Which is to say, I am writing as a son.”, “Let no one mistake us for the fruit of violence - but that violence, having passed through the fruit, failed to spoil it.”, “To be a monster is to be a hybrid signal, a lighthouse: both shelter and warning at once.”, “Ma. To say On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, acclaimed poet Ocean Vuong’s debut novel, is only a novel would diminish its essence and ambition.For it is also an epistle—the book takes the form of a letter written by the narrator Little Dog to his mother, Rose, who cannot read English—as well as epic poem, romance, elegy, family history, theory, and critical essay. They say that trauma affects not only the brain, but the body too, its musculature, joints, and posture. Sometimes, when I’m careless, I think survival is easy: you just keep moving forward with what you have, or what’s left of what you were given, until something changes—or you realize, at last, that you can change without disappearing, that all you had to do was wait until the storm passes you over and you find that—yes—your name is still attached to a living thing. Some people say history moves in a spiral, not the line we have come to expect. My local book club met last weekend, to discuss On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong. My mouth a blaze of touch. Here’s what I came up with. They have an industry. Which is to say, I am writing as a son.”, “Let no one mistake us for the fruit of violence - but that violence, having passed through the fruit, failed to spoil it.”, “To be a monster is to be a hybrid signal, a lighthouse: both shelter and warning at once.”, “Ma. But so am I—which is why I can’t turn away from you. Which is why I have taken god’s loneliest creation and put you inside it. Under the covers, we made friction of each other and fiction of everything else. I was being fucked up, at last, by choice. “I think you’re just you.”, Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window). A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality study guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics. The following version of this book was used to make the guide: Vuong, Ocean. If, relative to the history of our planet, an individual life is so short, a blink, as they say, then to be gorgeous, even from the day you're born to the day you die, is to be gorgeous only briefly.”, “Is that what art is? We were born from beauty. A woman, a girl, a gun. What made a woman who named herself and her daughter after flowers call her grandson a dog? They say addiction might be linked to bipolar disorder. Every history has more than one thread, each thread a story of division. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. I came out her asshole and I love her very much. You once told me that memory is a choice. Have you ever watched yourself from behind, going further and deeper into that landscape, away from you?”. We make more of anything we find aesthetically pleasing, whether it’s a vase, a painting, a chalice, a poem. How so much of the world passes through the pupil and still it holds nothing. Whether we want to or not, we are traveling in a spiral, we are creating something new from what is gone. Isn’t that the saddest thing in the world, Ma? “In Vietnamese, the word for missing someone and remembering them is the same: nhớ. From the Latin root monstrum, a divine messenger of catastrophe, then adapted by the Old French to mean an animal of myriad origins: centaur, griffin, satyr. Anything. The audience a target audience. “They say nothing lasts forever but they're just scared it will last longer than they can love it.”, “You once told me that the human eye is god's loneliest creation. I want to look him in the eye, shake his hand, and say, 'it's been an honor to serve my country.”, “How sweet. We were born from beauty. They make millions. It’s the chemicals in our brains, they say. That rain. I crushed them. That is the question. A trope in a movie you can walk away from if it weren’t already here, already written down. But you know this already.”, “Migration can be triggered by the angle of sunlight, indicating a change in the season, temperature, plant life, and food supply. I looked at you hard, the way I had learned, by then, to look into the eyes of my bullies. In which case the hand, although limited by the borders of skin and cartilage, can be that third language that animates where the tongue falters. Ocean Vuong’s ‘On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous’ is permanently stunning. NPR Review: 'On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous,' By Ocean Vuong Ocean Vuong's debut novel is a painful but extraordinary coming-of-age story, about a … “I was bor… We travel through time in a circular trajectory, our distance increasing from an epicenter only to return again, one circle removed. You're a killer. Ocean Vuong quotes Showing 1-30 of 419 “They say nothing lasts forever but they're just scared it will last longer than they can love it.” ― Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous 312 likes “All this time I told myself we were born from war—but I was wrong, Ma. To open a mouth, in speech, is to leave only the bones, which remain untold. Little holes. Like Little Dog in On Earth we’re Briefly Gorgeous, Vuong’s maternal grandfather was a white American naval officer stationed in Vietnam during the war.Vuong’s grandparents were married and had three children. I looked at that dog, its ribs showing, dancing to French music and thought anything could happen. Sometimes I don’t know what or who we are. Be the first to learn about new releases! "Good for you, man" a man once said to me at a party, "you're making a killing with poetry. But I took it anyway, that widening. Your email address will not be published. To open a mouth, in speech, is to leave only the bones, which remain untold.”, “They say nothing lasts forever and I’m writing you in the voice of an endangered species.”, “No, sir, destruction is not necessary for art.” I said that, not because I was certain, but because I thought my saying it would help me believe it.”. Or rather, the drains of heaven – waiting. But you know this already.”, “Migration can be triggered by the angle of sunlight, indicating a change in the season, temperature, plant life, and food supply.
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