Being alive feels like existing within a nightmare.
Evidence
While that was going on, it occurred to me for the first time that being alive was like being awake in a nightmare. — Crews, Harry, A childhood the biography of a place, 651
Categorization
- corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Crews, Harry, A childhood the biography of a place, 651
- XREF: connects to: A person can simultaneously feel mortal fear and detached, buoyant calm — Julien Gracq, Balcony in the Forest, 436; Passive drift toward disaster can feel seductive rather than frightening — Julien Gracq, Balcony in the Forest, 293; Severe trauma can sever a person’s felt continuity with their own life — Julien Gracq, Balcony in the Forest, 510 (+8 more)
Library Connections
- Perspective shifts can transform fear into relief.
#complicates(0.65) — Leo Tolstoy, A Confession, 221
Broader Connections
- Severe trauma can sever a person’s felt continuity with their own life
#expands(0.80) — Julien Gracq, Balcony in the Forest, 510 - Life finds only illusory goals and ultimate disappointment when confined to itself
#expands(0.78) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 845 - Living under looming war requires adapting psychologically to permanent low-grade dread
#exemplifies(0.75) — Julien Gracq, Balcony in the Forest, 138 - A person can simultaneously feel mortal fear and detached, buoyant calm
#qualifies(0.70) — Julien Gracq, Balcony in the Forest, 436 - Extreme fear can shrink a person’s presence to something almost weightless
#expands(0.70) — Julien Gracq, Balcony in the Forest, 427 - Fear under bombardment can transform into a strangely pleasurable, childlike terror
#qualifies(0.65) — Julien Gracq, Balcony in the Forest, 420 - Passive drift toward disaster can feel seductive rather than frightening
#qualifies(0.60) — Julien Gracq, Balcony in the Forest, 293 - Wartime disorientation can dissolve into a feeling of self-sufficient freedom rather than fear
#qualifies(0.60) — Julien Gracq, Balcony in the Forest, 423