quotian

[quotian]

We watched as the men commanded by the grizzled captain and te affectless lieutenant rose and stretched, scratching at various parts of their lumpy bodies. Those guys have death wishes, I said. Don't you get it? They've got no intention of coming back. They know it's a suicide mission. Life's a suicide mission. That's very philosophical of you, I said. It doesn't change the fact that you're crazy. the sympathizer - viet thanh nguyen

#the sympathizer #viet thanh nguyen #suicide

[quotian]

What's crazy is living when there's no reason to live, he said. What am I living for? A life in an apartment? That's not a home. It's a jail cell without bars. All of us - we're all in jail cells without bars. We're not men anymore. Not after the Americans fucked us twice and made our wives and kids watch. First the Americans said we'll save your yellow skins. Just do what we say. Fight our way, take our money, give us your women, then you'll be free. Things didn't work our that way, did they? Then, after fucking us, they rescued us. They just didn't tell us they'd cut off our balls and cut out our tongues along the way. the sympathizer - viet thanh nguyen

#the sympathizer #viet thanh nguyen #toxic masculinity #imperialism

[quotian]

They want their country back, dear Aunt, but they also yearn for recognition and remembrance from that country that no longer exists, from wives and children, from future descendants, from the men they used to be. If they die, call them fools. But if they do not fail, they are heroes and visionaries, whether alive or dead. Perhaps I shall return with them to our country, regardless of what the General has to say. the sympathizer - viet thanh nguyen

#the sympathizer #viet thanh nguyen

[quotian]

Dear Aunt, I wrote in visible ink, These men are not to be underestimated. Napoleon said men will die for bits of ribbon pinned to their chests, but the General understands that even more men will die for a man who remembered their names, as he does theirs. When he inspects them, he walks among them, eats with them, calls them by their names and asks about wifes, children, girlfriends, hometowns. All anyone ever wants is to be recognized and remembered. Neither is possible without the other. the sympathizer - viet thanh nguyen

#the sympathizer #viet thanh nguyen

[quotian]

Nothing was so true, and yet nothing was so mysterious, for the question of who the people were and what they might want remained unanswered. The lack of an answer mattered not; indeed, the lack of an answer was part of the power of the idea of the people that brought the men to their feet and the tears to their eyes as they shouted, Down with communism! the sympathizer - viet thanh nguyen

#communism #the sympathizer #viet thanh nguyen

[quotian]

He winced. I had hit him where it hurt, in the solar plexus of his conscience, where everyone who was an idealist was vulnerable. Disarming an idealist was easy. One only needed to ask why the idealist was not on the front line of the particular battle he had chosen. The question was one of commitment, and I knew, even if he did not, that I was one of the committed. the sympathizer - viet thanh nguyen

#the sympathizer #viet thanh nguyen #to be committed also means to be imprisoned my guy #idealism

[quotian]

Vodka was one of the three things the Soviet Union made that were suitable for export, not counting political exiles; the other two were weapons and novels. Weapons I professionally admired, but the vodka and novels I loved. the sympathizer - viet thanh nguyen

#the sympathizer #viet thanh nguyen #soviet union

[quotian]

His body was still warm when the stories started wafting like sewer smells through the streets. The wolf pack of ambassadors and diplomats took in great lungfuls, then dispatched their own versions of events in the saddlebags of fast horses across the land: stories of how His Holiness' corpse lay shriveled, despite an empty flagon of blood drained from the veins of Roman street boys on the orders of a Jewish doctor, who had vowed it would save his life; how those same bloodless boys were already feeding the fishes in the Tiber as the doctor fled the city. blood and beauty - sarah dunant

#sarah dunant #blood and beauty #borgias

[quotian]

Inside, the air is sour with the sweat of old flesh. Rome in August is a city of swelter and death. blood and beauty - sarah dunant

#blood and beauty #sarah dunant #rome #borgias

[quotian]

You came and said we were friends, but what we didn't know was that you could never trust us, much less respect us. Only losers like us couldn't have seen what's so obvious now, how you wouldn't want anyone for you friend who actually wanted to be your friend. Deep down you suspect only fools and traitors would believe your promises. the sympathizer - viet thanh nguyen

#the sympathizer #viet thanh nguyen

[quotian]

“There's no question in that, is there? You could murder half the city at midday in the Agora and I'd be furious with you want want to kill you, but I'd still love you. I love you like stones fall downward, like the sun rises. I loved you even when I was almost too tired to breathe.” the just city - jo walton

#jo walton #love #the just city

[quotian]

Against pain like that, against the body's mystery, there is no philosophy. the just city - jo walton

#jo walton #the just city #pain #philosophy

[quotian]

I added a FAQ!

Which is to say, if I'm reading a book about an issue (like, hypothetically, communism), if you decide to well akshully it based on a quote, I will block you.

#how dare a book i havent read written that is by someone with real experience in a communist regime critique communism #dear god yall #psa

[quotian]

Somewhat hungover and somewhat sentimental, this month being the first anniversary of Saigon's fall, or liberation, or both, I wrote my aunt a letter to commemorate a year's worth of tribulation. Although I left as much by choice as by circumstance, I confess that I could not help but feel pity for my sorry countrymen, their germs of loss passed back and forth until I, too, walked around light0headed in the fog bank of memory. the sympathizer - viet thanh nguyen

#the sympathizer #viet thanh nguyen #communism #vietnam war

[quotian]

As no one on the faculty possessed any knowledge of our country, the Chair enjoyed engaging me in long discussions of our culture and language. Hovering somewhere between seventy and eighty years old, the Chair nestled in an office feathered with the books, papers, notes, and tchotchkes accumulated over a lifetime career devoted to the study of the Orient. He had hung an elaborate Oriental rug on his wall, in lieu, I suppose, of an actual Oriental. On his desk facing anyone who entered was a gilt-framed picture of his family, a brown-haired cherub and an Asian wife somewhere between one-half and two-thirds his age. the sympathizer - viet thanh nguyen

#orientalism #the sympathizer #viet thanh nguyen #racism #academia #this book is calling out my great uncle specifically but if i said any more abt that id literally doxx myself #(WE DON'T TALK)

[quotian]

By the time I returned to campus, however, the students were of a new breed, not interested in politics of the world like the previous generation. Their tender eyes were no longer exposed daily to the stories and pictures of atrocity and terror for which they might have felt responsible, given that they were citizens of a democracy destroying another country in order to save it. Most important, their lives were no longer at stake because of the draft. The campus, as a result, had returned to its peaceful and quiet nature, its optimistic disposition marred only by the occasional spring showers thrumming on my office window. the sympathizer - viet thanh nguyen

#the sympathizer #viet thanh nguyen #vietnam war #imperialism

[quotian]

I envied the students their naked political passion, for I had to submerge my own in order to play the role of a good citizen from the Republic of Vietnam. the sympathizer - viet thanh nguyen

#the sympathizer #viet thanh nguyen #vietnam #vietnam war