Read The Discomfort Zone Online
Authors: Jonathan Franzen
The Discomfort Zone (24 page)
The author is especially grateful to Kathy Chetkovich, Chris Connery, Chris Davis, Nicky Dawidoff, Henry Finder, Jonathan Galassi, Chip Jahn, Gayle Morley-Jahn, Bob Mutton, David Remnick, Kate Siebert, Bill Symes, Elisabeth Weinmann, the Center for Cultural Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the many generous and forgiving alumni of Fellowship and DIOTI. “My Bird Problem” was first published as an essay in
The New Yorker,
as were portions of three other chapters.
THE DISCOMFORT ZONE.
Copyright © 2006 by Jonathan Franzen. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information address Picador, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY, 10010.
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It will be difficult to persuade me that the story of the Prodigal Son is not the legend of a person who didn't want to be loved.
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Blushing, palpitations, a guilty conscience: these are what come of not having sinned.
*
Der (masculine) Löffel;
die
(feminine) Gabel;
das
(neuter) Messer.
*
Strive, float, weave, live, tremble, give.
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You awaken and stir a powerful resolve / To strive, henceforth, for the highest form of being.
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Do you know the country where the lemon trees bloom, / and the oranges like gold in leafy gloomâ¦Maybe you know it?
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Here the view is clear, / The spirit exalted. / Over there, moving past, / Women float skyward.
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“Who's bothering me now?”
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“He goes from one sensation to anotherâbut no satisfaction.”
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A murder has occurred, and mankind would like to cry for help.
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Now we find out that our prohibitions were Nature's procrastinations, our secrets her opportunities, our shame her spur, our danger her enjoyment, our defenses her cover, our prayers her breeding seasonâ¦Fettered love loved its fetters; beaten love, its pain; filthy love, its filth. The revenge of the exiled Eros was the magic of turning every loss into a gain.
*
I'm learning to see. I don't know why it is, but everything penetrates into me more deeply and doesn't stop at the place where, until now, it always used to end. I have an inner life that I didn't know about. Everything goes there now. I don't know what happens there.
*
There are people who wear the same face for years, naturally it gets worn out, it gets dirty, it splits at the folds, it stretches like a pair of gloves that you've worn on a trip. These are thrifty, simple people; they don't change their face, they never even have it cleaned.
*
“My God, how badly you've been reading, Malte.”
*
â¦rushed over, grabbed her, kissed her on the mouth and then all over her face, the way a thirsty animal works its tongue over the long-sought spring water. Finally he kissed her neck, where the throat is, and let his lips lie there a long time.
*
Take A Flying Fuck On A Rolling Doughnut.
*
But this time, it will be written.
*
But this time, I will be written.
*
So, one morning he was arrested.
*
A card game in which the deck has been stacked.
*
The Eternal-Feminine / Draws us upward.