#introspection

[echoesoftheinfinite]

I don't want much, I just want to learn how to enjoy life, even in the hardest moments.

[yakobssonarthouse]

The Son of Man by René Magritte (1964)

This iconic painting immediately draws attention to two powerful symbols: the apple and the man’s formal attire. The apple, suspended in front of the figure’s face, evokes the story of Eden and ties into the Oedipal Complex. In the biblical narrative, Adam consumes the forbidden fruit handed to him by Eve, ushering in the knowledge of self, shame, and guilt. This is crucial in psychoanalytic terms, as it mirrors the child’s desire for the mother and the inevitable transgression of the father’s laws.

Before Adam’s consumption of the apple, he was innocent and unaware of his nakedness. In Magritte’s interpretation, the man is not only hiding his body but also masking his identity behind the apple.

In the painting, the man is fully dressed, his body covered by a suit, emphasizing the overcompensation for his earlier transgression. The suit itself becomes a form of defense, but it’s the apple that holds the deepest symbolism—hiding the face, the core of identity and expression, leaving a profound psychological tension.

Core Theme: Transgression and Guilt

This work is steeped in themes of transgression, particularly relating to the desire to break societal rules and rebel against authority (often the father figure) which leaves a lasting guilt. The apple symbolizes that guilt, as well as the individual’s desire to remain hidden. Magritte plays with this paradox—while the subject wishes to hide, we, the viewer, are irresistibly drawn to what is concealed.

The hat in the painting serves as a symbol of social status and conformity, suggesting that the figure still operates within societal structures while carrying the hidden burden of guilt beneath the surface.

The Personality of the Buyer

A person who is drawn to this painting may experience a deep sense of guilt or inner conflict. Their guilt may be rooted in personal transgressions, such as unresolved conflicts with authority figures or a sense of betrayal in relationships. They may also feel ambivalence toward wealth and power, having achieved success that leaves them morally conflicted.

Personality Type: Likely highly introspective and prone to self-blame. They may grapple with the tension between their public image and private struggles, overcompensating for their vulnerabilities with external success.

Relationships: This individual may have difficulty with trust and maintaining deep emotional connections. Fear of being exposed leads them to keep their true selves hidden, resulting in relationships that feel shallow or superficial.

Occupation: They are likely in a high-status profession, such as finance, business, or law—fields where appearances and control are paramount, yet they may feel disconnected from their inner emotions.

[azure-firecracker]

Caught on Tape

Summary: One late night at the office, Scully finds some strange tapes buried in the bottom of Mulder's desk. What she finds could fundamentally alter the way she views her partner - and their relationship.

Or: Mulder made tapes for Scully while she was abducted. One night she finds them.

Look, I may be in Season 4, but I will always mentally be in Season 2. The abduction arc is so dear to me, and means so much for both characters.

Rating: Teen and Up

Word Count: 4,044

TW/CW: Suicidal ideation, near-suicide attempt, references to abduction.

Read on Ao3

HUGE thanks to @theswisscheeserag for beta-ing this one. This fic was a struggle, and she really saved it from succumbing to all of my bad writing habits, so y’all have her to thank for that.

Tagging @today-in-fic :)

[voidic3ntity]

tragedy follows me everywhere, always stalking my every move:

so I took trips down to the woods, sat beneath chlorophyll skies,

the chemical concoctions circulating through my bloodstream,

basking in the crystalline water & witnessing myself as eternal;

mysterious signs appear in the skies above when intoxicated.

[jaggedjawjosh]

Kindness is the bridge that connects hearts, making empathy the river that flows freely between them.

[yourmessyfaerie]

in the dead of night i'll be out with lanterns, searching for myself.

[poemwav]

from Poem to First Love (2016)

Follow for daily poems ✍

[bernardreneguillot]

NEO , ( REMIX)

[enenkaydoodles]

Uncertain feelings in uncertain times after 5 months of being unemployed with no end in sight

[minimalist-quotes]

Some people want you to be like them, because they don't have the courage to be like you.

