Memorable Stuff I Read This Week

There is no point
In doing anything,
There is no resisting
The monstrous god
Who devours
His own children.

— Fernando Pessoa / “Ode I”

Cars are, without exaggeration, one of the most significant and negative environmental, political, social, and cultural forces in the history of humanity … Instead of unbounded freedom and rugged self-reliance the never-ending proliferation of automobiles has delivered a host of costs and burdens. Among them are the demolition of our neighborhoods, towns, and cities to make way for expensive car infrastructure like freeways.

— Sarah Goodyear, Doug Gordon & Aaron Naparstek / Life After Cars

My disorder stacks to the sky. Those whom I loved were attached to the sky by an elastic. I turned my head … they weren’t there. 

— Jean Cocteau / “The Red Packet”

Oceans absorb more than 90 percent of the excess energy in the Earth system, which is primarily caused by burning fossil fuels, such as oil, coal, and gas. That imbalance hit a record 23 zettajoules last year, more than double the average of the previous two decades.

As a result, the oceans are warming at an accelerating rate. In 2020, the amount of heat being added to the oceans was equivalent to about five Hiroshima bombs per second. Last year, it was closer to 11 Hiroshima explosions per second. The UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, has warned “Earth is being pushed beyond its limits.”

— Jonathan Watts / “On the Longest Day of the Year, Ocean Surface Temperatures Hit a Record High” / Mother Jones

Where there is violence
there is always a trace
of an echo buried
deep
deep
down

— Basel Abbas & Ruanne Abou-Rahme / Until we became fire and fire

I have forced myself to contradict myself in order to avoid conforming to my own taste.

— Marcel Duchamp / “Marcel Duchamp” / MOMA installation

I could fit all that matters
into one bag.

— Kate Braverman / “Job Interview”

What I’m Listening To:

We don’t know anything
You don’t know anything
I don’t know anything about love
But we are nothing (Whoa-oh-oh)
You are nothing
I am nothing without love

— The Magnetic Fields / “The Death of Ferdinand de Saussure”