“What is history? Any thoughts, Webster?’
‘History is the lies of the victors,’ I replied, a little too quickly.
‘Yes, I was rather afraid you’d say that. Well, as long as you remember that it is also the self-delusions of the defeated. Simpson?’
Colin was more prepared than me. ‘History is a raw onion sandwich,sir’
‘For what reason?’
‘It just repeats, sir. It burps. We’ve seen it again and again this year. Same old story, same old oscillation between tyranny and rebellion, war and peace, prosperity and impoverishment.’
‘Rather a lot for a sandwich to contain, wouldn’t you say?’
We laughed far more than was required, with an end-of-term hysteria.
‘Finn?’
‘”History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation.” (quoting Patrick Lagrange)”
― Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending
Funny and true.This beautiful and delightful short novel of 150 pages is a writer’s novel. If you are a lover of literature and philosophy you must read it. I am barely past 5 pages and the author has already thrown me numerous thoughts to ponder upon.
This is love at first phrase.
wow, love at first phrase, yan ang tamang-tamang term sa mga nakaka-in-love na mga pahayag. parang gusto ko tuloy basahin ang libro kong naka-abang. hahahaha
Haha. Go, nakaka dagdag ng kulay ang magagandang istorya natatagpuan sa bahat pahina.
matanong ko lang, may idea ka ba sa “navajo code talkers”, im sure ur husband knows about it, hehehe.
First time I heard about that. Sounds interesting.
yeah for me, maganda ang book. haha.
Hi Jofelyn,outstanding post.Some times reality hurts.Always throughout history the victors write History and Hollywood Made millions after world war II Producing war movies.Today we see the Arab so called Spring .Since Jan.2010 Thousand been killed in the Arab World demanding an illusion of freedom and democracy .Warm wishes.jalal
It is a very sad affair Michael with very little hope in sight. 😦