Welcome to Bookmarker!

This is a personal project by @dellsystem. I built this to help me retain information from the books I'm reading.

Source code on GitHub (MIT license).

242

[...] "These are just horoscopes for people who went to college."

"You're actually right," Vanya said. "Horoscopes get you thinking."

Vanya went quiet as she worked toward inbox zero, leaving Will to quietly process the everyday aggressions of the word actually.

the last line is great (on Myers-Briggs and shit)

—p.242 by Tony Tulathimutte 6 years, 7 months ago

[...] "These are just horoscopes for people who went to college."

"You're actually right," Vanya said. "Horoscopes get you thinking."

Vanya went quiet as she worked toward inbox zero, leaving Will to quietly process the everyday aggressions of the word actually.

the last line is great (on Myers-Briggs and shit)

—p.242 by Tony Tulathimutte 6 years, 7 months ago
249

[...] she moved her soap, pillow, blanket, and toothbrush to the office. At this stage, she would not let the scale of her concerns be diminished by piddling twenty-something drama. Only sacrifice mattered now.

so sad

inspiration for MC who throws himself into his work briefly as a way of finding salvation? or maybe intern?

—p.249 by Tony Tulathimutte 6 years, 7 months ago

[...] she moved her soap, pillow, blanket, and toothbrush to the office. At this stage, she would not let the scale of her concerns be diminished by piddling twenty-something drama. Only sacrifice mattered now.

so sad

inspiration for MC who throws himself into his work briefly as a way of finding salvation? or maybe intern?

—p.249 by Tony Tulathimutte 6 years, 7 months ago
253

[...] The sense of Asian men was of conspicuous arbitrariness in a culture of the special. Whose social modes of being had been enshrined in national policy: internment and exclusion. Conforming yet abnormal. Another and an Other. [...]

i just like the titular phrase

—p.253 by Tony Tulathimutte 6 years, 7 months ago

[...] The sense of Asian men was of conspicuous arbitrariness in a culture of the special. Whose social modes of being had been enshrined in national policy: internment and exclusion. Conforming yet abnormal. Another and an Other. [...]

i just like the titular phrase

—p.253 by Tony Tulathimutte 6 years, 7 months ago
254

Will tipped the girl thirty dollars to make up for his hysterical crying, and left the salon [...]

after his thought monologue about the position of Asian men in society. i like this literary technique (not sure what it's called ... not quite minimalism but close)

—p.254 by Tony Tulathimutte 6 years, 7 months ago

Will tipped the girl thirty dollars to make up for his hysterical crying, and left the salon [...]

after his thought monologue about the position of Asian men in society. i like this literary technique (not sure what it's called ... not quite minimalism but close)

—p.254 by Tony Tulathimutte 6 years, 7 months ago
259

She paused often to fight low blood sugar, and in lengthening blinks she dreamed of an afterlife in which the turfy fire blanket on her head was brushed out into a blade of satin and she had a big scary wardrobe and hit Pilates every day until she'd burned off the paradoxical melancholy of feeling worthless and underappreciated, of doing work that was frivolous and insurmountable.

this paragraph (Cory's) is way too melodramatic but the idea of Pilates as a way of burning off resentment is interesting

I also like "big scary wardrobe" as a way of revealing her hope that she can upgrade herself mentally by upgrading herself physically

—p.259 by Tony Tulathimutte 6 years, 7 months ago

She paused often to fight low blood sugar, and in lengthening blinks she dreamed of an afterlife in which the turfy fire blanket on her head was brushed out into a blade of satin and she had a big scary wardrobe and hit Pilates every day until she'd burned off the paradoxical melancholy of feeling worthless and underappreciated, of doing work that was frivolous and insurmountable.

this paragraph (Cory's) is way too melodramatic but the idea of Pilates as a way of burning off resentment is interesting

I also like "big scary wardrobe" as a way of revealing her hope that she can upgrade herself mentally by upgrading herself physically

—p.259 by Tony Tulathimutte 6 years, 7 months ago
261

[...] He knows she's out to transgress, but she also has a puritanical streak that makes her wary of fun qua fun; everything must be a step toward metamorphosis. [...]

I can relate

—p.261 by Tony Tulathimutte 6 years, 7 months ago

[...] He knows she's out to transgress, but she also has a puritanical streak that makes her wary of fun qua fun; everything must be a step toward metamorphosis. [...]

