The following is an excerpt from the book In Cold Blood by Truman Capote.
You are a man of extreme passion, a hungry man not quite sure where his appetite lies, a deeply frustrated man striving to project his individuality against a backdrop of rigid conformity. You exist in a half-world suspended between two superstructures, one self-expression and the other self-destruction. You are strong, but there is a flaw in your strength, and unless you learn to control it the flaw will prove stronger than your strength and defeat you. The flaw? Explosive emotional reaction out of all proportion to the occassion. Why? Why this unreasonable anger at the sight of others who are happy and content, this growing contempt for people and the desire to hurt them? all right, you think they're fools, you despise them because their morals, their happiness is the source of your frustration and resentment. But these are dreadful enemies you carry within yourself--in time destructive bullets. Mercifully, a bullet kills its victim. This other bacteria, permitted to age, does not kill a man but leaves in its wake the hulk of a creature torn and twisted; there is still fire within his being but it is kept alive by casting upon it faggots of scorn and hate. He may successfully accumulate, but he does not accumulate success, for he is his own enemy and is kept from truly enjoying his achievements.
That knocked me flat on my ass when I read that. There is an article in today's paper on the movie "Capote". I hope that little escerpt wets your appetite for the book and the movie. Phillip Seymour Hoffman stars in it. I love mr. hoffman. One of my favorite actors.
I watched "A History of Violence" yesterday. Excellent. Ed Harris is brilliant.
Turn off your computer. Now go to the movies and pay a visit to the bookstore on your way home.
You are a man of extreme passion, a hungry man not quite sure where his appetite lies, a deeply frustrated man striving to project his individuality against a backdrop of rigid conformity. You exist in a half-world suspended between two superstructures, one self-expression and the other self-destruction. You are strong, but there is a flaw in your strength, and unless you learn to control it the flaw will prove stronger than your strength and defeat you. The flaw? Explosive emotional reaction out of all proportion to the occassion. Why? Why this unreasonable anger at the sight of others who are happy and content, this growing contempt for people and the desire to hurt them? all right, you think they're fools, you despise them because their morals, their happiness is the source of your frustration and resentment. But these are dreadful enemies you carry within yourself--in time destructive bullets. Mercifully, a bullet kills its victim. This other bacteria, permitted to age, does not kill a man but leaves in its wake the hulk of a creature torn and twisted; there is still fire within his being but it is kept alive by casting upon it faggots of scorn and hate. He may successfully accumulate, but he does not accumulate success, for he is his own enemy and is kept from truly enjoying his achievements.
That knocked me flat on my ass when I read that. There is an article in today's paper on the movie "Capote". I hope that little escerpt wets your appetite for the book and the movie. Phillip Seymour Hoffman stars in it. I love mr. hoffman. One of my favorite actors.
I watched "A History of Violence" yesterday. Excellent. Ed Harris is brilliant.
Turn off your computer. Now go to the movies and pay a visit to the bookstore on your way home.