[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by Severian

Because books are more than just keepsakes. They're physical evidence of personal progress. When we finish a book and set it on the shelf, it's a reminder of a small goal, achieved. The fact that they correspond with times, places and people is already enough to make them valuable, but music does that as well. With books, you not only have a keepsake, you also have a little world you've conquered.

I think they're more akin to academic degrees and trophies than anything else. I do not give mine up quietly.

yes, exactly-- trophies-- see, i've been saying that from the start

"here's the buffalo francis macomber shot in kenya"

(but macomber was killed before he could have memories of that)

see, as middle class people we're fetishists. doesn't matter if we're being proletarized economically-- we still sanctify things as magical. so we cling not to the knowledge or sensations that books bring and the memories they leave behind, but to objects. which are bulky.

at some point we have to transcend such silly programming though. it's silly and it's inconvenient and it's ultimately... false. and when seen objectively, it's pretty ridiculous--like some general with a jacket stuffed with medals.

we're born naked, we die naked (well...), so if this didn't sound like the invitation to a weird orgy, i'd say "get naked already." i won't, but you know what i mean, right? non-attachment. shit like that. the art of losing isn't hard to master.

attachment equals suffering, so--- i'd rather practice while it's not yet a disaster.