There is one question which we seldom ask each other directly: it is too brutal. And yet it is the only… — Christopher Isherwood
There is one question which we seldom ask each other directly: it is too brutal. And yet it is the only question worth asking our fellow-travellers. What makes you go on living? Why don't you kill yourself? Why is all this bearable? What makes you bear it?
Could I answer that question about myself? No. Yes. Perhaps . . . I supposed, vaguely, that it was a kind of balance, a complex of tensions. You did whatever was next on the list. A meal to be eaten. Chapter eleven to be written. The telephone rings. You go off somewhere in a taxi. There is one's job. There are amusements. There are people. There are books. There are things to be bought in shops. There is always something new. There has to be. Otherwise, the balance would be upset, the tension would break.
p. 98Source: Wikiquote · CC BY-SA 4.0
More from this book
'Why should you do a job anyway? What's the incentive?'
'The incentive is to fight anarchy. That's all Man lives for. Reclaiming life from its natural muddle. Making patterns.'
'Patterns for what?'
'For the sake of patterns. To create meaning. What else is there?'
'And what about the things that won't fit into your patterns?'
'Discard them.'
p. 55
The result of the rebuilding was a maze of crooked stairways, claustrophobic passages, abrupt dangerous ramps and Alice in Wonderland doors. Most of the smaller rooms were overcrowded, under-ventilated, separated only by plywood partitions and lit by naked bulbs hanging from wires. Everything was provisional, and liable to electrocute you, fall on your head, or come apart in your hand.
p. 52
'You know, sometimes I wonder what all this is for. Why not just peacefully end it?'
'We all think that. But we don't do it.'
'Surely you're not fool enough to imagine there's anything afterwards?'
'Perhaps. No, I suppose not. I don't think it makes much difference.'
p. 73
