Conrad...

[fajrdrako]

When I was in search of the 'conscience' quote from Joseph Conrad that I cited yesterday - love it! - I came across another good Conrad line, this time from Typhoon:

Facing it, always facing it, that's the way to get through. Face it.

It's a little like the notion of 'attack-escape', an idea I love, but I've never been good at it.

Comments

[kikibug13.livejournal.com]

This sort of reminds me of The Litany Against Fear from Frank Herbert's Dune...
I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's cool! I like Herbert's style, but I don't remember Dune as well as I should.

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

Oh, I love that line! In fact, I love lines in general. Reminds me a bit of the line spoken by Tom Berenger (through clenched teeth) in the film Platoon, when he's trying to 'comfort' (or keep quiet) a wounded colleague in the jungle: 'Take the pain!' And another one in the film Zulu, when a lone British soldier is sifting through the (South African) soil on which his regiment has made camp and musing aloud why he ever left the green hills of Wales and his life there as a farmer:there's no moisture in the earth, nothing to hold a man in his grave'

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

Actually, your quote doesn't *really* remind me of the Zulu quote - I just wanted an excuse to use it. Sorry!

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Wish I could say that I was good at it.

I do like the Herbert quote. It's too true to not hurt, too true to not be useful.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Life would be pretty dull if we were already good at everything. We have talents - so it makes a good balance if we have challenges too.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Woo, excellent quotes, both of them.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Hee - that's fair enough; the content doesn't have to be the same, any good quote can remind a person of another good quote.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

I believe in avoidance, wherever possible. Avoiding danger, physical pain, confrontation.

[fajrdrako2.livejournal.com]

Avoidance is my normal approach. The problem is that avoidance doesn't always work; some things can't be avoided.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Most things I've encountered so far can. Losing your job can't, though. I'm still afraid of the future.

Is that you, or have you acquired a döppelganger?

[fajrdrako2.livejournal.com]

Heh. Yes, this is me. I'm trying to redesign my web page and I'm stumbling over the technicalities. I set up a LJ to experiment with at http://fajrdrako2.livejournal.com/ if you want to have a look. It's a pain to keep logging in and logging out when I go to my 'real' LJ, so I didn't bother!

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Very nice Jack pic!

[fajrdrako2.livejournal.com]

Yes, that one is thanks to isagel, whose talents impress me.

I think I may be just about ready to change over, I'm just tweaking now.

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I will try to remember this. It's what I'm in the middle of doing, and yes, it's "attack/escape," and, well, you are as good at it as you need to be, moment by moment.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

We only learn by doing. And doing, and doing.