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C.E. Morgan

C.E. Morgan Biography

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“Because there is hunger. Like any desire, it’s only temporarily satisfied, which calls into question the reliability of satisfaction and whether such a state can be said to exist at all. Anything we eat knows us more intimately than a lover. Not merely the inside of our mouth but the esophagus, stomach, alimentary canal, upper and lower colon, sphincter. Everything we desire, we shit out and leave behind.”

DesirePassionGreedHungerSatisfactionIntimacyConsumptionUnsatiable
Book:The Sport of Kings
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“We founded this nation under the illusory notion of independence, that a man’s life is entirely distinct from the life of his neighbor; that the poisons in his water have no bearing on the cleanliness of his neighbor’s water; that the suffering of a laborer has no direct relationship to the purchaser of goods; that animals are objects for sale; that the health of the land is divorced from the health of the collective. We’ve turned freedom from tyranny into freedom from each other.”

EarthNatureCompassionDestructionGreedSustainabilityEnvironmentalism
Book:The Sport of Kings
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“I think of moral beauty as what is the good and the just - terms perhaps best defined by their opposite: evil. Evil is the willingness to do damage to the other; its maximal expression is murder, but it includes a great deal of subtle and not-so-subtle injuries as it advances to that extreme. Evil acts reduce the other to an object, a being to its component parts, and obliterate subjectivity. Evil's breeding ground is a lack of empathy.”

ThinkingEvilTermDealsMoralObjectsExpressionEmpathyOppositesMurderExtremesDefinedDamageInjurySubtleWillingnessComponentsBreedingSubjectivityLack Of Empathy
Author:C.E. Morgan
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“Ultimately, I don't know if love is an organizing principle we choose or if it's innate. I'm not sure the distinction matters to me much anymore; I just care about how we can reduce unnecessary suffering. I think that means learning to love in both the micro and the macro; engaging in ethical action at the level of intimacy and friendship, but also at the vocational level through our chosen work in the world, our right livelihood.”

IfsThinkingKnowsWorldMeanMatterCareActionSufferingLove IsLevelsPrinciplesChosenIntimacyNot SureDistinctionEthicalUnnecessaryEngagingInnateLivelihoodLearning To LoveMacroUnnecessary Suffering
Author:C.E. Morgan
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“Anyone who lives with poor health or chronic pain, or who has endured poverty - real poverty - knows what it is to live with lack and a resulting fear so incessant that it becomes thoroughly normalized, invisible in its ubiquity. If you're lucky enough to have that fear begin to ease, it's an odd experience. A stranglehold eases off your entire body, one you never fully realized was there.”

IfsKnowsRealEnoughBodyPainPoorPovertyLuckyInvisibleEaseOddIncessantChronic PainPoor HealthUbiquity
Author:C.E. Morgan
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“I often think there are three primary responses to suffering - rage, intoxication, or growth. We either want revenge for our pain, or we numb ourselves with the endless array of intoxicants available to us, from drugs to overwork, or we grow in empathy. Emptiness can transform into spaciousness; lack can become an agent of social action. But I think many of us struggle to remain on that third path without backsliding into the other two. I do.”

ThinkingWantTwoActionPainSufferingThreeSocialGrowsGrowthStrugglePathDrugEmpathyThirdsResponseAvailableRevengeRageEndlessAgentsPrimariesEmptinessNumbIntoxicationOverworkSocial ActionSpaciousnessBacksliding
Author:C.E. Morgan
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“I stared at the Ohio River every day as a child, a thing that for me is almost more symbol than river. The formation of personality is inextricable from place. It strikes me as an interesting example of dependent co-arising; land shapes the organism, which then reshapes - literally and figuratively - the land. This because of this; not that because not that. Nothing is separate, least of all the literary mind.”

MindChildrenInterestingLandExamplePersonalityShapesRiversStrikesSymbolsDependentOrganismsFormationOhio
Author:C.E. Morgan
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“The idea that writing about characters of another race requires a passage through a critical gauntlet, which involves apology and self-examination of an almost punitive nature, as though the act of writing race was somehow morally suspect, is a dangerous one. This approach appears culturally sensitive, but often it reveals a failure of nerve. I believe the demand that we ought to reveals a species of fascism within the left - an embrace of political correctness with its required silences, which has left people afraid to offend or take a stand.”

PeopleWritingBelieveIdeasSelfCharacterPoliticalLeftI BelieveRaceSilenceDangerousOughtDemandApproachEmbraceSpeciesCriticalSensitiveSuspectsNervesPassagesFascismApologyExaminationPolitical CorrectnessCorrectnessSelf-examinationGauntlet
Author:C.E. Morgan
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“I think the primary gift of the animal is offered to writer and non-writer alike; they teach us about love, or attunement, which is love in action. A lot of people have closer relationships with animals than they do with other humans, because real intimacy requires both parties to consistently lean in, and animals are so good at this. They remain consistently, amazingly attuned to us, even when we fail them, and so we stay present, because we sense we're safe.”

PeopleThinkingHumansRealActionAnimalPartyTeachFailingSafeIntimacyPrimariesConsistently
Author:C.E. Morgan
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“Every single aspect of a text requires very careful choices and rigorous evaluation. Style is employed - or deployed - for a reason. It's purposeful. Form and aesthetics are part of meaning-making. Ideally, a writer would have mastery over a wide variety of rhetorical gestures and tonalities, our lexicon and punctuation system, our grammar, and all the riches of a liberal and literary education.”

ReasonFormChoicesStyleAspectCarefulWideRichesVarietyMasteryGesturesEmployedGrammarAestheticsEvaluationPunctuationRhetoricalLexicon
Author:C.E. Morgan
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“Ultimately, I want a peak experience in reading, and that is sometimes difficult to find in contemporary fiction. I'm not interested in books that are just clever and well executed; polish doesn't impress me, and I don't care about a merely capable sentence. Life is short; I want a confrontation with high art. I want soul.”

WantWellsArtBookSoulSometimesCareLife IsReadingDifficultFictionCapableDon't CareSentencesCleverContemporaryI Don't CareNot InterestedImpressLife Is ShortPolishConfrontationContemporary FictionHigh ArtPeak Experiences
Author:C.E. Morgan
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