The heart

“Even though I complain sometimes,” it said, “it’s because I am the heart of a person, and people’s hearts are that way. People are afraid to pursue their most important dreams, because they feel that they don’t deserve them, or that they’ll be unable to achieve them. We, their hearts, become fearful just thinking of loved ones who go away forever, or of moments that could have been good but weren’t, or of treasures that might have been found but were forever hidden in the sands. Because, when these things happen, we suffer terribly.”

Maktub

“At that moment, it seemed to him that time stood still, and the Soul of the World surged within him. When he looked into her dark eyes, and saw that her lips were poised between a laugh and silence, he learned the most important part of the Language all the world spoke- the language that everyone on earth was capable of understanding in their heart. Something older than humanity, more ancient than the desert. Something that exerted the same force whenever two pairs of eyes met, as had theirs here at the well. She smiled, and that was certainly an omen- the omen he had been waiting, without even knowing he was, for all his life. The omen he had sought to find with his sheep and in his books, in the crystals and in the silence of the desert.

It was the pure Language of the World. It required no explanation, just as the universe needs none as it travels through endless time. What the boy felt at that moment was that he was in the presence of the only woman in his life, and that, with no need for words, she recognized the same thing. He was more certain of it than anything in the world. He had been told by his parents and grandparents that he must fall in love and really know a person before becoming committed. But maybe people who felt that way had never learned the universal language. Because, when you know that language, it’s easy to understand that someone in the world awaits you, whether it’s in the middle of the desert or in some great city. And when two such people encounter each other, and their eyes meet, the past and the future become unimportant. There is only that moment, and the incredible certainty that everything under the sun has been written by one hand only. It is the hand that evokes love, and creates a twin soul for every person in the world. Without such love, one’s dreams would have no meaning.

Maktub, thought the boy.”

No. 2

“Each man kills the thing he loves.” -Oscar Wilde

p.22 “To realize one’s destiny is a persons only real obligation.”

p.23 “He never realized that people are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of.”

p.25 “If you start out by promising what you don’t have yet, you’ll lose your desire to work toward getting it.”

p. 32 “The secret of happiness is to see all the marvels of the world, and never forget the drops of oil on the spoon.”

p.40 “I’m like everyone else- I see the world in terms of what I would to see happen, not what actually does.”

p.56 “You must always know what it is you want.”

p.57 “I have been told that beauty is the great seducer of men.”

p.76 “…people need not fear the unknown if they are capable of achieving what they need and want.”

p.77 “And, when you can’t go back, you have to only worry about the best way of moving forward.”

p.94 “He knew that his love for her would enable him to discover every treasure in the world.”

p.97 “The dunes are changed by the wind, but the desert never changes.”

p. 132 “… one dies of thirst just when the palm trees have approached the horizon.”

p.134 “When you posses great treasures within you, and try to tell them to others, seldom are you believed.”

p.144 “What is love the desert asked?”

“Love is the falcon’s flight over your sands.”

p. 150 “Because its not like love to be static like the desert, nor is it love to roam the world like the wind. And it’s not love to see everything from a distant, like you do.”

p.156 “Everything that happens once will never happen again. But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time.”

 

Vocab 2

Impetus- n. driving or moving force

rue·ful

http://sp.dictionary.com/dictstatic/d/g/speaker.swf [roo-fuhl]  Show IPA

adjective

1.

causing sorrow or pity; pitiable; deplorable: a rueful plight.

2.

feeling, showing, or expressing sorrow or pity; mournful;doleful: the rueful look on her face.

To Pretty Women With Dirty Thoughts

Just as the novel promised the motion picture of The Rum Diary was intoxicatingly entertaining, seductive and decalescent. Following capitalist adventures of American entrepreneurs into Puerto Rico journalist Paul Kemp (Johnny Depp) is thrust into the lavish yet feral Caribbean lifestyle. The rum soaked pages of the text translate effortlessly onto the big screen in a way even more tangible and beautiful than Thompson’s own words had created in my mind. Half way through the film I began to feel the effects of my rum filled soda warm me inside; and somewhere after seeing the view from Sanderson’s private beach house I accepted the already distinct divergences from the text. The movie was too beautiful, the scenery too pristine and character dialog too witty to fight my complete indulgence in this exceptional movie any longer.

The unique adaptations of Thompson’s characters for the film were pitted to fit Hollywood ideals of grandiose love, chaos and rebellion, and of course sticking it to the man. While some of these thoughts were never developed in the book it made for an entrancing storyline. My favorite scene in the film includes Kemp and Chenault laying in his lonely apartment bed as the white sheets entangle Chenault contrasting the darkness in her heart at that moment. Kemp lays his hand delicately on her hip as the arch of her body meets perfectly with his genuine touch in their first private moment together signifying their defeat to an uncontrollable and relentless attraction and ultimate love.