[eelhound]

"The idea of reforming Omelas is a pleasant idea, to be sure, but it is one that Le Guin herself specifically tells us is not an option. No reform of Omelas is possible — at least, not without destroying Omelas itself:

If the child were brought up into the sunlight out of that vile place, if it were cleaned and fed and comforted, that would be a good thing, indeed; but if it were done, in that day and hour all the prosperity and beauty and delight of Omelas would wither and be destroyed. Those are the terms.

'Those are the terms', indeed. Le Guin’s original story is careful to cast the underlying evil of Omelas as un-addressable — not, as some have suggested, to 'cheat' or create a false dilemma, but as an intentionally insurmountable challenge to the reader. The premise of Omelas feels unfair because it is meant to be unfair. Instead of racing to find a clever solution ('Free the child! Replace it with a robot! Have everyone suffer a little bit instead of one person all at once!'), the reader is forced to consider how they might cope with moral injustice that is so foundational to their very way of life that it cannot be undone. Confronted with the choice to give up your entire way of life or allow someone else to suffer, what do you do? Do you stay and enjoy the fruits of their pain? Or do you reject this devil’s compromise at your own expense, even knowing that it may not even help? And through implication, we are then forced to consider whether we are — at this very moment! — already in exactly this situation. At what cost does our happiness come? And, even more significantly, at whose expense? And what, in fact, can be done? Can anything?

This is the essential and agonizing question that Le Guin poses, and we avoid it at our peril. It’s easy, but thoroughly besides the point, to say — as the narrator of 'The Ones Who Don’t Walk Away' does — that you would simply keep the nice things about Omelas, and work to address the bad. You might as well say that you would solve the trolley problem by putting rockets on the trolley and having it jump over the people tied to the tracks. Le Guin’s challenge is one that can only be resolved by introspection, because the challenge is one levied against the discomforting awareness of our own complicity; to 'reject the premise' is to reject this (all too real) discomfort in favor of empty wish fulfillment. A happy fairytale about the nobility of our imagined efforts against a hypothetical evil profits no one but ourselves (and I would argue that in the long run it robs us as well).

But in addition to being morally evasive, treating Omelas as a puzzle to be solved (or as a piece of straightforward didactic moralism) also flattens the depth of the original story. We are not really meant to understand Le Guin’s 'walking away' as a literal abandonment of a problem, nor as a self-satisfied 'Sounds bad, but I’m outta here', the way Vivier’s response piece or others of its ilk do; rather, it is framed as a rejection of complacency. This is why those who leave are shown not as triumphant heroes, but as harried and desperate fools; hopeless, troubled souls setting forth on a journey that may well be doomed from the start — because isn’t that the fate of most people who set out to fight the injustices they see, and that they cannot help but see once they have been made aware of it? The story is a metaphor, not a math problem, and 'walking away' might just as easily encompass any form of sincere and fully committed struggle against injustice: a lonely, often thankless journey, yet one which is no less essential for its difficulty."

- Kurt Schiller, from "Omelas, Je T'aime." Blood Knife, 8 July 2022.

[echoesoftheinfinite]

I don’t really forget people; each one stays in my memory in a unique way. They leave a mark on me, and I don’t think you can just pretend they were never in your life. They impact you in different ways—sometimes good, sometimes not so much. But even so, you can’t just replace someone.

[quietlotus]

“I could give you no advice but this: to go into yourself and to explore the depths where your life wells forth.”

— Rainer Maria Rilke

[noosphe-re]

The tension of the future is unbearable in us. It must break through narrow cracks, it must force new ways. You want to cast off the burden, you want to escape the inescapable. Running away is deception and detour. Shut your eyes so that you do not see the manifold, the outwardly plural, the tearing away and the tempting. There is only one way and that is your way; there is only one salvation and that is your salvation. Why are you looking around for help? Do you believe that help will come from outside? What is to come is created in you and from you. Hence look into yourself. Do not compare, do not measure. No other way is like yours. All other ways deceive and tempt you. You must fulfill the way that is in you.

C.G. Jung, The Red Book: Liber Novus, edited and introduced by Sonu Shamdasani

[jaggedjawjosh]

Self-confidence is the cornerstone upon which the skyscraper of self-worth is built, elevating us to new heights.

[yourmessyfaerie]

you're a poem i've always wanted to write, but never found the words for.