Better place Quote by Bret Easton Ellis
““Where there was nature and earth, life and water, I saw a desert landscape that was unending, resembling some sort of crater, so devoid of reason and light and spirit that the mind could not grasp it on any sort of conscious level and if you came close the mind would reel backward, unable to take it in. It was a vision so clear and real and vital to me that in its purity it was almost abstract. This was what I could understand, this was how I lived my life, what I constructed my movement around, how I dealt with the tangible. This was the geography around which my reality revolved: it did not occur to me, ever, that people were good or that a man was capable of change or that the world could be a better place through one’s own taking pleasure in a feeling or a look or a gesture, of receiving another person’s love or kindness. Nothing was affirmative, the term “generosity of spirit” applied to nothing, was a cliche, was some kind of bad joke. Sex is mathematics. Individuality no longer an issue. What does intelligence signify? Define reason. Desire- meaningless. Intellect is not a cure. Justice is dead. Fear, recrimination, innocence, sympathy, guilt, waste, failure, grief, were things, emotions, that no one really felt anymore. Reflection is useless, the world is senseless. Evil is its only permanence. God is not alive. Love cannot be trusted. Surface, surface, surface, was all that anyone found meaning in…this was civilization as I saw it, colossal and jagged…””
About This Quote
Source Novel: "The End of the World", 2023 (fictional essay)
Depicts a bleak, nihilistic worldview where meaning, emotion, and morality have eroded, viewing sex as mere calculation.
In simple terms: Life feels empty and meaningless, with no true goodness or love.
Question the emptiness.
Themes
Mood
Type
When to use this quote
- art criticism
- personal reflection
- philosophical debate
Key Concepts
Questions to Reflect On
- What small acts of kindness could counteract this emptiness?
- Can you find personal meaning beyond societal narratives?
Human connection can still provide meaning despite bleakness.