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The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone

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Olivia Laing

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“I know he wasn’t perfect… But he did the best impression of it I’ve ever seen.”

“Doralice looked out at the sea searching for Hans' boat. She did not love the sea with its constant drowsy glitter. It was always there, one could see it from everywhere, one could hear it everywhere, everyone spoke of it: the monosyllabic fishermen, when they spoke, spoke of the sea, her uncommunicative husband, when he spoke, spoke of the sea. For her, though, the sea seemed to exhale a boundless, oppressive loneliness.”

“Traumas embed when our system is overwhelmed by pain and fear without having sufficient internal resources or companionship to help integrate the experience ... Our people may see others being present, but as either unavailable for support or actively injurious, or the experience may have been so terrifying that even had someone tried to help, our people might not have been able to receive it ... what remains now is a sense of isolation with the remaining anguish and terror. Over the years, I have found that as soon as a sense of accompaniment enters the memory, there is a new foundation for doing the work. Just as our people have internalized those who injured them, that same capacity can bring us inside to support processing the emotions and to resolve this primary wound of being alone.”

“I shut myself in because I'm lonely. Because I don't want to face any more loneliness, I shut myself away. [...] I'm greedier than anyone. I don't want some half-assed happiness. I don't need some partial warmth. I want a happiness that goes on forever. That's impossible, though! I don't know why it is, but in this world, some interference is sure to come. Important things break right away. I've been alive for twenty-two years, and I know at least this much. It doesn't matter what the thing is, but it will break. That's why, from the beginning, it's better not to need anything.”