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Susan Sontag’s Regarding the Pain of Others

Susan Sontag’s writing is for the passionate and the aloof. It’s for the performer and the audience. The tendencies of which exist in each of us. Her writing is the epitome of wisdom, knowledge, and most importantly, perspective. The specificity of emotions when pitted against the suffering of others. And still, it evokes disgust,...

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E. M. Cioran’s A Short History of Decay

“Chaos is rejecting all you have learned. Chaos is being yourself.” It’s a rare thing to find in a loyally-pessimistic writer the bridge that connects wisdom with nothingness. Cioran writes about heroes and hermits alike. He shines the torch on the uncertainty, incompetence, and excesses of both. And the way they breed in humanity...

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Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre

It’s such sophisticated and symbolic writing. Jane Eyre is Bronte’s psychological and emotional vessel – molded and contoured through vivid descriptions of nature, gothic landscapes, obscure shadows, and alter egos. It is masterfully-adorned in unconventional romanticism and wisdom. Straightforward, candid, and unreserved – Jane Eyre coalesces courage and impeccable writing to revise the narrative...

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James Baldwin’s Go Tell It On The Mountain

There was a point in my life when I thought that past a certain age, I’d have it all figured out. At least the “big” stuff. The job, the personality, the social circle (or lack thereof), and the ambition. Because then, once the dust settles, the blank canvas would have some boundaries, here and...

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Frank Herbert’s Dune

To understand the myth of the hero, we must first assume that the hero is real. Then continue along that trajectory to assume that the humanity that presupposes the role of a hero is also real. The truth, from that point on, is governed by a set of rules, tests that dictate the social...