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aa522e7
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a minority is only thought of as a minority if it constitutes some kind of threat to the majority, real or imaginary. And no threat is quite imaginary...Just ask yourselves: what would this particular minority do if it suddenly became the majority, overnight? 'All right - now along come the liberals - including everybody in the room, I trust - and they say, 'minorities are just people, like us '. Sure, minorities are people, just like us..
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minority
persecution
threat
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Christopher Isherwood |
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e986f86
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Like a long train which stops at every dingy little station, the winter dragged slowly past.
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Christopher Isherwood |
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44804a6
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The harassed look is that of a desperately tired swimmer or runner; yet there is no question of stopping. The creature we are watching will struggle on and on until it drops. Not because it is heroic. It can imagine no alternative. Staring and staring into the mirror, it sees many faces within its face - the face of the child, the boy, the young man, the not-so-young-man - all present still, preserved as fossils, dead. Their message to this..
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living
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Christopher Isherwood |
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ca22009
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I could never keep anybody for long. And that's because I'm the type which every man imagines he wants, until he gets me; and then he finds he doesn't really, after all.
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Christopher Isherwood |
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9301f44
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I've always made it a rule to have a suit for every day of the week. Perhaps you'll tell me I'm vain, but you'd be surprised if you knew what it had meant to me, at critical moments of my life, to be dressed exactly in accordance with my mood. It gives one such confidence, I think.
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Christopher Isherwood |
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4df45ef
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The game is cruel; but its cruelty is sensual and stirs George into hot excitement. He feels a thrill of pleasure to find the senses so eager in their response; too often, now, they seem sadly jaded. From his heart, he thanks these young animals for their beauty. And they will never know what they have done to make this moment marvelous to him, and life itself less hateful....
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Christopher Isherwood |
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b8bcf89
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And now an hour, maybe, has passed. And they are both drunk: Kenny fairly, George very. But George is drunk in a good way, and one that he seldom achieves. He tries to describe to himself what this kind of drunkenness is like. Well - to put it very crudely - it's like Plato; it's a dialogue. A dialogue between two people. Yes, but not a Platonic dialogue in the hair-splitting, word-twisting, one-up-to-me sense; not a mock-humble bitching ma..
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Christopher Isherwood |
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0499241
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Does he know about me? George wonders; do any of them? Oh yes, probably. It wouldn't interest them. They don't want to know about my feelings or my glands or anything below my neck. I could just as well be a severed head carried into the classroom to lecture to them from a dish.
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gay
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Christopher Isherwood |
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065d58f
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By the time it has gotten dressed, it has become he; has become already more or less George -- though still not the whole George they demand and are prepared to recognize. Those who call him on the phone at this hour of the morning would be bewildered, maybe even scared, if they could realize what this three-quarters-human thing is what they are talking to. But, of course, they never could--its voice's mimicry of their George is nearly perf..
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Christopher Isherwood |
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8491d22
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His boredom was like a nostalgia for the whole world. He was homesick for everywhere but here.
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nostalgic
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Christopher Isherwood |
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3bb3baa
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The living room is dark and low-ceilinged, with bookshelves all along the wall opposite the windows. These books have not made George nobler or better or more truly wise. It is just that he likes listening to their voices, the one or the other, according to his mood. He misuses them quite ruthlessly - despite the respectful way he has to talk about them in public - to put him to sleep, to take his mind off the hands of the clock, to relax t..
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Christopher Isherwood |
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772bcfd
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Christ, it is sad, sad to see on quite a few of these faces - young ones particularly - a glum, defeated look. Why do they feel this way about their lives? Sure, they are underpaid. Sure, they have no great prospects, in the commercial sense. Sure, they can't enjoy the bliss of mingling with corporation executives. But isn't it any consolation to be with students who are still three-quarters alive? Isn't it some tiny satisfaction to be of u..
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Christopher Isherwood |
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a4cf90b
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What is one ever doing anywhere?
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Christopher Isherwood |
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2cc7c19
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But George is getting old. Won't it very soon be too late? Never use those words to George. He won't listen. He daren't listen. Damn the future. Let Kenny and the kids have it. Let Charley keep the past. George clings only to Now. It is Now that he must find another Jim. Now that he must love. Now that he must live....
