We break ourselves up into parts. To lie to ourselves, to hide things from ourselves. You are not you. You are not what you think you are. You are bigger than you think. More complicated than you think.
Charles YuThere is a sense in which I am pretty sure this makes no sense. I don't know where this is going. I don't know how it ends.
Charles Yunostalgia, underlying cosmological explanation for Weak but detectable interaction between two neighboring universes that are otherwise not causally connected. Manifests itself in humans as a feeling of missing a place one has never been, a place very much like oneโs home universe, or as a longing for versions of oneโs self that one will never, and can never know.
Charles YuThis is what you have to ask yourself: Do you want to be good, or just seem good? Do you want to be good to yourself and others? Do you care about other people, always, sometimes, never? Or only when convenient? What kind of person do you want to be?
Charles YuFailure is easy to measure. Failure is an event.Harder to measure is insignificance. A nonevent. Insignificance creeps, it dawns, it gives you hope, then delusion, then one day, when youโre not looking, itโs there, at your front door, on your desk, in the mirror, or not, not any of that, itโs the lack of all that. One day, when you are looking, itโs not looking, no one is. You lie in your bed and realize that if you donโt get out of bed and into the world today, it is very likely no one will even notice.
Charles YuHow many times have I failed before? How many times have I stood here like this, in front of my own image, in front of my own person, trying to convince him not to be scared, to go on, to get out of this rut? How many times before I finally convince myself, how many private, erasable deaths will I need to die, how may self-murders is it going to take, how many times will I have to destroy myself before I learn, before I understand?
Charles Yu