“Forget it all, I told myself, escape into your mind and your work, into the place where you are only your living, breathing self, not a citizen of any state, not a stake in that infernal game, the place where only what reason you have can still work to some reasonable effect in a world gone mad.”
― The World of Yesterday
Just a note: I've been rereading, in spots, mostly my own notes and underlined passages, The World of Yesterday. It's so relevant to the crisis we are facing today, that of rising nationalism and fascism. It's really difficult for me to accept that this has happened in my lifetime, but that is ego and foolishness. It can happen in any lifetime and ultimately it brings only misery. I can't make the same mistakes as Zweig. As brilliant as he was, he sunk into his art, disappeared there, in total despair. One day after finishing The World of Yesterday, he and his wife died by suicide. I am optimistic by nature and the kind of person who will go down spitting, if that's all I can do. Silence is not the answer. We must not be silent, ever.
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Comments go to email for approval. I only check once a week. Thank you, Jane.