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Christopher Isherwood |
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3597232
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The really destructive feature of their relationship is its inherent quality of boredom. It is quite natural for Peter often to feel bored with Otto - they have scarecely a single interest in common - but Peter, for sentimental reasons, will never admit that this is so. When Otto, who has no such motives for pretending, says, "It's so dull here!" I invariably see Peter wince and looked pained. Yet Otto is actually far less often bored than ..
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Christopher Isherwood |
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908f68a
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A veteran, calm and assured, he pauses for a well-measured moment in the doorway of the office and then, boldly, clearly, with the subtly modulated British intonation which his public demands of him, speaks his opening line, 'Good morning!' And the three secretaries - each of them a charming and accomplished actress in her own chosen style - recognise him instantly, without even a flicker of doubt, and reply 'Good morning' to him. (There is..
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playing-roles
rituals
self-delusion
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Christopher Isherwood |
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6d7f6d8
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And again and again I have to remind myself the whole art of life is to lean on people, to involve oneself with them quite fearlessly and yet -- when the props are kicked away -- remain leaning, as it were, on empty air. Like levitation.
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Christopher Isherwood |
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5bf47e6
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He pictures the evening he might have spent, snugly at home, fixing the food he has bought, then lying down on the couch beside the bookcase and reading himself slowly sleepy. At first glance this is an absolutely convincing and charming scene of domestic contentment. Only after a few instants does George notice the omission that makes it meaningless. What is left out of the picture is Jim, lying opposite him at the other end of the couch, ..
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Christopher Isherwood |
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fdd6d6f
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You don't even have a cat or a dog or anything?" "You think I should?" George asks, a bit aggressive. The poor old guy doesn't have anything to love, he thinks Kenny is thinking. "Hell, no! Didn't Baudelaire say they're liable to turn into demons and take over your life?"
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Christopher Isherwood |
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a3df77d
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All women like men to be strong and decided and following out their careers. A woman wants to be motherly to a man and protect his weak side, but he must have a strong side too, which she can respect ... If you ever care for a woman, I don't advise you to let her see that you've got no ambition. Otherwise she'll get to despise you.
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Christopher Isherwood |
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64e784e
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Never mind. Never mind. In this brief life, one cannot always be counting the cost.
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Christopher Isherwood |
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1a9ea78
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I put my genius into my life, not into my art.
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Christopher Isherwood |
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cc60752
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Here, in their midst, George feels a sort of vertigo. Oh God, what will become of them all? What chance have they? Ought I to yell out to them, right now, here, that it's hopeless? But George knows he can't do that. Because, absurdly, inadequately, in spite of himself, almost, he is a representative of the hope. And the hope is not false. No. It's just that George is like a man trying to sell a real diamond for a nickel, on the street. The ..
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Christopher Isherwood |
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839c62f
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And now an hour, maybe, has passed. And they are both drunk: Kenny fairly, George very. But George is drunk in a good way, and one that he seldom achieves. He tries to describe to himself what this kind of drunkenness is like. Well - to put it very crudely - it's like Plato; it's a dialogue. A dialogue between two people. Yes, but not a Platonic dialogue in the hair-splitting, word-twisting, one-up-to-me sense; not a mock-humble bitching ma..
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Christopher Isherwood |
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c50279c
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The Europeans hate us because we've retired to live inside our advertisements, like hermits going into caves to contemplate. We sleep in symbolic bedrooms, eat symbolic meals, are symbolically entertained- and that terrifies them, that fills them with fury and loathing because they can never understand it.
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animosity
commercialization
europeans
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Christopher Isherwood |
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b876398
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Remorse is not for the elderly. When it comes to them it is not purging or uplifting, but merely degrading and wretched, like a bladder disease.
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Christopher Isherwood |
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389c7c4
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I must say that I have always felt that, in the deepest sense, we are all brothers. Class distinctions have never meant anything to me; and hatred of tyranny is in my blood. Even as a small child I could never bear injustice of any kind. It offends my sense of the beautiful. It is so stupid and unaesthetic. I remember my feelings when I was first unjustly punished by my nurse. It wasn't the punishment itself which I resented; it was the clu..
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Christopher Isherwood |
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9e77efc
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I'm afraid, ha, ha, I find more inspiration in the Marquis de Sade.
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Christopher Isherwood |
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b07b91e
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As a final test, I tried to look Arthur in the eyes. But no, this time-honoured process didn't work. Here were no windows to the soul. They were merely part of his face, light-blue jellies, like naked shell-fish in the cervices of a rock. There was nothing to hold the attention; no sparkle, no inward gleam. Try as I would, my glance wandered way to more interesting features; the soft, snout-like nose, the concertina chin. After three or fou..
