It is not your duty to complete the work; neither are you free to to desist from it

[sabotabby]

China Miéville's latest post touched a nerve, I think.

But you know there’s a machismo in misery. & there is another possibility.

Not to say both can’t be true, that things can’t, don’t, degenerate. But ongoing amazement isn’t necessarily a failure of rigour. Learning the world to change it changes us, too; maybe softens the keratin, dead psychic skin we rationalise as ‘realism’.

Perhaps this is how a person can be more & more surprised how bad the world is the more & more she understands how bad the world is.

The whole post contains some shockingly horrific news articles. You should go have a read.

Comments

[smhwpf.livejournal.com]

*nods* *nods* *nods*

One of the most poignant comments I saw about the murder of Vittorio Arrigoni was from Huwaida Arraf, one of the founders of ISM, who said that she somehow had thought when she heard he'd been kidnapped that they'd just see his humanity and let him go. And part of me thought "how naive", but that's the sort of "naivity" you can only get from living one's life right up against the world's evil.

[sadie-sabot.livejournal.com]

I thought it was beautiful and helpful.

I love his blog.