#realism

The making of miracles to edification was as ardently admired by pious Victorians as it was sternly discouraged by Jesus of Nazareth. Not that the Victorians were unique in this respect. Modern writers also indulge in edifying miracles though they generally prefer to use them to procure unhappy endings, by which piece of thaumaturgy they win the title of realists. ↗

— Dorothy L. Sayers

#writing #respect

Justice is what is good for the stronger. ↗

— Thrasymachus

#political-science #realism #science

Exit, pursued by a bear. ↗

— William Shakespeare

#legend #surrealism #theater #surreal

Perfect nonsense goes on in the world. Sometimes there is no plausibility at all ↗

— Nikolai Gogol

#surreal

I do not understand why, when I ask for grilled lobster in a restaurant, I'm never served a cooked telephone. ↗

— Salvador Dalí

#surrealism #surreal

Nothing that surrounds us is object, all is subject. ↗

— André Breton

#reality #subject #surrealism #surreal

I gazed upon the earth and saw that a body, in its tender faithlessness, had located it in the sky. A splendid scarf of blood, looming above the abyss. ↗

— Joë Bousquet

#sky #surrealism #surreal

The current ruling ontology denies any possibility of a social causation of mental illness. The chemico-biologization of mental illness is of course strictly commensurate with its depoliticization. Considering mental illness an individual chemico-biological problem has enormous benefits for capitalism. First, it reinforces Capital’s drive towards atomistic individualization (you are sick because of your brain chemistry). Second, it provides an enormously lucrative market in which multinational pharmaceutical companies can peddle their pharmaceuticals (we can cure you with our SSRls). It goes without saying that all mental illnesses are neurologically instantiated, but this says nothing about their causation. If it is true, for instance, that depression is constituted by low serotonin levels, what still needs to be explained is why particular individuals have low levels of serotonin. This requires a social and political explanation; and the task of repoliticizing mental illness is an urgent one if the left wants to challenge capitalist realism. ↗

— Mark Fisher

#capitalist-realism #individualism #mental-health #mental-illness #mental-health

When James Cameron brought me the script, which I developed with both Cameron and Jay Cocks, I wanted to make it a thriller, an action film, but with a conscience, and I found that it had elements of social realism. ↗

— Kathryn Bigelow

#action film #both #brought #cameron #conscience

Death. I’ve taunted it for years with confidence and courage. It has taken years for me to realize that it wasn’t courage at all, it was the complete opposite; weakness. Bad habits and vulgar sensibilities are my disease. The only cure is dignity and shame, how tragic that I seem lack both. ↗

— J.C. Wickhart

#humor #courage