I can relate

—p.261 by Tony Tulathimutte 6 years, 7 months ago
277

"Power users! I don't just want uniques or impressions, eyeballs are cheap! I want young, cool, engaged, legitimately disabled influencers who'll bring in other active registered goddamn users!"She slapped her armrest and glowered at her glowering screen. "We only get one launch."

hello there drift

—p.277 by Tony Tulathimutte 6 years, 7 months ago

"Power users! I don't just want uniques or impressions, eyeballs are cheap! I want young, cool, engaged, legitimately disabled influencers who'll bring in other active registered goddamn users!"She slapped her armrest and glowered at her glowering screen. "We only get one launch."

hello there drift

—p.277 by Tony Tulathimutte 6 years, 7 months ago
313

The crowd picked up again. She'd missed her window. I did this for you, she should have said, and if you're not enjoying yourselves, it's because you don't know how hard this was.

I feel like the word "bathos" would be appropriate here

—p.313 by Tony Tulathimutte 6 years, 7 months ago

The crowd picked up again. She'd missed her window. I did this for you, she should have said, and if you're not enjoying yourselves, it's because you don't know how hard this was.

I feel like the word "bathos" would be appropriate here

—p.313 by Tony Tulathimutte 6 years, 7 months ago
320

I always knew narrative was oppressive--narrowing things down to one or even a thousand perspectives is still an abridgment of infinity. I have real pity for fictional characters, the clueless dupes of dramatic irony--especially the female creations of male novelists, the Lolitas, Caddies, Bovaries ontologically fucked with, their every foible delectably plated. [...] didn't have to die--except to serve their narratives, of which they're denied basic awareness. Vessels for the writer's outlook, for the reader's vicarious experience. For them there's no nature or fortune: just guile. Forced to be interesting, plausible, coherent, deep, through the corrupt brokerage of a narrator. The better the novel, the more enchanting the characters, the more their mysteries are spread-eagled, the greater glory to their creator.

You call it denial, resentment, narcissism. I call it Catholicism. No, I don't think "'writing something makes it real'"--I think reality is text-based. Not poststructurally--postscripturally. We lapsed Catholics have long had our reality debunked as fiction, but we're still in the habit of worrying that Providence is hashing us out. Another reason to pity fictional characters: their Providence is a person, whose subjects are his objects. No matter how a charcter acts out--gets vengeance, gets closure, breaks it down, sees it through--it all serves narrative progress.

Postmodernism was supposed to plug the leak. And it did: like a backed-up septic tank. The revenge of text on author. Tempting; but I can't let go to the Self and become some layer cake of context. Not after all the shit this Self has gone through. Whose teeth are missing? Mine.

this passage annoys me in a way that Broom of the System never really did. idk. just feels like he doesn't quite pull it off. too clunky.

still interesting though

—p.320 by Tony Tulathimutte 6 years, 7 months ago

I always knew narrative was oppressive--narrowing things down to one or even a thousand perspectives is still an abridgment of infinity. I have real pity for fictional characters, the clueless dupes of dramatic irony--especially the female creations of male novelists, the Lolitas, Caddies, Bovaries ontologically fucked with, their every foible delectably plated. [...] didn't have to die--except to serve their narratives, of which they're denied basic awareness. Vessels for the writer's outlook, for the reader's vicarious experience. For them there's no nature or fortune: just guile. Forced to be interesting, plausible, coherent, deep, through the corrupt brokerage of a narrator. The better the novel, the more enchanting the characters, the more their mysteries are spread-eagled, the greater glory to their creator.

You call it denial, resentment, narcissism. I call it Catholicism. No, I don't think "'writing something makes it real'"--I think reality is text-based. Not poststructurally--postscripturally. We lapsed Catholics have long had our reality debunked as fiction, but we're still in the habit of worrying that Providence is hashing us out. Another reason to pity fictional characters: their Providence is a person, whose subjects are his objects. No matter how a charcter acts out--gets vengeance, gets closure, breaks it down, sees it through--it all serves narrative progress.

Postmodernism was supposed to plug the leak. And it did: like a backed-up septic tank. The revenge of text on author. Tempting; but I can't let go to the Self and become some layer cake of context. Not after all the shit this Self has gone through. Whose teeth are missing? Mine.

this passage annoys me in a way that Broom of the System never really did. idk. just feels like he doesn't quite pull it off. too clunky.

still interesting though

—p.320 by Tony Tulathimutte 6 years, 7 months ago