Solving a problem for which you know there’s an answer is like climbing a mountain with a guide, along a trail someone else has laid. In mathematics, the truth is somewhere out there in a place no one knows, beyond all the beaten paths. And it’s not always at the top of the mountain. It might be in a crack on the smoothest cliff or somewhere deep in the valley.
Yōko Ogawa, The Housekeeper and the Professor [Amazon, Bookshop, Publisher, Local Library]
“If one’s different, one’s bound to be lonely. They’re beastly to one. Do you know, they shut me out of absolutely everything? When the other boys were sent out to spend the night on the mountains—you know, when you have to dream which your sacred animal is—they wouldn’t let me go with the others; they wouldn’t tell me any of the secrets. I did it by myself, though,” he added. “Didn’t eat anything for five days and then went out one night alone into those mountains there.” He pointed. Patronizingly, Bernard smiled. “And did you dream of anything?” he asked. The other nodded. “But I mustn’t tell you what.”
Aldous Huxley, Brave New World [Amazon, Bookshop, Publisher, Local Library]
Who may know his complete likeness, so much being hidden? The Astrals, Elementals, Mind, Soul? We realize something of the body’s mechanism and of the affectiveness of the whole; at its interrelations we may only guess. Every fact gleaned shows us merely greater ignorance of ourselves. Therefore, speak not of God, speak for yourself alone, for when you know yourself you will know your gods.
Austin Osman Spare, The Logomanchy of Zos
He’s a fanatic and you know it; he identifies so fully with his public image as a savior of lives that he’s simply had to make a psychological break with reality.
Philip K Dick, The Crack in Space [Bookshop, Amazon, Publisher]
But, hey, this kind of thing’s going on in libraries everywhere, you know. More or less, that is.
Haruki Murakami, The Strange Library
