that I have been abandoned by aforementioned gift giver and overall stellar boyfriend..

Pulchritude

"Pulchritude-beauty where you would least suspect it, hidden in a word that looked like it should signify a belch or a skin infection."

Zadie Smith. 

Zadie and Me

"It's a funny thing about the modern world. You hear girls in the toilets of clubs saying, "Yeah, he fucked off and left me. He didn't love me. He just couldn't deal with love. He was too fucked up to know how to love me." Now, how did that happen? What was it about this unlovable century that convinced us we were, despite everything, eminently lovable as a people, as a species? What made us think that anyone who fails to love us is damaged, lacking, malfunctioning in some way? And particularly if they replace us with a god, or a weeping madonna, or the face of Christ in a ciabatta roll---then we call them crazy. Deluded. Regressive. We are so convinced of the goodness of ourselves, and the goodness of our love, we cannot bear to believe that there might be something more worthy of love than us, more worthy of worship. Greeting cards routinely tell us everybody deserves love. No. Everybody deserves clean water. Not everybody deserves love all the time."

Zadie Smith. On Beauty.