Suli Qyre
@suliqyre.com
📤 70
📥 23
📝 588
Making art, writing Fragmentarium, and curating quotations for
@philosophybits.com
suliqyre.com
“I need to recognize that all of the norms and rules I support are contingent entities. They might be more just or more rational than the norms of others but they are still only conventions and not ultimate truths.” Read more:
suliqyre.com/posts/harsh-...
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249. Harsh Judgments
Where my values are strongest, my judgments will be harshest. When I see someone behaving in a way that feels not just wrong but repugnant, I cannot accept it. It’s contrary to everything I believe is...
https://suliqyre.com/posts/harsh-judgments/
about 2 hours ago
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“Deconstruction is not an analysis, because the analytical fallout is not simpler and more fundamental than what is analyzed; deconstruction is an unpacking of meanings that, rather, problematize.” — Samuel R. Delany, “Neither the First Word nor the Last on Deconstruction…”
about 21 hours ago
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“She decided to stop thinking and listen to herself. But she heard nothing. Nothing seemed to be alive inside her. Nothing was offering anything for her to say.” Read more:
suliqyre.com/posts/a-more...
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248. A More Truthful Response
How do you feel? This question was one she had always struggled with. To offer up a canned response like “fine” never felt right. It didn’t feel right because it wasn’t wholly true. She wasn’t just fi...
https://suliqyre.com/posts/a-more-truthful-response/
2 days ago
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“The old style of interpretation was insistent, but respectful; it erected another meaning on top of the literal one. The modern style of interpretation excavates, and as it excavates, destroys; it digs “behind” the text, to find a subtext which is the true one.” — Susan Sontag
3 days ago
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“In order to loosen an attachment, you first need to be able to see it. If you can see it, you can also see past it, towards the possibility of being free of it.” Read more:
suliqyre.com/posts/beyond...
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247. Beyond The Ordinary
You find yourself thinking more and more that life is just too difficult. You’re questioning your existence, your purpose in this world that seems to lack any substantial value. You’re wondering if th...
https://suliqyre.com/posts/beyond-the-ordinary/
3 days ago
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“What within truth is merely truth falls foul of illusion. What within truth exceeds truth is of the order of a higher illusion. Only what exceeds reality can go beyond the illusion of reality.” — Jean Baudrillard, The Perfect Crime
4 days ago
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“To use skepticism as a justification for nihilism is absurd. For all that skepticism can do is to show us that everything is ultimately uncertain and there are no foundations to our knowledge. The conclusion is not that there is no value but that we cannot be certain of value.” Read more:
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246. Nihilism Is Nothing
We like nihilism for the same reason we like ideology and religion. All of these things give us a way to escape uncertainty. Just as ideology provides us with certain truths about our political situat...
https://suliqyre.com/posts/nihilism-is-nothing/
4 days ago
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“By making everything worthless, nihilism gives us the strange comfort of knowing that nothing we do can possibly matter. Freedom from meaning is also freedom from responsibility, and in this there can be a kind of morbid excitement.” Read more:
suliqyre.substack.com/p/nihilism-i...
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“Nihilism Is Nothing”, etc. (246-250)
There can be no certainty about any of nihilism's claims, for they rely on foundations just as uncertain as anything else.
https://suliqyre.substack.com/p/nihilism-is-nothing-etc
5 days ago
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“My encounters with books I regard very much as my encounters with other phenomena of life or thought. All encounters are configurate, not isolate. In this sense, and in this sense only, books are as much a part of life as trees, stars or dung. I have no reverence for them per se.” — Henry Miller
6 days ago
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“A fragment always has two authors: the one who writes and the one who reads. What the fragment says is always partly a reflection of yourself. But what it reflects is not always what you expect, and it might even be something intolerable.” Read more:
suliqyre.com/posts/fillin...
