The diseased, anyway, are more interesting than the healthy. The words of the diseased, even those who can manage only a murmur, carry more weight than those of the healthy. Then, too, all healthy people will in the future know disease. That sense of time, ah, the diseased man’s sense of time, what treasure hidden in a desert cave. Then, too the diseased truly bite, whereas the healthy pretend to bite but really only snap at the air. Then, too, then, too, then, too.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the depth and insight of those who have experienced suffering compared to the healthy who may lead superficial lives.
Roberto Bolano suggests that individuals who carry the burden of disease or suffering possess a unique perspective on life that enriches their communication and understanding of existence. Their experiences allow them to appreciate the fragility of life and time in ways that those who have not suffered cannot. The 'diseased' have insights and truths that are often overlooked by the 'healthy', who may lead lives that lack depth and genuine emotion. This can underscore the importance of empathy and the value of learning from those who face hardship.
In practice
In a discussion about the value of experience during a mental health awareness event.
Coincidence obeys no laws and if it does we don't know what they are. Coincidence, if you'll permit me the simile, is like the manifestation of God at every moment on our planet. A senseless God making senseless gestures at his senseless creatures. In that hurricane, in that osseous implosion, we find communion.
The sky, at sunset, looked like a carnivorous flower.
I'd obviously never heard of the group, but my ignorance in literary matters is to blame for that (every book in the world is out there waiting to be read by me).
Every book in the world is out there waiting to be read by me.
Bright colours in the west, giant butterflies dancing as night crept like a cripple toward the east.
Being alone makes us stronger. That’s the honest truth. But it’s cold comfort, since even if I wanted company no one will come near me anymore.
When people are not in the moment, they're not there to know that they're not there.
Through the centuries, men of law have been persistently concerned with the resolution of disputes in ways that enable society to achieve its goals with a minimum of force and maximum of reason.
The straight line, a respectable optical illusion which ruins many a man.
Among the friends of Union, there is great diversity of sentiment and of policy in regard to slavery and the African race among us.
Rediscovering the controversies that occupied early Christianity sharpens our awareness of the major issue in the whole debate, then and now: What is the source of religious authority? For the Christian the question takes more specific form: What is the relation between the authority of ones own experience and that claimed for the scriptures, the ritual and the clergy?
If a soul is not clothed with the teachings of the Church he cannot merit to have Jesus seated in him.
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