If you're going to immerse yourself in a project for three years, why not stake out a chunk of the world that is completely alien to you and go traveling?
Richard PowersRead
The desire to live in our imagination is driven by this suspicion that we're disembodied sensibilities cobbled into our bodies. That idea has infused most of human thought since the very beginning.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that our wish to escape into imagination stems from a belief that our minds are separate from our physical bodies.
Richard Powers reflects on the human tendency to seek refuge in imagination, a desire rooted in the suspicion that our consciousness is an independent entity from our physical existence. This belief has permeated human thought throughout history, suggesting a deep-seated philosophical inquiry into the nature of identity, the mind-body relationship, and the essence of being. By exploring this connection, Powers invites us to examine how our thoughts and perceptions shape our reality, often leading us to prefer the landscapes of imagination over the sometimes harsh truths of the physical world.
Themes
ImaginationIdentityConsciousnessPhilosophyHuman Experience
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the nature of consciousness, this quote can illustrate the divide between mind and body.
More from Richard Powers
All quotes →This idea that a book can either be about character and feeling, or about politics and idea, is just a false binary. Ideas are an expression of the feelings and the intense emotions we hold about the world.
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I really like science because it seems to be that place where you get the big picture, everything connects.
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We build our technologies as a way of addressing all our anxieties and desires. They are our passions congealed into these prosthetic extensions of ourselves. And they do it in a way that reflects what we dream ourselves capable of doing.
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What we can do should never by itself determine what we choose to do, yet this is the way technology tends to work.
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I write the way you might arrange flowers. Not every try works, but each one launches another. Every constraint, even dullness, frees up a new design.
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