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245. Filling The Gaps
A fragment is always a part and never the whole. There is always something left out. That a fragment arrives with gaps can be unsettling. The text might appear to say both more and less than what it a...
https://suliqyre.com/posts/filling-the-gaps/
6 days ago
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“I will talk about truth again, without which (without the word truth, without the mystery truth) there would be no writing. It is what writing wants. But it (the truth) is totally down below and a long way off.” — Hélène Cixous, Three Steps on the Ladder of Writing
7 days ago
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“Unquenchable desire transforms into a thirst for power, and power constructs harmful hierarchies of dominance and oppression.” Read more:
suliqyre.com/posts/the-ro...
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244. The Root Of Oppression
When I’m attached to my desires, I produce suffering for myself and others. Suffering arises because my attention and actions are fully directed towards the fulfillment of my desires. In such a state,...
https://suliqyre.com/posts/the-root-of-oppression/
7 days ago
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“It has been said that a specialist is a barbarian whose ignorance is not well-rounded.” — Stanisław Lem, His Master’s Voice
8 days ago
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“You're so in your head that you've stopped seeing the world around you, the world of other people, people like me. You're folding in on yourself, gradually closing down, and there looks to be no end to the process.” Read more:
suliqyre.com/posts/foldin...
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243. Folding In On Yourself
The weather looks calm and sunny, so I ask if you would like to join me for a walk. You tell me that you’re too busy right now, that you’re in the middle of working on something. I ask if you might ha...
https://suliqyre.com/posts/folding-in-on-yourself/
9 days ago
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“Yes, what I’m writing you is nobody’s. And this nobody’s freedom is very dangerous. It is like the infinite that has the color of air.” — Clarice Lispector, Água Viva
10 days ago
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“Intuitions and feelings can temporarily alter the shape of your perspective, but they are not as stable or dominating as your attachments. The world is always the world as you see it, so the world is always showing you the structure of your own attachments.” Read more:
suliqyre.com/posts/the-wo...
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242. The World Is You
Everywhere you look, you see yourself. You’re looking out at the world, but you’re seeing yourself reflected back at you. This happens because what you see depends on your perspective, and your perspe...
https://suliqyre.com/posts/the-world-is-you/
10 days ago
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“Something in the question necessarily exceeds the power of questioning; but this does not mean that there are too many secrets in the world that provoke questions: it is rather the contrary. […] In the profound question, impossibility questions.” — Maurice Blanchot, The Infinite Conversation
11 days ago
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“Compassion is always freely given when need is seen. It requires no merit, as it is neither a reward nor a punishment. It is, in fact, entirely orthogonal to the concept of deserving.” Read more:
suliqyre.com/posts/what-w...
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241. What We Deserve
When we do something helpful, we expect to be rewarded. When we do something harmful, we expect to be punished. We see these outcomes as what we deserve to be given from others. If we’re punished when...
https://suliqyre.com/posts/what-we-deserve/
11 days ago
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“To see the world as possibility is to see yourself as possibility. So much is possible for you in this moment and in every moment. Freedom is possible, creativity is possible, joy is possible.” Read more:
suliqyre.substack.com/p/what-we-de...
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“What We Deserve”, etc. (241-245)
Compassion is always freely given when need is seen. It requires no merit, as it is neither a reward nor a punishment.
https://suliqyre.substack.com/p/what-we-deserve-etc
12 days ago
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“We go to great lengths to disguise our misery. We are suffering deeply inside, but we do not want to see it or let it be seen. We try to hide it, not just from others, but also from ourselves.”
13 days ago
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“Rules and systems are the creations of human beings. They have force only as long as people agree to follow and uphold them. Beyond this, they are literally nothing. Rules can be changed when needed and, in fact, often do change as we learn more about ourselves and the world.”
14 days ago
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“The more we use language, the more we find ourselves trapped inside it, unable to find the words to express what we want to say and unable to communicate our meaning to others. To escape this prison, we write poems — tricks of language that indicate the thing in question without ever naming it.”
15 days ago
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“Everything seems to be pushing you towards conformity. Bribing you to take the path of least resistance. Asking you to accept the world just as it is. Everyone tells you that if you just go along with the way they do things, then you'll have a happy and pleasant life.”
