I project myself out through the glasses and across the street, a ghost in the morning sunlight, torn with disembodied lust.
Interpretation
The quote expresses a sense of feeling detached from reality and experiencing a profound yearning.
In this quote, William S. Burroughs explores themes of alienation and desire. The imagery of projecting oneself as a 'ghost' suggests a disconnection from the physical world and a longing that is both intense and unsettling. It captures the complexity of human feelings and the often-overlapping experiences of longing versus existence within a vibrant, yet fleeting reality.
In practice
This quotation can be used in a discussion about existential philosophy.
God save the Queen and a fascist regime β¦ a flabby toothless fascism, to be sure. Never go too far in any direction, is the basic law on which Limey-Land is built. The Queen stabilizes the whole sinking shithouse and keeps a small elite of wealth and privilege on top. The English have gone soft in the outhouse. England is like some stricken beast too stupid to know it is dead. Ingloriously foundering in its own waste products, the backlash and bad karma of empire
Like most qualities, cuteness is delineated by what it isn't. Most people aren't cute at all, or if so they quickly outgrow their cuteness ... Elegance, grace, delicacy, beauty, and a lack of self-consciousness: a creature who knows he is cute soon isn't.
There is nothing more provocative than minding your own business.
Gentle reader, the Fountain of Youth is radioactive, and those who imbibe its poisonous heavy waters will suffer the hideous fate of decaying metal. Yet almost without exception, the wretched idiot inhabitants of our benighted planet would gulp down this radioactive excrement if it were offered.
Language is a virus from outer space.
One very important aspect of art is that it makes people aware of what they know and donβt know they know... Once the breakthrough is made, there is a permanent expansion of awareness. But there is always a reaction of rage, of outrage, at the first breakthrough... So the artist, then, expands awareness. And once the breakthrough is made, this becomes part of the general awareness.
What would be the use of immortality to a person who cannot use well a half an hour?
Let your enemies be disarmed by the gentleness of your manner, but let them feel at the same time the steadiness of your just resentment for there is a great difference between bearing malice, which is always ungenerous, and a resolute self-defense which is ever prudent and justifiable.
No religion is responsible for terrorism. People are responsible for violence and terrorism.
I do not consider it an insult, but rather a compliment to be called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure - that is all that agnosticism means.
To claim that theft or adultery or lying are "evil" simply reflects our degraded idea of good-βthat it has something to do with respect for property, respectability, and sincerity.
It may be true that there are no atheists in foxholes. But you don't find many Christians there, either. Or, about as many of one as the other.
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