4 ms·

One of my favorite quotes by him (well, technically a character of his): > "Be careful what you pretend to be because you are what you pretend to be." Seems q

• chetsandwich 8y ago
  We need to let people know that the pond is closed.
• timoth3y 8y ago
  Was that from Mother Night? That is an amazing book. By pretending to be a Nazi to spy for the allies, he turned out to be very good at being a Nazi. It's a dizzying trip around the age-old question of are we defined by what's in our hearts or by our actions, or perhaps our actions are the clearest indicator of what's in our hearts.
  • scarecrowbob 8y ago
    That was my primary takeaway from Mother Night. I have found the idea that there isn't some authentic, secret me that no one really knows to be very useful in my life. Many of us have large discrepancies between how we see ourselves and how other people see us, and I have seen a lot of people file off the gear teeth in the clockwork of their minds (to use another idea from Vonnegut); fantasizing that there is a "real" us that other people just can't see is a useful tool for doing that kind of work. As I understand it our human being ness is largely bound to how other folks perceive us, and when we get feedback from others it's important to listen to how they seem to understand us... that's been a hard thing to learn and apply, but it's been useful in changing that feedback into (hopefully positive) changes to how I treat other people.