“You know, Mr. Wind-Up Bird, I sometimes wonder what it must feel like to die little by little over a long period of time. What do you think?”Unsure exactly what she was getting at, I changed my grip on the hand strap and looked into her eyes. “Can you give me a concrete example of what you mean by that-to die little by little?”
“Well... I don’t know. You’re trapped in the dark all alone, with nothing to eat, nothing to drink, and little by little you die....”
“It must be terrible,” I said. “Painful. I wouldn’t want to die like that if I could help it.”
“But finally, Mr. Wind-Up Bird, isn’t that just what life is? Aren’t we all trapped in the dark somewhere, and they’ve taken away our food and water, and we’re slowly dying, little by little ... ?”
I laughed. “You’re too young to be so ... pessimistic,” 1 said, using the English word.
“Pessi-what?”
“Pessimistic. It means looking only at the dark side of things.”
“Pessimistic ... pessimistic ...” She repeated the English to herself over and over, and then she looked up at me with a fierce glare. “I’m only sixteen,” she said, “and I don’t know much about the world, but I do know one thing for sure. If I’m pessimistic, then the adults in this world who are not pessimistic are a bunch of idiots.”----------------------------------------------------- Murakami, Haruki - The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Pessimism - Thursday, September 07, 2006 -
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hey vishu!
good to see you back.. :):)
enjoyed reading all the posts!
-Meena
Good post- but i will have to disagree here..
this is just one way of looking at things...and this is true only for those who dont have the guts to break free and be who they really are..or find what they really like doing..they really are trapped and have no way out ..
But have also seen loads of people out there who are so alive that even looking at them makes u happy.
-Meena
Hi Vishy,
Why no new update for long. I have tagged u for a new post in http://raconteurkasi.blogspot.com/2006/10/tagged-post.html. Pls do it when u get free time and happy diwali!!!
Vish,
Until I reda the last line, I thought you had written the piece !
I was going to ask you if I could run it on my blog (with due credit to you and th elink to your blog, of course).
:-)
Please start posting again. If nothing else, post interesting passages from the books you have read.
Z.
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