16 days ago
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“Language is based on agreement. You and I can communicate only insofar as we agree on the meanings of the words we use. If I use a word that has no recognizable meaning for you, then I will not communicate anything at all, since for you it will be literal nonsense.”
17 days ago
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“We become so focused on measuring and optimizing, on increasing efficiency and productivity, that we stop thinking about what is happening to us in our day-to-day lives. It is perhaps not surprising that we then feel there is something missing—as though life is not going as well as it ought to be…”
18 days ago
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“When wrongdoing happens, there is almost never only one person at fault. Responsibility is rarely singular and rarely clear. Part of being responsible is recognizing this lack of clarity.”
19 days ago
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“The task of creation is always unfinished. From every newly crafted thing, a new arrangement of meanings emerges, and from that, new possibilities appear. New possibilities beget new questions, and something further must be created in response.”
20 days ago
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“We can be physically stationary and still moving. Sitting in quiet reflection does not mean you are not moving. Real movement is change. It is vital, it is transformational, and it means growth. False movement is repetition. It is mechanical, it is sameness, and it means stagnation.”
21 days ago
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“If I rush to judge everything I see, then I cut myself off from the opportunity to experience it fully. I have to open myself up and allow everything in as it is. I have to be sensitive to nuances and complexities. I have to allow myself to see even those things I judge to be bad or wrong or ugly.”
22 days ago
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“A language without rules could not communicate anything at all. It is because you and I agree on the rules of grammar that you can read this sentence and it has a meaning for you.”
23 days ago
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“You obscure your “I” by speaking in a voice that pretends to come from nowhere. “The sky is blue,” you say. There is no “I” here. Your sentence claims to report an observation about the world with no reference to an observer.”
24 days ago
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“An artwork usually does not come with an announcement or declaration that it is complete. The audience assumes the work must be complete because it is on display. But what if someone were to show a work that was purposely unfinished?”
25 days ago
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“The most important thing is not to give up. You have to keep observing, absorbing everything that happens, leaving nothing out. You have to keep asking questions and pushing your investigation of yourself and the world further, without end.”
26 days ago
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“Remembering is like constructing and then traveling again through a space. We are already talking about architecture. Memories are built as a city is built.” — Umberto Eco, "Architecture and Memory"
27 days ago
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“Our new awareness reveals that the distinctions between living beings are not nearly as clear or final as they might seem. The suffering that exists in others is also our suffering, and it can cause us to feel just as much anguish as our own attachments.” Read more:
suliqyre.com/posts/the-ne...
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240. The Necessity Of Compassion
Compassionate action can be difficult and demanding, so it’s reasonable to wonder why we should want to become more compassionate. From the perspective of ordinary self-interest, perhaps the answer is...
https://suliqyre.com/posts/the-necessity-of-compassion/
27 days ago
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“I truly cannot understand the language of my former heart. Who was that person? Petulant, hardly aware … not yet conscious of the transformation she had already undergone. (1/2)
28 days ago
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“Art shows us possibilities — ways of being and feeling and living that are different from our own. It shows us through photographs and films, through plays and performances, through songs and poetry. It shows us that it's possible for us to be and say and do things we did not think achievable.”
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239. Finding Courage
When you see an injustice happening, you might not have the courage to speak up. The personal risk of saying something can feel too great and you don’t want to deal with the backlash. In some cases, w...
https://suliqyre.com/posts/finding-courage/
28 days ago
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“The divine eternal fullness of life can be gained only by those who have deliberately lost the partial, separative life of craving and self-interest, of egocentric thinking, feeling, wishing and acting.” — Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy
29 days ago
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“He wants precision. He wants control. He wants to function in way that is both reliable and efficient, in a way that produces guaranteed results. He wants to become a machine.” Read more:
suliqyre.com/posts/to-bec...