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Christopher Isherwood |
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46f122b
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Now, for example, people with freckles aren't thought of as a minority by the non-freckled. They aren't a minority in the sense we're talking about. And why aren't they? Because a minority is only thought of as a minority when it constitutes some kind of a threat to the majority, real or imaginary. And no threat is ever quite imaginary.
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Christopher Isherwood |
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254e377
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The pain of hunger beneath everything. At the end of all love-making, the dreamless sleep after the orgasm, which is like death.
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love
lust
orgasm
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Christopher Isherwood |
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aa31e17
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No, Geo--underneath all that, Nan really loves me. It's just she wants me to see things her way. You know, she's two years older; that meant a lot when we were children. I've always thought of her as being sort of like a road--I mean, she leads somewhere. With her, I'll never lose my way.
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love
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Christopher Isherwood |
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8f955dd
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I had failed him; I knew it. But I could do no more. It was beyond my strength. That night, I think, he explored the uttermost depths of his loneliness.
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Christopher Isherwood |
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f7d2f63
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And I'll tell you something else. A minority has its own kind of aggression. It absolutely dares the majority to attack it. It hates the majority - not without a cause, I grant you. It even hates the other minorities, because all minorities are in competition: each one proclaims that its sufferings are the worst and its wrongs are the blackest. And the more they all hate, and the more they're all persecuted, the nastier they become! Do you ..
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Christopher Isherwood |
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574d6c5
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Because the persecuting majority is vile, says the liberal, therefore the persecuted minority must be stainlessly pure. Can't you see what nonsense that is? What's to prevent the bad from being persecuted by the worse? Did all the Christian victims in the arena have to be saints?
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Christopher Isherwood |
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0fa8b01
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There was nothing to be done with him and his kind - unless you were prepared to shoot them.
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Christopher Isherwood |
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9608a73
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These books have not made George nobler or better or more truly wise. It is just that he likes listening to their voices, the one or the other, according to his mood.
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Christopher Isherwood |
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e0ec045
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It seemed to me then that to have published a book - any kind of book - would be the greatest possible happiness I could ask from life.
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Christopher Isherwood |
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316ca46
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How delightful it is to be here.(Gym) If only one could spend one's entire life in this state of easygoing physical democracy.
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Christopher Isherwood |
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bb825b6
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A grown man who can shed tears without embarrassment is like a yogi who has learned to expel toxic matter from his body by consciously speeding up the peristaltic rhythm. He can eliminate many of life's poisons
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Christopher Isherwood |
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dcc3962
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Goofy from lack of sleep, they scribble in snatched moments between classes, part-time employment and their married lives. Their brains are dizzy with words as they mop out an operating room, sort mail at a post office, fix baby's bottle, fry hamburgers. And somewhere, in the midst of their servitude to the must-be, the mad might-be whispers to them to live, know, experience -- what? Marvels! The Season in Hell, the Journey to the End of th..
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Christopher Isherwood |
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991e1a1
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Ikimiz de gulduk. "Sally" dedim, "senin sevdigim yanin ne biliyor musun? Bu kadar kolayca kandirilabilmen. Hic kandirilamayan insanlar oylesine can sikici ve ruhsuz oluyorlar ki!" "Beni hala seviyor musun, Chris, sevgilim?" "Evet, Sally. Seni hala seviyorum." Onu bir daha gormedim. Yaklasik iki hafta sonra, tam onu aramam gerektigini dusundugum bir sirada, Paris'ten bir kart aldim: "Buraya dun gece geldim. Yarin dogru durust yazarim. Kucak ..
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Christopher Isherwood |
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3084e04
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He crosses the front room, which he calls his study, and comes down the staircase. The stairs turn a corner; they are narrow and steep. You can touch both handrails with your elbows, and you have to bend your head, even if, like George, you are only five eight. This is a tightly planned little house. He often feels protected by its smallness; there is hardly room enough here to feel lonely. Nevertheless.
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loss
protection
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Christopher Isherwood |
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df4f462
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He dislikes even to touch these things, for they are the runes of an idiotic but nevertheless potent and evil magic; the magic of the think-machine gods, whose cult has one dogma - we cannot make a mistake.
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mockery
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Christopher Isherwood |