"At twenty-one, I used to say I believed in the deferment of pleasure; I was usually misunderstood. Deferment was the word, not rejection or repression or abandonment or all of the other terms it automatically got translated into. I'm less sure now, though I do believe in the balanced, delicate leading-in of the individual to experience. This isn't presciptive; just sensible. How many kids of twenty-one today are sentiently burnt out; or worse, find it chic to believe they are? Isn't a diet of extremity senseless and, finally, comic? Isn't the whole structure of experience built on contrast?"
—Julian Barnes, Metroland
Posted by mesh at September 28, 2006 03:14 PM | TrackBack