Because I don\u2019t care what anyone says or how often or winningly they say it: no one will ever, ever be able to persuade me that life is some awesome, rewarding treat. Because, here\u2019s the truth: life is a catastrophe. The basic fact of existence \u2013 of walking around trying to feed ourselves and find friends and whatever else we do \u2013 is a catastrophe. Forget all this ridiculous \u2018Our Town\u2019 nonsense everyone talks: the miracle of a newborn babe, the joy of one simple blossom, Life You Are Too Wonderful To Grasp, &c. For me \u2013 and I\u2019ll keep repeating it doggedly till I die, till I fall over on my ungrateful nihilistic face and am too weak to say it: better never born, than born into this cesspool. Sinkhole of hospital beds, coffins, and broken hearts. No release, no appeal, no \u201cdo-overs\u201d to employ a favored phrase of Xandra\u2019s, no way forward but age and loss, and no way out but death.<\/p>\n

Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Because I don\u2019t care what anyone says or how often or winningly they say it: no one will ever, ever be able to persuade me that life is some awesome, rewarding treat. Because, here\u2019s the truth: life is a catastrophe. The basic fact of existence \u2013 of walking around trying to feed ourselves and find friends and whatever else we do \u2013 is a catastrophe. Forget all this ridiculous \u2018Our Town\u2019 nonsense everyone talks: the miracle of a newborn babe, the joy of one simple blossom, Life You Are Too Wonderful To Grasp, &c. For me \u2013 and I\u2019ll keep repeating it doggedly till I die, till I fall over on my ungrateful nihilistic face and am too weak to say it: better never born, than born into this cesspool. Sinkhole of hospital beds, coffins, and broken hearts. No release, no appeal, no \u201cdo-overs\u201d to employ a favored phrase of Xandra\u2019s, no way forward but age and loss, and no way out but death.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[14440],"tags":[14441,14442],"class_list":["post-28535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-goldfinch","tag-donna-tartt","tag-the-goldfinchlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beautiful-quotes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beautiful-quotes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beautiful-quotes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beautiful-quotes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beautiful-quotes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/beautiful-quotes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28535\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beautiful-quotes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beautiful-quotes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beautiful-quotes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}