The experienced writer says to the anguished novice: 'Just do it; get something, anything, on to the screen or page, just establish a flow of words, and criticise them later.' You give this advice but can't always take it.
Hilary MantelRead
So many years of preparation, for what was called adult life: was it for this?
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the disappointment and questioning of the purpose behind years of preparation for adulthood.
Hilary Mantel's quote provokes deep thought about the expectations and the reality of adult life. It suggests that after years of preparation, one might contemplate whether the anticipated fulfillment of adulthood truly aligns with the actual experience, leading to feelings of disillusionment or reflection on the nature of personal growth and societal roles.
Themes
PreparationAdult LifeDisillusionmentExpectationsReflection
In practice
Example use cases
In a graduation speech emphasizing the transition to adulthood and the realities that follow.
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Why are we so attached to the severities of the past? Why are we so proud of having endured our fathers and our mothers, the fireless days and the meatless days, the cold winters and the sharp tongues? It's not as if we had a choice.
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He is careful to deny responsibility for September, but he does not, you notice, condemn the killings. He also refrains from killing words, sparing Roland and Buzot, as if they were beneath his notice. August 10 was illegal, he says; so too was the taking of the Bastille. What account can we take of that, in revolution? It is the nature of revolutions to break laws. We are not justices of the peace; we are legislators to a new world.
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It is the absence of facts that frightens people: the gap you open, into which they pour their fears, fantasies, desires.
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History offers us vicarious experience. It allows the youngest student to possess the ground equally with his elders; without a knowledge of history to give him a context for present events, he is at the mercy of every social misdiagnosis handed to him.
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