random things from ilya

alain de botton in the comments section of a reviewer’s blog who panned him in the ny times. AMAZING. Not condoned! But amazing.

so that happened a long time ago (july! years in internet time!), but I noticed alain de botton was on twitter and said something and then he dm-ed me confirming it was really him and hoping it was okay that he used twitter to experiment with aphorisms (ha! you guys! don’t ask permission!) and then sylvia was like, dude remember that blog drama? and i was like what blog drama? and now he is sort of my thin-skinned hero.

I also love the tony kushner that sylvia quotes in her blahg:

“One’s skin is, after all, so painfully stretched over such a very large area. …The impulse to make work that contains the world surely stems from an infantile impulse to swallow it, whole, and to be universally adored for having done so.”

“damn.”

(via meaghano)

Very recently I was invited to attend a reading of de Botton, and I enjoyed it tremendously. It was refreshing, fun, well spoken and intelligent. It made me want to read this very book. I did not rush out to buy it like some other books do sometimes, but this review and his riposte changed that altogether again. I am rushing out to buy it now :D

Thank you Meaghan.