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A review by ejreadswords
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
5.0
This one… HOO BOY. Lyrical, brutal, sensual, and romantic to life itself, by way of its intensity & trueness to itself.
Paraphrasing a bit, but loved the sentiment that: People say life is circular, or history is circular. But rather, it moves in spirals. We move in a circular motion and return to old spots again, but a circle away — a distance away from where we were before when we were last at that spot.
“Because a bullet without a body is a song without ears.”
“Did you know people get rich off of sadness? I want to meet the millionaire of American sadness. I want to look him in the eye, shake his hand, and say, “it’s been an honor to serve my country.”… what if the elation I feel is not another “bipolar episode” but something I fought hard for?”
“If, relative to the history of our planet, an individual life is so short, a blink of an eye, 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.”
Paraphrasing a bit, but loved the sentiment that: People say life is circular, or history is circular. But rather, it moves in spirals. We move in a circular motion and return to old spots again, but a circle away — a distance away from where we were before when we were last at that spot.
“Because a bullet without a body is a song without ears.”
“Did you know people get rich off of sadness? I want to meet the millionaire of American sadness. I want to look him in the eye, shake his hand, and say, “it’s been an honor to serve my country.”… what if the elation I feel is not another “bipolar episode” but something I fought hard for?”
“If, relative to the history of our planet, an individual life is so short, a blink of an eye, 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.”