Quote of the day

"The encounter of the real as impossible is always missed: either it is experienced as impossible but not real (the prospect of a forthcoming catastrophe which, however probable we know it is, we do not believe will effectively occur and thus dismiss it as impossible), or as real but no longer impossible (once catastrophe occurs, it is 'renormalized', perceived as part of the normal run of things, as always already having been possible). The gap which makes these paradoxes possible is the one between knowledge and belief: we know the catastrophe is possible, probable even, yet we do not believe it will really happen. And is this not what is happening today, right in front of our eyes?" (Slavoj Žižek, "Against an Ideology of Human Rights")

Best novels read in 2021

This list was ready long ago, but I almost forgot it. With only five novels it's not much of a list, but I don't see any point in including novels that didn't leave an impression on me. The order is not random.

1.) Pierre Guyotat: Eden, Eden, Eden (1970)

2.) Henry Miller: Tropic of Capricorn (1939)

3.) J.G. Ballard: High-Rise (1975)

4.) Yukio Mishima: Confessions of a Mask (1949)

5.) Roland Topor: The Tenant (1964)