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238. To Become A Machine
He expected an organized and productive day. He expected to do everything he had written down on his list. He expected this would be no problem at all. Provided there were no emergencies, no interrupt...
https://suliqyre.com/posts/to-become-a-machine/
about 1 month ago
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“The pleasure of the text is that moment when my body pursues its own ideas — for my body does not have the same ideas as I do.” — Roland Barthes, The Pleasure of the Text
about 1 month ago
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“To learn, I have to allow the text to operate on me, not merely as an instrument of language and reason, but as a record of human experience. I have to investigate the experience the text describes and consider whether I might have experienced something similar.” Read more:
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237. Responding From Awareness
When I finish reading a provocative text, I might feel an urge to respond it with a text of my own. I want to communicate my response in words, just as the original text reached me through language. T...
https://suliqyre.com/posts/responding-from-awareness/
about 1 month ago
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“The moral pleasure peculiar to art is not the pleasure of approving of acts or disapproving of them. The moral pleasure in art, as well as the moral service that art performs, consists in the intelligent gratification of consciousness.” — Susan Sontag, “On Style”
about 1 month ago
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“We judge the world differently because our values differ. What's good for me might not be good for you. Still, there are always places where our values overlap, and this is also where our realities overlap. It is here that we must work on finding common ground.” Read more:
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236. Our Shared Reality
When I see a beautiful sunset, I can point it out to you and know you will also enjoy it. Not only does the sunset exist for both of us, we’re also likely to judge its beauty in a similar way. But we ...
https://suliqyre.com/posts/our-shared-reality/
about 1 month ago
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“If we cannot even agree on what is a fact or what is true, then we might not be able to make any progress. Here, it can feel like we're living in two different realities. It can feel like I cannot bring you to see the world as I do and you cannot bring me to see it as you do.” Read more:
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“Our Shared Reality”, etc. (236-240)
A shared reality is not guaranteed, but rather something we must continuously create with others.
https://suliqyre.substack.com/p/our-shared-reality-etc
about 1 month ago
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“I could go on and on like this for hours, talking about every imaginable aspect of my experience, and still I would never fully describe the experience itself. An unlimited number of words in any combination would still fail to capture the whole of it.” Read more:
suliqyre.com/posts/the-li...
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235. The Limits Of Language
I’m standing before a great work of art, an unquestionable masterpiece. I cannot recall the name of the painting or the artist. I could read the small card beside the frame to get this information but...
https://suliqyre.com/posts/the-limits-of-language/
about 1 month ago
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“Surely every one realizes, at some point along the way, that he is capable of living a far better life than the one he has chosen. What stays him, usually, is the fear of the sacrifices involved. (1/2)
about 1 month ago
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“To break free from our attachments to distinction and permanence is to see these features of our experience as no more or less real than their opposites. It is to accept that our experience is profoundly paradoxical and contradictory in all of its facets.” Read more:
suliqyre.com/posts/two-il...
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234. Two Illusions
We want to know how the world works because such knowledge is practically useful. When we know how things work we become more capable of manipulating the world to meet our material needs. The unquesti...
https://suliqyre.com/posts/two-illusions/
about 1 month ago
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“This world wants to be childish in order to make us believe that the adults are elsewhere, in the “real” world, and to conceal the fact that true childishness is everywhere (1/2)
about 1 month ago
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“To settle is not the worst thing, she thinks. The worst thing would be to abandon her ideals entirely. To stop working towards something better just because she knows she isn't likely to get all the way there.” Read more:
suliqyre.com/posts/never-...
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233. Never Settle Down
She knows she’ll eventually have to settle. She knows this because it’s what always happens. Her thoughts get so far ahead of her that she imagines herself having a future so perfect and beautiful and...
https://suliqyre.com/posts/never-settle-down/
about 1 month ago
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“And I? I drink, I burn, I gather dreams. And sometimes I tell a story. Because Promethea asks me for a bowl of words before she goes to sleep.” — Hélène Cixous, The Book of Promethea
about 1 month ago
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