Crude thoughts and fierce forces are my state. I do not know who I am. Nor what I was. I cannot hear a sound. Pain is near that will be like no pain felt before.
Norman MailerRead
We divorced ourselves from the materials of the earth, the rock, the wood, the iron ore; we looked to new materials which were cooked in vats, long complex derivatives of urine which we called plastic. They had no odor of the living, ... their touch was alien to nature. ... [They proliferated] like the matastases of cancer cells.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote critiques humanity's reliance on synthetic materials over natural ones, highlighting the alienation from nature.
Norman Mailer expresses concern about the shift from natural materials, such as wood and stone, to artificial substances like plastic. He suggests that this transition has distanced humans from the essence of nature, comparing the proliferation of synthetic materials to the spread of cancer cells, implying that these materials, though useful, are harmful to both the environment and humanity's relationship with the natural world.
Themes
PlasticNatureAlienationMaterialismEnvironment
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared at an environmental conference to emphasize the importance of using natural materials.
More from Norman Mailer
All quotes →I no longer gave a sick dog's drop for the wisdom, the reliability and the authority of the public's literary mind, those creeps and old ladies of vested reviewing.
Norman MailerRead
There's nothing glorious about being a professional. . . . Professionalism probably comes down to being able to work on a bad day.
Norman MailerRead
The natural role of twentieth-century man is anxiety.
Norman MailerRead
Over-certified adjectives are the mark of most best-seller writing
Norman MailerRead
At bottom, I mean profoundly at bottom, the FBI has nothing to do with Communism, it has nothing to do with catching criminals, it has nothing to do with the Mafia, the syndicate, it has nothing to do with trust-busting, it has nothing to do with interstate commerce, it has nothing to do with anything but serving as a church for the mediocre. A high church for the true mediocre.
Norman MailerRead
Similar quotes
For all professional pilots there exists a kind of guild, without charter and without by-laws. it demands no requirements for inclusion save an understanding of the wind, the compass, the rudder, and fair fellowship.
Beryl MarkhamRead
Take care of brothers and sisters who are weaker ... the elderly, the sick, the hungry, the homeless and strangers, because we will be judged on this.
Pope FrancisRead
Energy functioning in a pattern becomes matter. That is all life is... Matter and energy are interrelated.
Jiddu KrishnamurtiRead
Even a dog distinguishes between being stumbled over and being kicked.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.Read
The more we study the major problems of our time, the more we come to realise that they cannot be understood in isolation. They are systemic problems, which means that they are interconnected and interdependent.
Fritjof CapraRead
For He is in the midst of us day and night [in the Blessed Sacrament]; He dwells in us with the fullness of grace and truth. He raises the level of morals, fosters virtue, comforts the sorrowful, strengthens the weak and stirs up all those who draw near to Him to imitate Him, so that they may learn from his example to be meek and humble of heart, and to seek not their own interests but those of God.
Pope Paul ViRead