Photographed by *sugar*CélineM*
“The unreal is more powerful than the real, because nothing is as perfect as you can imagine it. because its only intangible ideas, concepts, beliefs, fantasies that last. stone crumbles. wood rots. people, well, they die. but things as fragile as a thought, a dream, a legend, they can go on and on.”
- Chuck Palahniuk
"The Oxford History of Islam" by John L. Esposito (Editor)
"O wave! Plunge headlong into the dark seas,
And change thyself with many a twist and turn;
Thou wast not born for tile solace of the shore;
Arise, untamed, and find a path for thyself."
- Allama Muhammad Iqbal
This is a very interesting perspective. Although even ideas don’t last forever, there seems to be a truth in what Palahniuk is saying here.
For some reason, the quote makes me wonder how long websites will last? Will they be like books and last for years after their authors are gone? Or will inactive sites be deleted by the corporations that own the servers?
The net seems to be a very good way to quickly disseminate an idea far and wide, but I wonder how good it is for preserving ideas?
Then again, maybe disseminating an idea is the best way to preserve it.
To me, though, the most interesting thing about ideas is they can be like maps that people use as guides to the actions they take in this world. In that sense, they are extraordinarily more influential than most tangible things.
Do you really think ideas don’t last forever? I don’t know, I think that they do except that they might not always be present and in the open. They lie dormant and if they escape and fade from one mind then eventually they will awaken in another.
Also, there are dreams, beliefs, and as the quote says, such fragile things go on forever. But I do wonder how long is forever - is forever so long as we, humans, are there to dream and believe, or do our forever dreams and beliefs out live the race of humanity?
Also before this one may ask the question what does it even mean for an idea to last forever.
Wow. What a quote! And from Chuck Palahniuk, of all people! I wouldn’t have expected that from the author of Fight Club, for some reason.
And isn’t it fascinating that the life of those immutable, ageless ideas is entirely dependent on mutable, mortal human beings?
Assuming Palahniuk is right, how is it that this should be so? That the permanent should set into the impermanent?
And if we are vessels for that which outlives us, do we become sanctified by our ideas?
Thanks for the questions, Raatkiranii.
Beautiful words. Once a thought is born it is alive somewhere, or was it already here? Do we stumble upon the unreal…I love this quote