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Quote by Mary Gaitskill;

“I had not gone to New York to be a model, and I hadn’t. I’d gone there for life and sex and cruelty. Not something you learn in community college.”

Quote by Mary Gaitskill;

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Veronica

This book delves into the complexities of human identity and the enigmatic nature of secrets, weaving a narrative that intertwines personal and historical elements. more

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Mary Gaitskill;

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“At times he had prayed while he was making love. His eyes strayed over the naked object of his desire with a most chaste, even virginal, reverence. He was aware of the miracle of having beside him the beauty of creation, and the wonder of being able to gaze upon it in silence. The wonder of being able to touch it with the rapt tips of his fingers, just as his eyes could stroke mountains at sunset. There was not the remotest notion of possessing the other, or having dominion over him. He did not want to steal anything, claim anything, or take anything away. He wanted everything to stay intact as it was in a feeling of gratitude and fullness. Hours could pass by in these insightful moments in which the loved one's body became the universe, with its various constellations and its various worlds.”

“And then Chris went alone into her room and wrote a letter, thinking she would send it, about sex and love. She was all confused about wanting to have sex, sensing that at this point if she slept with Dick the whole thing would be over. THE—UNEXAMINED—LIFE—IS NOT—WORTH—LIVING flashed the titles of a Ken Kobland film against the backbeat of a carfuck 1950s song. “As soon as sex takes place, we fall,” she wrote, thinking, knowing from experience, that sex short circuits all imaginative exchange. The two together get too scary. So she wrote some more about Henry James. Although she really wanted both. “Is there a way,” she wrote in closing, “to dignify sex, make it a as complicated as we are, to make it not grotesque?”

“يخيل لأحدنا أنه سوف يبلغ إكتفاءً تاماً إذا توافرت لديه بعض حاجات معينة: فهو يتصور مثلًا القصر الذهبي والحديقة الغنّاء، والزوجة الجميلة والسيارة الفارهة والرزق الموفر، فيعتقد أنه سيكون سعيدًا بذلك فلا يحتاج إلى شيء آخر سواه. إنه مخطئ. وهو يدركهم ذلك عندما يكون محرومًا من تلك الحاجات الرائقة، لكنه لا يكاد يظفر بها حتى يسأم منها ويأخذ بالتطلع إلى البذخ الباذخ أو الطلعة الباهرة، أو إلى معالي الوزارة والجاه العظيم.”

“All acts of sex were forms of degradation. Some random recollections: East 11th Street, on the bed with Murray Groman: “Swallow this mother ’til you choke.” East 11th Street, in the bed with Gary Becker: “The trouble with you is, you’re such a shallow person.” East 11th Street, up against the wall with Peter Baumann: “The only thing that turns me on about you is pretending you’re a whore.” Second Avenue, the kitchen, Michael Wainwright: “Quite frankly, I deserve a better-looking, better-educated girlfriend.” What do you do with the Serious Young Woman (short hair, flat shoes, body slightly hunched, head drifting back and forth between the books she’s read)? You slap her, fuck her up the ass and treat her like a boy. The Serious Young Woman looked everywhere for sex but when she got it it became an exercise in disintegration. What was the motivation of these men? Was it hatred she evoked? Was it some kind of challenge, trying to make the Serious Young Woman femme?”