Quote Of The Day: Contradicting Views

Quote Of The Day #45

Why shouldn’t she, like Polly, have made at least one serious mistake in a rush of passion.

In the absence of happiness, pleasure and power are the best the world has to offer.

Both of us were fools, trusting people to whom in the end we didn’t mean all that much.

He called himself a poet because he’d had a few nothing poems in the kind of magazines nobody reads.

The truth was he had the artist’s temperament without any talent to speak of. That’s not uncommon, you know. All right. It’s a tragedy. But if you find yourself in that position, you’ve got to cut your losses, the way I did. If you don’t, pretty soon you’re just a pathetic phony.

Jacky always seemed lively and intense when he was relaying unimportant gossips; when he adopted a careless, uninterested style, he’s dead serious.

The thing was, they were your typical patriarchal couple: Dan ran everything, and Celia just drifted around him. So naturally Laurie grew up assuming that men would take care of her. When she finally tried to stand on her own feet and take care of herself, it was too late. That’s what I think.

I think you choose your own life. Events happen to you, sure, but it’s up to you to decide what they mean.

I finally finished “The Truth About Lorin Jones” by Alison Lurie. And it’s such a wonderful book, but because of the lackluster plot, it is not as exciting as “The War Between The Tates”. Still, the writing is wonderful and there are so many passages that speak honestly about the kind of life a woman will encounter in life at one point or another. Or I probably should say the kind of perils that women would likely to face.

The main theme of the book is about the painter Lorin Jones, for whom “I” in the book, as a museum employee, try to write a book about. “I” interview many people who know Lorin Jones, and everybody has a different opinion. Reading it, I feel like I’m repeating the age-old experience of listening to a mother bragging her kid as an angel, while suspecting that the kid is a spoiled brat.

At certain point, when “I” am having a long weekend with Lorin’s ex-husband in the middle of the book, also when “I” am having a relationship with Lorin’s ex-boyfriend at the end of the book, I don’t feel I like the writing. However the rest of the writing is the best. I think the author is really good at writing about women’s views and women’s relationships. That’s her specialty. It is well done.

There are many passages about the relationship between “I” and her close friend Jeanne. The conversations between them are really good, and probably can even be better. Too bad the relationship between “I” and Jeanne has to end in that way. As a book published in 1980s, it is understandable. There’s this stereotype that women cannot be friends, which is so untrue. It is true that women’s friendships are often interrupted by women’s busy labor as a cook and as a caregiver. Also women often lack opportunities and money and time to invest in friendships, but still even with so many obstacles, many women manage to achieve love and friendship.